"Hey, let's go to Iceland!"

Iceland. How did I ever decide to visit Iceland? It all began when my friend Summer posted a status saying she wanted to take a trip to Iceland and if anyone was seriously interested in going then contact her. Little did she know how many people would respond. Eventually she ended up with a group of 5 girls who could go the dates she was interested in and were committed to going. Summer came to me looking for help to plan the route, flights, accommodations, and car rental. When she was leaving my office I casually mentioned if anyone backed out of the group and she needed someone else to go then let me know because I might be interested. 48 hours later she text me that a girl backed out and 24 hours after that I had my vacation time cleared with work and I was ready to go! Summer and I spent weeks researching and mapping out the best route and making a list of must sees.

Our group consisted of 5 girls...4 from Wilmington and 1 from Charlotte. Everyone knew Summer, but not the others so with Summer as our bond we prepared for 10 days of road tripping around Iceland. The Wilmington girls, Summer, Savannah, Shelby, and me, drove to Raleigh and Morgan, from Charlotte, met us there so we could all fly out of RDU together. We flew to JFK and on to Reykjavik. 

I found a shuttle bus through AAA's partner, Travel Bound, to take us from the airport directly to the Blue Lagoon then on to the city because the Blue Lagoon is closer to the airport than it is Reykjavik. Many people think the Blue Lagoon is a tourist trap, but after an overnight flight we could not be more excited to soak and relax in the blue hued geothermal pool. The water was warm and just as blue and milky as it looks in pictures. The lagoon was large and fairly crowded and as we quickly discovered...swarming with Navy sailers. A Navy ship was in port in Reykjavik for 2 days so there were at least 30 sailers enjoying the Blue Lagoon with us. We made pleasantries and followed Dory from Finding Nemo's advice of "just keep swimming". The Blue Lagoon had a natural silica mud mask and an algae and vitamin mask we could rehydrate our jetlagged skin with. They even had a swim up bar we could rehydrate our bodies with their sparking strawberry wine! 

When we were sufficiently pruny we caught the bus to Reykjavik and found out hostel, Guesthouse Odinn. We had a private room for 5 and shared a bathroom and common living area with 2 other rooms. The room was spacious and most importantly the hostel had free wifi! We had high hopes of exploring and enjoying the infamous Reykjavik nightlife, but the jetlag and relaxing Blue 

Lagoon got the best of us so we had protein bars for dinner and popped a melatonin and were all asleep before 8pm. 

                                 

Twelve hours later we felt human again and prepared to explore the city. Our first stop was the grand cathedral in the middle of the city, Hallgrimski, where we went to the top of the round church tower and had amazing views of Reykjavik! The church itself was beautiful and had a huge pipe organ inside. The remainder of the day we wandered through the downtown area and city center, ordered our first Icelandic coffee, saw trolls, explored boutiques, tasted Icelandic hot dogs for lunch, and even found an Icelandic travel agency! 

                       

                       

        

        

                                         

                                         

Photo Credits: Christina Hawkins, Morgan Leatherwood, and Summer Saunders