Iceland Selandjafoss & Skogafoss Waterfalls

Iceland Day 2 - You surely no how to not let a girl down!

After our first day in Iceland {read about it HERE if you missed it}, Tina and I were ready to hit the ground running for day 2! {Ok I'm not going to lie we were a little on the sleepy side, but we quickly discovered that miles of hiking each day would just leave us really ready for sleep each night!}

Our first intended stop of the day was Selandjafoss falls located in the Southern region of Iceland and right off of Route 1 that we were taking around the entire island. This waterfall drops over 60ft into the Seljalands River and has a small cave behind the falls that you can walk through. As Iceland would teach us though we can never drive straight to a destination because, well....Iceland! On our way we passed this huge green hill dotted with the shaggiest sheep I ever did see. We drove about 60 seconds further until they got the best of me and I turned around destined to get some amazing shots of these sheep up close! {little did I know is all I had to do was wait until evening time when they would frequently cross the road in front of me causing me to slam on my breaks multiple times!}

Selandjafoss Falls

Eventually though, we did make it to Selandjafoss and to say it didn't disappoint is an understatement! The falls were massive, the walk behind cave was absolutely unreal, the path leading to several other smaller falls was beautiful, and we were never happier with our full-body, waterproof outfits {check out these amazing pants & jacket here!} than after venturing through these falls!

Selandjafoss Falls

Next on our day 2 bucket list was Skogafoss falls {we quickly realized that the word foss in Icelandic meant falls...as we were to see a ton of them over the next week and a half!}, again located just off of Route 1 and incredibly easy to find. This waterfall was about the same size as the previous, but situated differently in that you could walk right up to the base {we did, as in boots in the river up to the base!} and climb a set of steps that took you right to the top {we did!}.

Skogafoss Falls

Though these waterfalls were magnificent though when we finished with Skogafoss we were done with falls for the time being! Today was the rainiest day we had in Iceland coupled with the cold and climbing behind, on top of, and in front of falls for several hours we were cold, wet, and hungry and couldn't wait to peel off our wet layers and dry off for a bit!

Skogafoss Falls

Not more than 30 minutes down the road though we stopped at our next marked location of Solheimajokull  Glacier having ZERO idea of what to expect. We found a parking lot. There were also some small cabins so we decided to investigate further. We quickly found out that the cabins were actually small offices that you could book hikes onto the glaciers, having not realized this though we were in not situation time wise to get in a glacier hike today AND get to our lodging for the night. Tina was even further crushed when I shared that I intended on doing a glacier hike after she flew back home. Now it was game on time. We talked to the guide for a bit and learned that they would also book us a hike for further east into Iceland (the direction we were traveling, so we quickly crunched some times and booked our tour for the following day.

Solheimajokull Glacier

Not to be defeated by Solheimajokull  Glacier though we walked past the little cabins for 15-20 minutes though, and guys...I SAW MY FIRST GLACIER! Like never in my life did I sit there and contemplate the existence of glaciers or where I might ever see one, but right there in front of me...a glacier...so I poked it, and then we left :)  {kind of like when I poked the pyramids in Egypt and one poke also wasn't enough there!}


30 minutes down the road we had every intention of checking out Dyrholaey as well. It was boasted to be this beautiful rock arch in the middle of the ocean, but sideways heavy rains, foggy conditions, and the cold had other plans for us. We squinted through the haze, checked out what we could see of the arch, and said next time Iceland!  Dinner that night at a local brewery {umm hello $20 for a burger and fries} never tasted so good as we sat in a warm pub surrounded by locals screaming at the World Cup game going on falling more in love with Iceland each day!

Dyrholaey Arch

That night we stayed near the small town of Edinborg in the cutest little single room cabin that I have ever seen, nestled at the foot of a small mountain, where Tina and I slept like babies!

Iceland's Golden Circle - Self Guided Tour

Oh Iceland, what have you done to me?! Who in their right mind leaves sunny 85º Ohio and heads to “summer” in Iceland with highs of 55º on a good day? I’m still not sure, but it only took 1 text from my Taiwan travel buddy Tina and a few hours in Iceland to convince me that I had most definitely made the right decision; this country is beyond captivating!!

Tina flew from Jersey and I from Ohio and we met bright and early around 8:30am at the Reykjavik airport in Iceland without a clue in the world what would come next! We grabbed our WiFi hotspot for the week from TraWire, headed to Sixt for our rental car, ran quickly into Bonus ( a local grocery chain) and we were on our way! Iceland Golden Circle, here we come!

The Golden Circle Iceland is a circular stretch of road around 3 hours long that is a popular tourist destination due to all the “Icelandic” things that lie along this loop including waterfalls, a geyser, continental faults, and much more. It is a common day trip for tourists who have only several hours as a layover in Iceland or whom don’t quite want to drive around the entire island (we defiantly had more than a couple of hours AND did drive the entire island...but still went for the Golden Circle as well!)

We were hardly 30 minutes outside of the city before we made our first impromptu, side of the road stop (1st of about 5,000 of these stops!) to see some Icelandic horses...little did we realize at the time that we wouldn’t be able to drive more than 20 minutes for the remainder of the trip without seeing more horses!

Horses aside, we made our way to Pingvellier National Park where we were greeted by large lava formations and an impressive continental divide that has created a small canyon through the middle of the rocks. We also checked out our first waterfall {Oxarafoss} of the trip (little did we know that this was only the first of 86 such falls that we would encounter over the next 10 days!). 

Our next stop around the circle was hiking to Brurfoss Waterfalls, I’m not sure if this is a common stop along the Golden Circle Route or not seeing as most other things were convenient “side of the road” type of stops and this was more of a “2.5 hour hike to the falls” type of stop. But, h.o.l.y m.o.l.y was it worth it {{I may have ended up with my boot in the mud up past my ankle, a sopping wet sock, and a Nikon camera lens face first in the mud…but lordy was it a fun time!}} On our hike back to the car we stopped by yet another field of horses for more pictures and imagine our surprise when 2 walked right up to us and let us pet them!!!

Our next pit stop included a late dinner in Haukadalur at the famous Stokkur Geyser along with of course watching the geyser shoot off several times, what a fun experience to watch! After a bit more driving our last stop was a 2-for-1 deal with checking out the Keio Crater along with experiencing our first night of Midnight Sun. The crater is a ginormous hole made from a magma chamber that collapsed and then filled with the bluest water I have ever seen! Midnight sun on the other had takes place in Iceland during the peak of summer when the sun doesn't set until 11pm and rises around 3am and leaves 4ish hours of dusk outside, never truly getting dark {{I didn't see it dark outside once during my 10 days in Iceland!}}. On this day we stopped at Keio Crater at 10:45pm and had no issues getting around or seeing anything!

A bit more driving for the night and we made it to our first VERY well deserved bed for the evening in Selfoss booked through AirBnB {click this link to save on your first stay with AirBnB}.

Day one in Iceland is officially in the books! Tired, sore, and ready for bed, but only with the happiest of minds!

Tokyo Disneyland

Oh Mickey Mouse! I've been obsessed since I was a kid and just the thought of possibly seeing him in a kimono makes my inner 6 year-old self unnaturally excited. There wasn't even a question as to whether or not I was going to Tokyo Disneyland, just rather when and how!

Because I was traveling through Tokyo solo and in order to help save both precious time in Japan as well as money, I opted for a weekend Starlight pass that allowed me in the gates from 3pm until closing (7 hours should be more than enough time to get a couple Mickey pictures!) The other great thing about my starlight pass was that I was able to tour around Tokyo for a while in the morning before heading to the parks!

Getting to the parks took a little bit of time but was quite easy thanks to the lovely subway (or JR train as they call it) throughout the city. I got off at the Disney stop though and thought I would cry. It looked like it was going to start raining. {lucky for me God must be a Mickey fan as well because he quickly cleared the skies up for me!!}

It was a little daunting to walk into an unknown amusement park alone for the day not knowing where to go first, but I did what any good westerner would do and promptly began following a group of girls in kimonos haha! I quickly discovered that Japan was preparing for the holiday of Tanabata which from what I can tell is some type of holiday for lovers and sending their wishes to the gods? (I may or may not have totally butchered that so please don't take my word for it!!) {ok update...I was finally able to google this stinker! There were 2 gods in the sky separated by the milky way and they are only allowed to see each other on the 7th day of the 7th month bringing about the Tanabata Festival...there we all learned something today!}

Anyways, for me this entailed seeing tons of people of all ages dressed in their holiday kimonos while walking through the parks, as well as Disney having a large set up under the World Bazaar when you entered the parks to put your wishes on Mickey shaped papers and tie them to a tree so they could be sent to the heavens. {also this means they have a special parade with Mickey and Minnie in the traditional holiday garments that Tracy missed by 20 minutes when she got to the park....grrr is all I can say}

To commentate my time in the park I wanted to purchase something uniquely Tokyo Disney, but surprisingly their stock in nontraditional Disney items is quite limited. I settled on a small bag to use for traveling that has my dear Mickey dressed from head to toe in traditional Japanese clothing!

The layout of the park was pretty similar to Disney World in Florida with Cinderella's castle in the center and 5 different themed lands surrounding it. In acuity many of the rides were the same as well though Tokyo did get a couple that were unique to them, and of course I saw Mickey, watched the light parade at night, rode on Dumbo, the tea cups, watched the firework show and everything else that makes Disney Disney!

One of the exciting parts for me was realizing the big "thing" for Tokyo Disney. I'm Florida people love to buy and collect pins. In Japan people love to buy and collect popcorn containers and the rotating flavors of popcorn they offer. POPCORN and MICKEY MOUSE?!?! My life was pretty complete. I looked over the list of the flavors available that day and marched around the park until I found someone selling a fresh batch of Soy Sauce & Butter popcorn...to say it was unique is an understatement!! 

I was in the last wave of 2 of people to mosey out of the park around 10:45 and though beyond exhausted I was happy! Oh so happy! Thank you Tokyo for an amazing first day!

Temple Trotting and Some R&R

Tuesday, February 9th

Sadly our trip is winding down, we've got 2 days left, and although my heart was happy, the rest of my body was starting to feel the affects of constant traveling (both walking as well as my lovely fall down the mountain!) and Tina and I dubbed our last 2 days in Thailand as ones of relaxation and taking it slow...perfect! {PS - if you need to catch up any or missed yesterday's post, you can check out Cambodian posts HERE and Thailand HERE!}

We slept in Tuesday morning for a bit and by this time we had hit all the must haves in Bangkok so it was a little easier to relax a bit and just pick up smaller adventures here and there as the opportunity presented itself. With that being said, our first stop of the morning was walking to a smaller temple called Wat Indra Viharn. The temple is believed to be almost 600 years old and one of it's main attractions (sadly not 600 years old!) is a Buddha statue that stands 105 feet tall and shadows many of the surrounding temple buildings at the site. This temple was a little odd, and sadly since it is not such a "big name temple" there were no English descriptions for anything. Off to the back was a green Buddha looking much like a giant gummy bear, near him was an area set up for people to receive hair cuts, and off to the side in another building was a deceased monk in what looked to be a glass coffin case. Again, like I said, I was really hoping for some descriptions to some of the things I saw here!

Leaving the temple we hopped on a river boat taxi for one last ride down the canals and headed back to our hotel...we had relaxation in mind! The night before Tina and I had decided that for our last night in Thailand we would splurge on a hotel room (splurging after spending no more than $10 a night on a room for the previous 2 weeks still doesn't equal a very expensive room though!). We had 2 must haves for our room and when we looked online for a room that was all we were concerned about; Tina wanted a comfy bed and I wanted an outdoor pool. Done and done, we booked our room and we couldn't be happier. Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon after leaving the temple, we went back to our hostels, ate a quick lunch, grabbed our luggage, checked out and headed for Dang Derm Hotel.

I would like to say check in was a breeze, but of course what fun is travel if you don’t have a couple hiccups in the way. We go to check in and have everything ready and the guy asks us to pay. I hand him my credit card and he says the hotel doesn’t take cards {how they accept an online booking fee is then beyond me!} Tina and I regroup, we start looking for another hotel in the area (it’s our last day and physical cash is running low) meanwhile, the guy is persistent that we have to pay in cash. After 10 minutes or so we tell him we’d like to cancel our reservation…suddenly everything changes “well, umm, I can try the credit card machine I guess but it doesn’t always work…” (funny how moments earlier he was claiming they had NO way of taking a card!) Well long story short they took the card and we got our room. We got to our room and in less than 15 minutes we had both assumed our positions; Tina in bed and me pool side…and life was good!

This was like a castle after 2 weeks of staying on bunkbeds in rooms with up to 10 other people!

After getting thoroughly pruney in the pool and sun kissed on the lounge chairs we headed out for dinner and stumbled upon a small shop that had an amazing green curry dish that I quickly scarfed down. After dinner we spent the evening getting Thai massages, eating scorpions (hey when the opportunity presents itself!) going for yet another swim around midnight and then as Tina called it a night I went for one last stroll through Kaosan Road before heading to bed relaxed, happy, and with a scorpion dancing in my belly!

Tuesday Taiwan-ism {Humidity}

I know, I know, this seems like a rather weird topic for today's post, but if you'd ever step foot on this island, you'd understand! Guys, it is humid as all get out here! I'm not just saying during the summer months when one would expect it...nope, all dang year long!

When I arrived here in August I thought it was going to be just a temporary thing, you know, it's August, it's humid, OK. It wasn't until late September and I was contemplating buying stock in the sweat-wicking tank tops I continued to purchase and wear under my outfits everyday that I knew this humidity was here to stay.

Fast forward to December & January...it's winter here {fun fact, it was in the high 30's several days and we had 2 flakes of snow one day...a first in the last 80 years and quite brutal when there's no heat in the houses!}...and it's still humid! You are freezing so you put on 20  layers of clothes...only to take them off damp at night because, you guessed it, it was too humid and you were sweaty in the cold!

Springtime is here with a vengeance now and the humidity is coming back with full force once again, we can only see what this summer brings with it!

"Fun" you only have when it's humid 364 days of the year:

1. You ALWAYS feel sticky
2. You feel the need to shower...about 5 minutes after stepping out of the shower!
3. Your papers & notebooks are always limp and damp  feeling
4. Your shower NEVER dries out
5. You start to find fuzzy mold on your clothes and shoes from the previous season
6. Photos & wall art curls the instant you hang it on the wall
7. Your jeans feel perpetually damp
8. It's a constant debate on whether it's better with the window open or closed
9. Bugs LOVE the humid climate!
10. You begin to forget what it feels like to actually feel DRY!

Sun Moon Lake...A Place of Beauty

Apparently I just need to sit at home and hibernate some weekend so that when I type a blog post on Monday it's actually for the weekend that I just finished instead of the week before!

---------------- Saturday & Sunday, October 31 & November 1, 2015 ----------------

Like always I have nothing planned for the weekend and then last minute we scramble to put our plans together...so, yet again!  

One of the top travel to destinations in Taiwan is Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County. {Fun fact, Nantou County is the only county in Taiwan that is landlocked or completely surrounded by land and has no points touching the ocean!} Needless to say, neither Tina nor I had ever visited and thought that this  weekend looked like the perfect time to check it out! (side note, I'm so glad we usually don't look at the weather BEFORE  planning our trips! 60% rain proved to be false and it was gorgeous out!)

We set out bright and early Saturday morning, well at least I did & picked up Tina on the way, and made it to Taichung (this is the city with the closest train station to Sun Moon Lake) by midmorning & located a local train headed for the Lake and settled in....for 2 hours (nap time!!!)

We arrived to Sun Moon Lake around 1ish and immediately set out for lunch...a quick boat ride across the lake provided us with all the day market treats we could handle including this sandwich with pork, cucumbers, & super fluffy bread! 

We spent a majority of the afternoon walking around, soaking in the beautiful sights, treats & people. 

The views here we beautiful!

A Little Penghu, and A Lot of Typhoon!

So this post is slightly delayed….but I have  a good excuse, promise…we had a gigantic typhoon last weekend and it kind of really through our schedules off!

Anyways, last weekend was a holiday weekend  {more to come about moon festival too! Haha} so no school on Monday called for a nice long relaxing weekend with the girls in Penghu, Taiwan, a small island off the west coast of Taiwan…yes and this is where you ask "aren't you on an island?"...yes, we went to vacation on the island's island lol.

Tory, Kristen, Rebecca, little Brody and I couldn't have been more excited to board our ferry bright and early Saturday morning headed for tropical paradise, looking  forward to a nice warm, relaxing weekend…haha…oh how plans so quickly can change!

*** Enter the ferry Puke-Fest 2015***   {if you have a queasy stomach, now's the time to stop reading!}

Please try to imagine for a minute a small 2 story ferry boat, full of about 200 people, on a sunny Saturday morning, with waves covering the 2nd story window, and 95% of the people vomiting, for 2 hours, all ALL ALL over the boat…yeah, let me tell you we figured out what those cute little puke bags were for real quick. Although I was a lucky one and didn’t actually get sick, you still know you feel like poop when you are willing to share a gag bag on a boat with a friend and don’t think twice about it at the time:/

AYWAYS! We did eventually make it to Penghu, and after cleaning up from the ferry we were bound and determined not to let anything ruin our trip…. Haha, such naïve little travelers we were!

--- Day 1 --- Saturday --- --- --- --- --- ---

Holiday Weekend...Gone Askew!

This post will be short and I'll fill in more details later since I'm writing from my phone, but this weekend was filled with many unexpected occurrences!

----- ----- ----- ----- Quick Synopsis ----- ----- ----- -----

PLANNED TRIP: we planned to take a ferry from mainland Taiwan to the island of Penghu for out 3 day weekend leaving Saturday and retuning Monday and spending our time here hanging out at the beach and soaking up some sun!

REALITY OF OUR TRIP: we took the Puke-fest 2015 ferry Saturday morning, enjoyed the beach on Sunday, and have been waiting out the super typhoon in our hotel since then (today is Tuesday...we have no hope of leaving until at least Wednesday late morning time!) 

MORAL OF THE STORY: when life throws you curve balls, you've just got to take 'em and make the best of it!

Well This Looks Like Fun!

What's more fun than waking up early knowing that your daily agenda includes sorting through and packing your most {necessary} 100 lbs. of belongings?!?

Waking up to an email with reassuring me that I will have transportation home from the airport on Sunday even if my plane is delayed because of the typhoon. EXCUSE ME WHAT?!?!

Yes, I was anticipating "different" weather in Taiwan....I was not expecting a typhoon to greet me at Taiwan's doorstep though! Crossing my fingers and saying a prayer that this storm passes with little effects to my travels or to the people currently in Taiwan.

Check this guy out!