Tag: Travelling Edition

Since Anu and I arrived Iceland 2 days earlier than our official tour, we got a chance to do some activities that is not included in the tour. I have to confess that I do feel a bit of FOMO if I didn’t put myself into doing it all simply because it’s Iceland! A country name Ice and Land together? doesn’t seems to be a country that I would like to have a repetition visit, you know what I mean 😉 Therefore any available options out there? I’m doing it! Even if I have to sell my kidney or eating grass until New Years? be it!

When we landed Iceland the first time, it was already in the afternoon and it took us almost 1,5 hours from Keflavik Airport to Oddsson Hotel. Both of us decided to just eat KFC and go to sleep because the next day we have our Whale Watching Tour 🙂 I do believe it was the right decision to relax on our first arrival day.

Morning came, get ready to see the whale! or so I thought. There were some girls from GGI too that went one week before us who also extended their staying like Anke, Sissy, Violet, Linke, Dana so we went to do the whale watching tour together. It was a 3 hours tour because the boat needs to go somewhere far away from the shore to catch where all of these dolphin and whale lives. It was so cold and very very very very bumpy! I had to take a motion sickness pill to make sure that I didn’t throw up during the ride. On our 1,5 hours way we only see birds but on our 1,5 hours back we did see dolphins and whale. Was it beautiful? hard to say because I saw more when I was in Maldives. Did I see a whale? Yes but the whale didn’t jump, just the tip of the whale from a very very far distance. If I knew I would only see what I saw, I would not do this trip, it was rather disappointing imho. But again, I said disappointing because I went to Maldives before ofc I didn’t see whale there but I “don’t see” whale here either….so…… However, there always be a lesson to learn from everything and what I take from this experience is, I won’t do whale watching activity ever again 😉

Btw! they also do Northern Lights Tour from the boat, mark my word, NO NO NO NO NO! Don’t ever do that! do the normal one, on the road, you can see and enjoy it better because Northern Lights must be somewhere between 21:00-00:00 you don’t want to be in the middle of the ocean at that time! NO! You’re welcome 🙂

We finished around 12:30 so we still have time to add another activity which I loveeeeeeee and it is riding an Icelandic horse, they are adorable! It is not a Pony! yes it’s smaller than a so-called “normal horse” but never ever ever called it a Pony, it’s a big insult for the Icelanders. You will smell like a horse with this activity but it worthy! No matter how ready you are with your clothes, still wear their clothes on top, it’s a new fashion line 🙂

I’ve told them that I never ride on a horse before so they gave me a small one named Sleeping Beauty. Awwww my heart! I love her already! We went to a lot of places, through the water, muddy road, grass, thank you my Sleeping Beauty!

I am very happy with my additional horse riding activity even though I came back with somewhat of a back pain (gezzz! I’m old!). But I really enjoy it, sure it feels a bit shocking when Sleeping Beauty suddenly decided to eat a grass, I need to bend myself towards it or when she decided to run I feel ticklish haha. Nevertheless, I will do it again, the experience was wonderful, those horses are beautiful 🙂

Next day, our official GGI Tour starts in the evening with welcoming dinner plus Northern Lights. Still, we got plenty of time during the day to add one more activity. This time, more girls from our tour started to arrive, I am talking about Kimmy the leader, Irina my bitch and Louise the Viking Lady. We decided to go to….. drumrools….

Blue Lagoon is such an amaazinngggggggg place! Okay, here is the deal with this place, you need to take shower before you enter the lagoon, DO NOT put your hair on the water because it will make your hair dry, don’t do what the Instagram Influencer or James Bond girl coming inside out from water etc nope nope nope, you definitely need a plastic cover things for your phone because there is no place to put it on the lagoon-bank or whatever place you called it. It is very steamy 38 degree Celcius, don’t wear your glasses because either way you can’t see, don’t wear any accessories or else it might get black. You get one drink for free, if you’re rich you can buy again but we were poor peasant haha so we hold on to that cup and just drink water afterwards 🙂

Then, we got one silica mud mask and after 10 minutes just wash it with the same water that we were in haha

See it is very steamy therefore it wasn’t so easy to take picture but it will be one of the experience you won’t forget, I am sure about it! The Lagoon is not deep, just in case you are wondering, for tall people they might need to crawl to make sure the water cover their chest which not a problem for me at all I can walk with my feet touch the ground all the time 🙂

It’s expensive but so worthy! The guy there said that we can also see Northern Lights from Blue Lagoon because it’s really far from the city center, the bus ride took us 1,5 hour or so. I think this will be such a cool experience while everyone freezing outside you will just chill in the lagoon, damn! Now I really want to do that 🙂

They also have Blue Lagoon shop where everything is just crazy expensive, my credit card is not ready for that 😀 I need to have a buyer for my kidney first so I can shop there mwahaha sounds extreme but the price is really extreme guys! Nevertheless, I like it so freaking much! and no matter how pricey it is, go there and it will be the best 4 hours you could do to yourself before you buckle up with your winter clothes again 🙂

Bottom line….. if you have more days in Iceland…. add horse riding and Blue Lagoon activity but substract whale watching. Just my two cents, don’t blame me if one of your friend do the whale and really saw it jumping. I just tell you what I experienced, you will still be in charge for your own decision 😉

Iceland is really a Niceland <3

Remember I told you we had a bad weather during our second day when we did Reykjavik City Tour, well this is the second bad day. Unlike the first which only super windy, on our fifth day we hit a jackpot, windy and rainy. Best combination we could ever asked for O.O

We called our fifth day tour as “The Snaefellsnes Peninsula” we were warned by our @nicetraveliceland tour guide Christina that we will have a rainy day so dress warm. However, we greeted by a very nice sunrise that made us to stop by to enjoy our last chance before the Icelandic rain welcomed us, yes people it was not like any normal rain I ever had before 😉 gear up!

There are two famous films that had their scene taken here so no doubt about how beautiful this Snaefellsnes Peninsula must be.

First film / movie is Journey to the Center of the Earth, I had to admit that I didn’t really pay attention about this as we started to wear our waterproof clothes, it was really rain on me! The combination of rain and wind is something that you simply can’t do anything, plus the fact that I wear glasses that leads to a direction that I actually see almost nothing 🙁

It did went down when we went to next destination that’s called Ytri tunga Seal Colony. The Seals are visible from a verrrryyyyyyyyy distant, they were just chilling on top of a rock, what a life 🙂 In this place there also a skeleton of a whale that was unfortunately die, @tracyrusso captured it but I can’t stay too long there because the smell is still somewhat strong, hurry, crossed the small bridge with Louise but still managed to get one shot from Tracy, always have a time for pose haha

Then we headed to Black Church Budakirkja. It is a veeerrrrryyyyyy small church but people from all over the world come there to get married. What famous about this Budakirkja is because it was built by a local woman despite the church authorities not being very interested in having a church there….surrounded by nature and seals, to me it didn’t sounds so bad.

Then we visited Arnarstapi which has the marvellous sea arch of Gatklettur, the “Rock with a Hole”. The coastline is very beautiful color combination with black lava rocks and, green and bright yellow mosses, wow! However I can’t say that I enjoy being there, I enjoy seeing it yes for sure and I think this video will do the justice.

Yes it was really hard to walk on so I just keep some distance, don’t want the wind to carry me and fall from the cliff, that will be just dramatic! The same thing happened when we went to Londrangar Cliffs and Black Beach of Djupalonssandur. In the Djupalonssandur they have the famous “Lifting Stones” unfortunately the road there was closed due to some construction site but if you are there you will see 4 stones called Fullsterkur (more than 150kg), Halfsterkur (100kg), Halfdraettingur (54kg) and Amlodi (23kg). Advice from Christina @nicetraveliceland, do not even try to carry the 54kg because it’s a stone! and you will break your bones, not worthy! better safe than sorry, we don’t need to proof that we are able to go fishing with the Vikings, just accept that we can’t hahaha! so encouraging, I know 😀

But on our last stop to Kirkjufell, the rain has stopped! it was the most photographed mountain in Iceland and why is that? Because Game of Thrones was shot here! Known as Arrowhead mountain 🙂 Woaaaaa! Even though I didn’t watch the series, I was super excited due to no rain and I can see something again!

Ofc @tracyrusso is ready with her professional camera and GOT opening song!

I still think this Snaefellsnes Peninsula or translates as “Snow Mountain Peninsula” Tour is actually a really good one, still second to my first Golden Circle Tour though, but if we had a beautiful weather I might not be able to chose which one is my fav 🙂

Despite all of the rain and wind disruption, Iceland is still legend…… wait for it 😉

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!