This summer, my friend Rosio and I traveled around the world in two weeks, stopping in eight destinations, and in each place we tried to see and do as much as possible. There’s no way I could share everything we did in those two weeks, but here are a lot of the highlights! Even the highlights turned out to be crazy long, so I’ve split the post and this is part one of the activities recap, covering Minneapolis, Iceland, London, and Mainz.
If you’d like to see more about the hotels we stayed at and how we got around to the different locations, check out the transportation post and the lodging post.
Minneapolis
From the moment we landed in Minneapolis for our first layover, we were ready to soak up all possible experiences on our two-week trip. Naturally, we viewed our 6-hour layover as part of the vacation itself. Unfortunately, our first flight was delayed so we had to shorten our Minneapolis plans, but we still got in a quick visit to the Mall of America.
Mall of America
When I was a kid, I was on an unrealistic mission to read every Baby-Sitters Club, Sweet Valley High, and Nancy Drew book in existence (I know, I know) and somewhere in that overload, one of the characters went or wanted to go to the Mall of America. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to see what it was all about, and this summer I got my chance! We only had an hour so I know I missed most of it, BUT we got to ride a Ninja Turtle ride at the Nickelodeon theme park inside the mall, so my heart is content.
Iceland
I found Iceland to be an incredibly beautiful place. We only saw a small part of it, but pretty much every nature photo I took was gorgeous, and the architecture in Reykjavik almost made me want to move there.
Blue Lagoon
We had one full day in Iceland, so the priorities were to visit the Blue Lagoon, and to find some traditional Icelandic food. There were two things about the Blue Lagoon that I wasn’t expecting but probably should have. The first was that the entire setup was super commercialized – it was basically a huge, manicured, outdoor spa. While I’d heard it was quite commercialized, I really wasn’t expecting the extent of the formal facilities. However, I found the Blue Lagoon to be impressive enough that the commercialization really didn’t detract from the experience.
We choose the mid-range entry option and with the time of year and the exchange rate at the time, we paid about $125 each for Premium entry. Premium included the entrance fee, two mud masks, a drink at the bar inside the lagoon, a towel, bathrobe, and slippers (what I’d call flip flops, and you get to keep them!), and an optional restaurant reservation. This package was roughly $20-30 more than the Classic Package (entry, towel, one mud mask, & a drink), and I think it was worth upgrading just for the bathrobe and sandals.
We took advantage of the lunch reservation and splurged for lunch at the Lava Restaurant at the Blue Lagoon. The lunch was on a fixed menu and you could choose the two course option, or the three course with dessert. The food was delicious, though by then jet lag and the hot spa water were catching up to me, and I nearly fell asleep in my soup course.
Reykjavik
We napped on the way to Reykjavik from the Blue Lagoon, so once we arrived we were ready for some more exploration. Our hotel was conveniently located, so it made walking a really easy way to explore the city. We decided to check out Hallgrímskirkja, the largest church in Iceland, then find food, and to see what we’d encounter on the way there and back.
We were rewarded with an amazing panoramic view of Reykjavik from the top of Hallgrímskirkja. Definitely worth going up to the top.
Walking around, we saw some great architecture, and I loved the bright colors on the buildings. This house might have been my favorite.
And I’m not sure what this building is, but I thought it was awesome!
Iceland had some awesome doorways, so I borrowed this one for a photo opp.
We ended up eating at a restaurant near Hallgrímskirkja called Kaffi Loki. They had a really extensive menu full of Icelandic dishes and words we didn’t understand, so we told our server that we were looking for quintessentially Icelandic food that we might not find elsewhere, and she came through without hesitation. On the left side of the photo below is their rye bread ice cream, and it was not to be missed.
I’m still not quite sure what all we ate, but everything was top notch, except for the fermented shark. I’m glad I tried it and I now look forward to never trying it again. (The fermented shark is in the little bowl in the center of the plate with the flag sticking out.)
During our stroll around Reykjavik, we came upon this pretty grove of trees, and I thought it would be perfect for a jumping picture!
Like this:
(peep my excellent photo/timing skills)
Then, when it was my turn, these are the best we could do -_- before I eventually pulled a muscle and had to stop jumping. Apparently jumping is not my strong suit, and the one picture Rosio managed to capture of me in the air had my face blocked by my scarf. #epicfail But the photo series makes me laugh every time!
To wrap up our evening, we found a cute little bar that had bay windows that you could sit in, so we walked in and proceeded to order the most expensive hot toddy I’ve ever seen in my entire adult life. Everything you’ve heard about the price of food in Iceland is probably true – this drink was something ridiculous like $25-30 USD. It was a nice experience though, and a good chance to warm up before heading back to our hotel.
When we left the bar, it was bout midnight, and I was a little weirded out by the fact that it still looked like daytime. We needed to be up early for our flight the next morning, but there were zero environmental indications that I might want to go to bed, and it was a really odd experience. Here’s a photo I took at about 10 or 11 pm, and besides cropping I haven’t edited it at all.
London
London Eye
We used Chase Ultimate Rewards points to book the champagne experience on the London Eye. We were a little ambitious and grossly underestimated the time it would take to land at and exit LHR airport (if I remember correctly this took us roughly 2 hours!), arrive at our hotel, check in, and get to the London Eye, so we actually missed our reserved time. The customer service staff were absolutely amazing and rebooked us for a later time for a small fee. The London Eye is like a huge ferris wheel with glass pods that allow an incredible view of London. Even though I’d been to London before, this was new to me and we both had a blast, made even better by the glass of champagne that came with our half hour rotation.
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Leake Street Tunnel
We weren’t deliberately trying to go here, but I think I got us turned around trying to find the Tube, and the next thing we knew we were at this awesome graffiti tunnel. The Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel is a pedestrian-only space where graffiti artists can legally tag the walls and display their art. The colors and variety are wonderful, and some of the art inside shows truly impressive skillfulness.
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace opened for visits a few days before we arrived in London, and we were so lucky to have realized this early on, so we had the opportunity to reserve time slots that worked for our schedule. I thought it was a great tour – it was somewhat self-directed, as they handed out audio guides – and just being able to walk through the halls of a building so filled with history and opulence was a really cool experience. On the way out you get to walk through a portion of the gardens, even if you don’t sign up for the specific garden tour (which we didn’t because we were trying to make it to our afternoon tea reservation).
Afternoon Tea
We met up with Zahra, one of our sorority sisters living in the U.K., for tea in the Park Room at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House. Anna’s Champagne Afternoon Tea at the Park Room was another strategic splurge that we’d worked into our budget, and I think it was 100% worth the extra expense (it was about $70). There were pages and pages of tea to choose from the menu, and free-flowing scones, tea cakes, and sandwiches, and of course, champagne. And we got to catch up with Zahra, which I always enjoy.
I also appreciated that the restaurant made a real effort to ensure that there weren’t any allergens included in my food – they were super accommodating and switched out anything that might have been problematic for me.
Ballie Ballerson
This was Rosio’s first trip to London and my second, so I was completely ready to re-do anything I’d seen that she hadn’t. As it turned out, her one serious request for London was this obscure bar in East End a good half hour outside of where we were gonna be that boasted a ball pit in the back, filled with one million balls (think Chuck-E-Cheese ball pit with alcohol and no creepy oversized puppets). I’m like…okayyyyyy, how’d you even find this place?! But this was literally the only thing she asked about, so I put aside my skepticism and we worked it into our very full Saturday schedule (we did a full breakfast, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, afternoon tea, and Ballie Ballerson, most with set reservation times, in about 9 hours while battling jet lag). I got in a solid power nap in our Uber on the way there.
It turned out to be awesome! It’s a great neighborhood bar, with a cool vibe and great drinks that someone really put a lot of effort into designing. I don’t like paying for mediocre cocktails, and the ones at Ballie Ballerson are all themed on various candies. Mine was the one on the right in the photo below, and it was like a beautiful glass of alcohol-infused Skittles – it even came with a small bag of Skittles in case you needed the concept reinforced. This place really wants you to get in touch with your inner child and I am definitely here for it.
Mainz
I think the time we spent in Mainz was probably the most limited time spent anywhere during the whole trip, but I LOVED the little town and I would go back in a heartbeat to spend more time. The only reason we were even there was because it was convenient to the Frankfurt airport and I had a free night certificate that could be used there.
Everything about our evening there was pleasant and relaxing. Rosio found a cute little restaurant called Laurenz that was a short walk from our hotel, and had some truly excellent wine, cheese, sausage and charcuterie for a fraction of what I would have paid almost anywhere else. I had a glass of extremely good Reisling (it’s my favorite white wine and I’ve consumed enough to have a reasonably informed opinion lol) for just 3,50 € – about $4. $4!!! And it was all sooo good. Hashtag, foodie.
Later, we wrapped up the evening at a little bar where we tried out some local beers and talked soccer with a student who had visited California previously. When we got ready to pay our < 10€ bill, we realized the bar was cash only, and since we were only going to be in Euro-territory for a few hours, we hadn’t bothered to change any money. The bartender actually let us walk out the door to go find an ATM without requiring any kind of collateral! We just meandered off in search of the bank! I don’t think he really expected us to come back lol (but of course we did). Honestly, everything about Mainz was the kind of chill, laid-back vibe that I wish I encountered more frequently. We set off for the hot weather portion of our trip in the best of spirits.
Stay tuned for the second half of our journey as I recap Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Hong Kong!