Iceland

Already a vague and distant memory from the Easter just passed.

Getting used to travelling directly to the airport and then to the final destination straight after work.

Golden Circle. After a stroll in the Thingvellir national park wich jagged stone cliffs, we head towards the Strokkur Geyser. The nature phenomenon begins with the temperatures near the bottom of the geyser rise to a point where boiling begins; allowing steam bubbles rise to the top of the column. As they burst through the geyser's vent, some water overflows or splashes out, reducing the weight of the column and thus the pressure on the water underneath. With this release of pressure, the superheated water flashes into steam, boiling violently throughout the column. The resulting froth of expanding steam and hot water then sprays out of the geyser hole. The air around the Gulfoss waterfall was freezing, makes me realise I was truely in Iceland.

Reykjavik city centre can be explored within 20 minutes. The Saegreifinn down by the harbour served delicious lobster tail soup with a wide selection of seafood kebabs. Two Asian girls occupied a good 30% of the restaurant space with our gourmet lunch compared to the buff locals with their one cup of lobster soup - that's a sight to see.

The blue lagoon was literally a giant onsen, where one can manuvre to different parts of the lake with respect to the central volcanic eruption to gain the most comfortable water temperature. All this without having to get out of one bath in the freezing cold and relocate to another as it currently is in a Japanese onsen. Volcanic mud face mask was also freely available for use at one of the stations. As much fun as a lagoon can be we soon grew tired of sitting in a pond of water and began snapping photos using my triple plastic bag layered Canon SLR.

B5 night lounge. With a giant horse and a lamp on its head at the window, it is suprising to see the fusia pink and ocean blue lined alcohol shelves. Along came a magician who lit up his wallet with fire, then sat next to us teaching card tricks and enlightening us about Icelandic life. Truely interesting evening.

Kaffitar: Iceland's own brand of Starbucks, only with more aromatic coffee beans and better brewing processes. Yum.

Glacier climbing. The jeep was so high to climb in! We really were not dressed for the part in my fitted coat, ugg boots and pom pom hat. The trip to the Snaefellsjokull glacier took almost the whole morning, which is later nicely refreshed by the two hour climb. We viewed the thousand year old black ice and dangerous seep holes.

The highlight has to be the oriental inspired Seafood Cellar. The seafood banquet just kept on coming. The presentation of the food was very pretty: a lobster tail platter with cream garlic sauce served in a chinese tea pot; lychee, mango sorbet served on a bed of dry ice. The food combination was also challenging to the tastebud: white cod served on plum and sake flavoured rice, lobster and truffle soup, fish roe served with lime froth and ponzu sauce. All this with excellent restaurant decor matches that of Fat Duck, only at a fraction of a price.