Just like the Accidental Ring Road Summer 2023 and Quest for the New Volcano Summer 2022 vlogs, I intended for my week in Iceland in February nine months ago to be a series of daily videos but first of all, it turns out I didn’t film enough on pretty much any day. Monday Friday and Monday might have been ok but Sunday was virtually non-existent and Wednesday, despite being a really good day that I was excited to see on film, wasn’t a lot better.
There was also a question of stats. I did a “Channel 4 documentary” for my April 2022 trip – I did the whole thing as a 38-minute video instead of as multiple 10-minute videos and granted, it’s been up longer, but it’s had far more views than the summer 2022 series put together, which makes me think potential viewers would prefer a single longer video over multiple shorter ones. Also, a few people have found it by hunting for “Iceland in April” so it seemed to make sense to call this one “Iceland in February”.
Shall we do some behind the scenes?
- Yes, this was last February. It’s taken me a while to get around to editing it.
- I persistently choose Grayline as my airport bus. It only goes once an hour and only with passengers who’ve booked it, as opposed to Reykjavik Excursions, which sends off a bus as often as it can get one filled. I ran for the bus and missed it by about two minutes which meant I had 58 minutes to kill. I bought my favourite crisps and I sat outside. It was snowy but I was so hot after running for the bus and travelling with so many warm clothes on, that it was a delight to sit outside for a while.
- It turned out I was right to be wary of Reykjavik Excursions: see the sorry saga of Saturday night, when they managed to make me miss a tour on the only night it was possible for me to take it.
- Hvammsvik is amazing!
- That mist on the Blue Lagoon made it feel like I was dead in a movie – you know, that feeling when your entire world is just white and there’s no sense of up or down or space or time. I was told it’s because of the hot water and the cold air, resulting in vapour. But I’ve been to the Blue Lagoon many times since 2011 and I never experienced an absolute whiteout like this before.
- I highly recommend Sundhöllin, the public pool in downtown Reykjavik. It’s got a nice – but cold – indoor pool in an Art Deco hall but it also has an outdoor extension with a lane pool and long hot tub, to say nothing of the rooftop hotpots. I wish I could have taken the camera in but while Iceland encourages camera in the expensive tourist pools, it prohibits them in public swimming pools.
- My room was tiny but it was right in the heart of the downtown area. I had a shared bathroom but there were only two rooms on my floor using the shared bathrooms rather than their own ensuite and the other room was empty after the first night. We also had a kitchen.
- The weather was… well, a friend told me his taxi driver said “It rain, it snow, it snow, it rain” in the most hilarious doleful voice. He wasn’t wrong. It did indeed alternate rain and snow, but I had a few sunny patches. Hvammsvik morning and Blue Lagoon afternoon and… ok, that was about it for sun.
- Yes, it was cold but it wasn’t that cold as long as I had my hat & scarf and my warm jackets. You don’t need to immobilise yourself in polar kit but you do need a bit more than leggings and a nice merino jumper.
- I think I’ve now made enough videos to consider that I do have a channel so if you want to like, subscribe, hit the notification bell etc, that would be really good.
On with the video!