Today was the day that I embarked on the biggest adventure of my life. I want to thank everyone that made it possible, especially the most important woman in my life, my Mumma!

My journey begins in Iceland, this is not somewhere I necessarily thought I wanted to visit but when my travel agent said I could have a 3 day stop over on the way to Toronto I thought why not! I am so happy I did as it is one of the most amazing countries and has the most amazing natural phenomenon's. When I arrived and due to it being my first destination I just though jump in a cab so I did. The cab driver was lovely and turned into a sort of tour guide telling what everything was and what to do on what days. Once arriving at my hotel I saw advertisement for a trip to the northern lights. Something I was planning to do on my 2nd day but I thought well try tonight and if I see them then great but if not then the ticket is valid for 2 years until you see them. Unfortunately we did not see them. I was quite pleased because during the coach ride I did not start to feel very well and a rather bad cold started kicking in, I thought if I had seen them then I would not have appreciated being out in the cold trying to work my camera to get the best shot I could.

When I woke up the following morning I felt so much better but still slightly under the weather so I thought it best to have an easy day. After breakfast I just went for a wonder around Reykjavik. The town is beautiful and ever so quaint. For the second night I thought I would go and try to see the Northern lights. I had been checking the weather all day and it kept saying clear skies, I thought this is my night I'm finally going to see something that I have only dreamt of seeing since I was a child. We went to a different location than were where the first night. You could see the stars and the moon so clearly but........... unfortunately tonight there was absolutely no activity so the first night good activity cloudy skies the second night beautiful skies but no activity. Disappointed was an understatement!

The following morning I was surprisingly optimistic because I was doing another tour, The Golden Circle Tour. When I arrived at the ticket station (the same place as the northern lights) I asked the lady if the northern lights tour was going ahead tonight as the weather was pretty cloudy, wet and defiantly looked like there would be snow. She said she wasn't sure and to ask my tour guid throughout our journey. As we climbed through the mountains the fog was getting thicker and thicker, it then began to snow. This defiantly added to the experience but was a bit bitter sweet because it wasn't clear enough to get the best views but still amazing! I learnt a lot about Iceland's history and for someone that hates history I found it completely fascinating. We saw the Gullfoss Waterfall, an active Geyser and a Horse Waterfall, these were the highlights of the tour for me. Watching the geyser explode was an exciting experience because not only that it's amazing to it see first hand but also you want to get that all mighty great shot at the same time! As the day past the weather did not look like it was going to clear but in the afternoon the guide informed us that the northern lights tour would be going ahead I was utterly shocked and thought this is my last night, the skies look terrible should I risk it......... of course I was going to! I thought I'd have time to pop back to my hotel put some dry socks on, few more layers and a quick bite to eat as I know how cold it gets waiting for them, but no. I got off of one coach and onto the next. They kept telling us there's a lot of activity tonight and we just have to wait for the clouds to break. I was trying to be as positive as possible but my doubts were defiantly starting to set in. We we're driving around for a while then we stopped waited a while but they decided to take us to petrol station for some refreshments etc, after that we would go back. Once arriving back to the area where the skies were at their clearest the tour guide was shouting quick get off, get off. Even I got off this time but previous times I did not because after the first 10 minutes if waiting in the freezing cold and nothing was happening you realise to stay on the coach until told otherwise. As I was staring up at the sky the lights started to appear very slowly and briefly but after 3 days of feeling like a storm chaser trying to see them that was good enough for me! I realised that after all these tours I had spent at least 24 hours on a coach but it was worth it.

The cab man at the beginning told me to go to the Blue Lagoon on the day that I leave because my flight wasn't till 5. There was no point in wasting a whole day to go somewhere that I would only spending a few hours. I got up early so I would have enough time at the lagoon and to get to the airport for my flight to Toronto. The lagoon was one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had the opportunity of doing as were most of the things that I did whilst being in the amazing country that is Iceland! I would recommend everyone and anyone to go, I loved every minute of it! Now onto the next bit of my big adventure. Watch out Toronto!