`
Travelin' Cousins
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Media Kit
    • Press >
      • October 2018 Press
    • Contact
  • The "Almost" Daily Scoop
  • Travel Articles
    • Travel Adventures Articles
    • Throwback Thursdays >
      • Elisa's Throwback China Trip Adventure
    • Foodie Fridays
    • Travelin' The NYC Outer Boroughs with Elisa
    • Walt Disney World Wednesdays
  • Things To Do
    • Entertainment Reviews
    • New York Area
    • Southern California Area
  • Where to Stay and Things to Do
  • Where to Dine Vegan
  • Fun Fact & Travel Trivia Articles
    • Fun Facts List Directory
  • Tanya's Photo Gallery
    • Pictures from Auschwitz/Birkenau - WARNING: Mature Content/Depressing Images
  • Elisa's Photo Gallery
  • Travel Tips
    • Know Before ya Go

 

Travel Adventure Articles
​
Join Elisa and Tanya on their daily travel adventures, near and far, past, present and future!

Go EXPORE!

Mystery of The Northern Lights of Iceland

12/16/2014

0 Comments

 
Tonight's the night... 
(Or so I thought.)
We were on the hunt for the elusive northern lights; Standing out in the gusty winds and with high hopes and prayers of seeing the dancing Aurora Borealis.
This was already after being cancelled 2 nights in a row due to poor conditions, but we finally confirmed and on our 'Northern Lights Mystery Tour' out into the darkness. 

While it might come off sounding a bit mysterious, and perhaps as though there's even a touch of danger sprinkled in there. 

I'm sorry to do this, but I have to burst that bubble right now..
 
With door to door service, a small shuttle came to pick us up and there I was thinking we'd be a part of a small group, heading out in search of this amazing phenomenon.

 
Instead, once we were picked up, we were driven to the main lot where we'd board a larger bus (if we had our vouchers), being that we didn't we were told to go into the office and get a copy of our paperwork. 
Once this extra chore was accomplished (apparently we weren't the only one without printing our vouchers), we came out to find a very massive queue and several buses lined up, all heading in the same direction. 

To see the Northern Lights!!!
Now as much as I want to see these little beauties swirling around, I'm really not one for crowds and the romance was quickly being sucked right out of this bucket lister!
PictureLoading on the bus
After the pushing, and shoving...
We finally found a bus with enough seats (4) and boarded like packed little sardines.
We were informed that it was going to be around a 45 minute drive out of Reykjavik and I got all comfy cozy in my seat (next to Dominic), so there was pretty much no choice in the matter - I was gonna be rocked to sleep!

Picture
Me and Dominic in our seats
Picture
Cosette and Priscilla in their seats
Once the bus stopped and we were all given explicit camera instructions - No Flash, Tripod Necessary, Etc (the little busy beaver that I am - I had already set up my camera before leaving our apartment). We then all excitedly climbed out of the bus, and into this open field that was full of people! 
There were at least 8-10 buses full of 50 people each! 

That's 400-600 people in this field of dreams all waiting to see the swirling lights. 
It was pitch black out, and I couldn't see a thing, so it's good that I had already set up my camera. It was also WINDY! So that meant that we were cold! 
Picture
One word: UGH
Picture
Tip - bring a full size tripod
We stood and we waited... 
And eventually one bus load after the next began to leave the area; our's was 2nd to last - I was hoping that we knew something that the others didn't...not vice versa! 
Picture
Dominic, Cosette, and Priscilla each abandoned me and went back to the bus; leaving me alone to stare at the sky. 
Finally I heard the engine on our bus start, just as I started to feel droplets fall from the sky. Ugh
Time to drive off and find another cold dark windy field and wait the 5 Icelandic minutes for the weather to change.
It was gonna be a long night...
Picture
Found hot springs, but no lights in the sky...
By the end of the night, we had made 4 stops and got back after 2am - empty handed - we were exhausted and the Nothern Lights were still a mystery to us!

A few days later...

Northern Lights Mystery Take 2...
At the start of tonight's tour, the guide had educated us on the science behind the Aurora Borealis
While it was all very interesting, she had also informed us of the 3 necessary conditions for us to have the opportunity to witness the amazing lights in the sky:

#1 - Luck!

#2 - Luck!

And #3 - Luck!

The other necessary conditions include:
#1 - A Dark Sky
#2 - A Clear Sky
And #3 - Solar activity - Higher Activity - More Spectacular Lights!!!

On this night the buses were all heading south to the Garður Peninsula Historical Museum, and Lighthouse.

Was it going to be...
Another night, another dozen buses, another waste of time???

Where oh where are these mysterious northern lights??

This time around, the company took us to the Garður Lighthouse, and while I luv visiting/photographing lighthouses, I do prefer to see them in the daylight.

Picture
Picture
Picture
I'm pretty sure that these companies drive you out to locations that are semi interesting/entertaining in order to keep the masses from forming mutiny!

I must say, as much at this point as I'd really like to see the northern lights, I quickly realized that I'm really not cut out for this.
I'm more of an instant gratification type of gal. Playing this waiting game just doesn't do it for me. I get BORED! And doing it with kids, apparently regardless of them both being teenagers, was almost pure torture on this second go round!


Cosette was either bebopping to the tunes on her iPod while she sang along, or else she was complaining up a storm. 
Obviously she takes after me and has no patience at all, but the complaining I could really do without! 
Complaining about the situation has not once ever made it a better situation.

Come 11pm, and Cosette complaining about stepping in a puddle and having a wet and uncomfortably cold foot, I agreed that we could/should take a break and sit in the bus to warm up for a while. We hopped onboard and found that we certainly weren't the only ones with this bright idea! 
After a short while Cosette had dozed off, and by 11:45p I figured that we should take another peak outside in hopes of finally seeing the lights!


Dominic and I stepped off...
Of the bus and stood nearby again staring into the sky, and again seeing nothing at all. At this point I had overheard one of the guides mention that they were going to be holding a meeting at 11:50p to figure out what the next step in our game plan was. 
So I figured that we would just stay out there and wait, until we heard anything further.

People were all rather disappointed and dismal by this time of the night. 


When all of a sudden... 
At the strike of midnight I heard a yell from nearby "The Lights! The Lights!"
I saw nothing, and called the man a liar - he insisted that he was speaking the truth, and pointed us in which direction to look. And to my disbelief I saw a light in the clear sky! 

It was as though someone had turned on the switch at exactly 12am, and there it was for us all to see! 


We actually saw them! The solar activity level must've been low, because these were certainly NOT what I was expecting of hoping for, but at least we had a glimpse, and then they began to quickly fade away as if they never existed to begin with. But at least we had caught a glimpse of these mysterious Northern Lights!

In the midst of it all, I had Dominic run into the bus and fetch Cosette, she woke up and came out to see what the rest of us were staring at, and she wasn't very impressed. And of course by this stage in the game, I didn't have my camera set up and ready to go, so I have no pictures either! How lame!

Oh well, maybe it'll be more spectacular and I'll be camera ready next time...if I have the patience to go fishing for the Northern Lights once again.

-T

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Tanya

    Tanya is a free sprit who resides in Southern California with the only family that she has outside of NY (you can take a girl out of the city, but you’ll never take the city out of this girl). Her housemates include her mom, her 2 sisters, her brother, her sister’s boyfriend, her niece, her 2 kids and her ex! Yup...all under one roof! Her professional career and background was in film (writing, production and acting). Currently she is a stay at home mom - who is hardly ever at home, and who’s passions are: everything travel related, food (both cooking and eating), photography, skiing and of course, shopping! 

    As Featured On EzineArticles
    Picture

    Elisa

    Elisa is co-founder of Travelin' Cousins travel blog along with her cousin "Travelin' Tanya." She lives on Long Island, New York with her two daughters and her dog Punkin. An entrepreneur whose professional career has included a variety of businesses in the toy, licensing and direct marketing businesses, she is now a blogger and freelance writer. Since her teen years, she has traveled extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia and continues to travel these days throughout the world with her daughters and cousin Tanya. Her other passions include cooking, dining, the theatre and shopping.
    ​

    As Featured On EzineArticles
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Adventureland Long Island
    Airbnb Vienna
    A La Carte Cooking School Lynbrook
    Arches National Park
    Azores
    Barbados
    Ca
    California
    Caribbean
    Carlsbad
    Eklecticafe
    Farmingdale
    Flower Fields
    Hofburg Palace
    Horseback Riding
    Iceland
    Las Vegas
    Lompoc Flower Fields
    Long Island
    Long Island International Film Expo
    Long Island Theatre
    Los Angeles
    Luggage
    Mendocino
    MLB All Star Game
    Moab
    Moab Under Canvas
    Moab Utah
    Northern Lights
    Norway
    NY
    Oceanside
    Oslo
    Pasadena Chalk Festival
    Ponta Delgada
    Prague
    Puerto Rico
    Road Trip
    Ronald's Donuts
    Safety
    San Diego Sicilian Festival
    San Francisco
    Santa Barbara
    Sao Miguel
    Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna
    Spanish Riding School
    Stanford Inn
    Statues On Parade
    St. Kitts
    St. Lucia
    St. Martin/St. Maarten
    Stratosphere
    St. Thomas
    The Bad And The UGLY
    The Good
    The Sunset Tower Hotel
    Traveling Solo
    Travel Tips
    Utah
    Vegan Moab
    Vegan Road Trip
    Vegan Utah
    Vienna
    Wynn

    Archives

    December 2020
    October 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2017
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014





    RSS Feed

The Scoop Blog
Travel Adventure Articles
Travelin' the NYC Outer Boroughs with Elisa
Walt Disney World Wednesdays
Travel Resource Guide
Vegan Dining Guide

                                                      
Fun Fact and Travel Trivia Articles
Elisa and Tanya's Favorites
Travel Tips - Know Before You Go
​
About
​Contact Us 
​Media Kit 
​
All of the photos on Travelin Cousins are taken by the Travelin’ Cousins Photographers unless otherwise noted. If you wish to use any content from Travelin Cousins please credit and link to the source or request permission by email.
(c) Travelin' Cousins 2020 -2024 All Rights Reserved