Iceland

Friday afternoon we took off for Iceland on a 3 hour flight with 8 other Pepperdine students. We arrived in Iceland and took a taxi to our hotel. The cab driver played tour guide for the entire hour drive, which was very amusing but he did have a good bit of advice on a restaurant for us to eat at. So we dropped off our bags and headed out to see the city walking into the main square for dinner. Dinner was fabulous, everyone trying different Icelandic delicacies. There was puffin, whale and I kid you not rotten shark.

Saturday we slept in had breakfast at a hotel and walked the harbor of Iceland. We got back to our hotel just in time to change to go the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is a man made lagoon attached to a spa, which is pumped full of natural hot spring water. The water is constantly replenished and runs between 100-110 degrees at all times. Iceland was sooooo cold this was an excellent way to warm up. Our pack of 11 got into the Blue Lagoon and quickly painted our faces with white silica mud masks (hey in Iceland...) anyway everyone was roaming around the lagoon together, neck deep in water with white masks on (boys included) it was sooooo funny. There was a steam room which we all enjoyed as well as we got to watch the sunset (as it sets at like 4pm there was only generally about 6 hours of daylight per day). We finished at the Blue Lagoon and got back to our hotel to catch the Northern Lights tour. Seeing the Northern Lights takes a bit of luck the atmospheric conditions have to be just perfect. We were very lucky and were able to see the Northern Lights that night. The light changes shape and moves; it's incredible. With the naked eye it looked like a bright blue/gray cloud, however Joel's camera was able to capture the slime green and vibrant purple colors. Joel really worked hard to capture the light as it takes a special technique with the camera and it was soooo cold and windy you could hardly stand, but the trooper he is stayed out there for an hour taking pictures.

Sunday we caught the golden circle tour. We started at a power plant, Iceland is completely green using the natural hot water springs as a power source. We left the power plant to see amazing waterfalls. It was extremely cold so we took all the pictures we could before hopping back on the bus. The next stop was to see that natural geysers. These geysers put Old Faithful to shame (I am told as I have not seen Old Faithful). They erupt about every 5 minutes or so shooting high into the air. The water is boiling hot, but it is soooo cold outside when it lands it would freeze on the ground. Finally we went to see where 2 tectonic plates are separating Iceland (actually causing it to grow 2-3cm per year). The area is quite beautiful and really looked like fall, trees with bright yellow and orange leaves, ponds, and of course the mountain-like plates on either side of us. Again a local suggested a Tapas place for dinner. So a group of us went there to again experience the amazing seafood of Iceland. The lobster was the best I have had. We finished the night hanging out together before having to get up in the morning to fly home.

Iceland is never a place I would have thought to visit but it was sooo worth it. That is our last official trip while we are here in London. We plan to spend the rest of our time site seeing around London and enjoying the amazing city we live in. Everything is decked out for Christmas, including Harrods with their amazing window displays set for Christmas with the Wizard of Oz theme. They have even gone so far as to change the white twinkle lights to green twinkle lights.

We are trying to stay in the moment, but looking forward to coming home to see everyone. I am sure Thanksgiving will be especially hard, but we will be with Pepperdine for a traditional dinner, a day trip to Windsor and to see a play.

Sending you all lots of love