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Finding my British Roots, eh?

a travel blog by valnyhout


I'm off to England with my Canadian and British passports to see Angela and Ollie! Then I will go backpacking with my sisters to Italy and France. Then back to England for some more visiting/sightseeing and then finally to Iceland.
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Nice Land

Reykjavik, Iceland


Yesterday we flew to Iceland. It was a medium flight – it took about 3 hours. Iceland looks really nice. It is really, really cold. We drove to the city of Reykjavik. On the drive we saw dirt and sand and rocks. There were no trees and no grass. We could see mountains with snow and the sea. It was pretty. When we got to Reykjavik we finally saw trees but the trees aren’t that big. We got our hotel room.

It was big. It is the biggest hotel room I’ve been in. The water from the taps smells - Dad told me it is a sulpher smell. We went out to do some grocery shopping and walked down to the sea. It was pretty.
We took lots of pictures. I was looking at all the restaurants. We bought some food to make dinner in our hotel room. We also had breakfast in our hotel room this morning. Last night the sun hadn't set when I went to bed at 11:00. Crazy. This afternoon we are going to do something like go to the Pearl. Tonight we are driving to another hotel. I hope it is not bigger than this.


permalink written by  valnyhout on May 7, 2009 from Reykjavik, Iceland
from the travel blog: Finding my British Roots, eh?
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Our last days in Iceland

Skaftafell, Iceland


On Friday morning we walked around the city of Reykjavik. We did some shopping and I mocked a polar bear.
We went to The Pearl. From the top you can see the whole city. It was really nice but it was cold out there. We walked to the water and it was very chilly. We didn’t stay very long.
Late in the day we drove all the way down the coast for four hours. Our hotel was called Hotel Laki. There were two dogs at the hotel but they spoke Icelandic not English so they didn’t understand me but one of the dogs, we named him Marcus, was my friend and tried to come in my room through the balcony door. From my room I could see horses and the mountains and a lake. There was a pool table there and Ollie and I played against Dad and Angela.
There is always fish for breakfast here. There is breakfast stuff like we eat at home.
In the morning we walked up a huge mountain. I was running a marathon. At the top of the mountain there was a waterfall called Skaftafoss. Foss is Icelandic for waterfall. The falls were awesome. We went back down the mountain – that was easier than climbing up. Next we went to see a glacier. The ice is from the last ice age.
It looked a little bit like a zebra because it was striped. Jackie was terrified and we were all really cold.
We then went to our next hotel, in a place called Dyrholaey. We stayed there because we read you might be able to see puffins there.. The first night we looked and looked for puffins. Right now the puffins are staying in their nests with their eggs and their nests are really high in the cliffs over the water. I haven’t eaten any puffin yet either because it has not been on any menus but everyone here says they do eat it and it tastes like duck. They say they eat it with a fruit sauce. Then we were off to another foss. This one is called Skogafoss. You can walk behind it. It was so cold and windy!
The wind picks up the black lava dirt and spins it around. It looks like little tiny tornados all over the place.
This morning we went puffin hunting again and we saw some puffin track sand puffin feathers but no puffins. We were on a beautiful beach.
The sand on the beach is black. At first the weather was nice and sunny but then the wind came back. We drove past a waterfall and more water was going up than down because of the wind.
We went to Geysir. It was really hot if you touch it you would get really hurt.
The geyser bubbles water and then all of a sudden it shoots up in the air. It does this every few minutes and I clapped every time it erupted. We had lunch in a restaurant that looked out over the geyser. After this we went to another waterfall called Gullfoss. It was amazing.
It was really big. Then we drove a bit more and went to Thingvellir. I liked the science stuff there because there was two plates, one was Europe and one was North America so I stood on both.

Then we went to look at some Icelandic horses. It was too cold to ride them but I petted lots of them.
It was a really fun day in Iceland. Tomorrow we are going to the Blue Lagoon and then back to Canada. I am excited to see everyone at school. I am going to sleep in the airplane so I’m not too tired.

Icelandic Words of the day:

godan daginn = good morning
goda nott = good night
vegabref = passport
svefnherbergi = bed
kort = map
lest = train (but they do not have trains in Iceland)




permalink written by  valnyhout on May 9, 2009 from Skaftafell, Iceland
from the travel blog: Finding my British Roots, eh?
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Last Stop - Blue Lagoon

Keflavik, Iceland


Last day in Iceland and we went to the Blue Lagoon. We finally got out of the cold! The lagoon is outside but it is really warm water and we swam in it. The water is turquoise and the sand on the bottom is like the black sand we saw at the beach. There is a waterfall shower outside and we put mud on our faces. We had drinks in the lagoon as well. It is really nice and relaxing. We stayed there for the whole morning before we went to the airport.
We said goodbye to Angela and Ollie at the airport. It was very sad because we will not see them again until the end of the summer. They flew back to England and we got on our plane to fly home. I'm glad to be going home but I’ve had an awesome time.


permalink written by  valnyhout on May 10, 2009 from Keflavik, Iceland
from the travel blog: Finding my British Roots, eh?
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