Europe 2014 (Iceland)

I went on a two week trip to Europe this summer, going to Iceland, England and Scotland. It was a new experience. Honestly, I was more interested in my books than the sight seeing, but I'm always more interested in books. We first went to Iceland, staying in a bed and breakfast in Reykjavik for two days. Actually, the first place we went was New York City, surprisingly enough, that was the first time I'd ever been to NYC. We stayed with my mom's friends from college, Neal and Jane. It was fun going around New York for the day, even if it was really hot out. My sister, Zia and I, went in our first taxi, it was interesting... We got dropped off by where Neal and Jane live but, uh, we walked the wrong way for a while before realizing that we had to walk the opposite direction to get to the apartment... For dinner Neal and Jane took us out to their favorite Italian restaurant, it was cool, especially since we got to sit downstairs in the basement to eat, it was a very authentic Italian restaurant, too. For the sleeping arrangements I slept on the top floor because Zia would probably like to be closer to our parents when we sleep, it was nice, except for it was storming for the first twenty minutes and since I was on the top I heard it. Very loudly. While we were in New York I visited the Strand bookstore, getting a book box set which is still, unfortunately, in New York, I really need to go back and get that some time. I also went to Times Square, around the statue of liberty, and walked around New York for a while. We went on a Water Taxi, too. Sitting on the top was really hot and I'll admit that I may or may not have almost fallen asleep quite a few times. The next morning we were driven to an airport and surprisingly enough security didn't take too long. Though, the plane ride to Iceland was a long six hours. 

On the way to Iceland, I finished Frost Bite by Richelle Mead and started Shadow Kiss also by Richelle Mead. It was a really long time on the plane and since Iceland is six hours ahead of New York, I was pretty jet lagged for the two days we were in Iceland. Well, technically one day and two halves. After renting a car and driving maybe an hour to a half an hour to the bed and breakfast it was already around two in the morning, Icelandic time. Meaning it was like ten in my head. By the time we were all settled in in the apartment we were staying in, it was three Icelandic time. I couldn't go to sleep for a while, actually I'm pretty sure I fell asleep after the sun rose. Needless to say it was really hard to get up before breakfast closed at 9:30 (Or was it 10?). The Icelandic breakfast seemed a little bland to me, maybe it's just because none of the flavory stuff appealed to my taste, because I had some meats, which would be deli meats in America, and some cheese for breakfast, the meats were pretty bland. It was rather disappointing. So anyway on the one full day we had in Iceland my parents decided we should go do some sightseeing, go around the golden circle or something like that. Zia and I weren't as interested but we went along because we had to.
You could probably tell from the name that Iceland was colder than America, I got pretty cold sometimes, especially because the whole time we were in Iceland it was wet and rainy. So we visited a geyser place, a place where there were two tectonic plates and the strongest waterfall in Iceland (or was it the world???), it took a couple hours actually to get around. The lunch was really expensive, too, it was like $50 US for two personal pizzas and a sandwich. the geysers had hot water and smelled somewhat of sulfur. Anyway, by the time we got back to the bed and breakfast we were all tired because we were really jet lagged plus we'd been out sightseeing and it was tiring. I think we just sort of rested for an hour, well, everyone else rested while I read Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead. Oh, I shouldn't forget to mention this, so my dad bought adapters before we came, for the English plug, but he didn't get one for the Icelandic one. -_- My kindle fire is the first generation, and I didn't bring my kindle. My kindle fire, being the annoying picky reading tablet that it is, will not charge on the USB thing in the plane, I don't know why, I think if we travel more I'm going to need to get a new reading tablet. So after reading it for like seven hours straight the night before, it was dying by day 2 of the trip. Luckily the bed and breakfast had adapters so they lent us one. I was sitting in the kitchen reading my kindle a lot during my time in Iceland.
After resting for a while we went out and walked around Reykjavik, there was a really cool cathedral right behind where we were staying. We went to a restaurant that one of my parents' friends recommended to us. It was really good, and like everything else, pretty expensive. After dinner, my dad walked Zia back to the bed and breakfast, while I pulled my mom into the nearest bookstore. In a different country? Let's buy books there in a language I don't speak. Yeah, I have good priorities. Well, some of the books were in english, but most of them weren't. It was really interesting seeing the book covers of my well-loved books in a different country. Except the books here were really expensive, maybe $30 US for a paperback book. Yeah, I never did end up buying any books in Europe.
 Anyway, after my dad came back to the bookstore, my mom walked back to the bed and breakfast while my dad and I went to a different bookstore and I got a postcard. We then went to the small, I don't know what to call it, food store, I guess. There we picked up a container of ice cream, for those of you who didn't know, ice cream is a vital part of my existence. The ice cream in Iceland (Yes I did insist that we get ice cream in Iceland, it's practically required if you visit Iceland to get ice cream) is different, it has a slightly more ice-y feel over creamy. It was good none the less. If you've never been to Iceland, you might not know this, but during the summer it stays light out day and night and during the winter it stays dark. So it was rather hard to fall asleep with that much light, not to mention our curtains sucked and there was a light shining through the window. So the next day, we got up, got breakfast, packed up and left the ned and breakfast. Though, before we went to the airport we visited The Blue Lagoon, a giant hot spring. Mmhmmm, I really liked it there. Especially considering how cold it was in Iceland, the hot spring was even more amazing. So we checked in and got bathrobes, towels, a take home gift, and these bracelets. The bracelets were really cool, they were water proof and were the keys to your lockers in the locker rooms where you changed, also, if you bought a drink or a face wash at the bar in the hot spring, then they would take a device, tap it to your bracelet and it would charge you so you paid before you left.
There's something in the water that really dries out your hair, so you're told to put your hair up in like a bun and put conditioner in it so it won't dry out, they provided soap and conditioner in the bathrooms. So my hair looks really oily in all the pictures, also, if you've seen my hair, you'd know that there is A LOT of it, it's really long so the bun kept falling out. Luckily for me, though, it didn't fall out while we were in the hot spring, otherwise I probably would've flipped out. Getting pictures for this was REALLY gold because standing outside, in Iceland, in a bikini is obviously going to be cold. Plus my dad can't take pictures with the IPhone so we had to take a bunch. Finally getting into the hot spring was a relief, especially because my sister was being picky about the pictures and made me pose for about a bijillion. So with the thing we got to get in we all got one free drink, face scrub and face mask from the bar. I got a strawberry smoothie, it was delicious, Zia and my dad got blueberry and I don't remember what my mom got, you see, I'm typing this like two or three weeks later so I don't have the perfect memory of this trip, I guess it would help if I looked in my vacation journal but I'm too lazy to do so. I definitely enjoyed The Blue Lagoon, though, if you've ever been in a hot tub during the winter, it's a similar feeling, you overheat after a while. Also, since I'm so short, I almost sunk under in some places. After leaving the Blue Lagoon we went back to the airport to fly our three hour trip to London.
I decided to split this blog post up, because if my part on Iceland is that long, we stayed in the other places for longer, so I don't want to make these posts WAY to long, so this is part one :).