Author: marlyn

Marvel movies have a fictional superhero, sometimes it comes in solo or in a team, all of them has a purpose to help other people. Life, on the other hand, is ain’t like any Marvel movies but it doesn’t mean we can’t help each other.

Without further due, I introduce my own “Fantastic Four!” 😉

Oh?! What is that cool place behind us? To answer that we need to get a little bit backwards 🙂

On our last day of the trip, some girls (read: many of them) are joining the Fagradalsfjall Volcano hike. However, few days prior, they started to cancel it, one by one….to the point it was only Me, Alex and Helene. We were the only 3 that still stick to the plan and simply give it a try until Jemima ma lady started to join the club. I was quiet surprise especially when she kept saying the whole time during our glacier hike “why would I do this to myself? I like the relaxing part of the trip like staying warm in a lagoon and bla bla bla” 8!tch its a half day trip, you sure what you’re doing?!

The morning came, we had breakfast in our hotel, some girls are waiting for their pick up bus to airport, check-out to another hostel and so on until our New Zealanders friend Jessica came to us, gave us her Gin….? Hmmm, we are going to do a volcano tour, Gin is literally the last thing we need? She took no responsibility of it aaannnnnddddd just put it on our table. See, our hotel is a self hotel means no receptionist, we need to clean our table right after breakfast, yes sure we have people for emergency purpose and prepare the meal but these people are somewhat invisible.

Our pick up bus arrived, I was the last person that still eating, so I put my plate to where it belong, when I turn around, Alex and Helene already not in my sight only Jemima still there therefore I say to her “Yo, the Gin! you left it there” that bitch shouted at me “Be Cool!” then walk towards the door, left me speechless. Wtf be cool supposed to mean? Being an obedient citizen, I don’t fucking litter so I took that Gin to the bus! This is my “Cool!” When I get into the bus, I repeated myself “yo, here is the Gin” and all three of them were laughing, Jemima just puzzled “Marlyn, why would you bring it here? I told you to be cool, why don’t you leave it there? Jess-the owner doesn’t want it anymore?” Well, bitch, I don’t read between the lines! Say that I have to leave it there then I’ll do it! that is why. Arrrgghhh now we stuck with a Gin and don’t know what should be do about it…… (yet)…..

Back to the real topic which is hiking the volcano that I already forget the name haha okay it’s…. scroll up, copy paste, here it is…Fagradalsfjall.

We started really good, not so far behind therefore we can stop by, make few pictures and send it to the girls who missed it! boyyahh! It was not so hard we only need to keep walking a lot….for 3 hours or so, the hike not necessarily incline up but just keep walking! It is a volcano….rocky, dusty are expected. Hiking shoes is really necessary, I ordered from them but they forgot to bring it pffff lucky me I wear my hiking boots, imagine if I come with flipflops!

There was an erruption on Fagradalsfjall unfortunately we didn’t see it because it happened 5 weeks earlier, what we saw was the ex-lava that already become black, it is still steamy though. If you stay too long yes I think the smell can really bother you.

The main attraction for Fagradalsfjall volcano is that black ex-lava things, we got 40 minutes or so to walk around the area before we go back. Since I don’t have Irina who always do whatever bullshit I asked her too, now that position belongs to Jemima and she got IPhone 13! yeahhhh btw forgot to mention, our Polish tour guide from Troll expedition, Roman-not Arturo Roman 😉 gave us a Lava chocolate and it’s good!

In my opinion, it was an easy hike, not super easy, just easy. The things that could bother us was only if we carry a heavy back pack because we were walking all the time so it will be just strenuous. Me and the girls were glad that we did it, especially Jemima, with ice and fire, she’s done with Iceland 🙂

Fantastic Four, we’ve done it! We are not saving the world but we help each other by encouraging each one of us to keep going before and during the whole hike! To me it counts as saving my world 🙂 plus, we also saves Jess’ Gin!

We are legend……. still have to wait for it 😉

Remember about 10 years ago (gosh I’m old!) there is a band called Train with their solo hit “Hey Soul Sister” yep that’s the one sentence you need to remember from them and it’s enough for this story 🙂

It all started way before our Iceland trip via FB, since me and Anu were the only two that lives in Germany we wrote each other first, discussed about what additional activity we wanted to do etc. Then she wrote in FB group about our plan to see who else is interested, Anu is a believer of ‘The More The Merrier’. Coversation got heated up but one girl stick to my mind.

Yep, Irina is with us all the way, my number one 8!tch 😉 I think I will like her.

Fast forward to when the trip actually happened, we are 18 girls (including me) I’ve never meet many new people with different background at one place ever since BC – Before Covid (fiuhhh long time ago!) hence it was quiet hard for me to remember each of the girls name, thanks God I’m not the leader haha.

On our second day in Reykjavik, we did a walking tour. One girl stood in my mind, I don’t know her name yet, we started our so-called ‘telepathic’ conversation by taking each other picture until we stumbled into one statue that was so special because clearly we both have no idea what it is all about. We decided to use it as our props 🙂 First and foremost, we don’t mean to offend any statue sculpture out there. Next thing I know is…. her name duh!… and we all 3 always find something for pictures 🙂

Please noted that we, at least me, really tried to actually paid attention to what Nana (our walking tour guide) explained but our second day was one from two days in which we experienced such a bad weather, by all means super windy, I can’t just stand still and listen, I need to move! and the Universe heard me, found this running track in one of the city center’s road. Can’t believe Irina won haha according to her, Susie let her win 😉

On our third day we did “The Golden Circle” tour, weather was super awesome! Thingvellier National Park is actually the same place from Netflix series “Down To Earth with Zac Efron” where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet, but we can’t stretch our feet in both plates, is far, if someone told you they can do that, it’s a lieeeeeeee biatch! See this gap where I can “fall down” yep that’s not the plate 😉

Thingvellier National Park is so pretty, I really like the stones, landscapes of lake Thingvallavatn. Calling all Game of Thrones fans #ring ring, the shot some scenes here!

Did I took picture with Susie and Irina? Hell yeah I did!

The Golden Circle tour continues for Geysir and Haukadalur Geothermal Area, Gullfoss Waterfall, Kerid Crater Lake. The Geysir is really “wonderful” if you stand in the right place. Me, Irina and Helene went there, saw ahhhh too many people on that area, let’s stand here here, it erupted every 4 minutes or so.

Did I tell you that when it errupt, it can be high, so high that if you stand on the wrong side of the wind, it will carried away and might or might not splash you, which exactly what happened to us! The smell though puuuhhhh now we get it why many people standing on the other side of the Geysir, well, we learned the lesson in a hard or should I say smelly way 🙂 I was mesmerized by it until….hmmmm I think the water is going to my direction…. or? ruunnnn!!!

Since I’m Indonesian, the waterfall for me just okay. We have many beautiful waterfall but with my Soul Sister and the fact that we are in Iceland everything is exciting.

Oh, we also got additonal member Jesslyn! my Malaysia girl. Second Oh! yes I like the waterfall here especially because….. we have @tracyrusso (her instagram) that took a beautiful picture of meeeeee! haha and the waterfall 😉

What I like the most from The Golden Circle tour… besides Thingvellier National Park is the Kerin Crater Lake. It has bright red volcanic rock and green blue lake at the bottom, super!

Few sneak peak of what me and my bitcheeeesssss done for our fourth day where we do “The South Coast” tour, we visited…..waterfalls….. again….. Seljalandsfoss, Gljufrabui and Skogafoss Waterfall, you’re welcome, bet you will forget any of these name in 5 4 3 2 1 HA!

After that we did a Solheimajokull Glacier! it is a 90 minutes walking in a Glacier, no place to go just walk around. We need to walk like a troll, landed with our feet flat. It’s walking on a glacier, not on the moon but not on a normal ground either, most important is DONT SIT! why you ask? because we don’t have spikes on our bum!

Then we closed our wonderful weather day with Reynisfjara Black Beach 🙂 No bikini girls, we are all layer after layer girls. Although we were quiet tired, nothing can stop us from one last pictures of the day 🙂 See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Picture taken by do no evil-Jesslyn haha

Thanks to my Soul Sister I had a great memory of this trip. I like Irina because she always put up with whatever 8ull$h!t I asked her to do 😀 Susie because either she adapt to Irish cold or come under-prepared, she walked without cramps on and no layers. Ofc Anu is one of my soul sister even though she’s demanding hahaha nooooo, joking 😉 she is the best roomate I could ever ask for but this 8!tch is never want to be on the picture! Unless…..for a glacier, she asked me to be in the picture with her! ofc we take one, I’m ready all the time, just like how Barney Stinson always ready for a picture 🙂

Iceland is legend…… wait for it!……

you really need to wait for it though ’cause more story is about to come 😉

I am very proud that my first country (outside Germany) that I had an opportunity to travel to is……. Iceland! The land of ice and fire! It is indeed come as a surprise not only to myself but also to all my German colleagues. Is Germany not cold enough so I had to go to Iceland? 😉

I was on Facebook, saw an even posted on Girl Gone International group about traveling to Iceland. Started to save some money, paid the deposit, balance of the trip, added additional activities, shopped some proper clothes and biatch it’s expensive! But well, it’s Iceland, once in a life is really enough sooo…. be it! take all my money!

The GGI tour started on 30th Oct, me and Anu arrived few days earlier but save that story for later 😉 We started our first tour in the evening for Northern Lights. We got picked up after dinner (9PM) and went somewhere up hill, still in Reykjavik though, just need to go far away from the city center because we can’t have lights around, let’s say we were in the middle of nowhere.

Our tour called @nicetraveliceland (it’s their instagram, go for it, they lived up their nice name!) parked the car, went out, starred at the sky hoping the lights will come out. Ten minutes passed by, nothing happened, sky is still dark, cold wind is all around us. Another GGI group that started one week before us saw nothing, I kind of lose hope (a bit). However faith keep me going, come on….. it’s only ten minutes let’s keep staring at the sky and faith indeed showed up! Lines after lines are coming!

Our guide from @nicetraveliceland, Magnus set up his tripod and started to take picture of us one by one. It is actually hard to stay for the picture as he was taken it with exposure so we have to hold still for 8 seconds, no blinking! But the result though, amazing!

Btw the lights keep moving hey! so at first I had 1,5 lines but it faded away to only 1 then it moved to other side, the lines are getting bigger, just WOW! Still can’t fathom about how spectacular is that! Of course having a professional camera made the green is greener but look at this video made with a mobile phone! I think it was Dana’s Iphone but can’t remember it anyway the point is it’s pretty clear too!

We are reaaallllyyyy far from over it heyyy! Thanks God we had Tracy, @tracyrusso (her instagram, she took professional pictures too!) She already practiced how to take Northern Lights pictures, we literally had no idea how much she tried to get such a perfect one! She was like, I can only do silhouette because my skill is not there yet… just wait… her skill is really there! BAM!

We stayed for 2 hours outside, being totally impressed with the sky, the cold doesn’t bother us no more.

Does the light really green? yes it is green not that neon because the camera can take more clearer picture than our eyes. So how does it looks like then? Well, see below pictures that Erin took with her mobile phone on a different minutes. This is how our eyes see it or maybe one level below this aber trozdem it was green enough for me.

As if it’s not enough, we saw it on the second day too 🙂 The weather was very very very terrible on our second day, I thought I know what windy is, nope! I was completely mistaken, I had to come to Iceland to know what is the real meaning of windy! I wanted to go to Sun Voyager statue but can’t do it anymore so we decided to head home, waited on the bus station and this is the moment where just a little faith is what we need. We saw the Northern Lights in the city center! Kimmy was the one who recognize it and whoooaaaaaaa all the girls were shouting happily about it! However, since it’s city center so the neon green was super light because we have many lights inside the city. This is how it looks like, imagine if we went in the middle of nowhere too, then we can see it crystal clear, or should I say…. neon clear 😉

We can’t stop talking about it during next day trip where we went to do our Golden Circle Tour with our guide from obv @nicetraveliceland, Christina. We finished our tour quiet late at night around 8PM then she did the unbelievable, sudden break, van stopped, said “let me check something” we were tired at that point, don’t have any energy to give a damn about what she’s checking. She came back with a smile on her face followed by a sentence “you guys are the luckiest group so far” showed us the picture from her Xiaomi mobile phone, it’s the Northern Lights again!!!! Whoooaaaa shouting all over, running outside the van, jumping like hell! We can’t believe that we saw it 3 days in a row!!! I think we stopped there for almost one hour or so 😉 can’t stop me from this!

Scroll up to the part where I wrote @tracyrusso only took silhouette photo? Not this time 🙂 she took a front photo, booyyahh she really got the skill! Erin helped as our lighting by shining a flash light for few seconds to us and slowly moved back and in the end we all took picture hoping some car will passed by to give us the light we need 🙂

It’s really hard to put into words about how I feel seeing these amazing Northern Lights for 3 day in a row! I am simply just grateful, imagine if I join the tour a week earlier, I wouldn’t see any of it and imagine if all the girls were not stay for a solid two hours, I wouldn’t have seen how the light moves.

Sometimes having a faith that things will works out for you is really what it takes, even when it’s just a little 🙂

Iceland is nice!