Over the holidays my family and I travelled to Iceland, it was an amazing experience, so I
thought I’d share some memories of our trip and explain why Iceland is such a great place to
visit.
We had to wake up in the early hours of the morning to drive to the airport and after a short
flight we arrived in Reykjavik the capital of Iceland. As we left the airport it was already in
the minus degrees, luckily it was only a short walk to the coach to go to our hotel. I was still
feeling a little out of it from the travel sickness tablets I’d taken but the first thing I noticed
was how much snow there was! It was in huge piles around the car park and the view of the
landscape from the coach was so bright despite the limited hours of sunlight.
In the evening we ventured into the freezing cold to try and get a glimpse of the northern
lights. This natural phenomenon otherwise known as the Aurora Borealis occurs when
particles from solar storms on the sun collide with particles on earth. Put very simply, this
causes the particles on earth to heat up and create the lights in the sky. This often happens
closer to the earth’s magnetic poles which is why we see the Aurora near the north and
south poles. We waited for around 2 hours only seeing the smallest light in the sky and as
our hands became numb, we decided to go back to the coach which would take us back to
our hotel. As we drove in pitch black, someone spotted the Aurora from the window, we
rushed to grab our cameras and go outside to witness the northern lights. I’ve attached one
of my photos from that night, I’m sure my phone doesn’t quite do it justice, but it was a
great experience.
The next day was another very early start so we could go and see the Golden Circle, a group
of natural attractions near Reykjavik. The first was the Geyser which spouted water around
15-20 meters in the air every 5 to 7 minutes. Geysers are a deep hole in the ground filled
with water that heats up due to molten rocks, once the water starts to boil all the steam
bursts out causing the eruption. Something I learnt from the tour guide is that the word
geyser is originally Icelandic and that a lot of languages have adopted it in their own.
Next up was the Gullfloss waterfall which translates to the Golden Falls and is one of
Iceland’s most famous waterfalls. Although it was beautiful, this was by far the coldest I had
been during this trip; despite my many layers of thermals I couldn’t stand close to the
waterfalls for long and I ended up trying to defrost my fingers and toes in the gift shop.
Thankfully everywhere inside had heating! Luckily, I managed to take some photos before I
lost all the feeling in my hands, so I’ve attached one here too.
The last location was the Thingvellir national park, interestingly here we were able to stand
inbetween the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates as Iceland is divided on both
these plates. This national park has rich history as it was a meeting place for districts in
Iceland to talk about living harmoniously and the unequal power balance, this was like a
Viking era parliament. If you are a fan of Game of Thrones, the national park was used as a
filming location!
The following day, Christmas eve in fact, we went to the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa. Here
we were able to escape the biting cold for a few hours as we relaxed in the hot springs with
a silica face mask and green smoothie. The water has an average temperature of 37-40
degrees and is infused with silica, algae and minerals. This comes from the geothermal sea
water thousands of meters below the earth’s surface and has been said to have such
rejuvenating properties that it can be used as a treatment to skin conditions.
Overall, the trip was such a great experience mostly because Iceland is so different to
England. I’m sure there is so much left to explore, and I would love to go back one day!
In addition to being a beautiful place to live in Iceland is also a happy and safe place to live.
According to the World Happiness Report Iceland ranks as one of the happiest countries in
the world alongside Denmark, Norway and Sweden. There are a few reasons for this that
include an excellent life expectancy and high rankings of equality. There are very low crime
rates, people have healthy diets and there is a great education system where people can
receive higher education for free. Hopefully the rest of the world can learn a lot from
Iceland.
If you want to know more about Iceland, here are some articles I used to write this post.
Thingvellir National Park-
https://guidetoiceland.is/connect-with-locals/jorunnsg/ingvellir-national-park
Happiness in Iceland-
https://playiceland.is/guide/12-reasons-icelanders-are-so-
happy/#:~:text=Although%20Iceland%20is%20regularly%20reported,Icelandic%20people%2
0suffer%20from%20depression.
Northern Lights-
https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/what-causes-northern-lights-aurora-borealis-
explained
Geysers-
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/geyser
The Blue Lagoon-
https://www.bluelagoon.com/
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