Remember the day we NEARLY went to the Westman Islands...

Finally my exams have come to an end and I feel like I can justify spending time updating my blog rather than attempting to study. It's been a busy few weeks so I may bombard you all with blog posts before I go home for Christmas on Sunday!

A few weeks ago, a group of us hired a car with a plan to visit the Westman Islands off the south coast of Iceland. We had to wake up early to collect the car at 8AM so we could catch the ferry at 10AM. I managed to drag myself out of bed on time and we were at the hire car office bright and early. Of course, this being Iceland, there was nobody in the office and we had to wait around twenty minutes before being handed the keys and getting on our way. We had a bit of a panic that we wouldn't make it but managed to get to the ferry terminal at 9.59. We were all ready to jump out of the car and desperately try and stop the boat from leaving without us, but it wasn't there. The woman working at the terminal told us that actually no ferries were running that day due to the weather (despite the website indicating that everything was running as usual!) and we'd had a wasted journey.

Although the situation was annoying, we had a whole day with a hire car and it seemed a shame to waste it. So we made the most of the situation and decided to have a bit of a tour of the south west of Iceland. First up was a visit to Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall which you can walk behind. Unfortunately my pictures aren't particularly impressive because we visited at around 10.30AM and the sun hadn't completely appeared yet (it now appears well after 11AM but more on that in another post)!

Behind the waterfall.

Next up we drove to Reykjanes peninsula. It's not the most beautiful area of Iceland but it's so grey and rocky you feel like you're driving around on the moon! We visited a viking museum near Keflavik then went on to the Bridge Between Two Continents. The bridge crosses a fissure between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. It was an interesting place to visit but the wind was making us so cold we only managed to leave the car for a few minutes.

Friends in different continents - and a very grey landscape.

Couples attach padlocks to the bridge.

Lastly we spent an evening at the Blue Lagoon before heading back to Reykjavik for a burger. We may not have quite made it to the Westman Islands but the best days of travelling are never the ones which go exactly as planned.