How. in. the. hell. has it taken me so long to start blogging Iceland?! I know life gets busy but WOW OH WOW do I have SO. MUCH. to share!!! I think that’s why, I’ve got SO MANY iPhone and professional photos that it’s almost overwhelming to get organized!

I pondered about how to share so many photographs at once and I’m going to the best way I know how. Chronologically. ORIGINAL I KNOW.

So let’s start at the beginning, when the idea of going to Iceland was formed. It was Josh + Kaula’s 10th Anniversary, and they wanted to renew their vows in a BIG way. So we planned a trip to tag along and document it. Kaula and I were workmates and often met over coffee, but when the idea formed we thought it’d probably be a good idea to introduce the husbands (no pressure or anything) but thankfully, they got along just as well as Kaula and I did. We booked the flights about a month later and planned to travel over 24 hours one way, stay a week in a two bedroom Airbnb, and try not to drive each other crazy. 😂Spoiler alert: it worked out just fine and we’re all still great friends!

We spent MONTHS planning, researching, location scouting, the WORKS. I’m going to try my best to break this down and I’ll link certain things we found useful, but ask LITERALLY ANYTHING in the comments, and I’ll answer them all!

I’ve decided to break each day into parts, because with almost 18 hours of daylight in each day, you can pack a lot in!!

Part 1 : USA → Canada → Iceland

All-in-all, our travel from home to Icelandic “home” took about 24 hours. We did stay near the airport in a hotel the night before our flight (time not included) which was a huge relief!

We flew out of St. Louis the morning of August 6th, and flew to Montreal for a few hour layover before departing on our longest flight to Reykjavik, Iceland.

Part 2 : Settling In

We booked a two bedroom AirBnb almost a year before our trip, but we were excited! It was cute and quaint, with stunning views from three sides! Two of the water, and one of the city. The views and natural light into the flat sold us, despite quite a bit of clutter around the home, but still cute! I believe it’s the owner’s vacation home (or maybe her regular home but she was away) which would make sense why there was so much personal stuff around, but it also meant it was well equipped! It would have been family friendly had we brought the kiddos, which we’ve thought about coming back to do!

The neighborhood was quiet and just a short drive from the heart of the city (it was a MUST to rent a car) so after naps, showers, and shots, we headed out!

Part 3 : A Hop Into the City

After feeling refreshed, we headed in to grab groceries and dinner! Their main chain of grocery stores is call Bónus, and it was an experience to shop! It was neat to see how they do things different, including cooler “rooms” rather than just shelves, and (similar to Aldi) bags aren’t commonly used or given out.

We found an adorable pizza and beer restaurant, Flatey, and it was SO good!

I don’t have photos of it, but once we left the grocery store we realized that the car had DIED! Not knowing where we were, the guys went on a short walk to see if they could find anywhere to get help (no one in the parking lot seemed to have cables!). Luckily, some wonderful people eventually noticed our struggle and had cables to give us a jump. Needless to say, we made sure to turn the lights off from then on!

 

Part 4 : Exploring the Neighborhood

Once we got back to our flat and unpacked the groceries, we took a stroll down the street a few blocks to the waters’ edge. Sunset in Iceland this time of year seemed to take an hour, which was amazing, and this photographer’s dream!

We loved the simplicity of the houses and neighborhood! And found a kitty to make friends with along the way!

The sunset view from our flat. These images were taken around 11:30 at night! That’s sunlight!