That's why girls go to iceland

I pride myself on being a very organised person and yet due to my own poor time management skills, you will probably have seen that I was away on holiday again this weekend, after only getting home from Prague on Monday. Look, people should really remind you more often that February only has 28 days okay, because when I booked them, I thought I had a weekend in between. Regardless of the fact I'm now basically running on 2 weeks of no sleep though, me and my regular travel companion, little Katie, have had the best time in Iceland! It started somewhat chaotically because you can't fly there from East Mids, meaning we had to make the 3 hour journey to Luton instead. Of course, the coach was 45 minutes late (because they always are) and we were travelling through the night because our flight was at 6am, but that didn't dampen our excitement!

After a 3 hour coach journey, a 3 hour wait at the airport and a 3 hour flight, we had arrived in Iceland! The weather wasn't actually as cold as we were expecting; a practically toasty 4 degrees and super sunny. From the airport, we made our way (by coach transfer) to the city centre to search for our apartment. You may have famously heard about how expensive it is in Reykjavik; in fact it ranks as the 6th most expensive city in Europe and the 14th most expensive in the world. However, we actually managed to do it pretty cheaply! Our flights only cost a measly £45 return, and we managed to pick a great apartment, literally one street away from the main strip of bars and restaurants, for only £150 each for 3 nights (it's called Rey Apartments for anyone who is thinking of going). The main expense was the excursions we did, but after they were booked, we only took £300 spending money each and were struggling to use it up by the end of our fourth day.

Once we'd semi-unpacked (because how much point is there of unpacking fully for only 4 days?), we headed out in search of food. We did find that this part could've easily been expensive, but we actually didn't do too badly. The money was pretty confusing at 158 Icelandic krona to the pound, but once we'd worked out that 1000 was about £6, we just based everything off of that. When I travel somewhere new, I like to try the local food but when I read that the local cuisines were fermented shark and a whole boiled sheep's head, I was suddenly quite happy to bypass that. I had read that fish in Iceland is meant to be really good (probably because the water is so clean and clear) so me and Katie ended up both getting fish and chips with raspberry ciders and it was amazing.

We decided to dedicate our first day to exploring the city of Reykjavik and it was pretty different from other cities I've been to in that there wasn't really anywhere you could pinpoint as the main centre; no town square or anything really. It makes sense that there was no bustling centre though; Iceland may be half the size of the UK, but their population is only 1/200th of ours! Anyway, we did happily amble along quaint little streets, getting lost and then found again as we went. We eventually ticked off all the main things; the pond, the concert hall, the Sun Voyager sculpture and the cathedral (which reminded me of the church in the first Shrek film, funnily enough). It was such a beautiful city and was only made more beautiful by the fact that it was mostly clear blue skies and bright sunshine. Another thing we noticed about Iceland is that every single person is like the drunk girl you meet in the toilet on a night out. I've never known a friendlier nation in my life. If you were waiting to cross the road (not even at a crossing), cars would slam their brakes on to let you go, even if there was nothing behind them anyway. Everyone was holding doors for everyone else, everyone was smiling; it was like being in a Disney movie.

After having a quick nap (although a much longer nap than we'd originally planned, oops), we got ready for the Saturday night out. Working out what to wear on an evening was a nightmare because of the cold weather but I concocted a uniform of long sleeves, thick skirts and the thickest tights possible. The result on night one was this; khaki skirt, lace sleeve bodysuit, black tights and chunky black boots, and it ended up being the right vibes. Any more dressed up and we would've looked out of place, seeing as Reykjavik nightlife is more about lively bars than it is super clubs. Our personal favourite was the Lebowski bar (which was literally about 20 steps from our apartment) but we went to one Latin music place, one throwback music place, one R&B and one house, so they really do have something for everyone there. My advice on travelling to Iceland is to take a bottle in your suitcase (like we did) and pre-drink loads before you go out; one double vodka is like £12 and none of the supermarkets sell alcohol so you really need to be prepared. Luckily we were SO prepared that we ended up super drunk and stumbling home at half 3, despite having had no real sleep since Thursday night.

Again, it was a case of no rest for the wicked because after 4 hours sleep, we were off again! We'd booked all our excursions before we went (using travel republic because they seemed the cheapest out of everyone) and Sunday was our major sightseeing day. We first stopped at the crater, Kerið, and then at a small waterfall, Faxi, before stopping to pet some Icelandic horses (I said they looked like ponies but apparently you should not say that). In fact, we learnt loads about Iceland and its culture on the tour; there's a town where the geothermal activity is so strong that you can bury bread dough underground to cook it! Our next stop was the bigger and even more stunning waterfall, Gulfoss, which was super cold because of the spray and the wind but beautiful from all angles.

After stopping for lunch, we went on to the geysir area and made a massive error in judgement. When waiting for the geysir to go off, we saw two massive crowds of people and decided to stand the other side, away from everyone. Well, it turned out there's a reason people weren't standing there; when the geysir shot water 10m in the air, it obviously had to go somewhere it turned out that somewhere was the exact area we were standing in. Getting drenched by geysir water was an experience I suppose, although we learnt our lesson and made sure to stand the other side when waiting for it to go off again! From there, we moved to our final stop, which was the Þingvellir national park, where you can see the meeting of the American and Eurasian tectonic plates. Having been there before, it's crazy to see how much further apart they are now than they were 10 or 15 years ago, and the views from the top of the hill were amazing.

It's a good job I can nap on trains, planes and automobiles because there was no time to nap when we got back from our full day of fun and sightseeing! We had planned to do the Northern lights tour on Sunday night but I got an email at lunchtime to say it had been cancelled due to bad weather. We were disappointed obviously, but we just rebooked it for the next night and got ready to go out instead. This time I was in leopard pinafore dress over high neck black top with the trusty black chunky boots that have now done me very well in both Prague and Iceland. Katie fancied Italian food so we looked at every single menu in Reykjavik before eventually ending up at the first one we'd seen (which is normally the way). I got pizza and she got pasta, and we shared a super expensive bottle of prosecco, which tasted like it was all sugar and no alcohol. After that, we should've swapped to something else but we continued the sugary trend with Bacardi breezers in a tiki bar, so we basically had our entire weekly allowance of sugar that night I reckon. Back in our favourite Lebowski bar, a G&T was a welcome, bitter-tasting relief.

On our sightseeing tour, we'd been told that the following day was national pastry day in Iceland so we were more than happy to jump into that tradition with both feet. We were up early once again, to get a coach to the blue lagoon, so we picked up some treats from a cute little bakery just around the corner and mine was amazing (I think Kate's was too but because hers was filled with cream, it was a hot mess).

The blue lagoon was the part I was most excited for, even though I'd done it before (when I was a kid though). At £100 a ticket, it's not cheap, but it was our best day. The whole place is beautiful and if anything, I ended up too hot than too cold! In the ticket, you also got a free mud mask and one free drink, and I have to say that sipping a glass of prosecco, in the sun, in a giant naturally heated lagoon, with my best friend, is the very definition of living my best life. Also, massive shout out to my dad for lending me his underwater camera; we were so happy we got some beautiful pictures and we were not going to be those people who risk taking their phones in (you psychopaths clearly have no fear).

After a non-starter the night before, we were happy to find out that the Northern lights tour was going ahead this time, especially since it fit in so well with our plans. Loads of places in Reykjavik do happy hour drinks deals but we had never been out early enough to make the most of them. Having got back from the blue lagoon at about 3, we timed it perfectly to finally cash in on those still-expensive-but-not-quite-as-bad drinks. A meal that we'd been craving since we arrived was some kind of melted cheese and picky bits, especially since it's such a cosy meal for a cold climate. We'd walked past the same restaurant every day and commented how nice it looked so we finally went and got exactly what we wanted; discounted wine, a mixed Icelandic meat and cheese board, a baked camembert and a melted raclette cheese over potatoes and bacon. It was all insane and our favourite meal of the whole holiday! We finished it off with another couple of drinks, at another bar that we'd kept saying looked nice, again on a happy hour deal.

Can you tell that I'm wearing about 5 layers in these outfit photos? This was the hardest night to dress for because I needed to be super wrapped up for the northern lights, but I also wanted to be dressy for our last night out. The compromise was thermal top, thermal leggings, thick black tights, fluffy socks, knitted dress and fur-lined aviator coat, complete with hat, scarf and ski gloves. To be honest, the only part of me that got cold was my face, so it worked a treat! After a 45 minute coach ride to the middle of nowhere, we all piled off the coach and were met with the most beautiful starry sky I've ever seen. I was trying to make out some constellations and although I don't know enough about it, I'm pretty sure I saw the Big Dipper (from having googled it just now). While admiring the sky, we were also all waiting patiently for the aurora borealis to show. Patiently was the right word too; after 40 minutes or so, I was starting to lose hope but after just sitting back down on the coach for a 5 minute warm-up, we were told to quickly get back outside because it looked like they were showing. And they did! Photos don't even nearly do them justice; they were beautiful and they literally danced across the sky for a good 5 or 10 minutes before disappearing back out of sight again. I had the most incredible day but considering I'd already done both the blue lagoon and seen the northern lights, Katie was absolutely ecstatic to have ticked both off her bucket list in one day!

It was a total coincidence that the next day, we were planning to go for crepes for breakfast. On what we then realised was pancake day! After packing up our many clothing layers and heading out for our last fun-filled day, we went to Eldur for breakfast. I went with white chocolate, banana and strawberries while Katie went for nutella and orange, and they were amazing.

I bet you didn't think you'd be seeing beach photos in this blog post but I'm full of surprises and Iceland, as one of the most interesting geological places in the world, has a geothermal beach that naturally heats a small pool of water. Obviously it didn't heat it quite enough for us to want to strip off and take a quick dip, but it was a lovely day and we went seashell hunting and ran up and down the sand dunes instead.

The Perlan building felt like it was within touching distance to the beach we were at but it actually ended up being the longest walk ever. After huffing and puffing up a massive hill, we reached the gorgeous domed building that was home to an exhibition, ice caves and rooftop observation deck. We explored the museum part first, which was so interesting and taught us all about how Iceland was formed and how it's got to what it is now. Then we went in to the planetarium for a movie on the Northern lights and hidden treasures of the island (which was also really cool), before heading downstairs to the ice caves. To be honest, the ice caves were no warmer or cooler than the weather outside, but they were a fun thing to do before ending up on the top floor to take in the amazing views of the city and beyond.

After picking up our suitcases and boarding the airport-bound coach (which once again, I spent the entire time napping on), we arrived at Keflavik to start our long journey home (which would eventually take us 12 hours). We had Icelandic krona to get rid of so we had a few drinks at the airport to toast the most amazing trip. Katie ticked two things off her bucket list, as well as a new country, while I rediscovered the beauty of places that I didn't fully appreciate when I visited them as a child. We walked 22 miles and wore at least double that amount of clothing layers at any one time, we explored the golden circle and managed to see one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, and we had the very best fun - as Katie and I always do, and as I know we will on the next one.