A Land of Ice & Fire: Iceland Posted on September 19th, 2010 by

Hello world,
I’m currently sitting in my apartment located in Athens. Yes, Athens, Greece. Not Athens, Georgia or Athens, Ohio. But before I try to explain the beauty and Grandeur of this Grand ole city. I want to briefly touch on my travels prior to Greece.

I flew out on Wednesday, August 25th 2010. First stop? Iceland then London. This was going to be my first time flying alone and I was testing my skills of survival international style. I booked my airplane tickets so that I would have a 1 day stopover in Iceland and 3 days in London. It was gonna be interesting spending 4 days completely alone and being in strange cities and different countries. I wasn’t really nervous or scared to be by myself, but everyone else was. People kept telling me I shouldn’t watch Hostel or Taken before I left–not really the most helpful advice, haha. My mom said once that I tend to bite off more than I can chew, but I figured that if I can play Rugby and survive that I’d be able to beat/tackle anyone who tried to mess with me; I didn’t want to test this theory of course.
I thought these were statues so I climbed up a steep hill to check them out. They were pretty cool. Volcanic rock of course.

So, Iceland. I really didn’t know what I could do in Iceland but Iceland Air lets you have up to four days stopover for free so I figured why not. I stayed in a sort of sketchy hostel, but it was cheap and clean and there was free wi-fi. I only saw the town of Reflavic, where the airport was situated, but I want to return one day and go sight seeing for real and experience the volcanoes and hot springs. I took my stuffed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Leo around with me as I explored the town so that I could have him in my pictures since I couldn’t be in them myself. Needless to say I got a few strange looks with him strapped to the outside of my back pack, but at least I blended in with my blonde hair. Iceland is very rugged and wasn’t very green where I was at, but I’m told it’s very beautiful in other parts of the Island. Volcanic rock was EVERYWHERE. The natives used it for everything. They built their houses with it, made bricks, crushed it and made their streets with it, they even used it for landscape purposes. I did a lot of rock climbing along the shoreline and ate my first ever bowl of Ramen Noodles. Iceland’s official written and spoken language is Icelandic, a North Germanic language descended from Old Norse. The currency used is the Kronur, which translates to crown. If you like the outdoors it’s a terrific place to go hiking and exploring, especially near the capital, Reyjavic. I met some really cool backpackers that were also staying in my hostel-talked to a Canadian and 4 Dutch kids for like 2 hours about politics and school systems. Luckily I didn’t meet their stereotype of a blonde american young adult.

Leo was my travel buddy. :)
 

Categories: Blogs from abroad, College Year Athens, Greece

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