The third country we’ve been to in our trip was Iceland.
Why? Because we wanted to see northern lights (Again), volcanoes (Unfortunate, nothing erupting), and just because we can say “We’ve been to Iceland”
Apparently, they’ve been expecting us for some odd reason.
We got off the airplane and there’s a security officer asking us to come. This happened:
Officer: Excuse me gentlemen, can I see your passports?
Me: Sure, here you go.
*Me and my friend handing the officer our passports
Officer: And your Visas?
*Me flipped the pages to our Visas*
Officer: Hmmmm… Kuwait… Where is that?
Me: Middle East, next door to Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Officer: And you’re here for?
Me: We came from the desert. We wanted to see something different. So we’re here for snow, volcanoes, cold weather, snow, and more snow.
Officer: Oh, well it’s kind of wrong timing. The weather is really cold.
Me: Exactly, real snow!
Officer: Oh alright. Anyway, here’s your passports back. I hope you have a wonderful time here.
We collected our luggage and as we walk out, the costumes officer stops us for ANOTHER check up:
Officer: Gentlemen, I’m a costumes officer. Can you please come to this room? We’d like to have another look in your luggage
Me: Sure, not problem.
*Dragged our bag to the other room, handing papers for verifications*
Me: So officer, what seems to be the problem?
Officer: We just saw some electronics in your bad and we wanted to know what they were because we couldn’t figure in our scann— Oh here you go
*Pulling a set of toy cars off my friend’s bag*
Officer: We technically wanted to see this only. We just didn’t know what they are, and they’re toy cars… Classic
*We all laughed*
Officer: I know I’m slowing you down, but I’ll have to check on your other bags and electronics
Me: Please, by all means.
*The officer kept on asking what do we have and whether or not they’re personal. We answered that they are*
Officer: So, coming all the way from Kuwait, why Iceland?
Me: We went to Sweden, Norway, and we figured we might as well just pass by Iceland to say we’ve wandered around Scandinavia
Officer: But you came in the absolute wrong timing; It’s winter and dead cold
Me: And real snow… And volcanoes… Is there any active volcanoes at the time being?
Officer: Unfortunately no. Oh well, sorry for keeping you here waiting. I hope you enjoy your stay
Me: Thank you officer, have a good day.
And we left back to our room.
First thing we decided to do is, well, just walk around and explore.
Let me give you few notes about Reykjavik in Winter (And in general):
* Weather is totally random. It’s not uncommon to walk in a shop with a sunny sky, spend 30 minutes inside, walk out with a heavy rain.
* Reykjavik have fun graffiti.
* They’re really more rational and less-formal. For example, their tourism newspaper had this column with a title like “Things that will fuck up your stay” listing fun stuff to do.
* Usually, free coffee refills.
* Much more affordable than many Europeans\Scandinavian countries.
* It’s small.
* If you go on a northern lights tour and you weren’t so lucky, you can have your next try for free. And if that next try didn’t work, the next one for free!
* You can book for tours and stuff from your hotel. Sometimes things gets canceled due to weather, but your hotel will inform you and ask if you’d like to reschedule.
Anyway, we went to the Blue Lagoon‘s hot spring (I know, what was I thinking going with my friend… A MALE FRIEND!?), went few times for unsuccessful northern lights hunt. Ended up with an interesting shot (With barely any northern lights):
All in all, it was an epic trip!
Next trip will involve Glasgow, London, Dublin, And another visit to Tromsø and Oslo.
Great post! Really loved it x’D
Btw, the pictures are REALLY awesome. I don’t know how you did it, but the intensity of the colors gives the whole thing a great … finishing. (Or is it just my screen? I don’t think so.)