ANGELA B. PAN

Our flight into Keflavik landed at 5am. Luckily I had the whole aisle to myself and was able to lay down and sleep the whole 5 hours to Iceland. Don’t you just love it when that happens? Anyways, so when we got to the hotel I was ready to drop off our stuff and start exploring. My friend, Mel and I discovered these geothermal baths and steam saunas at Laugarvatn Fontana. It was the first stop we were going to make along the Golden Circle drive in southern Iceland so we were pumped to relax for a bit after all that travel.

The baths were so nice. I’m a big fan of soaking in a hot tub so this was perfect. Even though it was raining off and on while we were there, it didn’t stop us from enjoying our little excursion. So behind the baths was this big lake. It was beautiful but definietly cold. I could see a layer of ice on top of the water. But the craziest part was that people were actually jumping into that lake! I don’t know. I don’t get it. So the whole time Mel and I were watching in amazement from a window in the baths as these people timed themselves to see how long they could stay in there. Then it was hilarious watching them run back to the baths and jump in. This little girl who must of been about 8 years old did it at least 3 times. More power to her.

After about 2 hours of soaking, we finally got up and explored the rest of the golden circle. On our way back to the hotel we had to make a stop back to Laugarvatn Fontana because it was the only place we knew of that had wifi. It was worth it though because the sun was setting and we got this amazing reflection of the mountains in the lake.

When visiting a new country, I always try to learn as much as I can about the food, people and language. It’s the best way to totally immerse yourself into your new surroundings. In Iceland, it was a little difficult to learn the language. First off, everyone speaks english. Really good english too! So being able to listen to the Icelandic language was really limited to just locals in a restaurant or people talking quietly amongst themselves. But I did manage to learn a few words. “Foss” means waterfall. So if you notice all the waterfalls in Iceland end with the term “Foss”. This image was taken at Skógafoss which is in a small town called Skógar. You add foss to the end of it, you have the Skógafoss! Pretty cool huh? Another important word to know is “Kaka” which means cake! Who doesn’t love cake right? So if you wanted to say chocolate cake, you would say “súkkulaðikaka”.

Now that we’re talking about food, the food was great. Expensive but the overall delicious. I don’t think we had one bad meal. I ate a lot of smoked salmon, at least once a day. There aren’t very many vegetable dishes. It’s all very meat/seafood oriented and to our surprise, a lot of pizza. I’m not sure if that was just a tourist thing but almost every restaurant we went to had a lot of pizza options. We noted one day that the pepperoni pizza was cheaper than the vegetarian pizza.

The people are very nice as well. Super helpful when you have a million and one questions about travel. Even when they knew you were a tourist, they didn’t look at you funny or treat you differently which was much appreciated. However, I did notice that a lot of them weren’t originally from Iceland. Many were from different parts of Europe that just fell in love with the country. I can totally see why minus all the cold temperatures.

Still the same sunrise from the other day. Crazy how the different view points of the city can make the same sky look so different.

After all the fog lifted, there was an AMAZING sunrise. I definietly was not expecting the clouds to look like this and the water was just like a mirror. Absolutely amazing.

I used to always be able to count on parking on 22nd street. It was like my little secret spot to access the Lincoln Memorial easily and conveniently without worrying about occupied parking spots. I guess the people at Capital Bikeshare learned my little secret and decided to put a bike share stand there that takes up half the parking spots. CURSES!!! Now theres never parking there.

Oh well, Roosevelt Bridge is more scenic anyways…

Obviously most of my images are of the DC monuments because its home to me. In between travel, these monuments are the best places to go and practice my craft and to discover new angles.

No matter how many times I go, I never get tired of these amazing views.

Part 2: DC Monuments

In no particular order… Click the image to find the original blog post and the story behind it.

Full moon rising at the US Capitol. One of the best places in the city to watch the sky.

We had so many summer storms this year, it was awesome! This was the sunset right when as one was moving in.

And this is the same evening as the previous image, just a different POV

Cutest paddle boats ever. They make me smile every time I see them. Especially if they were lined up in a row like this.

I love this image because it may never happen again. Click the image to find out why there will never be another one like it.

Puddlegram. Another one from our summer storms.

My favorite part of this image is that light reflection down the center, left side of the image. So cool to see how it reflects.

It’s all about simplicity in this image.

WOWZA! I still can’t believe I was able to capture a lightning bolt like that.

And this was the morning after.

Another lightning strike. This one is a little harder to make out but the mood on this was is just how I wanted it.

I was in Tokyo for the peak of the Cherry Blossoms this year. I was a little sad about it but still managed to capture the last bit of it when we got back home.

Wonder what tomorrow is going to be? Check back tomorrow to find out.
In case you missed it, here are my favorite images from my travels in 2016.