Golden Circle; Explore Reykjavik; prepare for backpacking (Reykjavik Campsites)

Today we’ll have a planned itinerary to explore the southern coast of Iceland and see multiple sites around town. Breakfast is served at the Hostel from 7am-930am for 1.550 ISK (roughly $12.60). From there, we’ll head out and explore! This is group time together, so plan on sticking with a big mass of USF! We’ll camping just outside the hostel, so make sure to take all your belongings out with you for the day or check them in short term storage!

Lodging: Camping Reykjavik Campsite
Meals Included: Lunch

Explore Reykjavik; staff grocery shopping (Reykjavik Campsites)

Today is your free day to explore the city on your own or do any tours you might be wanting to try out. At the bottom of this itinerary, you have a list of suggested tours and bookings you can make on your own ahead of time or in country. You are also welcome to join the staff as we finalize our in-country shopping for food and gear! We’ll camping just outside the hostel, so make sure to take all your belongings out with you for the day or check them in short term storage!

Lodging: Camping Reykjavik Campsite

Hið íslenzka reðasafn

Bíó Paradís

Whale Tour/Lava Tour

Arrive in Reykjavik @ ~9am; transport to campground (Reykjavik Campsites)

Various participant arrival times as early as 5am local time. Upon arrival, proceed thru baggage claim and customs until you exit the airport. From there, you’ll catch the FlyBus transportation with your pre-booked ticket that has been emailed to you. It will drop you off at the Reykjavik City Hostel where you can meet with the trip leaders. You have free time this day to explore and relax. We’ll meet up at 6pm local time at the Reykjavik City Hostel lobby for our official first meeting of all participants. We’ll head out for a group dinner before turning in for the night. We’ll camping just outside the hostel, so make sure to take all your belongings out with you for the day or check them in short term storage!

Lodging: Camping Reykjavik Campsite
Meals Included: Dinner

Elliðaárdalur

We arrived at KEF airport around 1:15 PM ish. All of our bags came in safe and sound. Then we headed out on the hour long FlyBus to Reykjavik City Hostel. FlyBus was super simple and easy to find, highly recommend. Checked into Reykjavik City Hostel around 3:00 PM, then we set off to explore! We started our day off making a pit stop at Joe & the Juice. (This seems to be Iceland’s version of Starbucks, but with way better yogurt options.) Then we made reservations at Valkyrie Tattoo Studio with Hertha August 16th to received an Icelandic hand poke tattoo. After that we walked through Reykjavik to see Tjörnin pond and continued our urban exploration to the Perlan museum to see the man-made glacier ice cave. As a Floridian, that was the coldest I have ever experienced in my life haha. We made our way back to the hostel after that and stopped at Reykjavik Sausage Company for dinner to try the iconic Icelandic “Pylsur”. I hope you enjoy our pictures from today!

Alright. We are good to go. Got our backpacks checked and went through security with hours to spare haha. Sat down at Ducky’s for some brunch at 10:40 AM EST, our first plane ride to Washington doesn’t board till 1:35 PM EST. We just found out that only 1 out of the 3 plane rides will have USB ports/electric. Plenty of time for naps and book reading. 1984 by George Orwell, and Lorelei has The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. So far so good, definitely going to miss Hawkeye these next two weeks but I am sure Iceland will offer dog treat/toy souvenirs. Now we wait till 1:35 for our first flight!

———————————————————————————————–

Days blend together with 1 layover in Washington and 1 layover in Frankfurt, Germany. My time stamps in my mind are all jumbled. But good news! We both got our first passport stamps in Germany last night/this morning. Now onto the fun stuff 🙂

• 

• 

• 

• 

Today we got everything all packed up! Not going to lie…the female in me definitely over packed for sure. We each have; (1) duffel bag filled with city clothes, (1) backpacking pack filled with the primitive gear, (1) fanny pack filled with documents, mula, phones, etc, and (1) day pack filled with plane snacks, electronics, a book, head phones, and the essentials. We also have off to the side a travel blanket and pillow for our flight over.

We checked in for our flight and everything is good to go on that end. The only thing I am worried about is that our ‘checked’ backpacking bags could present some trouble. Definitely have to tape my hiking sticks down cause they keep sliding out.

We have all our paper work printed out too, which includes;

• Boarding Passes
• Travel Insurance
• International Health Insurance
• Hostel Confirmation
• FlyBus Passes (For transportation from the Airport to the Hostel)
• General Phone numbers and addresses

I am so ready!! Lucky Lorelei, she got a window seat for the flight landing into Iceland! Now just clearing out my photo storage on my cameras for this trip and we are good to go.

Activities

• Glymur
• Laugavegur
• Tjörnin
• Elliðaárdalur
• Perlan
• Valkyrie Tattoo Studio
• Kolaportid Flea Market
• Hið íslenzka reðasafn
• Whale Tour

Food Items

• Langoustine
• Lamb
• Lobster or fish stew
• Cured Shark
• Brennivín
• Minke Whale
• Horse
• Icelandic rye bread, or rúgbrauð

Restaurants

• Kaffi Lækur
• JOE & THE JUICE
• Krúska
• Flóran Garden Bistro
• Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur
• Icelandic Fish and Chips
• Icelandic Street Food
• Íslenska Hamborgarafabrikkan
• Svarta Kaffið
• Café Loki
• SKÚBB Ice Cream
• DILL Restaurant
• Snaps Bistro
• 3 Frakkar
• Grillmarkadurinn (Grill Market)
• Fiskmarkaðurinn (“Fishmarket”)
• Sægreifinn (Seabarin)
• Tapas Barinn
• Sjavargrillid (Seafood Grill)
• Nostra Restaurant
• Lava

Hey reader! My name is Mikayla. Before we get started I should mention my sister’s name is Lorelei. We will be blogging about our trip to Iceland this August.

We are both students at the University of South Florida, which is how we found out about this trip. The University of Florida has an outdoor program where they host Adventure Trips for the students and community alike. Iceland is one of their popular Adventure Abroad Adventure Trips. If you would like to find out more about all the Adventure Trips USF has to offer, the link is below:

https://campusrecshop.usf.edu/Program/GetProducts?productTypeCV=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000003502&classification=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000026001

A couple of things about us; first off we are not twins! I am older, Lorelei is my little sister. (: We are creating this blog to help capture every detail on our first trip outside of the United States of America. We also want others who are interested in visiting Iceland or going on one of USF’s many Adventure Trips to be able to reference our travels for their own knowledge as well!

I hope to include everything about our trip from trip prep before we leave to the flight back. There is about a 5 day period where we will be backpacking and have zero access to Internet, this period will be recorded via journal and updated when we get back to Reykjavik.

I would love to hear any feedback, questions, comment and or concerns! Feel free to contact me at mdennett@mail.usf.edu