I left Australia the 20^th of May, and after short stays in Dubai, Ireland and Scotland, I was about to visit my 4^th country: Iceland.

I landed in Keflavik, 40km from the capital Reykjavik, around 9pm. It was less than 10degC, raining cats and dogs and my head was hurting from the multiple pints I shared with Ben at Edinburgh airport. In Dubai, Dublin and Scotland, I was staying at my friends’ place, but for the first time since I left Australia, I was on my own and wondering what I was doing there. I checked in a hostel I had previously booked in the city centre, and it did not take me long to meet a few friends. We planned to go for a drive for the next 2 days to Blue Lagoon and Golden Circle with the team: Tarik, the driver, French with Moroccan background, Thuy, German with Vietnamese background, and Vicky, American with Nigerian background.

Iceland is quite a small country: 100,000km2, a bit smaller than England. There are about 330,000 Icelandic people, one of the less populated countries in the World. It is located 3 hours flight from the UK, and about as much from the US. Which explains why we met so many American and Canadian people. The Northern tip of Iceland is located just 13km under the Artic circle. Temperatures are not extremely cold (from -10degC to +20degC) because the ocean regulates the climate, but I have heard Icelandic themselves say: ‘Here we have 2 seasons: cold and very cold!’. Luckily, we are at the start of the summer, temperatures are around 10deg, and I am well equipped.The first day, the weather was terrible at the start, but it stopped raining when we got close to the Blue Lagoon.The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa located in a lava field. The water temperature is between 35 and 39degC.It feels extremely cold outside and we stayed more than 2 hours in the warm water.Mud masks and silica cream are free.Beers aren’t free, but I could not say no to anything! Who would say no to a beer anyway?The day after, we went to the highly touristic Golden Circle, a 300km road with natural attractions: Pingvellir National park, Geyser of Haukadalur, Gulfoss waterfall and Kerid crater. After these 2 days, I had visited the South West of the island.The tectonic plates of North America and Europe/Asia split in Iceland, explaining the numerous volcanoes on the island (100 inactive, 30 active). Apparently, we were right in the middle of the 2 plates. And I touched the snow again, 3 and half years later!There are thousands of waterfalls in Iceland. A few only are accessible and Gulfoss is one of them. In terms of flow, it is one of the largest waterfalls in Europe. The scenery is impressively powerful, and the sun is back!At the airport, I could see a sign: ‘Power in Iceland comes from renewable energy: waterfalls, waves, wind, etc…’ With volcanic activity, comes underground heating. The water isn’t heated with gas or electricity, but extracted from underground, stored in huge isolated tanks and distributed via isolated pipes to the villages.The geyser of Haukadalur shows the pressure building up underground and expulsing the boiling water up to 70m high every 3 or 4 minutes. Here is a picture but I managed to capture a video, to be seen in a few articles.

The geyser gets a bit boring after a while, but there is a hill nearby, worth climbing:Last step for today: Kerid Crater, a volcano perfectly round shaped.