I have traveled quite a bit in Scandinavia over the years, but I had yet to see all of the countries, the last one on my list being Iceland. Now I have been dying to see Iceland for quite some time, so I am not sure why it has taken me so many years to finally get there. Reykjavik is only a three hour nonstop flight from Stockholm via Iceland Air. One great thing about Iceland Air is that if you are flying to the US or coming from the US to Europe, they offer a free stopover for three days in Reykjavik without having to pay to change your ticket. I had never taken advantage of this in the past before, but next time I fly home with them I will, as I am already itching to go back! The airline also offers great long weekend packages from many cities in Europe, making it very easy to go. My friend and I decided to book one of their weekend packages in November, which included a three night stay as well as our flight. We stayed at the Hotel Natura, which is located about 10 minutes from Reykjavik's city center. It is a very large hotel decorated in a very Scandic sort of a way. I loved it the moment we stepped into the hotel; it just had this super cool chic feeling to it.

Colorful houses in Reykjavik

I was quite hungry when we arrived and so instead of going in and exploring, we decided to eat at the restaurant in the hotel. It was really good food and I was happy that they had a few vegetarian options on the menu. Once we had assuaged our hunger with an early dinner, we were trying to decide what we would like to do in the evening when we saw a sign for a Northern Lights tour. We went to find out more about it and they told us we had a 70% chance of seeing them, so we decided to book our tickets and off we went, just a short hour later. A few hours later we reached our destination and unfortunately we did not see them. Worse was yet to come....we were out there for nearly six hours. It was a bit too much for me and I was happy to leave after just a few hours. Before joining a tour such as this, I highly recommend asking when the return time is set for - that was our first mistake. We arrived back at the hotel well after midnight, completely exhausted as we only arrived in the early evening.

Not wanting to miss anything, we woke up early on Friday morning and headed to breakfast. Breakfast was an amazing spread with at least five tables with everything you could ever imagine. My personal favorites were the homemade Icelandic rye bread and the Icelandic skyr (thick yogurt) topped with fresh berries. We had booked a bus to take us directly from our hotel to The Blue Lagoon, so as soon as we finished breakfast we were out the door in a matter of minutes. The bus ride is about thirty minutes, as the Blue Lagoon is located outside of Reykjavik. When you pull up, it looks as if you have pulled up into the middle of nowhere, as it is located in lava fields. The entrance is rather hidden, but as you are walking up to it you start to smell the sulfur and see the blue water outside. We paid the minimum, which included a towel and the entrance fee, and went and got changed. Upon paying, you get a bracelet which you wear the entire time you are there, so if there is anything you want to do or buy you just add it to your bracelet and pay as you leave. It's a great system as you don't have to stress about getting money or your purse when you are there to relax. You just leave everything in your locker and use your bracelet instead.

Entrance to the Blue Lagoon

Once we stepped out into The Blue Lagoon, it was better than I could have imagined. It was so beautiful! The air was a misty, so the steam from The Blue Lagoon looked a bit mystical and like something from a movie. As you stepped in, you could feel the heat instantly from the geothermal waters - and it feels amazing and oh so fantastic. I could have easily stayed for ten hours, it felt that good and relaxing. Although there were a lot of people that day, it never felt too crowded or that we didn't have our own space. We moved from place to place, feeling the temperature of the water change in different places. Of course we had to put the clay on our faces, I think it was made of some minerals along with other natural goodies, and then went and got our picture taken. They had a photographer from The Blue Lagoon taking pictures with an iPad, only if you wanted, and then he would send you the picture right away. It was a really great idea and it was a nice personal touch and a little keepsake to take back with you. This was perfect, as I was too scared to take my camera anywhere near the water.

Blue Lagoon

After we washed off our masks, our faces were left feeling soft and silky - just another part of the relaxation process at The Blue Lagoon. They also had a swim up bar where you could order drinks. We both got a glass of bubbles to toast our fantastic day. We stayed there for about six hours. We had planned to eat lunch there, but unfortunately we missed it because we were too busy enjoying ourselves! I was a bit disappointed as I heard very good things about the restaurant there from some of the other people at The Blue Lagoon. Thankfully, they had a snack bar and we went there a few times to relax before going back in. You can also get different types of treatments and massages if you want for an extra cost, but we chose just to sit and enjoy The Blue Lagoon by itself while looking out onto the lava fields. The experience was surreal. After nearly a half day there, we took the bus back to our hotel so we could go out for dinner and drinks.

I am crazy for Indian food, so whenever I go to a new place I always tend to look for potentially good Indian restaurants. When I was looking at the top restaurants in TripAdvisor, Austur Indíafélagið came up, and naturally I told my friend we had to go there. Once we arrived, I realized we were lucky to get a table without having made reservations, as the restaurant was packed was locals. Apparently that was the place to be that evening. Before I go any further, I realize I have forgotten to mention the prices in Iceland. Although Iceland was once very expensive for most people, after the economic crash the Icelandic krona devalued significantly, making it quite cheap. Now as the country has slowly been recovering, the krona has gone up but prices are still very reasonable and I found the food, alcohol, transportation, and just about everything to be much less that I would normally pay in Sweden. I would say that the food was about half the price, and alcohol was nowhere nearly as taxed as it is in Sweden.

Little shop in Reykjavik

More houses in Reykjavik

One great thing about Indian food is that you can always find something good and vegetarian - and sure enough, I did. I ordered a delicious paneer dish full of vegetables in a light tomato sauce, along with the order of spelt garlic naan bread we ordered. I have never had spelt naan before, and it did not disappoint. It was so good, we decided we needed more. This is the only time in my life I have come across spelt naan, and after having had it, I wish all Indian restaurants would make it with spelt. Hearing about Reykjavik's crazy nightlife, we decided to test it out ourselves. Sadly, I think we were just out too early. We were quite tired after The Blue Lagoon, and although we finished dinner by 10 o'clock pm, it was just not late enough. Icelanders go out very late, we were told at the bar we went to, where we were the only customers besides one guy for about an hour, and the party would not get going till after 1 am. Seeing as we were not willing to wait that long, we decided to get a cab and call it a night.

The next morning, we got up very early, as we had booked a Golden Circle Tour through our hotel. It’s the most popular tour people take when they come to Reykjavik. Since we only had three full days in Reykjavik, we figured it would be best to take that tour as they take you to the countryside, Gullfoss (Golden Falls), one of the biggest geysers, and stops to some small places along the way. We started by driving out to the country for a good hour or so before we got let off to walk around and take pictures. The weather was not so nice that morning (quite foggy and grey), but it was still spectacular. We saw small waterfalls along our walk and enormous houses located in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.

House in the middle of Iceland

Next on our stop was Gullfoss, one of the largest and most famous waterfalls in Iceland. During the month of November, it looked magnificent, completely covered in snow and ice, with the water roaring in the background. The falls looked and sounded so fierce. We were able to walk around quite a bit, even in areas that did not look so safe to be walking around, and got lots of great pictures. As you can imagine, it was quite cold around there, so we went inside to the gift shop/food place and warmed up until it was time to go again!

We went to Þingvellir National Park, where you can see the canyon, which was caused by the North American and Eurasian plates moving apart. This was also an amazing site to visit. The last big site on our tour was the geyser geothermal hot spot. There we saw many small pools of hot springs where the water was literally boiling in front of us. Many of these little springs also had a lot of minerals in them, so the water appeared to be several different colors, and it almost looked as if it was morphing in front of us.

Hot spring with minerals

The main event was watching the large geyser, which shot up really high in the air about every 7 minutes. It was massive, and it looked like a big water explosion. After we had enough geyser watching, we went and took a break and had some coffee before we headed back to Reykjavik. One nice thing about this eight hour tour is that we got to see a lot of the countryside, which we would never have seen in such a short amount of time. We passed many greenhouses along the way. Icelanders use these very long and big greenhouses to grow just about everything, making them a self-sufficient island. They are able to heat the greenhouses through the geothermal heat and they water the plants/soil with fresh Icelandic water. It is really impressive to see these massive structures and know that they are able to grow so many fruits and vegetables year round. Some tours actually take you to visit some of the greenhouses, but unfortunately ours did not. Our driver did stop however, at a small waterfall for us, so that we could take some pictures and stretch our legs. They were beautiful, but not nearly as powerful as Gullfoss.

Geyser

Amazing landscape in Iceland

Small waterfalls outside of Reykjavik

Mini hot spring

Thermal pool and a small geyser

Once we arrived back in Reykjavik, we started looking up places for dinner and I found us a great vegetarian restaurant that I could not wait to try! As we got to the place, we realized it was actually closed on a Saturday night. Having only looked at that one, we were not really sure where to go. Right behind our hotel, we stumbled upon Grillmarkaðinn (The Grill Market). Being that it was a grill restaurant, I had little hope that would suit two vegetarians. My friend went in and asked for the menu, and sure enough there was at least one main course available and lots of little side orders. This restaurant was yet another example of really chic and trendy Scandic art. It was very unique, from the way it was decorated to the funky furniture where we sat. This looked like such a fine dining restaurant that I was a bit scared to see the prices, but yet again I was surprised at how inexpensive it was!

Grillmarkaðinn, the best restaurant in Reykjavik

Curly fries and fried vegetables at Grillmarkaðinn

Our vegetarian feast at Grillmarkaðinn

Bread and black Icelandic lava salt at Grillmarkaðinn

We wasted no time in ordering a bottle of prosecco (something we could never afford to do in Sweden), while the waiter brought out fresh bread served with butter and black Icelandic lava salt - so good!! Everything looked so good that we decided to order a side of fries and fried veggies. When the food came out, it was mouth-watering and delicious, I can’t express that enough. Our entrees were the real star of the show as we had a delicious homemade nut loaf, served alongside a small salad and roasted veggies and garnished with homemade pesto. I can’t ever remember having had a meal like that. After we finished eating, the waiter moved us downstairs with our prosecco. At first we thought he was kicking us out, but he was actually taking us to their really cool lounge bar. Downstairs we sat in these vintage retro chairs and proceeded to order blueberry mojitos. I have never had a blueberry mojito, but let me tell you it was as good as one would think it would be. It is a delicious ice cold blueberry drink with a touch of mint. After having spent several hours there, we decided to move on and explore some Icelandic nightlife. The main street in Reykjavik is filled with cafes, bars, and nightclubs, so you just have to start walking and before you know it you will see all the partygoers. Unfortunately, we did not last long. We stayed out till about 2 am, but that seemed to be when the party was just getting started.

Blueberry mojito and bottle of cava at Grillmarkaðinn

Sadly, Sunday was our last day in Reykjavik and we realized we had only seen it at night, so we spent most of our day roaming the streets of Reykjavik taking pictures and getting a feel for this beautiful city on the sea. Reykjavik is quite small and it is easily walkable. You will find lots of funky boutiques and shops and streets filled with colorfully painted houses. Not too much was open on a Sunday, so we just took pictures of the street and the beautiful sea view. We did walk to the famous church at the top of the hill, but chose not to go inside as there was a service going on. We had read about a flea market in Reykjavik called Kolaportið that happens every Saturday and Sunday; it is located in a warehouse by the harbor. We decided to check it out before we headed back to the hotel and then to the airport. The flea market had a lot of different stalls with your typical flea market finds, but it also included a food section where you could buy many Icelandic specialities as well as fish, cheese, potatoes, and other delicacies. As we walked back to our hotel, I felt a bit sad having to leave Reykjavik and Iceland, as I felt I had just scratched the surface. There is so much more to be explored and so many other adventures to have in Iceland. Next time, I plan on staying for a week and driving around the island - and hopefully also go to the Westman Islands, which are supposed to be magnificent. Iceland was better than I could have ever imagined and I can’t wait to go back!

Reykjavik Cathedral

Tjörnin (The Pond), a small lake in the center of Reykjavik

Talia Klundt is the Sweden Editor for Wandering Educators

All photos courtesy and copyright Talia Klundt