I would not necessarily say I am a nature person.

Do I love nature? Of course! I love snow and mountains and sunrises/sunsets and all kinds of other beautiful things that are awe-inspiring and magnificent.

Do I enjoy any type of activity in nature? Eh, not necessarily. I have never particularly enjoyed camping, fishing, or long nature walks. I blame it on the fact that I either get a) cold or b) allergies.

When we decided to visit Iceland, it was purely for the Northern Lights. I hadn't really looked into many other things to check out there. I seem to be getting more and more lacksidasical about my trip planning. Should have learned my lesson from Bucharest!

Once we arrived in Reykjavik, I realised it was a nature lovers paradise. From the ocean to mountains to waterfalls and miracles of nature like the Northern Lights and geysirs, how could you not love it?

And to be honest, I fell back in love with nature. This love is made possible by the fact that there was no camping and the lack of trees seemed to be good for my allergies.

So how did I bond with nature on our trip?

We started off easy with the Blue Lagoon (not to be confused with the Blue Lagoon in Ölüdeniz). This is a geothermal pool which they have fancied up and opened up to visitors. You can lounge in the water naturally around 40 degrees celsius (100 farenheit) and cover yourself up in the silica that helps give the water its white hue. If you really want to pamper yourself, you can get massages and more, but we stuck with soaking in the pool til our fingers wrinkled, eating lunch, then repeating.

The next day, we tackled the Golden Circle. This drive takes you through a lot of Icelandic landscape and some of the best natural treasures.


First stop on our tour was Gullfoss, the golden waterfall. The river, Hvítá, it originated from is made up of run-off from the glaciers. Upon it's discovery, it was almost lost to developers who wanted to harness the water for electricity. Luckily, it was saved from that fate and is now a popular stop on the Golden Circle. And I'm told if you catch it on a sunny day, you're likely to see a rainbow spanning the falls.

Next up on the circle - the Geysers! The valley we visited included several geysers, including Geysir (yes, that's right) and Stokkur, along with tens of other smaller geysers. The whole area appears to be smoking upon your arrival. As you walk among the clouds of smoke and bubbling water, you may see Stokkur erupt in the background. Luckily, it's still active and goes off every 5-10 minutes, so if you stand there long enough, you'll be lucky enough to see it go off. Or in our case, see it go off 5 times. Nearby is the larger Geysir, but it isn't as active anymore, so we missed out on the show. This was my first time to see a geyser and it was captivating to sit there, watching the water slosh, boil and bubble, just tensing and waiting for the inevitable explosion. And yet every time it happens, you're surprised!

As we were waiting for Stokkur to go off, Paul began a count- down from 10. All of a sudden, when he got to zero, the geyser erupted, as if on command! Clearly, I got a kick out of the coincidence

The geyser Stokkur in action

Let me preface this by saying that I had way too high of expectations. I did not really think much about NOT seeing the lights. I just made the assumption that we would, and went ready to go, with my camera, tripod and camera settings prepared for capturing the lights.

When we arrived into Iceland, we went the first night to try and spy the infamous lights.  Our driver warned us that they hadn't been seen much over the last couple of weeks.

What?! I may not see Aurora Borealis? 

Well, I started to get anxious.

We drove about 30 minutes outside of the city, in the cold, cold of Iceland (although they would tell you it was warm for winter!) and stood there for 30 minutes.

No lights. Now I'm really starting to get anxious.

Other people say they see the lights. I say they are crazy. Or are they. My eyes start to play tricks on me and I think I see things dancing around.

Then I finally see them. They had been there the whole time, not as vivid to the naked eye as pictures, but hiding behind the stars. You can start to pick up the movements, subtle, but there, flickering, appearing, disappearing.


Finally, after 1.5 hours, my toes are freezing and the lights seem to be subsiding. Its midnight, which means the tour is up. I head back to the bus, only to turn right back around because the lights are putting on a show!

This was truly what you expect to see of the lights. Jumping, dancing, moving about in swirling lines. It was mesmerising and all across the sky. I felt awed and so lucky that despite all the odds, we saw the Northern Lights on our first night.


Apparently, March is a good month for the lights - who knows exactly why besides the scientists. We went to the beach on our last night in town, just hoping for a peek behind all the city lights.

And there they were again, waving us goodbye.

Wanting to capture the lights yourself? Here's what you'll need:

1. A camera where you can adjust the ISO, aperture and shutter speed. A DSLR would be great, but some point and shoots have this now

2. A tripod - you REALLY need a tripod. If it has longer legs, great, then you don't have to squat to deal with the camera

You can find tons online about the best settings to use on a camera. I personally used a 3.5 F-Stop, 800 ISO and 30 second shutter speed. If you have a lower F-Stop OR higher ISO, you can reduce the shutter speed. Make sure you get it all ready before you leave because you'll never know when the lights will appear!

I had visited a few times for work. It was a glamorous, fly in at night, eat room service, go to a meeting, fly out the next day. Once, I squeezed in a quick dinner out on the town and a fast (very fast) roam through of the Red Light District.

Canals of the Red Light district at night

So, when the chance came to really explore the city for a weekend, we jumped on it.

We opted to fly instead of take the Eurorail - while the Eurorail is great for Paris, it isn't direct into Amsterdam, and takes about 4.5 hours, which is pretty comparable to flying when you add in security.

When we got into town, it was late and freeeeezing. Welcome to Europe in the winter. We wandered the streets and found a good restaurant to warm ourselves up in before hunkering down for the night.

Iconic Amsterdam sign outside the Rijks Museum

Saturday, we woke up early to grab a quick bite and start our exploring! First up was Anne Frank's house. Despite having read her diary, it had been a long time and some things seem to be easiest to understand when you see it in front of your eyes. We walked up the narrow staircase which was covered by a bookcase to hide their existence; we saw the room which she plastered with photos and images to make it feel like home. We saw pages of her diary, which she hoped to be published once the war ended. While the building itself was just empty rooms, there were quite a few multimedia exhibits to give more information and insight on both Anne Frank and the war.

Paul on the canals around Anne Frank's house

Next, we decided to take the tram over to the Rijks Museum. The reason most people visit is the Night Watch, the giant Rembrandt masterpiece, but the museum also houses other pieces important to Dutch history. Perhaps because it is currently under construction, it seemed a bit small; we may have missed out on some works that are usually part of the permanent collection. 

My favorite painting at the Rijks - the Angry Swan as I call it It's supposed to also represent how the political leader Johan de Witt defended the Dutch against their enemies

After all the museuming, we decided it was time for a break. Next up: Heineken Experience! Since Paul used to be a home-brewer himself, we have always enjoyed brewery tours. And by we, I mostly mean Paul as he quizzes others on their yeast, hops and other brewing things. This tour however, focused quite a bit on their history versus the brewing (although this was included, just more interactive versus educational), as what you are touring isn't an operational brewery. By far, the best part was the beer itself. As someone who doesn't like beer, I finished my samples off with no problem!

One of the old Heineken logos and barrels

On our last day in Amsterdam, we decided to slow things down and take in the works of Netherlands most famous artist - Van Gogh. Usually, these would be found in the Van Gogh Museum, but like the Rijks Museum, it is under construction. However, many of the pieces have found a temporary home in the Hermitage Museum. This was by far my favorite part of the trip.

Everyone knows Van Gogh's most iconic works, but I didn't know anything about his story. How at 27, he just decided to become a painter and made it happen. He tried to emulate many others works to increase his talent and you can see it in his paintings. From impressionism to Japanese art work, his techniques, and his subjects are varied. It was interesting to walk through each subject and see in what time period it was painted. The museum itself houses some of his most famous pieces, including the room, the sunflowers and the cherry blossoms.

How did we wrap up the trip? Walking back to the train station in the snow. One of the first times I have been happy to return to winter weather in London!