Our Iceland Getaway | Part One | Reykjavik & The Northern Lights

I can’t believe I have STILL not gotten around to blogging about our trip to Iceland! It was seriously the most amazing trip and the ultimate birthday celebration! I could not ask for a better way to ring in 30! It was quite the whirl wind trip – we were only there for 3 1/2 days! – but we still did SO much in that short amount of time!

Day 1: We left D.C. at about 8:30 PM on Thursday and landed in Reykjavik at 6:30 AM on Friday morning – although the flight is only 5 hours. After taking the airport bus into Reykjavik, we headed to our hotel for a quick nap (definitely needed). Friday was my actual birthday and we were headed out to the Northern Lights so definitely knew we needed some sleep!!

After a nap and a shower, we headed out to tour downtown Reykjavik. This is such a cute city. The homes kind of remind me of coastal cities at home and are so bright and colorful. We had the most windy but PERFECT weather on our first day and it made the view (above) from the top of their tallest cathedral absolutely breathtaking!

This picture of the bay of Reykjavik does little justice to the absolute splendor of this view. It’s not every day you walk around with such an incredible back drop, and this one was seriously breathtaking.

Our next stop was lunch and oh my gosh, if you’re ever in Iceland, you have got to check out Islenski Barinn. We ate here twice during our trip and both visits were absolutely delicious. Our first trip, we both had the lamb cheeseburger with BERNAISE (I die) and the best waffle fries I’ve ever had in my life. I mean. Just look at this thing!

After lunch, we continued out tour with a tour with a bit more sightseeing, a beer stop, and a trip to Iceland’s (and maybe the world’s) best bakery. Their hot cinnamon rolls are life changing.

After our busy day and a delicious birthday dinner we made our way to our Northern Lights tour. We weren’t sure what we’d see even though we had terrific contditions – the lights forecast was pretty low. On the bus, our guide was educating us on the lights, when and where they show up and warned we might not see anything. I looked out the window, and guess what! They were there! You can check out our amazing views of this unbelievable phenomenon below.

BEST birthday candles EVER.

We could have probably gone home immediately after seeing the lights but we still had two more days of incredible sight seeing so stay tuned for parts two and three of our Iceland Trip Recap!!