#travelfriday: how has ICELAND changed us?

Iceland in September. This was a birthday present for Stani, who had been dreaming of this trip, as well as for Tina and Pavka's anniversary (4 years of marriage, hooray!), because she was also crazy about Iceland.

You will feel like you are on a National Geographic expedition. Every comfort is replaced by chasing sunrises and sunsets, depending on the 5-minute gap of good weather, running through the rain, walking among glaciers, getting drenched by waterfalls, looking for the northern lights, sleeping very little. It is cold and as you will see from the video, it is not sunny and romantic, but it definitely topped our ranking for the most adventurous destination and the romance was in the fact that you will rediscover yourself. You will learn things that you did not realize until now.

Get a bus/car/van and boldly set off in the direction. We were there for 4 full days and managed to see the entire South side of the island. Yes, our program was very full, but you don't feel tired even for a second, because you are shaking with enthusiasm the whole time. To tour the entire island you need about 10 days, but also a much larger budget.

You don't think about the weather. You don't even notice if it's raining. There's no such thing as bad weather. You bravely walk up the mountain to reach a waterfall that drops 100 meters, and every step is worth it. Your jeans are wet, but you change them and your smile is still wide.

You don't think about food. We made sandwiches in the morning so we wouldn't stop all day. We ate in the bus while we were choosing pictures, because there are so many that you don't know which one to choose. But we also ate sandwiches because they are so expensive that you can hardly survive in restaurants. The positive thing is that they are everywhere, in front of every geyser, waterfall in the middle of nowhere or gas station.

You don't think about matching your clothes. Well, of course we were with our new sweaters that we were testing and it was a struggle "which one will I wear today", but the shoes, jacket and jeans didn't change much

You don't think about your hair. You put on your hat and walk around boldly!

You wake up without an alarm, go to bed after chasing the Aurora late at night and you have such a huge smile that you can't believe where you've been. Every step is magic. Iceland is quiet, very quiet and gives you such peace that you are completely absorbed by the energy of the place. Even though they have a 700% increase in tourists, or 7 million per year now, it's like you don't see them, in every place there are 20 people with you and it's like you're alone on the moon. Importantly, we were in September, which is out of the popular season.

You will be on a diet. A diet of restaurants, but you will compensate with "junk food", at least for us one jar of Nutella a day was the minimum.

Beer will be a mirage. A beer costs 15 lv in the store. You choose how much you can drink per day. Therefore, an important tip: the guys bought a few stacks at the airport, where beer is only 2 euros, and accordingly they were stocked up with one beer for all the days. In Iceland, drinking beer was prohibited until 1989, and accordingly alcohol is sold only in special chains that are owned by the state and have the most expensive excise tax in the world.

Food shopping - there is a great food store "Bonus", which everyone recommends, where we did a larger market, it is in the vicinity of Reykjavik - Keflavik Airport is outside Reykjavik and accordingly there is a store on the road, they are also marked on the map.

Overnight stays - we slept in a different place every night. Every night we would check in, leave our luggage and wet clothes to dry and then go out again. It is important to have a kitchen because we made our own dinners. Only on the last night we ate at a restaurant in Reykjavik and it cost us 150lv per couple, which only included two main courses and two beers.

One night we were in a great hostel, the next in a family hotel, then a horse farm where we were greeted by the owner who had just milked the cows and smelled like milk, and in the morning a bunny woke us up in front of our house. The last night we spent in Reykjavik and we were in an amazing apartment that accommodated our entire group of 7 people.

What to wear?

We were in the so-called "warmer" period where wearing jeans was okay, but don't rely on ripped jeans like me J

1. Shoes!

It is very important to have hiking boots or waterproof ones. You will walk on grass, rocks, geysers, ice, beaches, you will get wet from waterfalls, mud to secluded places, so shoes are a must. Don't even hesitate how you will combine them, go for an adventurous styling J

2. Jacket

Again waterproof. They have a saying “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes” and it turned out to be absolutely true. It rains, it shines, then it drizzles, but it keeps you wet. At least in September. You can get a down jacket like me or a mountaineering jacket like Tina. Important - go for bright colors, you will be very happy later when you see the contrasting photos. You become most visible with your orange jacket, so advice: be colorful

3. Raincoat

Order a colorful raincoat, there are great ones online, yellow, pink. I had a black one and it was pretty boring, I bought it there for the modest sum of 47 leva, and Tina had a great coral one.

4. Real wool sweaters

We were traveling with little luggage, so we divided the sweaters and went with 4 of them, yes, we wore them for two days each. Our sweaters are wool and were definitely a hit. They passed all the tests. For underneath you need t-shirts, a shirt, a long-sleeved blouse, almost no one will ever see them, because you are wearing a jacket and a sweater all the time.

5. Pants

We went with just jeans and leggings - take leggings, thick ones, it's very nice to be able to wear something soft and warm, not just jeans. There are great waterproof pants, but alas, we ordered them only after we got back from Iceland. For the warm season (i.e. the one without snow) they are not mandatory, but then when it snows, you should have thermal underwear and ski pants or mountaineering pants.

6. Don't forget your hats

and 2 gloves, mine got wet and couldn't dry and I walked around with Stani's for two days, poor thing J

7. In the hot pools you bathe naked before entering!

VIDEO!!!

We also want to introduce you to the guys' new platform, as you know, they shoot all our videos and photos and have united around the idea of ​​Cinematic 4 .

Stani, Pavkata, Sasheto and Sergo are behind the video and photo shoot. You can follow them on their Facebook page, because the most interesting videos and photos are yet to come. Thank you for the great video, guys!

Tina and I tested the strength of our wool sweaters, which we will present to you next weekend at Mish Mash Fest!

After this trip we are a little stunned. We are looking for a new direction, but we do not want it to be less adventurous. We are starting the selection for next year, and until then we are really charged for the winter and inspired by the bad weather J

#wintercollection #iceland #adventure #travelfriday #vintagesummergirls

We hope you like it!

And here is our route in more detail, if you need help planning:

Day 1

We landed at 8 am from London with Easyjet (just an aside, we flew to London Luton the day before with WizzAir and explored London for a day, and in the morning at 6 am we had a flight to Reykjavik).

We rented a 7-seater van that could hold up to 9 people, and you can drive with a normal license. We headed towards Vik, where we would spend our first night. We did some shopping along the way and had the following points for the day:

Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, you can also pass through the wreckage of the crashed plane, but we did it on the way back because we were chasing the sunset on the beaches of Vik. We checked into Puffin Hostel and then headed to the black beach - Reynisfjara Beach. The boys got up for sunrise and climbed to the rocky arch of Dyrholaey.

Day 2

After breakfast with Nutella and sunrise stories from the boys, we headed to the Jökulsárlón glacier, Galcer Lagoon. Right across from it is Diamon Beach. Then we headed back and stopped at Skatafell and the Svartifoss waterfall. We slept closer in Skaftarnreppur. Perhaps the most impressive place is the Fjadrargljufur Canyon, where it is worth waiting for the rain to stop.

Day 3

We headed back to Reykjavik and the day was for the so-called “Golden Triangle”, which is the most touristy place. There you will see people in leather loafers, dresses, shorts, blazers, i.e. totally inadequately dressed. Don’t be fooled into going there only, because you will only see three things. First we went to the remains of the plane crash, Sólheimasandur, Plane Wreck, which is on the way to Vik. And in the triangle itself there is the largest geyser Geysir, from where the word “geyser” comes from, the impressive Gullfoss waterfall and we bathed in the Secret Lagoon Hot Spring Flúðir. We didn’t make it to the so-called Blue Lagoon for two reasons - time and it also cost 60 euros per person J

Day 4

We headed to Reykjavik and on the way we decided to pass by another waterfall, but it turned out to be very difficult to find, the road was muddy and through some bushes, but it was quite wild - Brekkuskógur, Bruarfoss. At noon we were in Reykjavik and did a "free walking tour" and then we immersed ourselves in the city, which turned out to be incredible!

Explore Iceland!

Love,

VSF Team