Welcome to my first guest blog post!

Our dear friend Andrea (world traveler galore) just returned from the volcano-ravaged nation of Iceland and has sooo much to share! I was in love with her photos and begged her to let me share with you when I suddenly had a stroke of genius (no actual stroke involved) - what better to accompany these beautiful shots than the words of the woman who took them? Nothing I tell you, nothing. She’s made me a believer and now I cannot wait to take my own soak in the Blue Lagoon!

Without further ado I turn the stage over to our foreign correspondent and first guest blogger, Andrea.

I love to travel and have always wanted to go to Iceland.  I’m not really sure why, I guess I was just kind of pulled there, perhaps because I’ve heard of good things about it here and there.  My boyfriend bought me a guidebook for Christmas, but then he ended up reading almost the whole thing, which was great because then he wanted to go too!  He’s never been out of the country before, so I thought Iceland was kind of a weird first trip for him.  But we decided to book a hotel, get some plane tickets, and go!
 
A week before our trip, that troublemaker of a volcano decided to erupt after being quiet for 200 years, causing airports to close for almost a week, creating mayhem all throughout Europe.  Everyone asked me if I was concerned about this and of course I wasn’t, not much fazes me apparently.  We got to Iceland on Thursday with only an hour delay, and walked all around Reykjavik that first day.  The population is around 300,000 so it’s not very big, just my size of city.  The sun didn’t go down until around 9 pm so it was still somewhat light out until 10, so we had a nice full day of taking in the sites.  I’d like to go back when Iceland has its “midnight sun” and the sun never fully sets, since that’s something you can’t see everyday. 
 
This trip was a combination of a nice relaxing Caribbean vacation, and an itinerary-packed European tour.  A perfect combination, if you ask me.  There were things to see, but we could take our time doing it even though we only had a few days.  Almost every city in Iceland has a geothermal pool that is part of the Icelanders lifestyle.  They go there to swim and relax, making them very happy, and their skin nice and soft.  Jason and I went to one of these pools on Friday morning – $3 well-spent.  It was in the 30’s out, and the swimming pool wasn’t too hot, but it was still comfortable.  We went down the water slide, and relaxed in the hot tub.  I wish this was a part of the American culture, I could live with that luxury everyday.  That evening we went out for a nice Icelandic dinner – at a Spanish tapas restaurant.  We got the Icelandic tapas meal, which consisted of puffin, whale, lamb, lobster, sea trout, and one other thing I forget.  Let’s just say Icelandic food is quite disgusting, and I feel terrible about even trying the cute little creatures.
 
On Saturday we had organized a horse riding tour through lava fields through a company called Ishestar.  There are plenty of riding places all around Iceland, and riding the Icelandic horse (which looks more like a donkey) is just another one of those things that’s a part of their everyday lives.  Afterwards we went on the “Golden Circle Tour” which is another one of those things you “have” to do.  There you see the geyser as well as the most beautiful waterfall I’ve ever seen – Niagara doesn’t hold a candle to this thing.
 
Saturday night we heard that the airport was closed, and were planning on renting a car on Sunday to go see that silly little volcano that cost the airlines billions of dollars.  We ended up getting our cute European car and driving to the Blue Lagoon, which we were planning on doing on the way to the airport on Monday.  The Blue Lagoon was absolutely my most favorite part of the trip, and I think everyone should go there sometime in their life.  It’s a huge natural lake-type thing, but with hot tub temperature water.  The water looks like a light blue milk, and is just so relaxing to sit or wade around in.  There is white silica mud type stuff that you rub on your face as a natural mask, which did wonders for my skin.  My hair ended up feeling like hay for a few days after so if you go – bring a swim cap.  If you want you can bring beer into the lagoon to make it the ultimate afternoon activity.  After the Blue Lagoon we drove to the volcano that I’m not even going to attempt to spell, but it starts with an E.  It was pretty cloudy so we couldn’t tell the difference between the smoke and the clouds, but we could see the glacier part of it.  Apparently the volcano is inside a glacier, and I’m not really sure how that works, but it just looks like a big mountain.  There was ash everywhere and waterfalls from the melting glacier so that was really cool to see.
 
Thanks to that jerk of a volcano, we had to leave at 5 am to take a bus to a small town in the north of Iceland called Akureyri to then fly to Glasgow then home.  Akureyri is one of the “bigger” cities in Iceland, and I wished we knew about this little gem before so we could have spent some time there.  Driving through the town it looked nice and cute, and apparently there is some really good skiing just a few minutes outside of town.  Next time I’m in Iceland, Akureyri will definitely be included.  The four hour layover in Glasgow (which was supposed to be 40 minutes) really wasn’t bad since we got to go into town and walk around and of course hit up a few pubs.
 
We were exhausted by the time we finally got back home at 1 am Tuesday morning, but it was well worth the trip.  I thought five days would be more than enough for this small island the size of Kentucky, but little did I know its hidden treasures that I wished I had longer to see.  Apparently you can take a day trip to Greenland!  Oh well, next time I guess!

Guide to the photos:

1 & 2) The Blue Lagoon: You can see the steam rising from the wonderfully warm water with the lava rocks and hills surrounding it.

3 & 4) Jason took these pictures from the airplane over Akureyri. I slept for most of the drive to airport but apparently the mountains were right up close to the bus and were wonderful and beautiful with amazing skiing. I’m sad I missed out!

5) Right behind these waterfalls is the ‘troublemaker’ volcano and the glacier that covers it (or is under it, I don’t know how that works). I assume the waterfalls are a result of the melting glacier because of the erupting volcano. You can see all of the ash from the volcano on the ground in front of the waterfall.

6) Somewhere out in the field is where the European and American tectonic plates are divided, kind of a big deal, and I just thought the cute houses were a nice touch!