Day 10 | 17th July
Back in Reykjavik
So the night before, or perhaps the early morning of 17th, we arrived back to our airbnb home. All tired, disgusting and cranky. Well, at least for me, I was super cranky cause of the lack of sleep. Had to use up so much effort to not fall asleep while driving lol. But it was all better after I got a nice clean shower. We slept for a couple of hours before we had to head out again to return our car back to the rental.
After handing everything over to the rentals, we were so relieved that we weren't charged for anything. & we were mostly worried about receiving fines for speeding. We weren't sure if we were fined or not, but during our roadtrip when I was driving into a town, there'd be a speed limit detector. & I was over the limit for 3 times and got caught by the camera. But so far....I've not received anything....so hopefully we didn't get fined!
So, on our final day in Iceland (or so we thought), we decided to hang out in town, not like we had anywhere else to go lol. Went to our favourite Te & Kaffi outlet on a rooftop and we decided to have some local food and splurge on a little bit.
So this is the traditional food, I guess. It consists of rhye bread, potatoes, fishcake(the fried round balls) and some salad. It was really refreshing to try something different besides our bread and peanut butter meals.
& I decided to try their traditional coffee with a little something special in it. hahaha, probably was not such a wise decision cause I couldn't drink it after like 4 sips.
we spent the rest of the day being a true tourist and buying gifts for families and friends. I honestly was soo broke, I couldn't buy myself much.
Okay so remember when I said, 'or so we thought' it was our last day in Iceland and assumed that the next day was our flights back home. That night, we packed our stuff. My flight was like at 7am, so I had to be up superr early and syahirah's flight was at midnight. Okay, I was almost late for my flight. I got through check in, security and when I had to present my boarding pass to the lady, I had some issues.
My flight was on the next day.
The lady told me that and I was like whattttt. How could this be possible?? Then I counted back my days and nights, and yes she's right. I was in the airport on the wrong day. I couldn't believe that was really happening to me at that moment. The lady told me I shouldn't even have been checked in. Damn right, I shouldn't have been! No wonder I had issues checking in on the self-service machine.
Yup, so after that I went to the baggage collection to collect my luggage that almost flew to helsinki without me. And it took sooo long. I waited for like 2 hours. And while waiting, I called syahirah and told her the unfortunate events of my morning. I ended up heading back to the apartment, sleeping and we went out for lunch.
& the next morning when I had to fly off for real this time, it felt a little like a second chance in life lol. I woke up extra early and got to my gate just in time with 20 minutes to spare. crazy morning indeed.
Day 12 | 19th July
Arriving HELSINKI, Finland
After 11 days of travelling with a buddy, I was once again alone on my journey. But those 11 days moulded me to be braver and I was actually excited to explore Helsinki alone. The 3 hour flight from Iceland to Helsinki was bearable. I sat beside an ang moh again. Good thing was I sat at the window seat which had more leg room than other seats, bad thing was that I was in the emergency exit seats and I couldn't put my bags underneath boohoo. I had no idea.
Because this was my layover before my flight to Singapore and it was about 10 hours, so I was definitely heading out of the airport to explore for abit. I don't know why but I decided to head to town. I was debating whether to get a hop on hop off bus tour but then decided to just explore on my own. hahah, I probably should've taken a tour though.
The coolest part about taking this flight was having to walk outside by foot (like literally outdoors on plane grounds) to the airplane. Never have I done that everrr and it was soo coolll!
I wanted to check out the Market Square, so I walked from the bus/train station all the way to the Market Square where they had a flea market. I was kinda excited to check it out! I'm sorry, I don't have much photos. I don't know where the other photos went.
Anywho, I decided to try out their local meal and it reminded me of the local mean we had in Iceland. I guess Scandinavian countries share similar tastes in food. This meal I had consisted of salmon, mixed vegetables and potatoes topped with the white sauce. It was surprisingly really good! I love it! (& I love salmon too! lol) Though it was a little pricey for 'farmer's market' food. It was for about 11 Euros.
Cool sighting I saw nearby the market square. Tried to find the entrance but I couldn't find it.
I wanted to check out the rock church. So I walked all the way across Helsinki, to the point where the crowd got lesser and lesser. And my back was hurting cause I was carrying some heavy stuff (laptop & cameras). Plus it was getting a little late even though the skies says otherwise. So I decided to head back to the bus station and make my way to the airport. & I'm not gonna lie, I was mildly bored with exploring the city.
If I found my pictures I took with my dslr, I'll update it here!
Since I checked in early, I decided to claim my gst tax refund. Then I went to hang out at Starbucks while waiting for my midnight flight.
and then it was time to go home. Home sounded nice eventhough I was sad to leave my holiday behind but I couldn't wait to snuggle in my bed.
And that marks the end of my first trip without my parents to Iceland.
It was truly a life changing experience. It opened up my eyes to beauty of so much more. It was crazy and euphoric to be independent and making decisions on our own. I learnt so much during this trip. Before this, I wouldn't have known how to pump gas into a car. Now I do. Heck, I didn't even know how to open the little petrol cover on a car.
I'd do it again. But for now, I'm putting my life back together and it starts with some good news I've been meaning to share.
As some of you may know, I quit uni last year. I've been figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't want to be stagnant and do nothing. So I decided that I wanted to go back to school. But this time, I'm taking responsibility for everything and I won't burden anyone else. And the best part is, I'm taking up a degree programme that truly think (& hope) that I might like.
Another good news is, I got a job! I am working in a publications company with Singapore Press Holdings as a Customer Service Officer. I'm only on Day 3 into my training, so I'm still learning. I'm not gonna lie, training is realllyyy boring and the hallways of this place is soo creepy. So far I really like the people. Like I genuinely think that we'll get along pretty well.
I am so thankful that everything turned out way better than I planned. These past few months had been really stressful for me as I was on a crazy job hunt just so I could apply for school.
But I did it :')
Fingers crossed I'll get accepted into school.
And with that good note, I'll end it with a little 15s teaser from my entire trip to Iceland!
Have a pleasant week!
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