Alhamdulillah, got the chance to visit Iceland this winter break. Took a flight to Reykjavik from Gatwick and spent the night sleeping in the airport again. Must say I'm getting used to it. Armed with the right set of clothes to keep you warm and a little sense of creativity, sleeping in the airport can be something fun. Hiding from security guards and crazy man in jogging suits is sort of exciting (and wee bit scary)
The country lies between latitudes 63° and 67° N, and longitudes 25° and 13° W. So its pretty up North on the world map (which explains the ice and all year round low temperature). Its location on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge cause it to be highly geologically active with many volcanoes. The reason why Iceland is known as the Land of Ice and Fire.
Iceland is different. We discovered a whole new world, so different from the tropical country we're from and the typical European surroundings we're currently in. Glad we followed our guts and went on with this trip. It was worth all the hassle and money spent.
These are just few pictures that made it to the final process of editing, resizing and successfully uploaded onto the net. The rest can wait after the examination, maybe, maybe not :P
Coffee table, literally.
Reykjavik - UNESCO City of Literature. Love how you can find excerpts of books all over the city. So cheesy, so very very cheesy.
Shopping guide. Tax free shops can be tempting. So take care of your bank account. Keep it close, never take the bank card out of your pocket. haha.
5 days of traveling eating fish and seafooood. Harder than I expected. I'm carnivorous. I need red meeaattttt.
Every tear drop is a waterfall?
Black sandy beach, sunset , moi. My typical emo shot.
Jökulsárlón (literally "glacial river lagoon") in southeast Iceland, on the borders of Vatnajökull National Park.
Swoosh. The land of Ice.
Ice ice baby.
I can't remember what Po was doing here. Probably summoning higher spirit of shopping goddess somewhere. Bahaha.
Glacier hiking / walking on ice was scary at first. The sound of ice cracking gave me chills. But after a while, I got used to it. Most part of the ice was pretty thick, however some weren't. So, don't play around jumping on it.
You need crampons, a metal claw sole for your shoes to grip the icy surface and the erm a hiking stick?
The picture on the left, you don't want to fall into that. 127 hours all over again. And Ana got too adventurous climbing on the ice (Irregardless, still can pose. Very hebat my friend)
Ragnar, our experienced,witty tourguide, driver and camera guy.
I'm walking on sunshineee. oooohhh
Watchiu lukin et?
Taking a break.
Sunset on ice.
Pimped his ride. Our tourguide in the driver's seat of his baby.
Lighthouse by the Norwegian sea / North Atlantic Ocean? Whateves. Sea too big to even bother.
Gigantic book shelf in the middle of nowhere.
We came across a city in between mountains powered by geothermal energy on our journey. Absolutely efficient! Reminded me how Allah is always fair and just. Geographically He made this country very very cold, but He provided these people with natural heat source from the ground to compensate the coldness. Same with life as a whole. Even if we're short of some things, He will always provide us something more to make it up for us. Its then up to us to use our 'flair' or just settled with our 'flaws' (sorry for the lack of accurate phrase). I hope a point has been made here.
Gullfoss Waterfall. Located in the canyon of Hvítá river in southwest Iceland. The river that vanishes into the earth
Land of Fire.
Hot steam. Smells like rotten eggs. Yucks.
Strokkur Geyser. Second biggest in the world.
Iceland at Night. Went for Aurora hunting. But Aurora was no where to be found because viewing of Northern Light must meet 5 criteria (via icelandictimes.com)
1. It has to be night as daylight drowns out the faint light emitted by the Northern Lights.
2. Skies must be clear or partly clear.
3. There has to be eruption on the sun
4. The solar wind which carries fine particles ejected from eruptions on the sun has to be directed towards Earth
5. The particles from the eruption must reach the Earth's magnetic field.
Might missed a criteria or two. I guess luck wasn't on our side this time. Fret not, we still had fun :)
Before heading to the airport on the last day we stopped by Blue Lagoon. A natural spa village SouthWestern Iceland. The steamy waters are part of a lava formation. Surprised by how blue the lagoon really was.
Blue Lagoon was exceptional. Really really pampered ourselves.
1 country,
2 travel buddies,
5 days,
∞ new knowledge.
Alhamdulillah.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Turning letter into words and photographs by { F A T I N R A I H A N N A }
