So it seems Northern Norway really wasn't that cold after all. Iceland has that market cornered. I'm sure I have been this cold before, I just can't remember when. Maybe it's just a huge shock to the system after a week in 20+ degree London?

Our 7 nights in London were fantastic. I even heard Emmett, a reluctant London traveller, mutter the words "I kinda wish I had lived here for a bit". We didn't do anything too touristy really, just walked all over. Did all my favourite markets; Columbia road flower markets, brick lane, spitafields and borough markets, and ate some fantastic food. Saw a couple of shows, singin in the rain which was fun and the new show Matilda (from Roald Dahl) which was absolutely brilliant. Could not wipe the smile off my face for the whole show. There may have been some shopping too.

After careful consideration regarding staying in London as an illegal immigrant I decided that doesn't pay enough and reluctantly got on our flight to Iceland (Icelandic air are fantastic by the way). We landed and the sun was shining, then we stepped outside and the icy cold air slapped us in the face. Time to put the thongs away. A 40 minute drive through old lava fields had us in the city and thinking we could be on another planet.

Happily we had landed on a Saturday just in time for the famous runtur, their weekly pub crawl. We emptied out into the street at 5 am (after getting emmett onto the dance floor!) to find swarms of people everywhere. I'm not sure the governments high price on alcohol to curb excess drinking is working too well. Regardless of how drunk everyone was didn't see any agro at all, just happy, cheery, swaying people.

We spent Sunday checking out Reykjavik, basically biding time until our whale cruise. We rocked up at 5 dressed in all the clothing in our bags to be told the tour was cancelled, "there's a storm coming". Just a bit of wind we mumbled and begrudgingly headed off. Howling winds had me awake most of the night and we woke to see all the mountains covered in snow. Perhaps they were right.

We had hired a car for 4 days to go and see the countryside, not the best weather to start but off we headed and what a day it turned out to be. Our first destination was down on the south coast, Skaftafell at the foot of Europe's biggest glacier, but we headed for some Golden Circle (main tourist route) attractions first. Dotted along the roads are electronic boards with the temperature and what we later found out to be wind speed. The temperature was ranging from 0-4 degrees, toasty. The wind readers were up in the high 20's. Apparently all Icelanders know 20 means drive super carefully, anything near 30, just stay home. Whoops.

Driving to our first destination, Geysir (of the blow hole fame), it started snowing. I was really reluctant to get out of the car but when in Iceland right? The geyser was fantastic (and smelly), the cold was almost unbearable. I didn't think I could ever be colder and then we got to the famous waterfall Gullfoss. A huge expanse of thundering water obviously brings with it lots of spray, add that to the snow and winds that are trying their hardest to blow you off the cliff and you have an arctic situation.

We headed further south east. The landscape was phenomenal, completely other worldly. There are basically no trees, just flat land with mountains jutting out here and there, some snow covered glaciers. Turns out many of them are actually volcanos, including the travel agents nightmare of 2010, Ejyafjellajokull.

Beautiful waterfalls appear out of nowhere tumbling down mountain faces. Being the wind was so strong many appeared like the water was floating as it struggled to comply with gravity. Wooly sheep and the Icelandic horse graze freely, many of the former precariously perched on cliff tops or playing chicken on the road.

The beautiful valleys gave way to Mars, or what I expect it to look like anyhow. Flat land covered in mounds of old moss covered lava as far as the eye can see. Quite the sight with glaciers in the background. Turns out to be the biggest lava field in the world.

Then things got comical in a scary kind of way with the lava field turning into a black sand desert. The wind had picked up even more with the car swaying a little. Then we hit the sandstorm. I always find it important to be able to see where your going when driving. Pedantic it seems.

Think we were both quite relieved when we finally made it to the base of the huge glacier. Now we just had to survive the night in a little wooden house on top of a hill while the big bad wolf tried to blow it down.