Iceland & Ireland

I was fortunate enough to travel to Iceland & Ireland with some of my best friends and a group of people I didn't know before the trip, but I knew too well after. This was a great experience & my first time in Europe!

I was so excited when I heard about the Iceland & Ireland Junior Journey because I never imagined myself visiting either of these places otherwise. Previous to this trip I had done quite a bit of international travel, but never to Europe. I had no idea what to expect out of these two completely different countries, but this 17-day trip was one of the best I had been on.

Iceland - a land of opposites

It took us an entire day to arrive in Reykjavik, Iceland after departing from Florida Southern at 8:30am and not arriving until 6:45am the next day. Between the long layover and the 5-hour time change, it felt like it took forever. Once we were finally outside the airport and starting our adventure, we added a count of 32 students, 3 chaperones and one tour guide to the original population of 330,000 of Iceland. Right off the bat we learned that Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, stands for “smoky bay” because of all the geothermal activity throughout the country. Our first day was a free day to explore the city or catch up on sleep. It was a lot easier to talk to the locals when splitting into our smaller groups. All of the locals seemed extremely eager to talk to us and tell us about their country and their favorite spots to go. I thought this was awesome because it showed us their huge pride in their country and how they wanted us to love it as much as they did. Iceland is known as the land of opposites because the lava is covered by large ice-fields and glaciers. It’s a contrast of big and small, black and colorful, hot and cold, dry and wet, and light and dark.

Iceland was fairly cloudy and often rainy while we were there, but this didn’t stop us from getting out to see all of the beautiful natural wonders. We started our journey at þingvellir National Park, which is home to the largest natural lake in Iceland. During our time in Iceland we went to multiple waterfalls including Gulfoss, Skógafoss, and Seljalandsfoss (the Icelandic term for waterfall is “foss”). These waterfalls were absolutely amazing and the tallest, Seljalandsfoss, was 213 feet tall. We were able to walk behind this specific waterfall and although we got wet from the mist, it was still breathtakingly beautiful. The Skógafoss waterfall was much more powerful and a bit overwhelming to stand next to. This one was about 200 feet tall and 82 feet wide and had a staircase leading to the top. There were 527 steps total, but the view from the top made all of the steps worth it. On this same day we went to a Greenhouse that was powered by

geothermal and hydroelectric energy and we learned about the use of renewable energy in gardening, which is used a lot in Iceland. They focused mainly on tomato farming and we were able to try tomato ice cream here, although it was $13 it was totally worth it.

All of the food in Iceland is very expensive because most of the fruits, vegetables, and dairy products are imported. The Icelandic currency is called kroná and every 100 kroná is equal to 1 USD. To show how expensive everything was, a regular t-shirt cost about 4000 kroná, or 40 USD. I couldn’t exactly picture myself living here because it is very expensive and extremely cold. By seeing how expensive the food and souvenirs of Iceland got, I can’t even imagine what it would cost to pay rent to live there. Iceland is also a sub-Arctic country located in the middle of the North Atlantic. The weather is cold, grey, and rainy. The summer days are long (sunrise is 3 am and sunset about 11pm) and dreary. The 40-degree climate was also accompanied with a strong wind chill. The cold climate was a part of what made this trip amazing. This is a climate I could never imagine myself living in, but it was nice to visit knowing that it was short lived. One of our tour guides defined the weather we were experiencing as “extreme Iceland”.

The next day we were able to hike the Sólheimajökull Glacier. This hike was 3 miles and absolutely incredible. We were immediately handed a pickaxe and crampons upon arrival. Crampons are metal spikes that we attached to the soles of our hiking boots that enabled us to walk on the glacier ice without slipping. The glacier was covered with ash and sand from the volcanic eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull stratovolcano that took place in 2010. Another fantastic site of Iceland was the Reynisfjara beach. This was a black sand beach that was created by lava flowing into the ocean and cooling almost instantly as it touched the water.

On our last day in Iceland we went to the Blue Lagoon, a result of the volcanic formation and the geothermal power plant right next door. The Blue Lagoon is known to have “healing powers” because of the high mineral content of the water. There is a high concentration of silica and sulfur that gives the water a milky-blue color. After the Blue Lagoon, our group went to a local flea market in Reykjavik. We were able to try shark, a normal food to eat in Iceland, and buy souvenirs from locals.

It was also in Iceland that most of our money was spent on soup to warm us up and some of my best memories were made. Colleen and I got lost and our phones were dead/without service. We had about 30 minutes to get to the group dinner (that we found out later was optional) across the city by public bus that we DID NOT know how to use and didn't speak a lick of Icelandic. Also at this same time Colleen had lost her backpack with her passport, school camera, and most importantly her silly band. We realized that everything in Iceland was called Lauger, which didn't help when our group dinner was at Lauger Cafe. This is also where we were trying to pre-game but only had coffee cups, which resulted in one of our favorite sayings "you think it's coffee, but it's not". Our three hippie friends we made from North Carolina thought that Robert was 25, which he IS NOT. We went out to a bar called B5 and met people from all over the world, even people that lived in Florida also, small world huh? After this night I have a very clear memory of scarfing down a cheeseburger, fries, and a milkshake like I had NEVER eaten before in my life. We also developed another favorite saying of "wait....nvm THIS is squad" with a group of random men on the side of the road that were extremely friendly. Our North Carolina friends walked us about 5 miles back to our hotel room this night because again... our phones were dead and without service and our hotel room was in a shady part of town.

Ireland - UK vs. Republic

After seven days in Iceland we departed for Ireland, a country where most of our money was spent on Fish & Chips and Shepard’s Pie. Our first stop was Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, which is technically part of the United Kingdom and not the Republic of Ireland. One of our first stops was the Giant’s Causeway, cliffs created 60 million years ago by underground volcano explosions. The cliffs were absolutely amazing and made us feel so small, they really had a way of putting size into perspective. We were able to walk out to the rocks and watch the waves, as well as walk along the edge of the cliff through the pathway surrounded by yellow furze, a flower that added stunning color to Ireland’s landscape everywhere we went.

We spent four nights in Belfast, which allowed us to do some exploring of the city. We visited the Titanic Museum and were able to get to know some of the locals. Talking to people in Ireland was so refreshing because they were all so nice. All of them were personable and easy to talk to, we learned so much about them and they learned so much about us as well. We were eager to learn some of their traditional language, Gaelic (“What’s the craic?” means “what’s the fun/what’s happening?”) Talking with the locals made it easy to find the best spots to eat and hang out in the town, which is exactly what we were looking for.

After Belfast, our group hit three major cities in the Republic of Ireland: Dublin, Cork, and Killarney. Our trip to Dublin would have been incomplete without a tour of the Guinness Storehouse. We were able to see the 9000 year lease signed by Arthur Guinness and walk through all seven floors with information about the brands history. We also visited multiple castles throughout our travels to various cities. The majority of castles in Ireland are in ruins, which were fascinating to see and allowed us to imagine the people that used to live there. One of my favorites was the Blarney Castle where we were able to kiss the Blarney stone and receive the “gift of gab”. Upon arrival to Killarney, we took a horse-drawn carriage through Killarney National Park. This was amazing and we learned so much from our tour guide, Billy. It was so peaceful to be able to sit back and cruise through the park, looking at all the beautiful colors of Ireland. Our second to last day included an eight-hour bus tour around the Ring of Kerry, a coastal road through mountainous, lake-splattered regions of Kerry, Ireland. The scenic views we had through this, both on and off the bus, were absolutely incredible.

Ireland holds a special place in my heart because my Grandpa's family is from Roscommon, Ireland. My best friend, Colleen, is also incredibly Irish and would ask everyone what their last names were just in hopes of finding a Gallagher. Everyone of course loved her last name as well. Every memory we made in Ireland was absolutely AMAAAZING. It was here that we would always sample vanilla and chocolate ice cream and we realized that the best way to start your morning is with an Irish coffee. We formed "Land Squad" and drank our body weight in beer every single night, but I don't regret a thing. We went to multiple bars every single day. I got my bartending license from The Brazen Head, which is the oldest pub in Dublin, dating back to 1198. We found an incredible little sports bar called anBrog which had a pitcher and pizza for just $11! We spent most of our time in Cork here. In Killarney, we shotgunned in front of a church and danced all night to Despacito in a club inside a hotel with people that just graduated High School, like Killian.

Every single one of the 70 bus rides, 7 hotels, 6 cities, and 5 flights made this trip totally worth it. I never would have imagined myself being able to travel to these wonderful countries and learning as much as I did. There are so many reasons to take a trip and educate yourself like we did on our Junior Journey. I loved being placed outside my comfort zone and having to immerse myself in a culture that is not my own. Something else that made this trip worth it was the friends that we made along the way, both internationally and within the group. I went on the trip only knowing a few people in the group and left knowing everyone. These are people that I would have never had the pleasure of meeting at school because we all live such different lives, but now we all had an incredible experience together that brought us closer. I am so thankful for this outstanding trip and hope to return to these countries again.