I was sitting on Mouse's couch with a full belly chatting away about all the awesome things we would be doing in Iceland when we got there in a few days. Then a worried looking Frosty appeared.
"I need to tell you something in the other room"
Uh oh! It must be bad news if he can't even say it in front of mouse and Marty. We sneak off into the other room.
"What's wrong?"
"You know how our flight to Iceland is the day after tomorrow? "
"Yyyyyyeeeeeaaahhh....."
"Well I made a mistake.."
"Yyyyyyyeeeeeeeaaaahhhh...."
"It's tomorrow morning. We have to leave now!"
"What?!"
And so begins another Kat and Frosty adventure!
We hurriedly smooched our Mouse and Marty, shoved some stuff in a bag and dashed off to the train station. Our flight was early the next morning in London but we had to leave Bristol now to get there on time as no buses ran early enough. We then got to run through the streets of London to only just catch the bus that took us to our airport. No desks were open that late at night so we found a patch of cold ground and slept a while pretending the cold ground was an Icelandic glacier.
On to our flight with minimal sleep I managed to push through my excitement and sleep the entire flight. In Reykjavik we picked up our pimping car and headed into the city to begin our journey. The 50km drive from the airport was beautiful already and I knew I was in luuuurrrve! The city was cutie pie and we were starving! We'd heard rumors this place would be expensive but we had a few tricks up our sleeves. Apparently the cafes aren't as expensive as restaurants so in we go. Hello! Sit down, smile, menu, lick lips, scan, silence, look up, bulge eyes, raise eyebrows, slowly back away. Was that a $28 sandwich? Indeed it was. Well played Iceland you minx! We're still starving though so we roam the streets until we find a "cheap" and nasty burger joint.
Back to our automobile and we need to start planning what we want to do on this trip. First step, buy supplies at the cheapest supermarket, tick. Next step decide where we want to drive to first, no tick. We are so tired we can't decide and end up getting some cheap accommodation in Reykjavik to rest up. Turns out our cheap accommodation is actually a swanky, modern apartment overlooking the city center. That Frosty! It even has a kitchen so I can cook up a hot meal.
The next morning we wake up ready to go at eight. Its pitch black! We must have forgotten to change our clocks or we have slept through until the night! Well, now, relax everyone. The only thing we had forgotten to do was to research winter daylight hours. That burning hot orb won't be seen until 10. Phew! After reassuring frosty it wasn't the apocalypse we headed off. Then we got lost. Then we headed off again!
Our first day took us to the very popular and touristy golden triangle sights. We drove through a beautiful national park where vikings held meetings in between two tectonic plates. I not sure they knew that though but I'm impressed. The landscape was filled with golden grass and small, hardy looking shrubs and no trees. It seemed to go on forever. Along the way we stopped in at an old school turned flashy hostel for a peppy coffee and a chat with the owner. Everybody spoke such good English and loved to chat. Our next stop was the famous rainbow falls (I'm sure it had a proper name) famous for the many rainbows you can see in its mist on a sunny day. Today was not sunny but the huge and powerful beast was still very impressive. One of the most popular things to see in Iceland are the geysers. One in particular goes off about every six minutes and can shoot boiling water way up into the sky. It went off as we walked by catching us off guard and spraying us with water. Next time we would be ready. We patiently waited. Frosty crouched down near the fence with the camera ready to take the money shot. This was it, his time to shine. Or was it? "Maybe this isn't the best spot to crouch? I could get hurt." In slow motion I see it dawn on Frosty as he stands, turns and starts running for me just as the big fella goes off. He gets drenched in the quick to cool geyser water much to the amusement of the other people standing in the dry spot. Ohhhh, that's why they're all over there. Never mind! To the car!
Our first night was spent in a cute house in the middle of nowhere. Frosty had asked if he could have ice cream for dinner and I said no so he stormed off and fell down the steep stairs. He even stayed in his fallen position so by the time I ran to him I could see exactly how he landed. I didn't even laugh. Some parts are true and others are false. Can you work it out? I made him pasta for dinner and let him beat me at pool to make him feel better.
"I need to tell you something in the other room"
Uh oh! It must be bad news if he can't even say it in front of mouse and Marty. We sneak off into the other room.
"What's wrong?"
"You know how our flight to Iceland is the day after tomorrow? "
"Yyyyyyeeeeeaaahhh....."
"Well I made a mistake.."
"Yyyyyyyeeeeeeeaaaahhhh...."
"It's tomorrow morning. We have to leave now!"
"What?!"
And so begins another Kat and Frosty adventure!
We hurriedly smooched our Mouse and Marty, shoved some stuff in a bag and dashed off to the train station. Our flight was early the next morning in London but we had to leave Bristol now to get there on time as no buses ran early enough. We then got to run through the streets of London to only just catch the bus that took us to our airport. No desks were open that late at night so we found a patch of cold ground and slept a while pretending the cold ground was an Icelandic glacier.
On to our flight with minimal sleep I managed to push through my excitement and sleep the entire flight. In Reykjavik we picked up our pimping car and headed into the city to begin our journey. The 50km drive from the airport was beautiful already and I knew I was in luuuurrrve! The city was cutie pie and we were starving! We'd heard rumors this place would be expensive but we had a few tricks up our sleeves. Apparently the cafes aren't as expensive as restaurants so in we go. Hello! Sit down, smile, menu, lick lips, scan, silence, look up, bulge eyes, raise eyebrows, slowly back away. Was that a $28 sandwich? Indeed it was. Well played Iceland you minx! We're still starving though so we roam the streets until we find a "cheap" and nasty burger joint.
Back to our automobile and we need to start planning what we want to do on this trip. First step, buy supplies at the cheapest supermarket, tick. Next step decide where we want to drive to first, no tick. We are so tired we can't decide and end up getting some cheap accommodation in Reykjavik to rest up. Turns out our cheap accommodation is actually a swanky, modern apartment overlooking the city center. That Frosty! It even has a kitchen so I can cook up a hot meal.
The next morning we wake up ready to go at eight. Its pitch black! We must have forgotten to change our clocks or we have slept through until the night! Well, now, relax everyone. The only thing we had forgotten to do was to research winter daylight hours. That burning hot orb won't be seen until 10. Phew! After reassuring frosty it wasn't the apocalypse we headed off. Then we got lost. Then we headed off again!
Our first day took us to the very popular and touristy golden triangle sights. We drove through a beautiful national park where vikings held meetings in between two tectonic plates. I not sure they knew that though but I'm impressed. The landscape was filled with golden grass and small, hardy looking shrubs and no trees. It seemed to go on forever. Along the way we stopped in at an old school turned flashy hostel for a peppy coffee and a chat with the owner. Everybody spoke such good English and loved to chat. Our next stop was the famous rainbow falls (I'm sure it had a proper name) famous for the many rainbows you can see in its mist on a sunny day. Today was not sunny but the huge and powerful beast was still very impressive. One of the most popular things to see in Iceland are the geysers. One in particular goes off about every six minutes and can shoot boiling water way up into the sky. It went off as we walked by catching us off guard and spraying us with water. Next time we would be ready. We patiently waited. Frosty crouched down near the fence with the camera ready to take the money shot. This was it, his time to shine. Or was it? "Maybe this isn't the best spot to crouch? I could get hurt." In slow motion I see it dawn on Frosty as he stands, turns and starts running for me just as the big fella goes off. He gets drenched in the quick to cool geyser water much to the amusement of the other people standing in the dry spot. Ohhhh, that's why they're all over there. Never mind! To the car!
Our first night was spent in a cute house in the middle of nowhere. Frosty had asked if he could have ice cream for dinner and I said no so he stormed off and fell down the steep stairs. He even stayed in his fallen position so by the time I ran to him I could see exactly how he landed. I didn't even laugh. Some parts are true and others are false. Can you work it out? I made him pasta for dinner and let him beat me at pool to make him feel better.
If you ever find yourself looking at the map of Iceland you'll notice a huge white spot in the south. Its a gigantic glacier. The biggest in Europe I think I read. My memory is pretty dodgy but I have in my head that it was 700km in area. Whatever it was, it was huge! We went to a tiny section of it where you could walk almost right up to it. This tiny section was only 16km long. Pffft. Right in the middle of the glacier is a giant, still active volcano. As I write all this down it seems so ridiculous and I'm doubting my memory but I'm pretty sure I'm not too far off the mark. Anyway, in the 70s (maybe) this giant sucker went off. Boom, Bam, KaBlam!!! Parts of the glacier quickly melted causing a flash flood and taking out two bridges. Icebergs up to 2000 tonnes were washed down to the second bridge while smaller ones up to 200 tonnes made it out to sea. At a pit stop they had part of the twisted wreckage of a bridge as a reminder. If that's not epic I don't know what is. Don't google the facts, let's pretend my awesome story is truly awesome.
Further south we stopped in at Vic to brave the blustery beach winds to get a look at some good old fashioned rocks. One section of the cliffs looked like shiny, black hexagonal columns similar to the Giant's Causeway. Snap! Snap! Snap!
One day the drive was so amazing it took us forever to get to our destination because we kept stopping for snaps. It changed from a flat, black sandy landscape with no plants to larger black rocks with green and Goldy patches of grassy/mossy looking stuff, to large, statue like, moss covered volcanic rock. All the while we kept catching glimpses of the giant iceberg to our left. I'm not doing it justice and either are the photos. Just go there! To top of that visually amazing day we made it to a lagoon filled with icebergs and we even spotted a seal floating past checking us out!
That night we took a "shortcut" to our accommodation that turned out to be a snowy, blustery mountain pass where we could hardly see three meters in front of our car.......haha oops! Steven Segal got me there safe though! The hotel owner saw our faces and knew instantly that we'd attempted the mountain pass. A piping hot shower and comfy bed made it all better.
The next morning we made haste from our mist surrounded house and got back on the road. Iceland is definitely a country of 'whoahs!' I yelled it a lot and usually when we were driving. The first one came this morning as we turned a corner we could see a huge waterfall off the side of the road. The water was ice cold and crystal clear and the creek bottom was filled with shiny and smooth black rocks. Gosh darn it Iceland you pretty. Takes one million photos.While we were there the weather was mostly rainy and we were really hoping to see the northern lights. Good old Steven Segal checked out some info online and predicted we could make it up north for the one clear night on offer. That morning, our drive took us up into the hills for another gorgeous drive. The best bit was the sun was out!! It was like we had bought tickets for a show. We knew this was the night but we just had to wait for it to start. To kill time we climbed a dormant volcano, visited some stinky, bubbling mud pits, drank the best hot chocolate ever while looking at the cows who gave us their milk and I made another bloody glorious dinner. Swimmers on, let's go! Just up the road was a lovely hot spring waiting for us. Expensive but worth it! We popped in at 6pm and headed to the hot end of the pool.
Up in the sky was a tiny smudge that looked like a faint cloud but before long it had stretched across the sky. One long, green line above our heads ever so faintly dancing. Northern lights on one side and the red glow of a distant volcano on another. Pretty bloody special. Hours later we finally left but soon pulled over to take a million happy snaps and experimented with our camera. Back at our house and the photos kept coming. It was really cool but we thought it was going to be brighter and more fancy than it was. Never mind we got plenty of cool photos. So many that our camera is flat. I'll put it on charge and I'll get us a tea ready. I've only just put it on charge when I hear frosty "Kat! Kat! Hurry!!" I sprint out to see a giant, glowing line dancing across the sky. It was so bright and moving so fast we were in shock. Then kaboom!!! It exploded across the entire sky and lit up the night. We could see green, red and purple and we were yelling and jumping up and down and bulging our eyes to try and see it all at once. It was one of the best experiences of my life and I got to spend it with the frostmeist, awwww. Man we were on a high! So spectacular.
The next morning we woke up to grey cloudy skies again. How lucky were we! We visited a cool national park with huge, rocky masses from numerous volcanic eruptions and I saw Björk! Well, there was a tiny road sign that said it. Maybe she was standing down that road behind a stand that said 'photos $1' and I missed it! Never mind we'll save our money for the $10 toll down the road! Well, didn't that just make Frosty's day!
We made it back to Reykjavik the really cute, hip, Scandinavian looking city and spoiled ourselves with beer and fish and chips and Frosty didn't even bat an eye lid when the bill came. He's such a trooper!! We joke that he is like Rowan Atkinson in the stand up skit about dating do's and don'ts. YouTube it, its hilariously accurate.
Next stop Wales and Bristol!
Up in the sky was a tiny smudge that looked like a faint cloud but before long it had stretched across the sky. One long, green line above our heads ever so faintly dancing. Northern lights on one side and the red glow of a distant volcano on another. Pretty bloody special. Hours later we finally left but soon pulled over to take a million happy snaps and experimented with our camera. Back at our house and the photos kept coming. It was really cool but we thought it was going to be brighter and more fancy than it was. Never mind we got plenty of cool photos. So many that our camera is flat. I'll put it on charge and I'll get us a tea ready. I've only just put it on charge when I hear frosty "Kat! Kat! Hurry!!" I sprint out to see a giant, glowing line dancing across the sky. It was so bright and moving so fast we were in shock. Then kaboom!!! It exploded across the entire sky and lit up the night. We could see green, red and purple and we were yelling and jumping up and down and bulging our eyes to try and see it all at once. It was one of the best experiences of my life and I got to spend it with the frostmeist, awwww. Man we were on a high! So spectacular.
The next morning we woke up to grey cloudy skies again. How lucky were we! We visited a cool national park with huge, rocky masses from numerous volcanic eruptions and I saw Björk! Well, there was a tiny road sign that said it. Maybe she was standing down that road behind a stand that said 'photos $1' and I missed it! Never mind we'll save our money for the $10 toll down the road! Well, didn't that just make Frosty's day!
We made it back to Reykjavik the really cute, hip, Scandinavian looking city and spoiled ourselves with beer and fish and chips and Frosty didn't even bat an eye lid when the bill came. He's such a trooper!! We joke that he is like Rowan Atkinson in the stand up skit about dating do's and don'ts. YouTube it, its hilariously accurate.
Next stop Wales and Bristol!