Greetings! As I write this, we are settled in our Glasgow airbnb after an adventurous week in Iceland. One goal I had for this trip was (is) to focus on sketching and drawing throughout my travels. I’m attempting to fill a small travel notebook with drawings and I’m keeping a pretty good pace so far with having filled a little over a third of it. Because of that, I haven’t had much time to write and decided to condense our Iceland journeys into one condensed post. So, let’s dive in! 🙂

3/6-3/7 – Usually airplane rides are uneventful but on our plane ride to Iceland we were able to see the Northern Lights! :O I couldn’t believe it. We weren’t able to see them at all during the week as it was usually cloudy at night so this was really special. We got to Iceland early Monday morning, tired but determined to power through the day, at least until our afternoon check-in. After we picked up our car, we went straight to sight-seeing in Reykjavik. We saw the Hallgrimskirkja first (see first picture), which was almost otherworldly to our sleepy eyes. Then we walked around the streets and landed at the Icelandic Handknitting Association’s shop, filled to the brim with “lopapeysa” (traditional Icelandic sweaters made from Icelandic sheep wool or “lopi”). We got some breakfast at Café Babalú and then drove around the city. Went to the gorgeous viewpoint at the Perlan and eventually settled in to our Airbnb. For dinner, we cooked at home, picking up groceries from an Icelandic discount grocery store called “Bonus”.

3/8 – Quiet morning in our Airbnb as we recover from jet leg. I spent some of the morning drawing and then we drove to Selfoss to drive the “Woolen Circle” 🐏 The woolen circle is a small spin-off tour from the well-known “Golden Circle” drive. It includes: Hespa Studio (a shop specializing in traditional Icelandic naturally dyed yarns and more), Þingborg Ullarverslun (a small yarn shop with books, patterns, wool felt items and more), and Uppspuni Mini Mill & Yarn Shop (a small wool mill operation and store, also the only place where I got to see Icelandic sheep the whole trip!). While over there, we also did some driving around and sight-seeing.

3/9 – Relaxation Day! Today we headed to the famous Blue Lagoon for some soaking and in-water massages. Before we got there, we drove around the southern peninsula and saw massive waves at Brimketill which was really cool! The lagoon itself was beautiful and other worldly and made even more special by the fact that it was occasionally snowing 🙂 Ended the evening with dinner at the Lebowski Bar in Reykjavik (thanks for the suggestion, Monika!).

3/10 – Today we made a 3-hour drive north to visit the Icelandic Textile Center. Sadly, upon arrival we found that it was closed for the season and not open till June (something not mentioned on their site). Ooooh well, the trip allowed us to see more of the island and drive through some small northern towns. Very tired at the end of the day so we ate at a restaurant nearby our airbnb.

3/11 – Winter snorkeling day (a.k.a. The first day Lisa put on a dry suit!). It was very windy, snowing, hailing and raining. I almost backed out of the snorkeling entirely. But thankfully, I wised up because I would have missed an amazing opportunity to snorkel the Silfra fissure (located between two tectonic plates) at Þingvellir National Park. We were guided through the fissure by two French divers who helped suite us up and gave us hot cocoa and cookies afterwards! 🙂 Like Kaelan, one of the guides, Guill, also worked at a fish farm (in Malta) so that was cool for them to bond over. After a rest, we spent the evening in the city and went to the Magic Ice Bar (a Scandinavian chain of ice bar venues), dinner at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur (the famous Icelandic hot dog stand), and enjoyed some live jazz at Mál og Menning (an indie bookstore with a cafe & bar).

3/12 – Last full day in Reykjavik 😥 We started the day by going to Sandholt (a popular bakery in town) and getting some stamps to send postcards. Afterwards, we visited the Icelandic Phallogical Museum, Harpa Concert Hall, the Culture House, Icelandic Punk Museum (appropriately located in what was once a public restroom), Bokin books (a used bookstore were chess player extraordinaire, Bobby Fischer, would play in the window so we played a game) and Bókakjallarinn (another used bookstore).

3/13 – Farewell Iceland! Early morning flight to Amsterdam then Glasgow to start our adventures in Scotland.

Thanks for reading, see you at the next post! With love, Lisa & Kaelan ❤