#golden circle map in Iceland

[goldencircleday]

Explore the Majestic Golden Circle Map in Iceland

Embark on a journey to discover the natural wonders of the golden circle map in Iceland. This tour takes you through the breathtaking landscapes of Thingvellir National Park, the Geysir Geothermal Area, and the majestic Gullfoss Waterfall. Witness the powerful forces of nature with gushing geysers, crystal-clear lakes, and erupting geothermal pools. The Golden Circle map is a must-see destination for nature lovers and adventurers. Book your tour now and experience the wonders of Iceland's Golden Circle map, an unforgettable journey that will leave you breathless.

[hertziceland]

Ultimate Iceland Road Trip

Discover the ultimate landscapes and hidden gems with our comprehensive Iceland Road Trip! Whether you're chasing waterfalls, exploring glaciers, or soaking in hot springs, we've got you covered. To learn more, visit Hertz Iceland.

[mitmama]

Thingvellir & Reykjanes

Reykjavik | Snæfellsjökull National Park | Snæfellsnes | Thingvellir & Reykjanes

Thingvellir

We didn’t have time to do the whole Golden Circle this time, but did visit Thingvellir National Park again.  

- Öxarárfoss

This is a beautiful waterfall that’s slightly bluish in color, like the blue lagoon. 

- Continental Divide

Reykjanes Peninsula

On our way to the Keflavik Airport, we stopped by a few sites on Reykjanes Peninsula:

- Gígvatnsvatn (Green Lake)

- Krísuvíkurberg Cliffs - the drive is a bit long on dirt road, about half hour round trip.  Not sure if so worth it.

- Gunnuhver Hot Spring - quite a strong hot springs.. we could barely see the person in front of us while walking from the Parking Lot.  And a very strong sulfur smell that kids loudly protested. :)

Travel tips

We had a great time in Iceland.  Some parting thoughts: June/summer time is a great time to visit Iceland. It never got truly dark despite “nighttime” from 12:30-3:30am. This means long day and lots of time to get out and enjoy. Just be sure to bring eyeshades so you can sleep.  Last time we went during end of August and it got dark just like in America.  

Food is expensive, with burgers going for $30.  We stayed at vacation rentals so we can cook ourselves. Things to note, the most expensive item is often not the best item on the menu.  So be sure to read Google Maps reviews on what to order.

We drove a rental Tesla, not much than regular cars.  The car we got had basic self driving, making it easy to drive long distance.  Apparently the Model Y is the most popular car here, and u can find chargers in hotels or parking lots all over.  We even got 300 miles of free charging.

[icelandoffbeat]

Explore Iceland | Self-Drive Holidays, Road Trips, Private Tours, and Vacation Packages

Iceland Self-Drive Holidays: Freedom to Discover

Self-drive holidays in Iceland offer unparalleled freedom and flexibility, allowing you to explore at your own pace. With Iceland Offbeat’s expertly designed itineraries, you can navigate Iceland’s iconic Ring Road or venture off the beaten path to uncover hidden gems. Our self-drive packages include everything you need for a smooth trip: a reliable rental car, GPS, and detailed maps and guides.

Imagine cruising along the scenic coastal roads, stopping to marvel at waterfalls like Gullfoss and Skógafoss, or taking a detour to explore the black sand beaches of Vik. The flexibility of a self-drive holiday means you can spend more time at the attractions that interest you most. Our itineraries highlight must-see spots and offer suggestions for local experiences, ensuring you get the most out of your adventure.

Self-drive holidays are perfect for those who want to explore Iceland’s diverse landscapes at their own pace, from the geothermal wonders of the Golden Circle to the dramatic fjords of the Westfjords. With our comprehensive guides and support, you can confidently navigate Iceland’s roads and create your own unforgettable journey.

Iceland Road Trip Adventures: Structured Exploration

Iceland road trip adventures For travelers who prefer a more structured adventure, Iceland Offbeat’s road trip adventures provide a well-organized way to explore the country’s most breathtaking landscapes. These itineraries are designed to maximize your experience, offering a mix of iconic sights and off-the-beaten-path destinations.

Our road trip adventures cover various themes and regions, such as the South Coast, known for its stunning glaciers and waterfalls, or the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, often referred to as “Iceland in Miniature” due to its diverse landscapes. Each trip is meticulously planned to include key attractions, recommended stops, and activities, ensuring a comprehensive and enjoyable experience.

Road trip adventures are ideal for those who want a balance of guided structure and personal freedom. You’ll benefit from a thoughtfully curated itinerary while still having the flexibility to explore on your own. Our guides provide valuable insights into Iceland’s history, geology, and culture, enhancing your journey and helping you connect with the land.

Private Tours in Iceland: Personalized and Exclusive

Private tours in Iceland, Private tours offer a unique and personalized way to explore Iceland. With a private guide, you can enjoy a tailored experience that caters specifically to your interests and preferences. Whether you want to focus on nature, culture, or both, private tours provide the flexibility and exclusivity to create a bespoke adventure.

Private tours can include visits to well-known sites such as the Blue Lagoon and Þingvellir National Park, or more specialized experiences like glacier hikes and Northern Lights viewing. Your guide will provide expert knowledge and ensure that your tour is customized to suit your needs. This personalized approach allows you to delve deeper into Iceland’s wonders and enjoy a more intimate experience.

For travelers looking to avoid the crowds and have a more in-depth exploration, private tours offer the perfect solution. From luxury experiences to adventure-focused itineraries, our private tours are designed to provide exceptional service and unforgettable memories.

Iceland Vacation Packages: All-Inclusive Convenience

For a hassle-free and comprehensive experience, consider Iceland Offbeat’s vacation packages. Our packages include everything you need for a complete Icelandic adventure: accommodation, transportation, and a well-planned itinerary. This all-inclusive approach takes the stress out of planning and allows you to focus on enjoying your trip.

Vacation packages can be tailored to various interests and travel styles. Whether you’re seeking a relaxing getaway with spa visits and leisurely sightseeing or an action-packed adventure with glacier hikes and waterfall explorations, our packages offer a range of options to suit your preferences.

With a vacation package, you’ll enjoy the convenience of having all aspects of your trip arranged for you, from accommodation to activities. Our packages are designed to highlight Iceland’s best features, ensuring a memorable and enjoyable experience from start to finish.

Why Choose Iceland Offbeat?

At Iceland Offbeat, we are providing high-quality and authentic Icelandic experiences. Our focus on customer satisfaction, expert knowledge, and sustainable practices ensures that your trip will be both enjoyable and responsible. We pride ourselves on offering tailored solutions that meet your specific needs, whether you’re planning a self-drive holiday, a road trip adventure, a private tour, or an all-inclusive vacation package.

Our team of experts is passionate about Iceland and dedicated to helping you discover its true beauty. By choosing Iceland Offbeat, you’re not just booking a trip; you’re embarking on a journey crafted with care and attention to detail.

Conclusion

Iceland offers a wealth of experiences for every type of traveler, and Iceland Offbeat is here to help you make the most of your journey. Whether you choose a self-drive holiday, a road trip adventure, a private tour, or a vacation package, you can trust us to provide an exceptional and memorable Icelandic experience. Start planning your adventure today and let Iceland Offbeat guide you through one of the most stunning destinations on the planet.

[wildwestfjords]

Discover Iceland with Wild Westfjords: The Ultimate Road Trips, Adventure Tours, and Travel Packages

Embark on an unforgettable journey with Wild Westfjords, your gateway to Iceland’s breathtaking landscapes and thrilling adventures. Whether you’re dreaming of a self-guided Iceland road trip, craving the excitement of Iceland adventure tours, or seeking comprehensive Iceland travel packages, we have everything you need for an epic Iceland vacation.

Iceland Road Trips: Experience the freedom of the open road with our curated road trip itineraries. Discover the rugged beauty of the Westfjords, the majestic waterfalls of the Golden Circle, and the otherworldly landscapes of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Each route is designed to highlight Iceland’s natural wonders, ensuring you don’t miss a single iconic sight. Our detailed maps and insider tips make navigating Iceland’s scenic roads a breeze, allowing you to explore at your own pace.

Iceland Adventure Tours: For thrill-seekers, our adventure tours offer the perfect blend of excitement and exploration. From glacier hiking and ice climbing to whale watching and kayaking in crystal-clear fjords, our tours are designed to immerse you in Iceland’s wild beauty. Join our expert guides for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, whether it’s navigating the icy crevasses of Vatnajökull Glacier or witnessing the awe-inspiring power of Dettifoss, Europe’s most powerful waterfall.

Iceland Travel Packages: Simplify your travel planning with our comprehensive travel packages. We offer a variety of options tailored to your interests, including family-friendly itineraries, romantic getaways, and adventure-packed journeys. Our packages include accommodations, transportation, and curated activities, ensuring a seamless and stress-free vacation. Let us handle the details while you focus on creating memories.

Iceland Vacation Packages: Dive deeper into Iceland’s culture and natural beauty with our vacation packages. Explore charming fishing villages, relax in geothermal hot springs, and marvel at the midnight sun or Northern Lights. Whether you’re looking for a short escape or an extended adventure, our vacation packages are designed to provide an immersive Icelandic experience.

Choose Wild Westfjords for your Iceland road trips, adventure tours, travel packages, and vacation packages, and embark on a journey you’ll never forget.

[travelreportai]

A Beginner's Guide to Solo Travel: Tips and Destinations

Are you itching to break free from the mundane routine and embark on an adventure all by yourself? Solo travel can be one of the most rewarding experiences, offering freedom, self-discovery, and unforgettable memories. However, diving into solo travel can be daunting, especially if it's your first time. But fear not! With the right preparation and mindset, your solo journey can be an enriching and transformative experience. In this guide brought to you by Travel Report, we'll explore valuable tips and exciting destinations to kickstart your solo travel adventure.

 Tips for Solo Travelers

 1. Research Thoroughly:

Before jetting off on your solo adventure, arm yourself with knowledge about your destination. Research the local customs, language basics, currency, and any cultural norms to avoid unintended faux pas. Familiarize yourself with the local transportation system and map out your itinerary to make the most of your trip.

 2. Pack Light and Smart:

One golden rule of solo travel is to pack light. Opt for versatile clothing items that can be mixed and matched to suit various occasions. Don't forget essential items like a portable charger, universal adapter, and a reliable travel insurance policy. Remember, you'll be the one lugging around your luggage, so pack wisely.

 3. Stay Connected:

While solo travel is about independence, it's essential to stay connected with your loved ones back home. Share your itinerary with a trusted friend or family member and check in with them regularly. Consider investing in a local SIM card or an international data plan to stay connected online during your travels.

 4. Trust Your Instincts:

Your intuition is your best travel companion. Trust your gut instincts when navigating unfamiliar situations or interacting with strangers. If something feels off, remove yourself from the situation and seek help from local authorities or fellow travelers.

 5. Embrace Solo Dining:

One of the joys of solo travel is the opportunity to indulge in culinary delights without compromise. Don't hesitate to dine alone; instead, embrace the experience. Engage in conversations with locals or fellow solo travelers and savor the flavors of your destination.

 6. Be Open to New Experiences:

Solo travel is all about stepping out of your comfort zone and embracing the unknown. Be open to spontaneous adventures, whether it's trying exotic street food or joining a local cultural festival. Some of the best travel memories are made when you least expect them.

 7. Practice Self-Care:

Amidst the excitement of exploring new destinations, don't forget to prioritize self-care. Take breaks when needed, stay hydrated, and get enough rest to recharge for the next adventure. Remember, solo travel is as much about self-discovery as it is about exploration.

 Exciting Destinations for Solo Travelers

 1. Kyoto, Japan:

Immerse yourself in the rich history and serene beauty of Kyoto, Japan's cultural heart. Explore ancient temples, stroll through picturesque bamboo forests, and indulge in traditional tea ceremonies. With its safe and efficient public transportation system, Kyoto is an ideal destination for solo travelers seeking tranquility and spiritual rejuvenation.

 2. Lisbon, Portugal:

Experience the vibrant charm of Lisbon, Portugal's coastal capital known for its colorful streets, historic landmarks, and delectable cuisine. Lose yourself in the maze-like alleys of Alfama, soak up panoramic views from São Jorge Castle, and savor pastéis de nata at a local bakery. With its warm hospitality and lively atmosphere, Lisbon welcomes solo travelers with open arms.

 3. Reykjavik, Iceland:

Embark on an otherworldly adventure in Reykjavik, Iceland's capital city surrounded by dramatic landscapes of volcanoes, glaciers, and geothermal springs. Discover the wonders of the Golden Circle, chase the Northern Lights, and unwind in the healing waters of the Blue Lagoon. With its small-town charm and emphasis on sustainability, Reykjavik offers solo travelers a unique blend of adventure and relaxation.

 4. Bangkok, Thailand:

Dive into the bustling metropolis of Bangkok, Thailand's vibrant capital teeming with energy, culture, and street food galore. Explore ornate temples, navigate bustling markets, and sample exotic flavors at every turn. Whether you're seeking spiritual enlightenment or culinary delights, Bangkok promises solo travelers an unforgettable journey into the heart of Southeast Asia.

 5. Queenstown, New Zealand:

Embrace adventure in Queenstown, New Zealand's adventure capital nestled amidst the stunning landscapes of the Southern Alps. From bungee jumping and skydiving to hiking and wine tasting, Queenstown offers endless opportunities for solo travelers to push their limits and embrace the thrill of the unknown. With its friendly locals and breathtaking scenery, Queenstown is a playground for solo adventurers seeking adrenaline-fueled experiences.

 Conclusion

Embarking on a solo travel adventure is a leap into the unknown, but with the right preparation and mindset, it can be a life-changing experience. Remember to research your destination, pack light, and trust your instincts along the way. From the tranquil streets of Kyoto to the vibrant alleys of Lisbon, the world is yours to explore as a solo traveler. So pack your bags, step out of your comfort zone, and let the journey begin. Safe travels!

As you plan your solo adventure, let Travel Report be your trusted companion, providing valuable insights and inspiration for your travels around the globe. Happy adventuring!

[konradtours]

Golden Circle Island Tours and Travel Tips: Making the Most of Your Icelandic Adventure

The well-known Icelandic Golden Circle Island path leads you to some of the nation's most famous and magnificent natural features. The Golden Circle offers it everything, from gushing waterfalls to bubbling geysers and historical buildings. This blog offers suggestions and helpful travel advice to make the most of your trip to these iconic Icelandic sights, whether you're going to take a guided tour or set off on a self-driving excursion.

Overview of The Golden Circle

Let's take a minute to clarify what the Golden Circle entails before moving on to the advice:

Thingvellir National Park is a fascinating geological as well as historically significant UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can see the steady sliding away of the tectonic plates of North America and Eurasia there.

The name "geyser" was first used at the Geysir Geothermal Area. You may gaze in awe at the striking Strokkur geyser as it erupts with vapour and boiling water.

Gullfoss Waterfall: Also referred to as the "Golden Falls," this two-tiered waterfall makes a stunning descent into a canyon. It is a genuine work of nature.

Which is Better for You: Self-Driving vs. Guided Tours?

Guided Tours 

Pros:

Convenience: Easygoing guided tours are available. Navigation and trip planning are not your concerns.

Local Perspectives: Well-informed tour guides may share intriguing details about the locations, history, and culture.

Safety: Transportation is frequently provided, and tours are outfitted to withstand varying weather conditions.

Cons:

Limited Flexibility: Because guided tours adhere to a predetermined timetable, you have less control over how much time you spend at each location.

Crowds: During the busiest travel seasons, popular tours may be packed.

Self-Driving 

Pros:

Flexibility: When you drive alone, you may choose your own pace. You may linger longer at your favourite locations while avoiding others.

Exploration: By going off the usual route, you can find secret treasures.

Budget-Friendly: Self-driving may be more economical depending on your decisions.

Cons:

Responsibility: Navigation, parking, and observing local traffic rules are your responsibility.

Limited Information: There won't be a guidebook that goes into great detail about the places.

Tips for Taking Guided Tours

Here are some suggestions to get the most out of your guided tour experience:

Book Early: Popular trips tend to fill up fast, so it's best to reserve your Golden Circle tour early, particularly during the busy travel season.

Dress for the Weather: Iceland's weather is unpredictable, so dress appropriately. Wear layers, and water-resistant attire, and don't forget to wear strong, waterproof footwear.

Bring the necessities: Don't forget to pack your sunglasses, sunscreen, and reusable water bottle. Although many excursions include food, it's a good idea to bring your own.

Be On Time: Tours keep to a strict schedule. Be on time for the meeting location to prevent delays for both you and the other attendees.

Respect the Environment: Observe the "Leave No Trace" guidelines to respect the environment. Keep to the established routes and don't bother the wildlife.

Advice for Self-Driving Travel

Here are some suggestions to make your self-driving experience in the Golden Circle go smoothly:

Rent a Reliable car: Opt for an all-wheel-drive or 4x4 car, particularly if you're travelling in the winter when the roads may be slippery.

Navigation Tools: Use a smartphone navigation app or GPS to navigate your way about. Make careful to download offline maps in case of low connectivity.

Check Road Conditions: Before leaving, check the weather and the road conditions. Always be ready because Iceland's weather may be erratic.

Fill Up: Since there might not be many gas stations in certain places, keep your tank full.

Take Your Time: The Golden Circle is supposed to be enjoyed at your own speed, so take your time. Take your time, enjoy each stop, and take in the breathtaking scenery.

Pack food and Plenty of Water: There might not be restaurants at every location, so pack food and plenty of water.

Stay Safe: Tell someone about your trip intentions, especially if you're going to a distant place.

General Golden Circle Advice

Whatever method you use to tour the Golden Circle, the following basic advice will improve your experience:

Respect the Environment: Iceland's natural beauty should be respected since it is vulnerable. Avoid trash, stick to the designated trails, and be careful not to spook any wildlife.

Learn About the Sites: Spend some time reading about the significance and history of each location. Your level of appreciation will increase.

Photography: The Golden Circle is a photographer's paradise. Make use of the natural light, especially during the "golden hours" just before and after dawn and sunset. Don't forget your camera.

Interaction: Don't be shy about interacting with the populace. They can provide insightful opinions and suggestions.

Safety first: Exercise caution while near natural landmarks like waterfalls and geysers. Keep an eye out for warnings and regulations.

Opening Hours: Check the opening times of visitor centres, museums, and other establishments. Seasonal changes may exist in some places.

Travel Insurance: Consider purchasing travel insurance that includes coverage for unforeseen circumstances like trip delays or cancellations.

Discovering Iceland's natural marvels and cultural legacy through exploration of the Golden Circle island is a fantastic trip. These hints and suggestions will enable you to get the most out of your trip, whether you decide to take a guided tour or elect to drive alone. Always remember to appreciate each location's beauty, to be safe, and to make lifelong memories of your trip to Iceland along this captivating path. Konrad Tours & Transfers will arrange a transfer for a 2-hour stop at Blue Lagoon, Secret Lagoon, or Fontana Lakefront Spa for an extra fee of USD 55. It is necessary to make reservations in advance because entrance is not included.

[kat13wh1t3]

Icelands natural beauty you must see

PREVISIT.

Iceland is known for the northern lights, the thick snow but what is underneath all of that? 

Iceland is one of the most sustainable countries in the world and has many places to visit that are sustainable to the environment and shows the natural beauty’s that Iceland have to offer. They use lots of locally sourced foods and incorporate it in many dishes served in the restaurants. Some attractions that peaked my personal interest are the blue lagoon, the golden circle, and the different types of food places they have. One of Iceland’s biggest traits they use to their advantage is they use the natural surroundings to create tourism such as the blue lagoon. These places are amazing to visit but what is underneath all that what is hidden in Iceland that not many tourists visit?  

Many things attract tourist and one of the main things is food. Iceland take pride in their traditional foods. The biggest known must try is the Icelandic fish and Hákarl which is a shark. Many people want to try Hákarl as it isn’t something that is available or legal in some countries. Many tourists like to try new things and diverse in new cultures, by doing so it allows people to try new things. Some food places that stand out to me are the old Icelandic restaurant and forrettabarinn these are traditional Icelandic restaurant. These restaurants are authentic Icelandic restaurants which are family run and are locally sourced. 

Another thing that is unique Iceland’s museums they have dotted about in Iceland such as the settlement museum and the whales of Iceland museum and the geothermal plant exhibition. These museums show lots of different sides of Iceland that not many people look too as many only see the blue lagoon and snow and the northern lights as the attractions when there is so much more. The geothermal plant exhibition “offers guide tours. Multimedia installations, and presentations on geothermal activity” (guide to icleand,2023) the geothermal plant exhibition shows how Iceland uses there natural resources to attract tourists and how the environment can be used to update and make tourist more knowledge able and hopefully make a difference in their input to global warming, by making tourist knowledge they may become more aware of how they can still visit places in a positive way. 

Some of the attractions in Iceland that peaked my interest where there Geotourism parks they have. Geotourism is defined by national geographic as tourism that sustains or enhances the distinctive geographical character of a place, Iceland uses this to its advantage and uses it to entice tourist. Some of the natural Geotourism sites that should be visited are giantess cave, gunnuhver hot springs and brimketill lava rock pool. These sites show different types of natural tourism sites and food places near by and some of the more local places to eat and gives a variety of places to eat at. The map below shows some sites that would be perfect for a Geotourism to visit to and what they can explore whilst in Iceland 

The map shows a guide of where is suggested is good to eat and visit based on personal research, it shows many of the geotourist sites that people want to visit and by putting in to map form it allows people to see where they would be visiting. They are also some hotels on there all places have a description to knowledge each tourist too. The description in each place on the map allows people to have some understanding of the place and the photos also help support this for more visual people. 

VISITING ICELAND.

My daily experience began with breakfast everyday supplied by the hotel which allowed us to try some of the Icelandic cheeses etc. Each day was an early start with long days jam packed with tour guided trips on the golden circle, blue lagoon, and black beach trip. 

The first day began and we went on the golden circle trip visiting the geysir, gullfoss, pingvellir. We started at the pingvellir which is a geological treasure for Iceland. It is where “the tectonic plates drift apart, the crevasses being visible in Almannagjá canyon as well as in Silfra, where it is possible to dive and snorkel between the continents.”(visiticeland,2023) when walking around this attraction it allowed you to see it from different viewpoints, the signage wasn’t that great at the pingvellir as when looking we stood at the main bridge and got photos and only realised there was more to offer when following the another group. The first tour guide we had been very interactive and made it hard to want to listen whilst on this trip. 

The second day we went to the blue lagoon which was dreamlike day as the blue lagoon just seemed heavenly and just unreal. The water was like it was unrealistic blue, but it was very much realistic and beautiful. When in the blue lagoon I was unaware that before entering you have to shower before entering the lagoon and use there shampoo and body wash and you have to leave the conditioner in your hair when entering the lagoon which baffled me so I did some research and saw pictures of people hair that have submerged it in the water and it becomes so damaged so the conditioner is like a barrier between them. When we got into the blue lagoon and was queuing up to enter and was offered some lip balm as a tester, which was very nice and definitely enticed some of the people to go buy more of this lip balm. We picked a package where it allowed us to have a complimentary drink and face mask when in blue lagoon. So, we entered the blue lagoon and thought we would look around all of it before getting our complimentary drink and face mask, we found the saunas and the restricted areas and my personal favourite part of it was the quiet zone where no phones and talking was allowed it was so soothing and relaxing. The technology is quite good there and as we entered with a grey wristband on which you just tapped on the machines when collecting your drink and face mask. We have the option of any drink we wanted; I choose the sparkling wine which was very refreshing in the lagoon. Then I went to collect my face mask and they had mirror hidden within the rocks so you could apply your face masks. The only thing that was hard for me in the blue lagoon is that it is so hot that we were given two hours in the lagoon and that was too much time and I personally found myself getting too hot so we eft earlier but instead we went and got some food within the blue lagoon, we also had a look round the shops at what they had to offer. That night we were meant to go on the northern lights hunt but due to weather conditions it was cancelled as there was no way of seeing it and it would have been a waste of our time, so they delayed it to the following night, but unfortunately the weather didn’t improve the following night and we still didn’t get to see it on the northern light hunt. But I was lucky enough to get to see it on the first night when arriving which was the one thing I wanted to see. 

Then the next day I visited the black beach trip which we also got to see lots of waterfalls on the way there and back. One of my favourite places that I visited was skogafoss which was this huge waterfall which had a double rainbow within it and it was just breath taking. We walked up almost 500 steps so in total we did 1000 steps up and down the waterfall. It is definitely not easy and not for people who have a fear of heights. Our tour guide allowed on this day allowed us to go off and explore but also participated in the tour she walked up all the steps back and down multiple times encouraging our group to go to the top and sure enough I’m glad I followed and did the walk as it was so beautiful, and it is one of my favourite photos I’ve taken. Then following that amazing view, we got to the black beach where I was taken back by how literally it is a black beach, our tour guide told us about the movies filmed on the beach such as game of thrones, Thor the dark world etc. The one of the most iconic movies filmed there is a Bollywood movie called Diwale with the iconic red dress and surprisingly when we visited this site, we saw people dressed up in the same dresses etc. The tour guide educated us to show us the dangers of the black beach and was truly honest with us, she told us what happened to people here and how dangerous the sea is here and how if it catches you, it is life threating. With this information we were very cautious of our surroundings. We then progressed to view the glaciers which where phenomal and it was something I had never seen or realised the beauty of seeing till I saw them. The toru guide we had she took us t the viewpoint and then showed us the way tht they take to go and climb the glaciers. She showed also took us right down to the bottom of the frozen lagoon next the glaciers where you had the perfect view of the glaciers over this shiny icey lagoon. To finish the day off we viewed another waterfall where we are unfortunately due to the weather conditions the ground was safe enough as this waterfall on a good dry day would allow you to go behind the water fall but due to safety reason we couldn’t venture that far. Although my only improvement with this would be that tourist don’t follow these signs and it is ruining the surroundings and damaging them. There should be someone to enforce them and make sure people aren’t going in areas that aren’t safe. 

Then to finish the whole field trip off we had a day to do what we wanted whilst we waited for our flights, so we took a walk into Reykjavik and went for some food at this laundromat café where the café quite literal was within a laundromat which was very cool and unique. We went walking down some streets where we saw all the graffiti and how shops encourage it and want graffiti to stand out and the people that have done these art piece on building are very talented. Iceland also is an open community they have a street in the town centre that is called rainbow road, With LGBTQ2+ bars and LGBTQ2+ accepting shops etc which was quite nice as someone part of the community to feel accepted instead of worrying whilst on holiday. Then the rest of day we wandered round found loads of little museums such as the museum of punk rock which is in a old school public restroom, then there was the sex museum which was I little door right next to H&M, they were just doted about in random little locations. 

To collect my visit to Iceland here is a video collection of Iceland and my experience and what I saw and what you could see if you visit Iceland. It truly was an amazing visit that I’m so glad I had the opportunity to take part in. 

POST VISIT EVALUATION.

When visiting Iceland I was shocked at how much of their tourist attractions are natural such as all the waterfalls and the black beach which was surreal but the tour guides we had gave us some knowledge on these places that I never would of known or even looked into if it wasn’t for them such as the fact that may people visit the black beach due to a movie that was filmed there and many people dress in bright colours to get photos there just like the film. But the black beach isn’t just a nice clam little beach like the ones in England, it is actually very dangerous there as people have died due to the waves of the sea as it is very dangerous, as “there are strong undercurrents and powerful waves that make it impossible to reach shore again once wade out into the water”(gocampers,2023) the study I researched into after visiting Iceland was how did this death happen, and I found that even with all the signage around saying not to swim in the sea a husband and wife, both of which were tourist, enter the sea the waves dragged both of them further out to sea luckly other tourist helped and where able to get the wife out of the water but unfortunately the man wasn’t able to get out of the sea. This really opened my eyes to the fact of being aware of my surrounding when visiting a place and that it is key to research where you are going and listen to your tour guide as they say things for your safety. 

When visiting Iceland, I noticed that they were huge on sustainability and protect their island, at no point on this field trip did I see litter on the floor, the Icelandic truly preserve all there surrounding not just the tourist attractions. During our stay in Iceland, I had little concerns on their sustainability but if anything, it made me realise how little we do and has pushed me to be more sustainable and environmentally aware. There was no second thought on littering everyone always too their rubbish, it was rare you saw anyone smoking and if you did nine times out of ten it was a tourist. This supported the fact of Iceland, and the Icelandic people are conscious of the impact they were making on the world. It was quite amazing how the tourist followed the locals in the sense of being sustainable. 

Some of the visitor management techniques used at the attraction are they are well staffed within the buildings but in Iceland most places where sign posted and well laid out so you could just go wander and find things on your own terms which was nice it gives you the chance to take more time on set things to understand them if needed. The sign postage was good, but many tourists noticed it and didn’t listen as they wanted to see things that were cut off in set areas due to safety reasons. For example, of the waterfalls is usually viewable behind it and unfortunately when we went the weather had made the walkways behind it unsafe and slippery so as a caution, they have closed the area behind it but tourists still climbed over the gates and went behind it. This is quite hard to monitor as there is security or staffing at the waterfalls to stop people from going behind it as this will damage the infrastructure more and will wear that walkway away as it gets wet any way from the water and will be run down by tourist not listening to the signage. 

 A thing that surprised me when in Iceland is that most people speak English all the tour guides spoke English many of the locals did which was nicer to be able to communicate but also fulfilled my unrealistic views that Iceland was this untouched place. But even though I was wrong, and it isn’t an untouched place it is a very good community to be a part of as everyone helped each other, and all communicated. When at the black beach everyone was looking out for each other as it’s a dangerous but beautiful place to visit. The positive of everyone knowing English is you overheard other tour guides that may have different information and seeing how they did things different. It also allowed you to see why different people was visiting different areas e.g., some did it for social media picture, but others did it for the culture etc. 

To a certain extent my expectations did differ from reality, I expected heaps of snow and to be wrapped up in a big coat with my hat scarf and gloves on but instead I just needed a jumper and a body warmer. Also, I knew that to see the northern lights it would be just based on luck, but the effects of social media made me not even aware that I was looking at the northern lights and this really hit me that lots of photos are edited and that some things are distorted that much it’s not even noticed by the people who have never seen it before. It’s just made me notice that most things we see now a days are not authentic and original but edited and fake. This doesn’t mean that the northern lights weren’t cool but they aren’t as bright and colourful as most see online, they are quite hard to see actually, as the first time I saw them was on the bus when leaving the airport on the way to the hotel and then I saw them once again once I had checked into the hotel and came back down stairs and I was stood there by myself and it was quiet a surreal moment of seeing the dancing lights as  call them. Unfortunately, when we went there wasn’t any snow and it’s kind of ruined my expectations as you think of Iceland as this snowy cold place. But it allowed us to see all the attractions as they naturally would be underneath the snow. 

The transportation links we personally didn’t really use when over there as we did many toured guided but on the toured guides they were very on schedule and didn’t like being late it was very organised. The transport links I did see where many people used electric scooters to get around they are scattered all around the city centres and they are constantly being used not just by tourist though many locals were seen using them to get to the bus stops for school etc. 

The tourist infrastructure was very well lay out once you were in city centre of although it is a bit confusing trying to get into the town centre as there is lots of little roads that look very similar, and this gets a bit confusing as to which street to turn down. But once inside the town centre it is easy to get your bearings everything is central and all the icon things such as the church and the marina are easy to find as they are both huge buildings and you can see them for the town centre making it easy to find places. They have food places on every corner and shops in between. The only things to be cautious of is the pricing as Iceland isn’t a cheap holiday it is very expensive and can cost a lot. For example, for three burritos it cost me sixty pounds which is very expensive but this in Iceland is normal. Don’t be surprised if the traditional foods cost more as its of bigger demand everyone wants to try it, so the cost is even higher. But you can do Iceland in a cheaper way for example there’s lots of supermarkets where you can buy traditional foods from, but you won’t get the same service you would in these authentic restaurants as you aren’t just paying for the food you are paying for the experience too. 

The customer service within the Iceland is very different to say in England for example when you are shopping people come and ask if you need any help or if they can assist you at no point did this happen in Iceland, but it was quite refreshing as it meant you could look at each thing instead of being pestered. 

But overall Iceland is a beautiful country and uses its natural beauty to its advantage, its continuously impressed me through my trip to Iceland and I truly think everyone should visit at least once in their life and experience Iceland to its fullest. There is so much to see that I didn’t get to see whilst there for example all their national parks and the geothermal plants that I would love to see. Iceland is a place to visit and should be visited but respected too. Tourists need to be more knowledgeable and open to listening and following the instructions and signage left for them.

Refernces 

Guided tours (2023) The geothermal energy exhibition travel guide. Available at: https://guidetoiceland.is/travel-iceland/drive/the-geothermal-energy-exhibition Accessed on: 15/04/2023

Iceland Monitor (2022) A fatal accident at reynisfjara black beach. Available at: https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/nature_and_travel/2022/06/13/a_fatal_accident_at_reynisfjara_black_beach/Accessed on: 15/04/2023

[aprillikesthings]

My itinerary is NUTS

I think I have one reservation left to make (the city pass) and then I don't have any Iceland expenses until I'm literally there?

OKAY.

This is all subject to cancellation For Obvious Reasons:

Thursday, September 9: Fly in just after 6am (which my body will think is 11pm...), buy snacks and possibly alcohol at the duty-free, take bus to Blue Lagoon, stay as long as I like (or until I get hungry--their food is expensive even for Iceland), take bus rest of the way into Reykjavik. Drop off suitcase at my guesthouse if they let me. Find and eat food. Buy some groceries (at Vegan búðin if I can) and/or yarn, depending on timing. (Guesthouse check-in is 3pm.) My plans are loose after that depending on how early I realize I feel like I've been run over, but general shopping-as-sight-seeing seems likely. I'm hoping to make it to like, 9pm before passing out. Jet lag, PMS, and lack of sleep vs. my body always perking up in the evening: who will win?!

Friday: Gonna have a city pass that gets me free entry into a bunch of museums plus bus fare. I need to look up the museum list on a map; I know there's some I really want to see like the open-air museum, and some that aren't a priority. I think it also gets me up the elevator to the top of Hallgrímskirkja? (Note to self to look up the hours of things; a lot of museums have pretty short hours.)

Saturday: Daytime plans are loose. Might see some things that the museum pass doesn't cover, like The Phallological Museum. (Edit: need to rent trekking poles!) That evening I have a reservation for a bus/hike to the volcano, though. :D :D :D (Here's hoping the weather cooperates. If the lava gives us a good show--it's been super off-and-on--that's a nice bonus!)

Sunday: Depending on soreness/exhaustion level, and how shy I'm feeling, go to church at Hallgrímskirkja, despite the service being in Icelandic. (They do have an English-language service once a month, but not while I'm there.) Go to the big Olympic pool with the twisty slide I remember from when I was a kid, maybe?

(The guy who does most of the youtube videos for Grapevine has a walking tour, but it's a little pricey. I'd get to meet his dog Polly, though!)

That's the afternoon/evening I have tickets to see Björk at Harpa, though; assuming it's not postponed. I might be too busy vibrating in excitement to do anything lolol.

Monday: bus tour along the South coast! Pretty beaches! At least one waterfall! A glacier? I forget what else is on the list tbh but it's a like, 9-hour trip, phew.

Tuesday: get my rapid-antigen covid test required to get on the plane home. Otherwise a chill day. Go swimming if I didn't on Sunday. Maybe even if I did, there's certainly enough pools, lol.

Wednesday: Golden Circle bus tour (Þingvellir, Gullfoss, the geothermal park with the geysir Strokkur). It also stops at a farm that's famous for ice cream made from the milk of the cows that live there, which is pointless for me (who knows, maybe they'll have fruit sorbet?), but going by pictures and reviews you also get to pet Icelandic sheep and horses and cows, which is the real reason I picked the tour that included the farm, lol.

Thursday: Take city bus to Keflavik, get off near where my old house was (I've looked, there's a stop really close by), walk around awkwardly with a wheely suitcase for ...I think I have two hours? before getting back on that bus to take it the rest of the way to the airport four hours before my flight leaves because right now coming and going takes longer than usual due to having to present the negative covid test. Ponder buying Brennivín despite the fact that I rarely drink anymore. I will probably buy some candy including Opal licorice, though. Possibly this is when I fill my suitcase with enough presents for people that I have to check the damn thing lol.

Looser things to fit in around other plans: walking or bicycling along the waterfront area, including getting a selfie with The Sun Voyager (a big metal sculpture thing). Taking the ferry to Videy island to walk around and enjoy the views. Lazily perusing a bookstore's English section. Drinking tea or coffee in a cafe while knitting or reading. Eating too many baked goods and drinking far too much coffee.

I have a list of people I plan to send postcards to, which reminds me I need to text some people for addresses. (The list is admittedly short, in part because mailing postcards to the states from Iceland is like $2 a pop, and sending it from Iceland is like half the point.)

There's also an assortment of goofy tourist-trap types of things like Perlan (museum-y stuff), and FlyOver Iceland (which is basically a high-tech immersive movie). There's a place that dresses you up like a Viking and takes professional photos for $100 that, honestly, looks dorky but fun. I think there's one that replicates the aurora, as well?

Speaking of which: there's already been some pretty strong aurora activity this year, so if there's a night with an aurora and decent weather, there's tour companies that either drive you to a more remote location or put you on a boat to see it without the light pollution of the city.

My original plans included going out dancing/drinking one night--the bar scene in Reykjavik is notorious, and I wanted to at least stop in at Kiki Queer Bar for a bit. But the recent spike in cases has been attributed to people (including locals) going to bars/clubs, where it's impossible to social distance and people have to yell to talk to each other and nobody is wearing masks.

In general my plan is to eat the free cold breakfast at the guesthouse every morning, eat less-expensive grab'n'go meals or ones I make at the guesthouse when I can, and limit myself to an average of one (1) meal in a restaurant most days. Partially because food in Iceland is just expensive. Partially to limit my exposure. (Outdoor dining is limited during a time of year that's likely to be 50f with wind and/or rain, okay.)

I fully expect that I'm going to be more thorough/paranoid about mask-wearing than the locals. I know the tour buses all require and enforce mask-wearing, and IIRC the ones I reserved are all smaller groups (less than 20). But I'm already at way more risk than a lot of tourists who rent cars/campervans and only see people at waterfalls and campgrounds and gas stations.

What happens if I test positive before I leave? I get to quarantine in a non-fancy hotel in Iceland for ten days on their dime. They even bring food to your door. This is obviously not ideal for many reasons, especially if I do actually feel ill, so yeah. Gonna be careful about the masking etc. while I'm there.

[goldencircleday]

Explore the Majestic Golden Circle Map in Iceland

Embark on a journey to discover the natural wonders of the golden circle map in Iceland. This tour takes you through the breathtaking landscapes of Thingvellir National Park, the Geysir Geothermal Area, and the majestic Gullfoss Waterfall. Witness the powerful forces of nature with gushing geysers, crystal-clear lakes, and erupting geothermal pools. The Golden Circle map is a must-see destination for nature lovers and adventurers. Book your tour now and experience the wonders of Iceland's Golden Circle map, an unforgettable journey that will leave you breathless.

[hockeylvr59]

Secret Love Part 10 || Cale Makar

Requested: [ ] yes [x] no

Authors Note: This is an important and super fluffy chapter. It’s taking me a bit longer to write now that school is back so updates will be slower but I am obsessed with sharing this story with you guys and all of the feedback means the world to me. A photoset of all of the sightseeing locations will be posted immediately following this update and as always will be tagged ‘038′

Warnings: cursing

Word Count: 3,695

~~~~

You started your day - for the second time - when Cale’s thumb brushed over your cheek and his lips ghosted over yours. As your eyes cracked open, you realized he was standing beside the bed already fully dressed. 

“Time to get up sunshine...we have a busy day of exploring ahead of us.” He chuckled as you groaned, stretching lazily as your brain struggled to wake up. A glance at your phone revealed that it was 5:45 in the morning, not even two hours since you fell back asleep. “Get up and get dressed and we can go get coffee and breakfast.” Cale lured, smiling so brightly that you wanted to smack it right off of his face. 

Fifteen minutes later, you were pulling on socks and a pair of hiking sneakers while Cale finished throwing things into the backpack he’d brought as a carry-on. You had already pulled on the pair of leggings, t-shirt, and fleece that Cale had laid out for you and had quickly fixed your hair adding a combo foundation/sunscreen to your face so that you didn’t look entirely dead. 

Sliding out of the hotel room, you stopped down at the continental breakfast for sustenance and coffee. Not long after that, you were sliding back into the rental vehicle as Cale tossed the bag in the backseat and loaded up an address into his phone’s GPS. 

“So can I ask where we’re going?” You inquired, yawning as you looked over at your boyfriend. 

“We’re doing the Golden Circle today...but starting with a little bit of a detour first.” Despite your look to continue, Cale didn’t add anything else to that. Instead, he handed you his phone with Spotify open so that you could pick the music for the trip. 

For the next 45 minutes, you jammed out while looking out the window as the views of Iceland passed by. It was too early to have any form of intelligent conversation but as always the silence was comfortable. Eventually, Cale pulled into a parking lot and climbed out of the car, grabbing the backpack from the backseat. 

“You ready for a hike?” He questioned, lacing his fingers through yours. 

“Let’s do it.” You agreed, hoping your body was prepared for what you were about to put it through. It was a brisk, 14 degrees Celsius/57 degrees Fahrenheit outside but with your layered clothing it was comfortable. 

The start of the hike was relatively flat and continued a good distance before you descended down the hillside and through a stone archway. Continuing your descent you reached a river, one you evidently had to cross to continue. Slipping off your shoes and socks, you rolled your pants up. With Cale behind you, you grabbed onto the guidewire and started making your way across the rocks until you reached a log halfway across. Reaching the other side of the swiftly flowing river, you threw your shoe laden hands up in the air in triumph. 

“That was...an experience.” You mused, taking a towel Cale offered to dry off your feet before sliding back into more proper footwear. 

“Now comes the hard part....up.” Cale declared, taking the towel from you to dry off his own feet. 

“I was afraid you were going to say that.” You joked, stretching to peck his lips. “Just...don’t let me fall.” You pleaded lightly. 

“You’re not going anywhere,” Cale promised. “And the view will be worth it.” 

Sharing sips from the bottle of water Cale had brought, you started the long ascent. Holding the ropes as you climbed, you made slow but steady progress. Without you saying a word about it, Cale slowed down his pace when you needed him to and he reached out a hand to help when the next step was just a little too far or too high. Climbing over some particularly high rocks, Cale had one hand in yours while his other guided you up by your waist, and you stumbled half a step, your chest pressing against his as a anxious giggle spilled from your throat. 

By the time you reached the first marker point you were in desperate need of more water and eagerly took the bottle as Cale pulled it out of the backpack. It was only after you had taken a handful of sips that you actually looked at where you were. Off in the distance was a magnificent waterfall, steep cliffs surrounding it on either side. In the other direction, you could see all the way out to the ocean, just miles and miles of the most stunning terrain. It was absolutely breathtaking and already so worth the burn in your quads you were going to be feeling for days. 

As you turned back to stare at the waterfall again, Cale’s arms slipped around your waist and he stood pressed against your back, his chin resting on top of your head. 

“What do you think?” He murmured. 

“It’s incredible.” You whispered, relaxing back against him. 

“I knew you’d like it.” Cale added, his breaths long and deep, just taking it all in. 

As you stood wrapped in Cale’s arms, in wonder of how a place like this could exist, you felt a wave of emotion crash over you, hitting you as hard as the water flowing over the falls hit the rocks below. 

You were in love with him. 

A life with him, one full of adventure and wonder. Knowing he was the one person who knew you better than yourself, knowing he would always be there to support you physically and emotionally. This was all you could ever ask for, could ever want.

You’d loved him from the moment you first held him 21 years ago. That love had changed in substance as you went from playing house with Cale as your partner in crime and Taylor as your baby to biting your nails trying to quell your nerves as you watched him skate in his first collegiate hockey game. Now, that love was different still: deeper, stronger, all-consuming, intimate. You were learning every little piece of him and he was learning the same about you. 

It was too soon to say the words aloud, but you could no longer deny it in your own mind. You didn’t just love your best friend, you were head over heels in love with him. 

Twisting in his arms, you wrapped an arm around his neck, pulling him down into a soft kiss. Just because you weren’t ready to say it didn’t mean you couldn’t express it through your actions. 

You didn’t even realize that Cale had messed around with his phone to take a picture until you had pulled away, cheeks warm from both the exertion and the kiss. It was a stunning photo, one you were itching to make your home screen, but one that certainly was going in the file not to be seen by your parents. Cale took a few more pictures before the two of you continued to climb. 

When you reached the top of the falls, you took even more pictures, sitting down by the side of the river to munch on one of the protein bars Cale had packed. After a few more minutes rest, Cale pulled you back to your feet and the two of you turned around to retrace your steps all the way back down, across the river once more, and then up to the car. 

Your hike had taken you the entire morning, but had been so worth it. Your epiphany aside, spending time with Cale like this was something you had always treasured but that had been in short supply as the two of you got older. So between the bonding time and getting to take in all of the incredible views you’d just witnessed, you were certainly feeling blessed even if you were already sore.

 Climbing back in the car, you insisted Cale find somewhere with a bathroom before your next stop of the day. It hadn’t bothered you while you were moving but with draining an entire bottle of water while hiking and the constant sound of water in your ears all day...you really needed to pee. Cale had laughed at you, but complied willingly, pulling up his phone to find someplace for the two of you to stop. 

After emptying your bladder and downing another protein bar, you settled in for the short drive to Þingvellir National Park. Having pulled out Cale’s map with the Golden Circle route, you now had some idea of at least the general locations you were going to see. 

As Cale pulled the car into a parking lot, you got a glimpse of what made this place so special. But it wasn’t until you had gotten out and actually started walking around that you realized how truly impressive it was. This was one of the few locations globally where you could actually see the tectonic plates. Jagged rocks thrust out of the landscape appearing on either side of you as you tugged Cale along the path. It was sights like this that made you realize how big and powerful nature was and just how small you were as humans in comparison. 

Having already seen one incredible waterfall today, you decided to forgo the walk to see the one here in the park and instead just took a couple of photos before heading back to the car to continue on to the next stop of your journey. 

Back in the car, you once again took over Cale’s phone for music, his spotify blasting as you drove through Iceland with the windows down, enjoying the beautiful afternoon. Singing along to the music, you kicked your feet up and leaned against your door, partly watching your surroundings and partly watching your boyfriend. He’d relaxed considerably behind the wheel since yesterday and you’d never noticed how sexy he looked while driving before. It wasn’t something you could explain, it was just something that hit you straight in the gut. 

Your next stop was to see Geysir, the Icelandic version of Old Faithful. The strong smell of sulfur filled the air and steam rose from the vents and pools of bubbling water in the ground. 

“We don’t have to stick around here long.” Cale insisted, his hand rubbing over your lower back as you headed toward the largest geyser in the park. Like clockwork, the geyser erupts every six minutes, so it wasn’t too much of a wait to see it before heading back to the car. 

Reaching for the passenger door, you were stopped when Cale grabbed your wrist and tugged your body closer to his. 

“Are you okay?” He questioned, palm cupping your cheek. 

“Yeah Cale I’m good.” You assured him. “It’s just not the most pleasant scent.” Kissing him softly, you brushed your nose against his for a moment before settling back onto your heels. “Now let’s get out of here.” It didn’t escape your notice, that once again Cale was checking on you, making sure that you were always okay. The way he cared for those around him was one of the things you loved most about him. 

It was a really short, ten-minute car ride to the next stop of the day. Though you had skipped the small waterfall at Þingvellir National Park, Gullfoss Falls had made Cale’s list of things to see. Unlike Glymur falls which had been tall and narrow, Gullfoss was a fairly shallow set of falls, that stretched over a much wider area. With the sun shining the way it was, rainbows appeared wherever there was mist from the falls. Everything in Iceland was absolutely beautiful; just being here made you feel more grounded, centered. It was absolutely the perfect trip so far to really spend time with Cale as a couple rather than just friends. This time, the photos you took were silly ones to show your families. But like your last few stops, you didn’t linger long before climbing into the car to head to the final stop of the Circle. 

You must have dozed off during that leg of the drive because when you opened your eyes, you were once again parked in a new location. Cale was looking at his phone, but when he realized you were awake, his eyes turned soft as he glanced over at you. 

“What?” You inquired, your back popping as you stretched. Cale didn’t respond, simply shaking his head as he turned the car off and moved to climb out of the car. 

“You coming?” He eventually called, turning back to face you about ten feet in front of the car. Rolling your eyes, you quickly moved to catch up with him and after paying a small conservation fee, you stepped off the paved lot onto a path. In front of you was a crater lake, its deep blue water surrounded by red rock and green vegetation. 

“Okay...don’t get me wrong...everything we’ve seen today has been gorgeous...but I think this is my favorite.” You breathed. 

“Yeah?” Cale murmured. You nodded in response, tucking yourself into his side as the two of you just admired the sight in front of you. Waterfalls were great, geysers and faults were cool, but this...this was on another level. 

Eventually you’d made your way back to Reykjavik after lingering for awhile at the Crater.

It had been a long day, and you were ready to get some dinner and just relax before maybe going to bed early. Sinking into one of the chairs in your hotel room, you sighed in relief and toed off your shoes. Cale had disappeared into the bathroom and when you looked up he was leaning against the wall, a pensive look on his face. 

“So...are you gonna hate me if I tell you we have one more thing on the agenda for today?” He asked. When your shoulders sunk, he chuckled and moved across the room to kiss you. “I promise it’s something relaxing.” He murmured against your lips. 

“What is it?” You groaned. 

“Dinner followed by a little dip…” You had to admit you were intrigued and you were dying to show off the new suits you’d bought for the trip. 

“You kill me Cale.” You sighed, though the smile pulling at the corners of your mouth gave away your compliance. Cale pulled you to your feet and his hands landed on your hips as he looked down at you, content smile traveling all the way up to his eyes. “You’re lucky I really really like you.” You teased. 

“Hmm is that right?” Cale murmured back as his mouth dropped to yours for a kiss that lingered, his tongue exploring your mouth. Sighing into the kiss, for a moment you let yourself get lost in the feeling of it all. When the kiss broke, you stood in Cale’s arms, your fingers playing with the hairs at the back of his neck. The way he was looking at you made you shiver and knowing you’d never leave this hotel room if you didn’t start moving, you pulled away. 

“Do I need to stay dressed like this or can I change into something a little nicer?” You questioned.

“You can change if you want.” Cale declared, fingers running through his hair. Digging through your suitcase, you grabbed your swimsuit and one of the nice but still fairly casual dresses you’d packed before slipping into the bathroom. Sliding the suit on, you pulled the dress on over it before stepping back into the main room. 

“Will this work?” You asked as you slid your dirty clothes into a laundry bag. Cale still hadn’t responded by the time you’d found your sandals and slipped them on and when you looked over at him, his cheeks were flushed and his jaw was halfway to the ground. “Cale…” You prompted, eyebrows raised. 

“Shit...fuck...holy crap you’re beautiful.” Cale declared after snapping out of the daze he’d been in. If this simple dress had that much of an effect on him, you couldn’t wait to see how he responded to some of the other things you’d brought, suit included. 

“So it’ll work?” You repeated your question, giggling softly. 

“Yeah...I think that’ll work.” He agreed, shaking his head before moving to change as well. 

You’d lost count of how many times you’d been in and out of your rental car today, but as you climbed into the passenger seat again, you acknowledged that this time felt different. Once Cale had reached the open highway, his hand reached down to lace with yours. Anxious butterflies filled your stomach and it took some time before you realized why. 

This was your first real date. 

Sure you’d had lunch together, done dinner at your place, watched movies, this whole trip was kind of an extended date...but this was the first time you’d gone out together that truly felt like a date. 

It was silly to feel nervous, you’d been together for a month already and things were really good. Still, you couldnt’t shake that little bit of nervous energy. 

A few nerves were good though, and you decided to just make the most of them. About an hour after you’d left your hotel, Cale pulled into a parking lot again and the two of you made your way through a winding path surrounded by volcanic rock until you reached the doors for the Blue Lagoon. 

Dinner was the first part of this date which you were thankful for because you were starving. With views of the lagoon, high ceilings and a wall made of the same volcanic rock as outside, you settled into a table at the Lava Restaurant. 

Once glasses of wine were poured and main dishes were ordered, you smiled across the table at Cale. 

“I don’t know if I’ve…”

“You really are…” You both started speaking at the same time, and laughter spread between you as you each stopped to let the other speak. 

“Go ahead.” Cale insisted, his thumb brushing against your joined hands. 

“Thank you for all of this.” You breathed. “This trip is really special and I know you put a lot of thought and effort into planning it.” 

“You’re worth it.” Cale said blushing slightly. “This trip wouldn’t be nearly as fun with anyone else.” Reaching for your wine glass you held it up in a toast, waiting for Cale to mirror your action. 

“To us.” You murmured. “To adventures, laughter, and a little romance.” 

“To my beautiful girlfriend. My best friend. I’m so lucky you’re mine even though it took us awhile to figure it out.” Your heart pounded at Cale’s words but thankfully your food arrived before he had the chance to make you cry. 

Sharing your lamb fillet and Cale’s beef tenderloin, you both got to taste multiple examples of the rich Icelandic cuisine. Your main dishes were followed by a shared dessert of icelandic berries and chocolate. As Cale fed you a bite, you felt some of the caramel sauce hit the corner of your mouth. Before you could reach up to wipe it away, Cale had done it for you and your stomach twisted pleasantly at the feeling of his thumb against your skin. 

When your food was finished, you relaxed finishing off your glasses of wine while Cale told you a story from his time at UMass that you hadn’t heard before. Eventually though, you got up from the table and moved to head out to the lagoon itself. 

Since you both had suits on under your clothes already, it didn’t take long to put your things into a locker in the women’s changing area before meeting up with Cale. The moment he saw you, you watched him swallow hard, his eyes visibly darkening. 

“This. is. not. fair.” Cale choked out. Dragging him outside, your eyes went wide as you took in the sight in front of you. Pale blue water, dark rocks, it was absolutely stunning and you couldn’t wait to get in. 

Stepping down into the warm water you waited for Cale to join you, laughing to yourself as he stood on the cement looking completely awestruck. The water was perfect, it felt like you had stepped into a massive jacuzzi and the heat felt wonderful on your sore muscles. 

“You’re trying to give me a heart attack aren’t you?” Cale whispered, his voice dangerously low as he appeared behind you. 

“And just how would I do that?” You smirked, enjoying the ego stroking you were getting from Cale’s reactions. 

“You know how.” Cale mumbled. “You’re absolutely killing me right now.” 

You’d hoped to get some reaction out of Cale when you picked out this suit, but you hadn’t expected for him to lose his mind like this. Admittedly, the blue and white of the suit was even more fitting for this location than you had expected and you felt sexy and confident as Cale’s eyes lingered on you. 

Trailing your nails down Cale’s chest you pulled your bottom lip between your teeth as you smiled up at him. 

“If you like this...wait until you see what else I packed…” You suggested, slipping away from Cale to head over to the in-water bar for a drink, his growl resounding in your ears. 

Cale seemed to recover from his shock a little but not fully and the two of you spent close to two hours enjoying yourselves. You even convinced Cale to not only let you give him a silica mask, but to take a couple pictures with it on even though he was sure to be chirped if his teammates or even his brother ever saw them. 

Relaxed and happy, you left the lagoon to drive back to the hotel. That had been by far your favorite first date ever. And it was the best way to cap off a day that had been even better than yesterday. As you crawled into bed, your head resting on Cale’s chest, the exhaustion of such an eventful day caught up with you and it wasn’t long until you had fallen fast asleep. 

End of Chapter Outfit:

[thebeautifuloutdoors]

Recent trip to Iceland blew my mind. If you can get away from the Golden Circle... do it. It’ll bring you to some crazy awesome places. https://ift.tt/2WfX9pm

Hey Tumblr! Do you love traveling and exploring remote areas of the planet? Do you want free vacations and awesome travel products? If so, we have 2 websites you HAVE to check out!

Win a free all expense paid trip for 2 via TourRadar - FREE ENTRY FOR ALL!

Get 50% Off Our Exclusive Travel Scratch Off Map - While Supplies Last!

[oak-and-thunder]

Heyyyy so I got tagged by @thatwaywardwolf​! Rules are to answer 20 questions then ask 20 others to answer.

Let’s go!

_______________

1. Name: DJ

2. Nickname: DJ is a nickname! I actually don’t give out my real name on the internet :V

3. Zodiac Sign: Leo sun, Taurus moon, and Aries rising. Whatever those last two mean.

4. Height: 5′ 5″! 

5. Languages: Just English. I remember some VERY vague Spanish from my high school years, and I can read kana/kanji in Japanese but can’t translate the resulting words into English lmao

6. Nationality: American. As for beyond that, if you throw a dart at a map of Europe and look at where it lands, I’ve probably got ancestors from there.

7. Favorite Season: Fall!! Especially in the cold rainy months. It’s a beautiful thing to sit and watch the rain fall while you’re all warm and cozy inside.

8. Favorite Flower: Oh, that’s one I haven’t really thought about?? Tulips are pretty, though so are Carnations. And Lilies too? Or maybe those ones that only bloom in moonlight!

9. Favorite Scent: The smell of rain coming in (it’s not the same as petrichor, thought I love that scent too, but I can’t explain it. The world just smells different when it’s about to rain), Sandalwood, burnt out candles, and campfires!

10. Favorite Color: Blue, all kinds. My clothing choices tend to shift towards light blue, since a lot of people tell me I look good in  that color lmao, but I like all blues!

11. Favorite Animal: Manatees!!! They’re so big and they just float around in warm water and eat all day! What a life!!

12. Favorite Fictional Character: MARVEL THOR MARVEL THOR MARVEL THOR. Comics, movies, cartoons, don’t even care. Love that dude.

Also Agent Whiskey from Kingsman: The Golden Circle??? idk the movie as a whole was meh but I’m a sucker for the southern charm and well-choreographed fight scenes and Pedro Pascal is cute. What can I say, I am a simple woman.   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

13. Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate: Hot chocolate!!

14. Average Amount of Sleep: Roughly 6-7 hours, when you account for how many times per night I wake up and how long I stay awake before going back to sleep.

15. Cat or Dog Person: both. I am not choosing and you can’t make me.

16. Number of Blankets You Sleep With: Usually one. Sometimes I throw my weighted blanket on top, but not often.

17. Dream Trip: I’d love to go visit Iceland one day! Especially to see the new heathen temple and visit the Viking museum. Other than that, any place with lots of museums would be neat.

18. Blog Established: Early September 2018 methinks

19. Followers: 837! Holy SHIT how’d THAT happen!?

20. A Random Fact: uhhh let’s see. I’ve got a LOT of freckles on my arms! If I went out in the sun more, I’d probably have a lot on my face too, but they’re really noticeable on my arms.

Tagging: ok listen y’all i don’t know 20 people on here, so if you’re reading this consider yourself tagged! Yes, you. Go do this. I tagged you. Do it.

[metaphoreala]

THE HEAVENLY LOCALES HIDDEN UPON AN ALTER-EARTH, OR ARE DISGUISED UPON THE PLANET

All religions hold a variation of the belief in an earthly counterpart to paradise. Judging by the psychonautical guidebooks and accounts of journeys to these sanctuaries, the amount of physical determination required makes a K2 climb look like a jog around the block.

But the promise of release from the conditions of physical landscape and even corporeality is more than a term in the contract; its possibility should already exist embryonically within the traveler, who seeks “spiritual riches.”

The chronology of the journey is circular, and the destination found to have been moving and “home” all along: There is no geographical cure, there is no chronological cure.

These are journeys to special places the pilgrim may be unsure even physically exist—and their faith therefore must be even stronger than those who think themselves comfortably saved in the big-ticket religions. Mecca and Lourdes and Jerusalem and Mount Kailash and Bodh Gaya are right there, in two dimensions, on a map or book page. One can make the trek to visit them.

These places, in contrast, seem half-products of imagination: glimpsed through mists, glinting on mountaintops or in valley shadows, temporary refuges, or—so it is told—promising more than just salvation or immortality.

They involve in one fashion or another a return to the origin, to the founder, to the creator, to the center of the cosmos.

It is difficult to determine the spiritual pilgrimage’s arrow of signification when it comes to physical geography vs. entheogeography (to meet deity or salvation via a hidden landscape). Rene Guenon and others believe that an otherworldly itinerary always precedes and is the model for that of a transfigured earth; the plane of the lower always symbolizes the higher, and never the opposite.

To undergo a difficult journey to a place of transcendence, transfiguration, or salvation is always held under secular or profane conditions, simply because to travel “across, into, within” remains conditioned by the Cartesian extensional/dimensional realms of human perception. One can travel from one’s own prayer mat given the proper physical and mental training, and with the right secretions of the “celestial dew,” won by years of practice, visions of paradise can douse the mind into ecstatic communion.

For the rest of us, we can hope to find a sacred landscape and its disguised architecture and residents.

MOUNT MERU/AGARTTHA

According to Guenon, the “primordial tradition” of all spiritualities and religions is focused around the concept of the Source or Pole about which all events turn in a cyclical manner.

The most explicit of these is shown in the 7-stage cycle of a kalpa, which is broken down into 14 manvantaras. Each manvantara contains 7 yugas or ages. The manvantara signifies a degeneration and regeneration of energy and its manifestations in truth.

We are currently in the yuga of Kali, in which destruction of the tradition (and thus the destruction of truth) accelerates. The long decline is followed by a purification and renewal.

All these cycles move about the primordial pole, Mount Meru. Meru is believed to have been at the northernmost part of the world and connected the earth to the heavens by means of the Pole star.

Although holy mountains occur in nearly every religion, Guenon and other traditionalists believe Meru is the archetype, and was constituted tens of thousands of years ago as the symbol of this manvantara. Thus, in one sense, all other holy mountains are emanations of Meru, and physical journeys to them are substitutes for the true Meru in a secondary, “profane” sense.

Meru is reflected in our secular concepts of the physical North Pole and the magnetic poles. The self-generating energies, as bases for all cyclical activity, as found in Asian religions, have been corrupted as they moved South and West; they become linear time construed as the primary or only kind of time.

Taken together, these two “types” of time form the basis for the symbol of the cross: the vertical signifying the revivifying Pole (infinite perception/life) and the horizontal signifying linear, finite perception.

“Dual time” is thus symbolized, reflecting simultaneously the four cardinal directions, the heavens above, the earth beneath, and the point (the center) as conceived as a single individual person standing on the face of the planet. We are all therefore at this center, ignorant though we are of it. The swastika adds to the cross a sense of motion as all cosmic and human events flow around the Pole.

To Guenon, (in his book The King of the World), the Pole’s main emanation was the kingdom of Agarttha, a civilization that long ago openly manifested the principles of these cycles. Its king was both legislator and the embodied truth of the cycles and, again, was represented by the cross.

Over the degeneration inherent in successive yugas, Agarttha withdrew into obscurity, leaving reflective centers of its wisdom in chosen persons and hidden social orders that preserved its truths and teachings.

By now, the Kali-yuga, Agarttha is underground in both literal and metaphoric senses. Thus, those seekers who strike out on the road for true knowledge and understanding of the earth, of deity, of immortality, or of humanity’s place in the cosmos in a “place learned in ancient hidden ways” are all seeking Agarttha in a metaphorical sense.

Each act of substitution, whether it be soma instead of Haoma, — instead of amanita, a piece of transubstantiated bread in place of Jesus’s flesh, wine in place of his blood, is a recapitulation of the primordial loss to our current reflective centers (our religions/esoteric schools) and the replacement of our linear time to Agartthan cyclical principles and centeredness.

HYPERBOREA

For Guenon, Hyperborea is the land beneath the geographic North Pole, with the arktoi, the Little Bear and Large Bear, as the symbols and guardians of the world axis.

From these asterism’s motion about the pole star comes the symbolic swastika, with its implied motion of the stars at the four ends of the cross. Mount Meru is always used as an evocation of this lost paradise of the Golden Age beneath a perfectly circling celestial dome. The Golden Age was less associated with a physical place then a principle that held for the world—although Guenon constantly hints at a geographically-situated actual civilization at the pole, which obviously has since sunk or was a landscape now obscured to history due to a pole shift.

The ancient Greeks were split as to Hyperborea’s location, only that it was far north of the Mediterranean civilizations. Herakles’s third labor involved traveling to the Northernmost land to capture what scholars have interpreted as a reindeer—an animal indigenous to Siberia, of course. This “golden horned hind” was sacred to Artemis. Britain, the Urals, and the land beyond the Riphean mountains all were candidates for its physical location. Hecataeus claimed the sun rose and set only once a year in Hyperborea, placing it therefore above the Arctic Circle.

Such terra incognita furnished a template for legends such as those saying Apollo spend part of the year in Hyperborea–which is fitting for a god who was mysteriously venerated both as the sun and of the long chthonic darkness of the polar winter (in his aspect as master of the caves’ “sleep temples”). Both Herodotus and Platomentioned Abaris, the Hyperborean healer who was probably from Scythia (the Ukraine or possibly even farther north in Siberia).

A variant is Ultima Thule, which a mariner merchant name and Pytheas claimed to have visited solo in the fourth century BCE, possibly Norway but was more likely England, Brittany, or even Iceland.

PARDES

The Garden of Eden is traditionally identified as being somewhere in Mesopotamia at the confluence of four great rivers (two of whose identities, the Tigris and Euphrates, are well obviously known) within ancient Sumer and Babylon. In the 3rd century Tosefta or gloss on the Torah’s Mishnah (oral tradition) is told the story of four rabbis who stumble into an otherworldly garden called PARDES. Only one of the rabbis, Akiva, survived this incursion and was able to tell the tale; one went insane, one died, and the fourth became a heretic. Over time, PARDES eventually came to symbolize both a place on earth and a place in, or of, the seven heavens (the latter idea which was probably adapted from Babylonian religion during the captivity).

As one interpretive tradition tells it, the loss of the physical Temple in Jerusalem in 70CE necessitated creating a spiritual Temple accessible through ritual means. Some of these means are preserved in the hekhalot (palace) and merkavah (chariot-throne) rituals conveyed in both Qabbalah and further Mishnah traditions.[1]

Both are said to have originated in the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of YAHWEH’s chariot/throne and its four guardians centuries earlier.

Ezekiel’s status as a priest and prophet during the Babylonian captivity allowed him to disseminate the idea that the Temple traditions and the Hebrew faith could be carried on while in exile, without the physical location or implements in Jerusalem. This led to practices of internalizing imagery as a substitute for the lost Temple.

BABYLONIAN INFLUENCE

As a Babylonian exile, Ezekiel was on the banks of the Chebar River when his divine encounter occurred out of the north. In this context, as we’ve seen in the primordial Hindu tradition, north symbolizes the pole or center of the world—Meru. Some believe the vision incorporates Babylonian beliefs, and through those, the Sumerian astrotheology which preceded it—specifically the paths of the gods Anu, Enlil, and Ea and Enki. Enlil’s path is the 12 to 30° celestial north, around the pole star, and the Great Bear was considered the “great wagon” by the Sumerians: MAR.GID.DA. In Greek, this was AMAXA, or the chariot.

After a Sumerian or Babylonian statue of a god was charged and consecrated, its mouth washed and opened,[2]it was transportable. Its essence came from the stars. The essence is me and is the gift of civilization that Inanna stole from Enki.

Charged Babylonian statues were certainly brought to the river Chebar, where Ezekiel’s vision apparently begins, to end the rituals. Further it has been speculated that he was on the banks of the canal connecting Babylon to the holy city of Nippur where the mountain palace of Ekur, the home of Enlil, sat. His vision of the four companion beings conforms to the Sumerian griffins.

Both chariot and throne traditions utilize rhetoric of ascent or descent to the chariot/throne; in fact, the interchangeable double-use of these terms may be a clue as to the meaning, in the sense that the road upward and the road downward are the same, as Heraclitus said—that is, in the ritually altered states of mind of approach, conventional dualities and identity drops away: throne/chariot, ascent/descent, ritual aspirant/angel, ritual aspirant/apotheosis.

The path of Ea was comprised of 15 stars, with Regulus being dominant. AB.ZU. The abyss of Enki was the first star appearing in the constellation of the Libra, at the vernal equinox, the entry to the underworld.

THE RING OF QAF

               Muhammad al-Kisa’i mentions the realm of Qaf in his hadiths of the Prophet. It figures in the geography of Ibn Fadl al-Humari’s Pathways of Vision in the Realms of the Metropolises (1340CE). According to al-Kisa’i’s Prophet Muhammad, Qaf is the primordial mountain, like Meru, of which all our sensible ones are just emanations. It is home of the phoenix and land of the “hidden people”—the Jinn. Muhammad had visited it on his Mi’raj. The Qaf Mountains are made of emerald or peridot and “gave birth” to all mountains on earth, which are connected by underground/submarine passages not unlike arteries. Qaf is said to encircle the earth but is protected from humans by the oceans of the world. Here the narrative echoes that of Olympus and the fairies’ Avalon, as well as the Hindu-Buddhist realm of Shambhala, the abode of the blessed, which is situated similarly in an impassable mountain range that rings 96 towns.

Mythology scholar Thomas Keightly (1789-1872) also recounts Persian explorer Hatim Tai’s account of Qaf, describing lush provinces of magical “technologies.” Hatim’s “Djinnestan” holds two mysterious cities, Jabulqa and Jabulsa. In Al-Kisa’i’s hadith, Muhammad said that the twin cities’ exclusively male inhabitants lived in a continuous green twilight and knew nothing of the human world.[3] The Prophet declared it would take forty months’ journey in total darkness to reach these emerald cities…Perhaps this means a semi-permanent hypnagogic state of consciousness “suspended” for such a period, through ritual sensory deprivation techniques?

HURQALYA

Henry Corbin’s Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth describes the relationship between two major strands of Iranian spirituality: the Zoroastrian Zend-Avestas and the Shi’ite ta’wil of Sufi ecstatic Shahib Suhrawardi (1154-1191CE) and Sunni philosopher Ibn Arabi (1165-1240CE).

A journey to break the membrane into the archetypal world could begin anywhere, with a meditation upon anything—but it is much easier if one starts with one’s being in a world of light.

THE KINGDOM OF PRESBYTER JOHN

Our magnificence dominates the three Indias, and extends to farther India, where the body of St. Thomas the Apostle rests. It reaches through the desert toward the place of the rising of the sun, and continues through the valley of deserted Babylon close by the Tower of Babel. 72 provinces obey us, and a few of which are Christian provinces; and each has its own king. And all their kings are our tributaries…In our territories are found elephants, dromedaries, and camels, and almost every kind a beast that is under heaven. Honey flows in our land, and milk everywhere abounds. In one of our territories no poison can do harm and no noisy frog croaks, no scorpions are there, no serpents creep through the grass. No venomous reptiles can exist there or use their deadly power.

In one of the heathen provinces flows a river called the Physon, which, emerging from Paradise, winds and wanders through the entire province; and in it are found emeralds, sapphires, carbuncles, topazes, chrysolites, onyxes, beryls, sardonyxes, and many other precious stones. During each month we are served at our table by seven Kings, each in his turn, by 62 Dukes, and by 365 counts, aside from those who carry out various tasks on our account. In our hall there dine daily, on the right hand, 12 archbishops, and on our left, 20 bishops, and also the patriarch of St. Thomas, the Protopapas of Samarkand, and the Archprotopapas of Susa, in which city the throne of our glory and are Imperial Palace are situated.

If you can count the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea, you will be able to judge there by the vastness of our realm and our power.

This is a 19th century reconstruction[4] of the letter sent by “John the Priest-King” (the Presbyter John or Prester Jean) to Emperor Manuel Comnenus in 1165. There had been rumors for decades during the medieval period about a mysterious Magi priest-king in the East who was invincible. His legend preceded this letter, and  the Emperor believed that it clinched Jean’s existence. And Jean’s help was needed by the crusaders stuck in Antioch and Edessa.

Later, a bishop named Hugh brought word of the situation in the Holy Land and the priest-king Jean’s victories against the Saracens to Pope Alexander III in 1177. Hugh claimed Jean would already have swept the Muslims from the Holy Lands but for his army’s inability to cross the Tigris (which is odd for an almost supernatural being like Jean and his hosts; it’s almost as if the Tigris water was anathema to him and his army, some sort of forbidden barrier they couldn’t cross by a form of magic).

The Pope and his advisors wanted to believe in Jean. They knew that Nestorian Christians lived in Persia and India and even China and thus believed Jean to be a Nestorian king. (Nestorius was a fourth century cleric who believed Jesus was an ordinary human who grew into his divinity. This got him booted from Rome at the council of Nicaea, along with a lot of other heretics. Nestorius and his followers then moved further eastward under Byzantine then Muslim protection.) Jean’s denominational beliefs made no difference to Rome after the disaster of the Seljuk raids on Edessa and Antioch. They needed all the help they could get. So when Hugh presented this “intelligence” that Jean was not invincible, and had been basically defeated by the Tigris, the Pope gave up beseeching him for help and called for the second crusade.

Still, Alexander III believed Hugh’s tale so much that he sent his personal physician Philip to search for Jean. Philip is never mentioned again in the historical record, but the letter apparently continued to circulate with more and more fantastic embellishments—the prototypical hypertextual story of a superhero.

Jean’s emerald scepter connects him in a tangential possible way with Hermes Trismegistus, whose “eternal philosophy” was written upon an emerald tablet.

SHAMBHALA

There are four main Tibetan texts describing journeys to the paradise of Shambhala. They are mostly based on long-lost earlier texts and have the character of dream trips or visions. The four are:

—Shambhalai Lamyig (Description of the Way to Shambhala) authored in 1775 by the third Panchen Lama of the — sect. This is considered the “standard text” of the journey, because it is based upon an earlier version that is a part of the Tengyur, a long commentary on the Tibetan canon. The account was translated into Tibetan a century earlier by the scholar Taranatha, and is called The Entrance to Kalapa. Kalapa was the capital of Shambhala and seat of its king. The Panchen Lama’s introduction also mentions a guidebook written by a Menlung Lama, who received the instruction via a dream; its route north required two or three years and led north through the Uighur and Tarim Basin area of Mongolia. Due to its dream provenance the Panchen Lama suspected its veracity.

–A 16th century version was composed by prince Rinpung Ngawang Jigdag, and is considered a beautiful literary epistolary creation as well.

–An anonymous author wrote a short guidebook in the 13th century, supposedly from direct experience of the journey. This version, translated by a German Indologist in 1907, has the least fantastical embroidering—except for an element that also occurs in another of the subsequent versions: just before the southern entrance into the holy province, the traveler encounters a city of humans with sexual organs in either upper thigh and reproduce by placing their legs together, the gestation taking place in the upper left thigh.

Based on the 1907 German translation, scholar Edwin Bernbaum has identified common markers in the stories: a northern route, the crossing of the River Sita, and passage through a wall of snowy mountains. Unlike the anonymous version, which shows straightforward geological features, the others are more psychogeological in that they require advanced knowledge of the Kalachakra tantra, prodigious mantra recitations, ritual appeasement of the demons guarding the landscape, and stoic concentration against the many sexual and sensual temptations made by landscape and spirits alike.

The Panchen Lama Lobsang Palden Yeshe was very interested in finding the holy province and collected all the travelers’ tales he could through study and direct interviews, becoming an authority. In 1775 he wrote an itinerary. Basing it on the Tengyur version, which he considered the most accurate, he also preserved in it the place names that had long ago fallen into mystery, to preserve its location from the secular searchers.

Forty years before, the prince Rinpungpa composed his Knowledge-Bearing Messenger in far more symbolic and poetic form. It was meant as a letter to his father, who was believed to have been reincarnated spiritually in Shambhala. He was familiar with the Kalachakra tantric legends of the pure land and quite possibly had vivid dreams or visions that inspired his work. Rinpungpa apparently was a poor ruler and sought his deceased father’s advice in matters of state. To this end he sought to write him in his father’s new abode. After rejecting the clouds, birds, and the light of the sun and moon as messengers, he hit on conjuring a tulpic being to convey the letter, and subsequently tells the thoughtform how to reach the kingdom. The text contains no rituals to ward off or summon demon helpers and is an imagistic itinerary full of lush descriptive passages.

All those spiritually thirsty persons who have sought out these guidebooks encounter in the texts the ascetic-monastic necessities of the dedicated pilgrim juxtaposed with the most fantastic geographies and beings encountered along the way. They are meant to deter all but the most pious and obsessed—and the path can be mortally perilous for the less-than-serious, in every way imaginable. Those with a misapprehension of the “land of treasures,” whether they are profanely willful or ignorant in their opinions, always meet a deserving hellish fate.

Many schools view the guidebooks as descriptions of internal states for which no physical journey is required; this is in keeping with the Kalachakra initiation’s strenuous physical and mental disciplines, the thousandfold opportunities for subversion by impure thoughts and emotions during its exercises, and the dangers when approaching the goal of kundalini awakening and its sudden absolute spiritual transformation.[5]

All versions of the itinerary mention a northern journey. This parallels the Greek Hyperborea, the land beyondthe north where the eternal paradise of the Titans exists. The northern extremity is in continuity also with the pre-Buddhist Tibetan Bon paradise called Olmolungring.

SAINT BRENDAN’S ISLE, HY-BRASIL, AND LOST ISLANDS

From the fall of Rome, Christian monks had fled persecution in Europe and Asia for Ireland. The Green Island was the refuge for scholars (and, some say, the remnants of the Knights Templars, who struck out from there and Scotland for the America continent in the late 14th century).

Medieval Ireland had a tradition of sea voyage tales called immrama that involved hidden magical and holy islands; Tir Na nOg, the Land of the Eternal Young, is probably the most famous version of this idea (although the actual entrances were through sacred burial mounds and caves either on or off islands). Inevitably the stories were Christianized, and by the 8th century someone had written The Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot. Many of its incidents were based on earlier immrama and probably Homer’s Odyssey. According to the text, sometime in the 6thcentury “Brendan the Navigator” and a dozen monks set out to find an island that a Saint Barrind had told him about. After a series of adventures involving (perhaps) icebergs, sea monsters, and angry Norse blacksmiths, they find this earthly paradise seven years later.  Original locations for this isle (or archipelago) was the Madeira or Azores; by the 19th century it had “traveled” north, and could be seen/landed upon only by the worthy and those not seeking it.

A variation of this is Hy-Brasil, a mythical island off the western Irish coast, cloaked in mist, which was said to appear every seven years. It first appeared on a 1325CE portolan map. It continued to be represented on maps until the 18th century, and expeditions to find it were undertaken in the 15th century. Parallels with Avalon are inevitable.

  THE ROSICRUCIANS

The two Rosicrucian manifestoes The Fame of the Brothers RC (1614) and the Confessions of the Brothers RC (1615) occupy a space between fact and fantasy. They became foundation myths for what would eventually become dozens of Rosicrucian Societies around the world. The Fame tells the story of a 14th century spiritual journeyman Christian Rosenkreuz’s travels to the East and his initiations into probably Sufi and Hermetic-Greek-Egyptian orders. A direct lineage of the teachings of German alchemist Heinrich Khunrath and British mage John Dee can be discerned in the Rosicrucian program. The tracts outline the eventual creation of a utopian society of Christian universalism (emphatically non-Catholic, however) dedicated to scientific melioration of humanity’s ills. This program would lead people to believe that Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (1627) was a quasi-Rosicrucian work.

In 1666, Duchess Margaret Cavendish publishes The Blazing World, a novel about a utopian society on another planet accessible from a portal at the North Pole. Along with the Chemical Wedding and New Atlantis, Cavendish’s imaginative work signal the retreat of physical sanctuaries of peace into fictional and secret-societal hermetic ideals. Hence:

MODERNIST SUBSTITUTES

With growing industrialization and mass literacy came the escape into secular fictions that are more or less modeled upon these sacred journeys to hidden places. The near-completion of the global cartographic enterprise by the turn of the 20th century pushed back on the Imagination, which ever reaches beyond the line. Hence journeys to the inner earth, the moon, Mars, or submarine civilizations became popular.

John Cleves Symmes apparently began this “gold rush” to alternate worlds decades earlier with Circular Number 1 (1818), an attempt to convince the world’s governments and scientific societies to mount expeditions to the hollow earth through the poles. Inspired by astronomer Edmund Halley’s hypothesis, Symmes’s model for the inner earth was an inversion of the planetary spheres, a series of concentric rings through which one entered, mysteriously, through a gravitational vortex at the poles where an explorer’s forward motion equaled descent. Symmes’s entreaties came to naught, but someone—either Symmes himself or a Nathaniel Ames—wrote and published the novel Symzoniain 1820.

But even before this, Jack Casanova penned the nearly unread but bizarre 1,800 page Icosameron (1787), a story about sibling-lovers who spend 81 years living with a bizarre race in a mirror-earth within the planet. While technically a pre-Romantic work, it has all the signs of a counter-Enlightenment mentality.

Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) is the most famous adventure story of an arduous journey to an “unknown” place involving a secret itinerary (or clues to a passage to it). Theosophist/Rosicrucian Sir Edward “it was a dark and stormy night” Bulwer-Lytton wrote The Coming Race in 1871, the tale of a man’s accidental discovery of an advanced society of beings living within the earth. The next year Samuel Butler produced Erewhon: Or, Over the Range in 1872, an extended satirical description of an unknown surface country in which an artificial intelligence evolves from their own version of Blake’s “dark satanic mills,” the industrial factories. In Etidorhpa (1895), pharmacologist John Uri Lloyd did Bulwer-Lytton one better by creating a matrioshka-story structure in which a strange spiritual being named “I-Am-The-Man” is led into the hollow earth. There he learns alchemy and the spiritual nature of the universe, coming back to tell his story as a near-apparition to a Kentuckian journalist, whose manuscript the author, Lloyd, supposedly found.

Medium Helene Smith’s astral travels to the civilization of Mars were transcribed and interpreted by psychologist Theodore Flournoy in From India to the Planet Mars in 1900.  Medium Sara Weiss added her own “scientifickal romance” Journeys to the Planet Mars, Or, Our Mission to Endo to the growing field of sci-fi in 1906. Willis Emerson’s The Smoky God (1908) added yet another fictional English/Scandinavian adventurer, Olaf Janssen, in traveling to the inner planes.

Each of these works describe utopian civilizations in sometimes excruciating detail (architecture, mores, laws, etc.), a tradition going back to Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (1627), which you might say was a rough Elizabethan-era blueprint for the scientific technocracy that now exists all around us. But further devolvement of the secular geographical journey into sword-and-sorcery occurred with Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Pellucidar and John Carter of Mars series.

Of course, the most famous “hidden utopia” story is still Lost Horizon by James Hilton, which introduced mass Western audiences to Shangri-La, a beyul in the classic Hindu-Tibetan sense. Immortals, magic medicine, pacifism, all told in yet another double-frame story format.

With the further deenchantment of our physical neighborhood via astronomy, the imaginative mind inevitably turned to other worlds, to other times, to other dimensions—to the other in general, that is, anywhere but here and anywhen but now. This seems to be one of the main themes of Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day (2006), which has numerous discussions of travel through the hollow earth, time travel, or to parallel versions of Earth, as well as a search for Shambhala and story arcs that use the Everett-Wheeler multiverse conjecture as a self-reflexive plot device. Pynchon’s first novel, V. (1963), mentions something called Vheissu (echoing a protagonist’s search for the V-named woman of the title) that is either a savage hidden land that refutes the foundations of all earthly politics, or a Borges-like infection of our world by an imaginary utopia.

  WILD SCIENCE STEPS INTO THE BREACH: ONG’S HAT, THE GAME OF SUGGESTION, AND MIND-MAPS

The Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey has always had a reputation for supernatural goings-on. Just ask Paulie Walnuts and Chris Moltisanti.

Legend tripping came online in the early 1990s with the legend of the Moorish Ashram. Located in the Pine Barrens, the hamlet of Ong’s Hat (which doesn’t appear on 95% of New Jersey maps) was supposedly the site where a group of edge-thinkers, chaos magic devotees, and psychonauts developed a technology to travel to another, unspoiled version of earth via a vehicle called the Egg, then later by purely ritual means.

At first just a physical pamphlet, a list of suggested and necessary reading materials for ashram participants called the Incunabula Papers was posted online in connection with this gang of “rogue scientists.” The ideas of Henry Corbin figure in the legend via this catalogue, and one of the scientists named the alter-earth to which they retreated Hurqalya, after Suhrawardi’s transfigured imaginal earth-double. Incunabula mixed real books with invented ones, Borges-style, to weave in the older legends of the Philadelphia experiment of 1943 and its supposed successor, the Montauk project.

The legend all turned out to be the spawn of four primary individuals: Joseph Matheny, physicist Nick Herbert, poet Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey), and Peter Moon. A small cadre of message board-lurkers picked up the “alternate reality game” and ran with it as factual, some going far as to visit the Ong’s Hat hamlet in search of either physical evidence or remnants of the portals. Matheny came fully clean after some hardcore fantasists refused to believe the group had made up the legend. The clues were there from the beginning (especially the references to the bogus Philadelphia experiment) but it all just ended up demonstrating the spiritual need people have for the utopian journey, as refracted through geography and high technology.

The extraordinary ABC series LOST capitalized on the concept of a Hy-Brasil-like “invisible” island in south Oceania that revitalized the trope of a hidden land, in which a pair of near-immortal brothers use it as a proving ground for human good and evil. Thanks to the depth of its characterizations and its carefully-unspooling plots-within-plots, LOST tries hard and mostly succeeds at using ancient tropes to recapture the wonder and purpose of the spiritual quest in a geographical context.  The story is drawn bigger and bigger.

Bibliography

Bernbaum, Edwin. The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas, Shambhala Publications, 2001.

Corbin, Henri. Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, Princeton University press, 1981.

-The Imaginal and the Imaginary

-Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth

Guenon, Rene. The King of the World, Sophia Perennis, 2004.

–Symbols of Sacred Science, Sophia Perennis,

Lebling, Robert, Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar, Counterpoint, 2011.

LePage, Victoria. Shambhala: The Fascinating Truth Behind the Myth of Shangri-La, Theosophical Publishing House, 1996.

Levenda, Peter. Stairway to Heaven: Chinese Alchemists, Jewish Kabbalists, and the Art of Spiritual Transformation, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008.

Matheny, Joseph and Moon, Peter. Ong’s Hat: The Beginning.

Roerich, Nicolas. Shambhala: In Search of the New Era, Inner Traditions, 1990.

–Heart of Asia: A Memoir of the Himalayas, Inner Traditions, 1990.

Silverberg, Robert. The Realm of Prester Jean, Ohio University Press, 1996

——————-

[1] The hitherto hidden Qabbalistic forms of these rituals were “publicly” revealed with the discovery of a vast trove of medieval scriptures in the storeroom of the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo, 1753/1864/1896, and the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. These could both reasonably called instances of terma (treasure) discovery in the Tibetan tradition—that a cache of wisdom-filled documents are revealed at a certain time for people’s salvation—given the right amount of piety in absorbing and performing the rituals contained within.

[2] The washing of the mouth ceremony involved the introduction of magnetic ore into the water—lodestone ore from Magnesia ad Sipylum in Turkey.

  [3] It is not noted in Muhammad’s mysterious account whether these djinn were immortal. Tradition says the “normal djinn” have very long lifespans and die, but the “exclusive” maleness of these first djinn in Qaf makes one wonder if the women perhaps were hidden away from his eyes, or that some means of technological reproduction was involved in their existence.

[4] The best dating to the letter was somewhere around 1165. Scholars Vasiliev and Silverberg and others had never really been able to determine who wrote it but its derogatory tone towards the Byzantine ruler Eugenus and the Greeks in general compelled them to conclude it was a Latin-speaking monk who lived in or was familiar with the Holy Lands and extant folklore or rumors about the East that made their way along the Silk Road—probably stories about the king blank in India conflated with stories about “exotic” Indian and Chinese technology. It’s possible the writer was even familiar with the Thousand Nights and a Night, whose stories feature fantastic lands and technologies like that of Prester Jean.

[5] This ritual is not to be taken lightly and requires months and months of preparation even to take on its preliminaries. It was the gift of the Buddha after parinirvana (bodily dissolution) when he assumed the form the Kalachakra deity, who taught the first Shambhalan king, Sucandra. Sucandra wrote extensive commentaries on it and created the first Kalacakra mandala, which has forever since been a very important public ritual, in a sand-based form, created by monks.

Notes on Entheogeographies of Salvation THE HEAVENLY LOCALES HIDDEN UPON AN ALTER-EARTH, OR ARE DISGUISED UPON THE PLANET All religions hold a variation of the belief in an earthly counterpart to paradise.

[azvolrien]

Iceland - Day 8

Last entry!

Our last full day in Iceland was an eventful but fairly relaxed one, with a few different stops and an early start, but an early finish to go with it. We set off from the hotel at 8.30 and backtracked a little along yesterday’s road for the first few stops of the day. The first was Deildartunguhver, the biggest hot spring in Europe. Though what you can see of the colour-stained rock and constantly bubbling water is impressive, it’s actually difficult to take photos of: the spring emits such huge quantities of steam that you have to wait patiently for the clouds to subside before your camera can make anything out, and that’s after the spring has been harnessed to supply hot water to the nearby towns of Borgarnes and Akranes as well as a greenhouse at the site.

           We then moved on to the final waterfalls of the tour: Hraunfossar (‘Lava Waterfalls’) and Barnafoss (‘Children’s Waterfall’), two very different falls that can nevertheless be considered together, as they are right next to each other. Hraunfossar is the first you come to, and consists of a gentle series of trickles that appear to spring directly from the lava rock beneath a bank of lush greenery. Barnafoss, almost immediately upstream, has a drastically contrasting character as a swift, furious boil of water through a narrow gorge of sharp rock that would probably claim the lives of all but the most experienced/lucky white-water kayakers. It gets its name from a story (entirely possible, but unproven) that two children, playing on a rock arch over the river, fell in and were swept away while everyone else was at church. Their bereaved mother then supposedly had the arch destroyed to prevent such a tragedy happening again. The moral of this story is to never leave children unsupervised near a waterfall.

           After the waterfalls came the tiny hamlet of Reykholt, whose main claim to fame is that it was the home of Icelandic historian Snorri Sturlusson. It now contains an odd-looking church whose undercroft houses an exhibition about Snorri’s life and a small bookshop of volumes on Icelandic history, folklore and similar themes. Also very tangential themes, such as several different compilations of essays about Game of Thrones. I bought an illustrated book of legendary/folkloric Icelandic monsters, which includes some familiar like the water horse and the sea serpent and some that are downright weird, such as the King of the Bears and the mouse-whale.

           After a half-hour stop in Borgarnes for an early lunch, we travelled to the last official stop of our tour and the third part of the so-called Golden Circle after Gullfoss and the Geysir area: Þingvellir National Park, where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge’s efforts to tear the island in two are most dramatically evident. While the rift was also visible up at Dettifoss, here it is far more clearly so. Fissures crack the land here, pushing ridges of broken rock up like the roots of Yggdrasil forcing their way through a pavement, while the biggest fissure of all forms a long row of cliffs of a similar height to the dolerite sill of Salisbury Crags at home. Other fissures have flooded into deep pools of beautifully clear water, popular with divers (who are common enough to merit their own ‘divers crossing’ road sign) and home to waterfowl and isolated populations of fish. The Icelandic flag flies over it all in honour of its place as the original site of the Alþing, Iceland’s ancient parliament established in 930.

           With Þingvellir behind us, we returned to the Hotel Reykjavik Natura where we started, and the tour group went our separate ways at about 3.30. I didn’t really want to spend the rest of the day in the hotel, however, and so dropped my stuff in the room (almost identical to the last one here, just mirrored) and set off on foot for a wander and an early dinner in central Reykjavik. Both the maps in my guidebook and online were a little out of date due to construction works, but I managed to navigate past some building sites and through quiet residential streets by following the spire of Hallgrímskirkja, which towers over the city atop a hill and can be seen from almost anywhere in Reykjavik. I took some better pictures of the church, not being constrained by a moving bus this time, and had a look inside. The interior of Iceland’s biggest church is plain, a high, austere space of grey stone with no stained glass to liven it up, but it does have a truly magnificent pipe organ looming over the nave, easily as big as the one in St Giles’.

           The streets around Hallgrímskirkja are, in a word, touristy. There are even more souvenir shops than there are on the Royal Mile, with all manner of gifts for sale from cheap keyrings to high-end knitwear and jewellery, as well as many little cafés and restaurants. I bought a couple of pin badges and one last t-shirt and had a plate spaghetti in a little Italian place, and returned to the hotel to pack up and have a final quiet evening in Iceland.

           Patronising Kiwi and riding accident aside, I think I may have a new favourite holiday. Iceland is a fascinating, beautiful place, with a history and landscape like something out of the better class of fantasy novel, and while there were things we missed that I would have liked to see (such as whale-watching) we managed to pack in so much else that things missed out barely even register. The language, too, is fascinating. It’s a little like Welsh; not in that the languages themselves are similar, which they aren’t, but in how they both appear tongue-manglingly baffling to an English-speaker at first while, once you know the alphabet, actually being spelt exactly as they sound. The Nordic links to Scotland are also there for the observant listener to notice: Þingvellir and Dingwall share the same root, both meaning ‘Assembly Fields’, while the ‘Reykja’ in ‘Reykjavik’ is not so far from Edinburgh’s old nickname of Auld Reekie, both meaning ‘smoky’.

           While I doubt I will do the complete tour in one go again, I definitely want to come back to Iceland one day to pick up on what I missed this time; perhaps spend some more time in Reykjavik and visit some more museums, as well as finally getting on that whale-watching trip. Seeing the Northern Lights would also be good, but you don’t have to come to Iceland for those.

           Now I just need to visit Sweden and Finland and I’ll have been to all the Nordic countries. There are a lot of interesting places in the world that I’d like to see one day, but I think my heart will always belong in the North.

[livefuntravelposts]

Amazing Places to Visit in Iceland

Iceland has become an emerging tourist destination with amazing places to visit, explore and experience. And it seems logical when you look at its charms: a moderate climate that allows one to escape the rigors of summer, its natural attractions, the feeling of being on the edge of the world and, above all, a generally hospitable and tolerant population. It is definitely a different destination to take into account. Here are the 12 amazing places that you must visit on your trip to Iceland: Map thanks to Wanderlog, a trip planner app on iOS and Android  

The Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon is a hot spring lagoon and one of the most popular tourist attractions in Iceland. You can reach this geothermal spa from Reikaivik, which is only 40 km from the capital. The waters maintain a temperature of between 37 and 39 degrees Celsius, perfect for taking a revitalizing bath. In addition, they are rich in properties. The mud here is rich in sulfur and silica and also beneficial for the skin. Also, is there anything better than taking a hot bath while surrounded by this exuberant nature?  

Geysers: Haukadalur Valley

Geysers are a natural phenomenon for which Iceland is most famous. A good idea to witness this breathtaking spectacle is to go to Haukadalur Valley, where geysers are located. Geysir geyser, known as the "father of geysers" since his name is generically given because of this natural phenomenon and although dormant for some years, this valley is home to other active geysers, such as Stokkur. On the other hand, this valley also has some wonderful thermal pools where, if you wish, you can take a bath.  

Svartifoss

This natural wonder is located in the southwest of the island at the Skaftafell National Park. It is a waterfall surrounded by hexagonal columns of basalt rock. They are formations common to places of volcanic origin. They are not the only basalt formations in Iceland; in fact, if Svartifoss has given you enough, you can always visit the basalt columns of Reynisfjara.  

The Golden Circle

Or Gullni Hringurinn, whichever you prefer. In any case, the one known as the Golden Circle is one of those obligatory visits. It encompasses three of Iceland's most impressive natural sites: the Gullfoss waterfall, the Haukadalur valley and the Thingvellir national park. And, best of all, you can reach them shortly from Reykjavík, in approximately 53 minutes by car.  

La Cascada Dettifoss

It is yet another island's natural spectacles that you cannot miss. Dettifoss is an impressive waterfall located in the north of the island, about 550 km from the capital (or what is the same, 7 hours by car). If you like the overwhelming beauty of nature unleashed, this waterfall will captivate you; And if you're into science fiction movies, too: the first scene of Ridley Scott's Prometheus was shot here.  

Aurora Borealis

The Northern Lights are one of Iceland's main attractions. The time when they occur most often is in winter. There are several tourist tours to see auroras, called aurora-hunters, and frequently organized in the middle of nature. They are the ideal space to see them since visibility is better than in urban centers. However, you should know that in winter the Northern Lights can even be seen from Reykjavik itself.  

Reykjavík

Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, has just 120,000 inhabitants, which brings together a third of the total population. When you visit it you have to bear in mind that it is the northernmost capital in the world, so the daylight hours vary a lot from what we are used to. For example, in winter there are barely 4 hours of light a day, while in summers, the nights can be as bright as the day. For a first contact with the city, you must visit the Austurvöllur, the most remarkable square in Reykjavík.  Also, something well worth a visit is the Hallgrimskirche, one of the tallest buildings in the city. This church of contemporary architectural style is one of the most artistically and interesting monuments in Reykjavík. In addition, you can visit it and climb its tower and from there enjoy the views of the city.  

Seljalandsfoss and Gljúfrabúi Waterfalls

In Iceland, waterfalls are as common as the paintings in the Prado Museum. And, it is a fact that you can not expect to see all the falls on the same trip. However, there are two that you will love: Seljalandsfoss and Gljúfrabúi. The drop of the Seljalandsfoss waterfall is about 60 meters. The remarkable thing about it is that you can go behind it and see it from the inside. Gljúfrabúi is unique because it falls into a cave. It is 500 meters from the Seljalandsfoss through a very comfortable path. Access to the waterfall is easy and exciting since it consists of going from stone to stone. Once you are inside, the image is idyllic.  

Vatnajökull Glacier

Near Lake Jökulsárlón is the Skaftafell campsite. It is one of the best campsites in Iceland, as it has many services, including glacier tour agencies and hiking trails. Skaftafell is an area of ​​untouched nature located in the Vatnajökull National Park. At the campsite, you can hire excursions or book them online. The route is led by a mountaineer, who insists on safety, providing crampons and ice axes. During the tour, the guide tells you interesting facts regarding the glacier. They also teach you the skills to go up and down the undulations of the ice without falling. Quite an experience if you have never done it.  

Diamond Beach

The diamonds that give this beach its name are actually the icebergs that have followed their path from the lake to the sea. The black color of the volcanic sand, and the white and blue of the icebergs make a unique contrast. And if it's mid-afternoon, even better.  

Gullfoss Falls

Not more than 15 kilometers from the Strokkur geyser is the Gullfoss waterfall. It has a height of 30 meters and is made up of two falls. The noise is deafening as it is surrounded by mountains and runs through a gorge that amplifies its sound. Both admission and camping are free. There is also a visitor center where you can have a coffee or buy something.   

Our Final Word

Iceland is filled with amazing sights and locations to visit and explore.  The people are warm and welcoming as long as you are respectful and the landscapes are surreal.  We now see many discounted trips to Iceland for 3 or 4 days, but we recommend at least 5 to see and experience all there is to see.  Iceland is truly amazing.

Related Posts

Read the full article