A zero waste blog. Join me on my journey as I reduce my waste and move towards a simple, vegan and zero waste lifestyle.

Showing posts with label explore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label explore. Show all posts

Postcard from Iceland

on
Saturday 10 March 2018
Disclaimer: I should have uploaded these photos about weeks ago, but life has been pretty busy and I just haven't had the time. If you want to know what I've been up to I did a life update blog here.

I've been wanting to visit Iceland for years, so I jumped at the chance to go when Vanessa invited me along on her birthday trip. So at the end of January, myself, Vanessa, Nat, Gemma and Kevin headed off to Iceland.

We arrived on Thursday and spend the evening exploring, then got up early on Friday where our first stop was The Icelandic Phallological Museum. which is home to the largest collection of penises in the world. There's a lot of people who probably think this is a bit weird for me, especially given my love of animals but it really was the most weirdly fascinating place that I've ever seen. Here's a picture of me posing beside the penis of a sperm whale (that's certainly a sentence I never thought I would say out loud).



After the museum, we took a walk around Reykjavik before we headed for the Blue Lagoon which was the most magical place I've ever been. Despite it being such a tourist hub, they don't oversell tickets, so it doesn't ever seem that busy. We spend about 3 hours in there - we had a drink, did a few face masks, enjoyed the steam room, and felt very, very relaxed.

We spent Saturday driving round the Golden Circle. We stopped at the Þingvellir Natonal Park first which looked very different than it did on the tourist board. We got a group photo taken and we were actually standing on top of a picnic table which had been completely covered in snow. 
I feel like everyone else loved the Geysir but me. I don't know if it was the fact that it didn't look as effective in the snow or because there was literally 100 tourists standing around it with their cameras out waiting to take photos, but I didn't love it. In fact, I actually enjoyed the gift shop more than actually natural wonder.

My favourite place on the route was Gullfoss Waterfall. I don't think I've ever seen anything so spectacular in my life. Due to the winter conditions, there was a gate preventing us from going closer to it, but everyone seemed to be ignoring it and just climbing over the gate anyway. The path was completely covered in ice, so I obviously fell over but it was worth it for the view you got when you reached the top. I mean just look at how amazing that view is...
On our final day, we decided to spend it in Reykjavik before we had to head back to the airport. First stop, was a really cool flea market before we split up for lunch and shopping. I went to a vegan drive thru which was really cool (my review is here if you want to read it) and then picked up some souvenirs to take back home for my family.

Vegan food in Iceland

on
Friday 2 February 2018
It's the land of dried fish, sheep head, and shark, so it's safe to say I had my reservations about how much vegan food I would actually find in Iceland. As it turns out, there are lots of great options.

In a bid to save some cash (because Iceland is VERY expensive) we did eat quite a few meals in our apartment. I took oats with me for porridge and found some strawberries and syrup at the local shop, and we made a giant pot of veggie pasta which lasted us two nights. However, when I did eat out I discovered some really tasty food.

The first place I found was Kaffi Vinyl which is a completely vegan bar/café and record store right in the centre of Reykjavik. There were lots of options on the menu including salads, sandwiches, pasta, and a burger. They also had cocktails and a selection of delicious looking cakes on the counter.

I had the Mile High Club sandwich which was filled with tomato, portobello bacon, avocado, lettuce, garlic aioli, dijon mustard, crispy fried onions, melted cheese and the biggest pile of crisps I've ever seen. It was really tasty, even if I couldn't quite manage to finish all the crisps on the plate.

The second place I tried was a fast food restaurant called Aktu Taktu which I had read about online. It's like McDonalds but a lot better. They have a selection of burgers on the menu including a vegan one which consists of a soya patty with cheese, salad and sauce.

I've never had an actual meat burger before, so it was a strange experience to even order a burger in a fast food restaurant, but I really enjoyed it. I also saw another girl come in after me and order the vegan burger too.It would be nice if there was another option on the menu, but it was much pretty than you would get in similar places in the UK.
So that was my vegan experience in Iceland. Have you ever been? I'd love to know your recommendations as I'm planning to go back sometime soon.