An Icelandic Weekender

Reykjavik Town still lit up for Christmas

So shortly after I'd ate my body weight over Christmas, we boarded the plane to Iceland (which I surprisingly didn't need two seats for) clutching to the hope that the thermal socks we were wearing would brace us for what lay ahead. We were welcomed to Reykjavik with gale force winds, and a bus driver who told us that this weekend they were experiencing unusual blizzards due to a southern wind. But a blizzard didn't scare us, so shortly after arriving at our hotel - Reykjavik Lights - we threw on some more thermal layers and braved a 20 minute walk along the coast to Reykjavik, and forgot what it felt like to be warm for the majority of the rest of the trip. 

If your going to Iceland in winter pick an excursion company and stick to them, because its too dangerous to hire a car and impossible to get public transport to all the major sights. It's easy to snigger at that, but you'd regret being in a car when all main roads from the extremely remote, southern side of the island back to Reykjavik are closed due to a blizzard and you desperately need to pee. In that situation, you thank your lucky stars that you are on a tour bus with a driver who knows his way back around the island, and more importantly where the nearest petrol station is to pee and stock up on snacks, at least I did anyway. We used Reykjavik Excursions, who drove us to a multitude of places and told us stories of naughty elves and stone spirits all the way. Hear are my reviews of two of their most popular tours...

Northern Lights Tour - Around £30 and they take you to a tba location depending on wheres the highest chance of getting action, and you can retake the trip every night until you get lucky! Please wear lots of socks (I almost lost my toes at a pitch dark beach) and be prepared for faint flickers of lights being the most you see. The bright blues green and red's you see on a camera are a result of looonnnng shutter speeds and they almost never look that way to the naked eye. Even without the lights, however, the locations are amazing, and the stars are shining and if you happen to see a faint flutter of green in between the stars and horizons, you worry less about trying to magnify it on your camera. What's really amazing is that you can go on the trip for free for up to two years, so I look forward to going back and having another chance at seeing the lights in years to come. 

Not the lights...light pollution.

 Golden Circle with Fontana Baths -  This trip is a bit more expensive at around £50 for a bus between venues. But my god the venues are worth it. First we stopped at at a national park for sunrise where we were told the departure time and were free to explore. I might be obsessed with a sunset, but this sunrise was one of the most breathtaking moments of my life.

Sunrise at Thingvellir National Park

 After a drive through the beautiful Longavartn region, where the rising sun streams in between woodlands and quaint wooden cabins, you then stop at the Geysir, where there are also log cabin canteens with a legendary fish stew and volcano baked rye bread.

The Geysir 

The Gulfoss waterfall

To end a strenuous day hiking up stairs to waterfalls and waiting for an erupting Geysir, your dropped at the relaxing Fontana baths (where you dont pay to get in but you do have to pay for your towels!). With a selection of naturally heated saunas, jacuzies and pools all set in view of Fontana lake it would just have been rude of me not to swim in the lake too (although I had to get a member of staff to unlock the gate to the lake after her saying "are you sure? It will be cold" numerous times).

Overall Iceland was an amazing experience, a weekend full of intense hikes to natural beauties like waterfalls or glaciers that make you feel like your at end the earth (try the souther wonders tour for this) and contrastingly relaxing in what has to be the worlds best and most natural spa's (the best being Blue Lagoon, and yes, it is actually bright blue). The magic of its natural wonders, 'coolness' of up and coming Reykjavik and the captivating local myths and legends make Iceland a completely unique and magical encounter. 

An Idiots Guid to Amsterdam - everything we did wrong, so you can do it right!

Four eighteen year olds girls, stepping out of Amsterdam Cantral Station to get their first glimps of the city cloaked in the fog of early morning, their breath literally being taken away by, yes, the beauty, but mostly the cold. What could go wrong?! Well, plenty, as although Amsterdam may look like the setting of a fairytail, it wasn't without its trails for us, but heres some idiot proof tips to make sure you don't make the same mistakes as us!

 1. READ THE SMALL PRINT WHEN BOOKING A HOSTEL

Hostel, hotel, whichever, Amsterdam is full of small, independent, affordable places to lay your head but even if you book your bed through a trusted website which you've used many times before - read the small print! We arrived to check in at 3pm (to the reception which was located in a Chinese takeaway, yes a takeaway!) only to find that the small print said the hostel would need to validate the card we paid the deposit with 48 hours before arrival. As we paid with a debit card, this obviously didn't happen so our room was given to someone else. Hotel Mavlana was, in this case, at fault, as they didn't email to ask for a new card or to notify us of cancelation, but to avoid being stranded in an unfamiliar city with no where to stay, read the fine print! This did turn out to be a blessing in disguise as we found an amazing replacement on the corner of dam square called "The Cornerhouse", who's amazingly friendly staff, comfy single beds and squeaky clean en suit rooms turned our first day round from hell to heavenly!

2. LEARN THE RULES OF NIGHTS OUT

You can't go to Amsterdam without letting off a little steam, but although the people seem friendly and the chairs seem comfy be careful when your getting drunk and other such things!  This seems like obvious advise, and applies to anywhere you go of course, but no where in the world is like Amsterdam! The most invaluable advise that I can give you is to stay on the ground floor, please god stay on the ground floor.
Although we were tired after an early flight and long day walking around, we got our glad rags on (by which I mean we showered as Amsterdam's night life doesn't require a dress and heels, but we transformed enough for the bar lady at our hotel to say we came down "like butterflies" after going upstairs looking so rough - is that a compliment or not?) and headed out. A few hours later, in fits of giggles, we decided to move from one bar to the next but as we approached the spiral staircase very typical for Amsterdam we realised our mistake as it seemed to spiral well out of our reach. 20 minutes later, after each step was stomped on with extra careful deliberation, we eventually made it outside (is this the reason amsterdamers don't wear heels?) at which point the air hit us and we realised that each windey road and each frosty canal bridge look frighteningly similar. Unlike back home, there aren't take aways open till the early hours either, so if you get the munchies you better hope that your hotel staff are friendly enough to whip something up, the kind lady at ours supplied us with the last piece of Apple pie and a plate full of whipped cream with crushed biscuits (but maybe that was to make up for insulting us earlier on?) but my advise is to have some snacks waiting for you in the room.

3. BUY YOUR TRAIN TICKETS BEFORE YOU GET ON THE TRAIN!

Thankfully this is the one thing we didn't actually get caught out on - although that was lucky as after getting on the wrong train back from a Kasabian concert we jumped on the first one back to central station without another thought, which happened to be a rather amusing journey with a drunk guy singing one line of R Kelly's 'Bump and Grind' repeatedly ("my minds telling me noooooooo"). But on another occasion - one where we thankfully had a ticket - we were told by a very scary, butch, lady (in a contrastingly small, pink uniform) that if you don't have one already, the usually €3 ticket costs €40 or more to buy it on the train.

4. KNOW THE ADRESS OF YOUR ACCOMODATION

Getting  into a taxi  back to the hostel after a big night out seems like the sensible thing  to do, only it's less sensible if the name of the hostel which you bark at the driver as you drift off to sleep is a common name, and you only realise that you've been taken to a hotel on the other side of town half an hour and a €40 bill too late! Thankfully our driver turned off the meter and drove us back to Central Amsterdam for free (although we still had to pay the initial €40) but this could easily have been avoided by saving the name and ADRESS of our hotel in our phones and showing the taxi driver.

Your probably reading this thinking what a bunch of idiots (and you are right in doing so) but "the dam" finds a way of distracting you from the things that usually seem obvious. Other "tips" I could give you based on my experience is don't wander round the nunary giggling thinking it was a park, or to avoid German people intent on recreating the playground "pile on" in Players bar but I expect that anyone who goes will have their own unique stories of strange goings on with or without for warning! Overall it is a city you never forget, although you may not completely remember everything you do there!