Höfn, Iceland

Thu, 05 Jul 2018 17:50:00 +0000

Reykjavík

Wed, 04 Jul 2018 05:10:00 +0000

After the overnight flight, the island came into sight just as the darkness started receding. The orange lights from the sparse clusters of villas seemed to accentuate a primitive wildness of the vastness between them, bringing into mind the otherworldness that many associated with Iceland. The foreignness of the land was only more pronounced as the bus pulled out of the airport: the black lava landscape, with a thin layer of snow that clearly bespoke the unevenness. Bathed in the beautiful morning light, the first stop was the famous Blue Lagoon. Yes it is ridiculously overpriced, but it does have such a beautiful shade of blue that's hard to find elsewhere, and as a first-time tourist this may just be a necessary ripoff. The grounds were impressively large, and the everchanging backdrop of the surrounding snow-topped hills and rocks through the twirling rising steam was all the encouragement people needed to be snapping away on their phones despite the cold air and risk of mineral-rich water. It was almost hard to bid farewell to the beautiful warm water, but lunch in the capital is something to look forward to. I only just realized how small the city center really is, as a block on the map is but a few store fronts, which opened up the flexibility of the itinerary considerably. A satisfying meal at Messinn (strong flavours, but we would soon find out that others are stronger yet) and a walking tour (colorful houses and cute little shops) later, we debated whether to join a northern light hunting tour that night. The guide mentioned that there was moderately good forecast that night, but even better one for the following day; I had betted my hope on the following night as well, seeing how it would be in a more remote location and away from the city lights. Adding the relatively high cost and the fatigue from the flight, the decision was in the negative. Though as we would learn during the group tour, the lights in fact danced that night, so strong that it could even be seen from the city; I was actually up at the time too, re-packing and planning, but sadly there was no conveniently-placed window and no one to tell me to go outside and look up. As for the following night, the forecast was better for the capital, and in fact not that spectacular for our location; as such, we likely missed the last light show of the season.

No filter, this is the true stirking color of the Blue Lagoon~ Thus I still made my obligatory trip here as a first time tourist even knowing that it is overpriced.

Wow gem of a photo for pretending I have better figure than reality~ ;)

Fish pan from Messinn. First meal in Iceland, decided to start off with more homey fare. Ended up being one of our favourite meals~

Pond in front of the city hall and its many swans and ducks. Apparently there's a small body of water that they keep warm with geothermal energy so that it'd be a nice little haven even in winter, not too sure if it's here.

Iceland 2018

Höfn, Iceland

Reykjavík