It was an early start as my friends and I left for London Heathrow at 07:15 in the morning. We all met at school looking sleep, trailing our luggage behind us, ready to set off for our 4 day adventure in Iceland! There was 44 of us altogether, including 4 teachers and the rest were from years 11 (my year), 12 and 13. We were all the extremely lucky ones to get picked to experience this wonderful Icelandic trip!
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| Harry doing a "starbust challenge" in the airport! |
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From the left: Maria, Lucy, Martha, Lizzie and Elly
waiting in the airport! |
We arrived at Heathrow within plenty of time. We all got into our groups and checked in with our luggage. We were all very excited and me and Lizzie still couldn't believe we were going to Iceland. The security check went well, we quickly walked through without many people getting beeped and then we were in the duty free area. Me, Lucy, Elly, Lizzie, Martha and Maria stayed as a group and Harry, George and Helen tagged along with us. Sometimes we would split up but most of the time we stayed together. Our flight wasn't until half 1 so we had some time kill. The departure lounges got slightly more busier as our flight drew nearer and everyone got more excited. The gates finally opened and we went down to board the plane. Everyone filled the plane and was finally settled for take off. We were with IcelandAir so the announcements were all in Icelandic and then was translated to English. I said Goodbye to England as the plane smoothly took off. After the plane had taken off everyone moved around to sit next to friends but my seat was by the window looking over the wing of the plane and I was already sitting next to Martha so it was all good. The flight took roughly 2 and a half hours. There were TV sets behind each chair so everyone was entertained for the journey to Iceland. However I decided to plug my earphones into my iPod and tried to get some rest, one because I had a cold and two because I knew the next 4 days were going to be jammed packed with tiring but fun activities. The sun shone brightly through the window of the plane and warmed my face whilst I drifted in and out of sleep. Before I knew it we were landing in Iceland!
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| First sight of Iceland from the plane window! |
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| Another view of Iceland! |
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| Enterance to the Blue Lagoon! |
Iceland is not actually that icy. On the top of the mountains and volcanoes it was icy but the land, I would describe it as, was empty. There was nothing just stretches of land on one side and mountains/volcanoes on the other with the road separating the two. We collected our luggage and headed for our first stop which was the blue lagoon. This is one of Iceland's most popular visitor attractions, with its milky blue pools of hot water that are shaped by the black lava. Luckily we didn't have to travel that far to get to the blue lagoon. In the distance you could see the steam rising from the light blue, cloudy pools of hot, relaxing water. It was amazing! I got into the changing rooms and managed to use the toilet to get changed because it was an "open" changing room so I thought that was be best. Once in the pools you could just make out the peoples heads. The steam floated around everyone as everyone gently floated about. It was very relaxing after a long day, however the day didn't end there. In fact it had just begun.
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| The Blue Lagoon! |
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| View of the Blue Lagoon on the coach! |
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| Lucy in our hotel room! |
Our next stop was our hotel which we were staying in for that night. Hotel Cabin. When I mean cabin, me and Lucy's room was literally two beds and a bathroom. You walked into the room and you were literally in bed. It was a nice small room though. We didn't have to stop there for longer because our next stop was dinner and that wasn't our last stop either. Me and Lucy plonked our suitcases in our tiny room and went down to meet everyone for dinner. Dinner was in The Hamburger Factory (Hamborgarafabrikkan). It was a short 5 minutes up the road from the hotel The burgers was great, a perfect way to start the beginning of our Icelandic trip. Me, Lucy and Elly sat together on the higher tables whilst the others sat on the normal ones. It was a great meal, full of fun and laughter. It was an amazing night and it was about to get even better! Before we left the hotel for tea the teachers told us to wrap up warm because after we were going on a northern light hunt. We were all very excited and we crossed our fingers (and some of us toes) in hope to see the magical lights. It was a very late night. We had to drive out of Reykjavik, away from all the artificial lights so we could have more of a chance of seeing them. A hour or so pasted and Lucy looked out the window and noticed a green curved line in the sky. I told her it was nothing but a second later the coach had pulled up and the tour guide said that they were northern lights. We all scrambled off the coach to see the lights and when we got out into the open the black starry star had a green curved line going right across it. And that was that. We had seen the beautiful Aurora Borealis. The green light that filled the sky was stunning. One of the best experiences I have ever had! I didn't take any photos of the lights because something so special like that should be experienced in real life not by someone taking pictures. You should appreciate this magical wonder of our world just by standing there and absording the experience, it's about capturing the moment not capturing the picture!
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| The Hamburger Factory! |
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| The burger itself! |
The coach fell silent as we drove back to the hotel. It was getting on for 2 in the morning so I decided to sleep on the coach. Lucy's head was on the window and my head was either on Lucy's shoulder or on the tray in front of me. Lizzie and Elly were asleep as well. Lucy woke me when we finally arrived back at the hotel and we dragged our feet up the stairs. Only a few of us were on floor 4 and everyone else were on floor 6 so we got a quiet nights sleep. We were in bed and the lights went out and we immediately drifted off to sleep. What a way to start a magical trip in Iceland and what a way to end the very first day.
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| One of Mr Simmons' pictures of the magical Northern Lights! |
