Iceland: Part One
I’m going to preface this initial post by saying that there will be several posts about my trip, given that I spent five days in Iceland one post simply wouldn’t be enough to cover everything. With that being said, let’s talk about the amazing country that is Iceland!
Iceland first appeared on my personal radar around six or seven years ago. I’d seen many photos of it on various outlets across the internet, mostly from the travel diaries of photographers. Considering I live quite literally on the other side of the world, it always seemed like an incredibly far off and distant world. Truly it’s never been a place I ever seriously thought I would be able to visit. So for a very long time, it was a location that I have always admired from a distance, on the bucket list but naturally quite far down and only a vague possibility years in the future. It wasn’t until I accepted my exchange semester and started to look into making travel plans around Europe, that I seriously considered what it would take to actually visit Iceland. Very quickly it became number one on the list of the places that I did not want to return home without visiting. A month into my time abroad I found myself booking a return ticket to Iceland.
The journey from England to Iceland is just under two hours by plane. As we began our descent into landing I got my first glimpse of the country. I remember turning to the couple next to me and whispering “This is it, it’s a real place”. They shared my excitement as they too were visiting for the first time. I felt like a child who had been counting down the days to Christmas or a birthday. Even in those initial visuals, the land was so different to anything I had ever seen. At Keflavik airport, all around the runway is an expansive view of red and brown speckled rocky plains, people weren’t joking when they told me it feels a little like landing on another planet. I should note that the landscape around this small country is incredibly diverse, yet it was amazing to see something like this when first arriving.
Arriving in the late afternoon, by the time I got an airport transfer to Reykjavík I was feeling pretty tired from all the transit. I knew I had a big week coming up of travel filled days, so I took the opportunity to get settled into my accommodation and purchase groceries for the week. During the airport transfer all I could think about was how happy I was to be there, turning dreams into reality is quite a surreal feeling. My first day in Iceland was spent on a tour of some of the Game of Thrones filming locations. When I saw the tour options I knew the opportunity was far to good to pass up! Being a pretty big fan of the books and the show it was incredible to be able to explore these locations. All of the sites were natural landscapes, so even if you aren’t a huge fan of the series there was plenty to admire and take in.
It really took a while for the surreal feeling of actually being there to pass, but getting straight into exploring the land was one way of doing so. The landscape is like nothing I’ve ever seen, great expanses of mountains sprawl across vast flats. Iceland is renowned for its volcanic activity and landscape which has an influence on the geography. The above picture was taken in þingvellir national park, a friend of mine told me that she had seen the same location a few months earlier, but that it had been frozen over. Below you can see the boardwalks which guide you through one of the many valleys in this area of the park. More information on þingvellir in a later post!
Fans of Game of Thrones may recognise the images of the location below, where a wilding ambush occurred. Our tour guide informed us that many visitors like to try and recreate the scene in their pictures. Situated in the Þjóðveldisbærinn valley the location is a rebuilt viking era settlement of Stöng, you read about the history of the site here.
The last stop on our tour was a location that is normally only accessible outside of the winter months and our tour happened to be one where our guides wanted to try to reach it for the first time this year. We almost got to the location by vehicle but were stopped by the rivers filled with unstable chunks of ice, totally unsafe to drive across. Our guide explained this but said that he thought it should still be accessible by foot, but only if the majority of the group wanted to give it a try.
I can definitely say it was worth the effort! We took going off the beaten track quite literally, making our way across many hills and unusual terrain. Below is the landscape we laid eyes on as we climbed our final slope, the wind was very intense and you could only just make out the sound of the waterfall in the distance. An absolutely incredible sight, wherever you turned there was only landscape and mountains, aside from our group we were the only ones there, an amazing sight!
I would’ve loved to have the chance to walk down and explore the area itself, but time wasn’t on our side. As it was, I think we missed out on dropping by one last stop, but I still loved that I had the chance to find this hidden gem that I wouldn’t otherwise have found if I was on my own. The day was a brilliant introduction to the Icelandic countryside and I went to bed that night excited for what the rest of the week was to hold.
Check back soon for my next post from my time in Iceland!
Kathleen Freeman is a graphic designer and freelance writer; she is currently undertaking a Media and Communications degree. In her spare time she continues the search to find the book/coffee shop combination store throughout the globe.
All images, unless otherwise stated, are copyright of Kathleen Freeman, and may not be reproduced without express written permission of the author.