ICELAND, "A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE" !!!

Hi, guys!!!!

Did you know that Game of Thrones went shooting in Iceland? yeah me too haha, and I totally get why, this place is so wild and impressive, glacier next to volcanoes perfect places for the show, wild black sand beaches, and so many waterfalls you don't even know where to look anymore!

Iceland is also known as "Land of fire and ice" is just 3 hours away from Paris and yet before 2 years ago I never really thought of going there!
And really we decided to go there almost on a whim, summer 2015 my best friend and I came back from our holidays in Ireland and her mom looked at us and asked "Where are you going for your next adventures? you should go to Iceland!" and that how we decided that we had to go to Iceland, 2 years later we were driving a Jeep Wrangler across that very country!

WHY ICE?

JOKULSARLON

One of the most famous, or maybe the most famous place in Iceland, known for its numerous icebergs, we were super lucky to go on a sunny day, we saw icebergs break apart, imagine those huge block of ice fall into the water and create small waves...it was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.

Then we went for the black sanded beach and that...just blow my mind, since I'm a little girl I dream of going on an expedition to Antarctica or Arctic to see those frozen places, pure nature away from everything and even if it was one of my biggest dreams, I've always been afraid that it was too big of a dream to become a reality and to see the iceberg there in Iceland just made me feel like I was touching my dream, I don't really know how to explain it but the feeling was magical, I felt great!

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SILFRA RIFT IN THINGVELLIR NATIONAL PARK

Silfra is a rift between the tectonic plates of America and Eurasia, the water is only 2 degrees all year long because the water comes from a glacier and can't get warmer because it merges with the lake of Thingvellir and due to the flow the water only goes from the glacier to the lake and not the other way around, this is definitely an experience I will never forget, snorkelling into the water of a glacier, the price is pretty high for snorkelling (price of a dive), but I promise you it's totally worth the price, it last about 30 to 40 minutes and there's no lifeform but algae...You don't really feel the cold only on your face and hands because the suits are really studied so the water doesn't infiltrate and touch your body...
Plus at the end of your tour, they give you hot chocolate and cookies! what's not to like?
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SKAFTAFELL

Skaftafell is one of the biggest glaciers of Iceland, at first, we only went there for a short walk but we couldn't resist and went to see the glacier, we could feel the cold, like literally, the closest you were from the glacier the lower the temperature was, such an amount of ice melting in front of us...just impressive!

Then we went for that walk and arrived on top of the glacier, the walk warmed us up but as soon as we arrived near the glacier the temperature dropped down, I kinda loved the feeling, I like cold it's invigorating and I think it represents perfectly what Iceland is.

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WHY FIRE?

SELTUN

This is certainly the most stinky place I've smelt in Iceland, haha, the scent of brimstone was awful and for my friends, it was even worst, for me it wasn't the first time I smelt brimstone, still, it wasn't pleasant!
But I was glad to see this geothermal place with my own eyes, with its bubbling mud pots and fumaroles, this volcanic land has so many colors and I saw plenty, like blue, pink, purple, yellow and so many...I was in heavenly!

It appears that Seltun is situated in the middle of the fissure zone of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which crosses Iceland from the South-west to the North-East.

It almost looks like walking on Mars.

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HEKLA

The most active volcano in Iceland, it usually erupts every ten years but it's been now seventeen years since its last eruption.
We kind of get lost trying to climb that one, so we ended up looking at it instead of climbing it, we drove and drove for I don't remember how much hours to end up on the opposite mountain, little advice don't forget the four-wheel drive when you climb a mountain with your jeep, we were so scared, thrilled but scared haha.
But it completely was worth all the time and effort we put in Helka!

For the information, we had no idea that Hekla was so active before we decided to climb it.

LANDMANNALAUGAR

Perhaps my favorite place and yet the one that was the hardest for our mind and body, probably why it was my favorite, in the deserted land of Landmannalaugar we had to sleep on rocks and face the wind and the rain, we didn't eat very well (cold white rice, soup, bad bread and other stuff which weren't real meals) but it made me feel so good because now I can say that I did it and it was hard and cold but I did it, we did it, and the walks in there were the best in all Iceland.
We even kept our wrist band just to prove to ourself that it wasn't a dream, we walked on volcanoes, slept with below zero temperature, on rocks (literally for one of us) eat bad food but met really awesome people and well, we were in Iceland so we still had fun!

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ALWAYS TRAVEL WITH PEOPLE YOU LOVE!

Do you feel like going to Iceland? If you've already been there I would love to hear about your travel experience in the comment!

*All pictures aren't mine, some are my best friend's @emelinespictures (that's her Instagram if you feel like taking a look)

PLEINS DES BISOUS

EXPLORING ICELAND !!!

Hallo!!!  I'm back with so much to tell you about my latest travel!

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