Iceland is exactly what I thought it would be and even more, I've never been in a place like this before, Australia might be wild and mysterious, the USA can be exciting and breath taking and Scotland is for sure a land of myths and legends, but never have I been in a country that gathers them all...
My friends and I left for Two weeks in Iceland and this road trip will be forever engraved in my memory.
It was stunning, astonishing, gorgeous and surprising but even those words aren't strong enough to describe my feeling about this place!
During those two weeks, I have climbed volcanoes, hiked near a Glacier, I've dived in the rift which separates the tectonic plates of America and Eurasia, I've seen Icebergs collapse and drift toward the ocean only to be rejected on the beach, I've seen whales and seals and puffins into the wild, lava fields, and fjords under the clouds, beaches with sand as black as volcanoes ashes and some with sand as orange as the Sahara desert...
The landscapes kept changing, from a desertic post apocalyptic fields of lava rocks worthy of the moon to green mountains with waterfalls to glaciers that cover most of the country!
This is how impressive Iceland is.
Iceland is a very old country with a very old history, discovered by the Vikings in the IXth century the Icelanders still speaks their languages even though they're very good at speaking English. Another thing that Icelanders have kept from the Vikings is their family names, it's always pretty much the same, the daughters will be named (name of the father or mother)- Dottir and the sons (name of the father or mother)-Sson, for example: Rikey daughter of Gunnar will be Rikey Gunnarsdottir and Jon son of Gunnar will be Jon Gunnarsson...And there is so much more to learn about their history.
During my stay, I encountered many French people, we were so many there that I could have sworn we were composing half the population of Iceland!
I spoke more French in Iceland that I've ever spoken in any other country.
Spending two weeks in Iceland is very expensive, the country isn't used to mass tourism, making shopping quite difficult, buying food was super hard because everything was expensive and yet they didn't have much to offer, I don't even talk about buying gifts it was...how can I say it, I totally had the feeling to be scammed, every price in tourist shops were heightened, we paid stamps 200ISK which is approximately the equivalent of 1.60€...that hurts!
But other than the prices, Iceland is one worthy country to explore, and the sooner the better, in about 50 years all the glaciers in Iceland would have melted and most of it will probably be under water if the global warming keeps running like it does today...no rush but I'm glad I had the occasion to discover this amazing place!
Bless/Pleins des Bisous
