Iceland - Day 3: It's not Disneyland!

Over the 4 days spent in Iceland, the words "it's not Disneyland" were used quite frequently by Mr Simmons. The coach would pull up to our next stop and before we headed outside to explore Mr Simmons would clearly remind us that "it's not Disneyland" it's Iceland (hence the title)! It was again another early start to the day. We grabbed some breakfast and quickly made some lunch for the day ahead of us. We were told to wrap up warm because our first destination was a glacier. We were going on a glacier walk!

The glacier!

Elly, me and Lucy doing our
angry Viking face!

The ice pick and Crampons!

This was a very different experience. We were walking on solid ice! We got to the glacier after a bumpy drive and we waited for the experts to arrive with the equipment. After a short time after we were equipped with ice picks and crampons all ready for a walk up the glacier. Once on the glacier it took me a while to get used to the fact we were walking on ice. I kept on thinking that I was going to slip over but I remembered that I had these spiky crampons on. The guys who were guiding us up the glacier helped us as we walked up hill. One guy had to roll up my trousers for me because I kept on tripping over them with my spikes. We got half way up the glacier and everyone gathered round a hole in the ice. It was quite magnificent however I hate it when people look over holes, mountains, cliffs or any kind of edge so I thought it would be best if I stood slightly more away from the hole. We finally got to the top of the glacier and we had a group photo and then we headed back down. The sensation of walking down the glacier is quite different to walking up the glacier. Once off the glacier we were back on the coach and heading towards our next stop.

The beginning of the glacier!

A hole in the ice1

The waterfall from the viewing
platform!

Skogfoss!

Skogfoss! One of the biggest waterfalls in Iceland! The water plunges down from a drop of 60m (200ft). There's a viewing platform right at the top of this waterfall so you can see the beautiful landscape which surrounds this waterfall and the view above the waterfall itself. We all walked to the edge of the waterfall and the powerful spray washed over us and we stood to take pictures. Whilst me, Lizzie, Elly, Harry and George were taking photos at the bottom of the waterfall, Lucy and everyone else walked up to the viewing platform. When they were descending down from the platform me, Lizzie, Elly, Harry and George were running up. It was quite a steep hill to run up and occasionally we would stop, gasping and laughing at the same time, before carrying on with our run up the hill. We finally made it and Mr Vaughan was still there taking pictures. The view from above was stunning. You could see the stream of water running through the land. It was amazing! Finally we all descended back down and before we knew it half the day had already pasted us and it was time for lunch.

The view from the platform!

Seljalandsfoss!

It had started to drizzle a bit so we had  lunch in the coach, right next to Seljalandsfoss. This was one of my favourite waterfalls. There was a pathway which took you behind the waterfall. It was stunning. All you could hear was the powerful water hitting the pool of water below. You could feel the spray of water too which was refreshing. We took another group photo in front of the waterfall before moving on. The next stop was a while away so we had a bit of time to chill and relax on the coach. As we got closer to our next point the familiar smell of egg was getting stronger and stronger. We were at a geothermal power station. We had a quick look around to see how the energy in Iceland was made. Because Iceland is on many hotspots they get their energy from low down in the ground, I guess that's an advantage of living in a country with volcanoes scattered around the place. After adsorbing some information about Iceland's energy we made our way to our last hotel.

Behind the waterfall1

The Viking hotel!

Me and Lucy's room!

We pulled up alongside this colourful decorated Viking hotel. This was our last hotel we were staying at and what a hotel it was! I wasn't quite sure how many floors the hotel had. It was an odd layout.  Me, Lucy, Lizzie, Elly, Mr Simmons and a few others were on the first floor and then the rest of the group were scattered along the second floor. Me and Lucy got our key and as we were unlocking our room we were expecting a tiny room like in the first hotel, however we opened the door to a room that could of slept 3 or 4 people not just 2. We were delighted as our other rooms we had stayed in were smaller then everyone else's. We had a look in Elly and Lizzie's room and it was tiny like me and Lucy's first room we stayed in. They had managed to cram a table or a chair or even both, I can't remember, into the little wardrobe with the kettle and cups, which were provided, which were balancing on top. After everyone was settled it was time for tea and on the menu was the good old fish and chips!

Fish and Chips!

The food was great that night. In fact that night was great. Lucy, Lizzie, Maria and Martha all sat together and me and Elly sat with another table with some year 12s. We got the table laughing as we decided to do impressions from the Aristocats. It was a great way to end the last night in Iceland. But our night didn't end there. We went a small  "cinema" to watch a film about the birth of Iceland and E15. Some people drifted off to sleep whilst watching the film, as for me and Elly we had to contain our giggling but stuffing our jumpers in our mouths. We weren't laughing at the film, we had the giggles before going into the room.  By the time the film had finished everyone was exhausted and it was time for bed. Tomorrow would be our last day in Iceland but no one was ready to say goodbye yet!