ICELAND: "I AM A VIKING!"

Father-daughter trip to Iceland!


Dancing around the world! :) - At the Blue Lagoon -


The lonely highway in Akureyri, Iceland


Lovely Icelandic road through the mountains and glaciers...


The beautiful, photogenic, unicorn-like horse. :)


Sunsets look this good very few places on earth.


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Ho incontrato mio padre in Islanda una settimana fa per la mia vacanza di primavera! Non visto mio padre per 3 mesi!

Ok, time for English.

Leaving 70º and sunny weather in Italy for freezing (and below!) temperatures in Iceland was not exactly the easiest thing I have ever done in my life, but I managed. For those of you who know me well, you know that I am typically pretty cold-blooded.

My first thought upon departing the aircraft at 10:30 p.m. local time in Keflavik, Iceland?
I am not going to be warm for the next seven days of my life.

To my surprise (thank goodness!) this proved not to be the case. Yeah, the first few days were freaking cold. The wind blowing mercilessly off the Atlantic Ocean did not exactly make things easier. Once Dad and I started to drive inland early-mid week, things started to warm up.

Enough about the temperatures. ICELAND! My goodness! GORGEOUS!!!!!!! It's not quite as green as both my Dad and I thought it would be, but we also had to remind ourselves that they are still in their springtime, which does not necessarily = green grass.

Most every type of landscape you can imagine existed in Iceland. We saw: snow-capped mountains, glaciers, caves, fjords, volcanoes, lakes, geysers....pretty much everything except a desert and a rainforest. Speaking of forest - Did you know that Iceland doesn't have any trees? It's one of the weirdest things I have ever encountered. It makes me appreciate trees that much more! I mean, they did have trees, but they were only there if someone planted them. And other forms of flora? Forget about it. Grass and maybe a few scrubby little bushes. That's it.

It's okay though, because the pristine beauty of the island makes up for the fact that trees are very very few and far between.

Animals. Yeah. About those. Dad and I discovered that.... wait . They don't have those either ! Well...they have birds and domesticated animals, like: horses, cows, sheep and goats.

Speaking of horses - Iceland has the MOST gorgeous horses that I have EVER seen! (I was in 4-H and went to county fairs...believe me....I have seen a lot of horses...). These things had coats like velvet, and their manes blew in the wind....ah. Just gorgeous. :) Dad and I stopped by a field that had two brown and two white horses. One of the white horses was especially photogenic with me. All you had to do was add a horn to her forehead and she would have looked exactly like a unicorn.

In terms of the people, Icelanders are SUPER friendly! Not only are they friendly, but the guys I saw were pretty darn attractive - amazzzzing blue eyes. Sorry. Tangent. Anyway....everyone is really nice, and most all know at least some English, which is great, because Dad and I sure as HECK didn't know any Icelandic.

Well, I knew one phrase.

"Er et Vikingur!" ....In case you don't know, that means "I am a Viking!" in Icelandic.

On several occasions Dad dared me to stand in crowded places: restaurants, in front of a soccer game in a bar full of men, gas stations, tourist areas, and yell this phrase in front of everyone....for 100 kronur. 100 kronur = less than $1 in English. Needless to say, I would not be screaming my little bit of Icelandic at anyone. haha.

The night before I flew back to Italy, Dad and I went to the famous Blue Lagoon. This is a geothermal pool which contains a mix of salt and fresh water. It is naturally extremely blue, and the minerals in the water have great healing potential. Basically it was a huge hot tub with mineral water, yet I could float on my back and look at the lava & moss covered mountains, and watch the seagulls flying overhead as the sun set. And, guess what? It was a place where I was really, truly warm in Iceland.

I guess I proved myself wrong....you CAN be warm in Iceland. :)

Love & warmth,

Katie