Reykjavik, Iceland

The capitals city of Iceland is Reykjavik, which means “Smokey Bay”. It got its name because of steam coming out of the earth. Iceland is a very geothermally active area, because the North American and the Eurasian plates meet.

It will take you 4 hours per plane to get there, but the airport is approximately 1h away from Reykjavik’s city centre. Reykjavik has a remarkable architecture, for example the Harpa, Icelands opera, with its thousands and thousands of glass panels, can be compared to one big glass sculpture. Another remarkable building is Reykjaviks biggest church called Hallgrimskirkja, mostly known for its weird shape. Lovers of art can also visit one of various art museums.

But the most popular sight is only an hour away from Reykjavik: the Geysir, a hotwaterspring. Actually it is the Geysir; it’s that famous, that all over the world the word “geysir” is used as a synonym for every simple hotwaterspring. Most tourists take a day trip with a bus company to see the Golden Circle, this includes the above mentioned Geysir, as well as the area called Thingvellir, the place where the first parliament of Iceland still stands. Not far away from there the big waterfall Gullfoss can be seen too. There also is a high possibility you will see islandic ponies. Another one of Iceland’s attractions related to geothermal activeness is the Blue Lagoon the biggest geothermal spa of Iceland which is located near Reykjavik.

These are only a few attractions of the city  and surrounding of Reykjavik, but the whole island has a good few more nice spots to visit!

One inspiring day in Vienna

First of all, I want to introduce ourselves. This is Mirka and me, Anabel, and we are doing a project for our English class, together with Alina. We want to give you some inspiring ideas about how to spend an enjoyable day in the beautiful capital city of Austria.

Mirka and I went to the St. Stephen’s Cathedral, which is a fantastic and stunning place in the centre of Vienna. You can make a tour through the Cathedral or you can drive with an elevator to the top, where you have a great view over the whole city.

St. Stephen’s Cathedral

Therefrom, we went directly through the popular “Kärtnerstraße” where you can find hundreds of shops for everything your heart desires.

After we strolled through the whole street, we have reached “Karlsplatz” where it wasn’t far anymore to the well-known “Naschmarkt”. It’s a market where you can buy and taste food from all around the world. The variety is really impressing!

Naschmarkt

But there’s not only food you can find. If you want to improve your “Viennese German”, there are some, maybe helpful, books.

If you still haven’t had enough from shopping, there is of course another opportunity to go shopping in Vienna. The “Mariahilferstraße” is even longer than the “Kärntnerstraße” with a length of amazing 3,7 kilometers. So after that you no longer have to go to the gym!

Mariahilferstraße

On that street, you can see some traffic lights, but not normal ones. Since a short time ago, there are symbols with all types of couples, also matched ones. It represents the tolerance for homosexuality.

That’s just one example

After that long walk, we were exhausted and needed to rest. So we decided to drive back to the Stephansplatz where there is a famous ice salon called “Zanoni-Zanoni”. The fruity ice was really refreshing and contrary to that I have chosen a delicious cookies ice.

Because we wanted to have an relaxing end, we enjoyed the beginning of spring with the last rays of the sun in the city park. It’s lovely, with a small lake, lots of doves (which can be good or bad) and compared with the city, a great place to calm down.