iceland - warmer than london?

rach and i traveled to the far off lands of iceland in early december 2010. rach isn't a big fan of the cold and of course the week she decided to visit london was one of the coldest we had had so far that winter, so when planned a side escape, i was very nervous about taking her to a place that had ice in the name. but low and behold the weather forecast was actually set to be warmer than london for the time we were there -i guess what they say is true, greenland is icey and iceland is nice.

we were only there for 3 days staying the town of reykjavík - i still have no idea how to pronounce the name of that place. anyway, we had two goals in mind: 1.) see the northern lights and 2.) visit the blue lagoon. we attempted 100% of the goal, and only got about 75% of it, but all in all it was a successful trip.

we spent the first day just wandering around the smallish city. it doesn't get light out until about 11am which is crazy so there was a bit of sleeping in. we had some lunch - iceland is expensive!! - and then did a bit of shopping. rach made a gross miscalculation the exchange rate which lead to the purchase of a very expensive jacket and a very funny story to take home back to america.

the next day we ventured to a very high tech spa that scans your eyes as your entrance pass. it was pretty nuts and very futuristic. a welcome break though after we decided to walk there all the way across the city.

that evening we ventured out in an attempt to see the northern lights. it was quite late and after a full day of spa'ing i was exhausted. when we arrived in the middle of no where and it was freezing cold i took to taking a little nap on the warm bus instead of watching out in the darkness for a whole lot of nothing. you could see tiny glimpses of the lights, but nothing awe-inspiring so i'm leaving that one on the life list for now. i guess it's a natural phenomenon so you can't really blame it for not making an appearance.

on the last day, we woke up early to take the bus to the blue lagoon - this was far and away the highlight of the trip. an amazing experience. you step into the freezing cold weather outside and then enter the warm salty waters of the lagoon. went spent all day just wandering around in there only breaking for lunch and to grab our cameras for a few snaps. it was self portrait galore time. but it was just so amazing. the pictures don't even do it justice. how blue the water is, how hot it feels compared to the cool temperatures outside, the squishy mud under your feet, and how quiet it is. we were there first thing when it opened so for the first few hours you felt like you were completely alone. it really was one of those crazy life experiences. and i'll always remember it.

full album here:

Iceland

quick trips with friends.

still catching up and massively behind but i'll do my best to post when i can. sorry to all - um 8 or so - of my followers. :)

updating you this go round on a few very short but enjoyable trips i took with the same group of friends here. the first was a day trip to pisa - yes, you read the correctly - a day trip to a foreign country. we got an amazing deal on flights leaving about 6:00am from london and coming back around 10:00pm so in total with travel to the airport, etc. i think we were away for roughly 24 hours. this trip was back in october so it was starting to get pretty chilly in london but pisa was a balmly refuge hovering somewhere in the high 60 degree mark. that combined with the prospect of taking cheesy tourist pictures holding up the tower combined to form the perfect combination.

we arrived in pisa and quickly negotiated our way to the city center from the airport. after some multiple times over backtracking, we finally discovered where the tower was located. pisa is a pretty small city - definitely only needs a day. from the train station to the actual tower of pisa is probably about a 30 minute walk across town, max. and you see all there is to see in that walk. the shopping area, piazzas, and the tower. crossing the bridge to the side of the river where the tower was:

 

we stopped for lunch before arriving at the tower grounds - you can see the thing walking up the street and let me tell you - it looks fake. as you get closer, you see it leaning and still think it's pretty fake - especially against a bright blue sky. we got tickets and took in all the attractions around the site - there is a church, and a few museums, before climbing the what-i-believe-were 408 steps to the top of the tower. one of the churches:

 

and the top of the church from the top of the tower:

 

anyway, here is the only picture i got of thing:

 

it was cool - and again, definitely worth the visit. the highlight of the trip by far was this restaurant we found on the wikitravel page: numero 11. when we first walked by it was closed so we grabbed some beers and snacks near by and then decided to stroll back later and see if they were open - best decision ever. everything we had was amazing including the house wine poured from a tap. we still rave about this meal and talk about going back just to eat at that place. highly recommended, even if that is the only reason you go to pisa friends.

up next - bratislava and vienna.