Day 3: Game of Thrones Tour
It was the first night I was able to sleep since being in Iceland. My body had finally adjusted to the time change thankfully because I feel it was the hardest thing for me being 8 hours ahead.
I woke up at about 8:30am to get ready for the Game of Thrones tour I was doing. This was the longest tour I booked. It was going to be a solid 8 hours. The tour was going to be taking us to the main areas in Iceland where the show was filmed the most.
I made my way down to the bus stop that was maybe a 5 min walk from my air bnb and waited for the tour bus to come pick me up. As I got closer to the bus stop I was realizing more how fast it is to miss your bus if you’re not paying attention. There was a Blue Lagoon tour bus that came to pick up these people and these 3 girls are completely distracted by their phones that the bus driver had to physically go grab them and ask what their names were to see if they were the people missing from the list. He was pissed lol.
My bus came and I got on and apparently my tour guide was an extra in all first 4 seasons which was pretty neat. He was also in full costume so he had the whole beard thing going for him and I just knew he was going to really fill us in on everything about the show and I was right!
Let’s go down the list of what I remember since there was so much talking that it was putting me to sleep.
1.Season one of Game of Thrones is the only season that was not filmed in Iceland. Season 1 was filmed in Ireland. Every other season has been filmed in Iceland. The reason why they chose to film in Iceland is because they were having to spend so much money on fake snow for season 1 that they decided they just needed to go somewhere that had real snow where they could really film, that’s where Iceland came in!
2.The fighting scenes in Game of Thrones where the actors are in hand to hand combat is actually REAL. The actors were made to beat the shit out of each other all in the sake of making the show more believable! I was SHOOK. I wish a bitch would try to pawn me off like that lol.
3.Sometimes the weather would be so bad and the actors would physically have to shoot in that so in the show if you ever notice sometimes the actors look miserable it’s because they really were because of the snow and they’d be freezing from getting wet. Poor fellas!!!!
4. NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN FILMING THE SHOW
Those 4 things were the main things I remember because the guy was talking and talking and talking so I finally put my headphones in and just waited until we arrived to each destination.
We first stopped at a stable to see some of the horses that were in the show and there was a dog that was chasing them around and getting them to go outside.
It was still early so the sun was slowly coming up. The sun doesn’t rise until about 9:30-10am so it was still barely coming up as you can tell in the photos.
After the stables we went to a convenient store to grab snacks and food for the tour and I took this opportunity to go shopping of course! They had all sorts of rad souvenirs so I grabbed a handful of keychains, an Iceland book of all the places to visit in Iceland, and an Iceland beanie! I must say that everything in Iceland is seriously so fucking expensive lol. On all the little shit I bought I spent easily $80.. I don’t even want to look at some of the receipts from the trip because I spent so much on little shit that it’s upsetting lol.
We left the souvenir shop and headed to our first destination.
The first stop we made was at the spot where the dragons make their debut in season 4 as adult dragons.
Since I had so much time to think and really absorb everything going on around me there was one couple that I was paying attention to that were so sweet with each other. They asked me to take their photo and when I went to take it the girl started to hang all over him and make funny faces and he was just cracking up at what she was doing and going with it. I immediately started taking photos because it’s those little moments that speak volumes about your relationship. It was the cutest thing seeing them interact the entire time because you can just tell they really get each other and love each other and I loved seeing that.
We spent maybe 30 min at each spot and were on a tight schedule so we took off to the next filming location.
The following stop was where a lotttt of the show was filmed. It’s where they filmed the bloody gate with CGI effects and where Arrya and The Hound would walk through as well as when the Wildlings were passing by and the Thenns showed up.
Our tour guide was showing us photos of where he was in the show which was pretty neat.
I figure I’ll show more photos now since there isn’t much to say about the places we went to just that they were all covered in pounds of snow!
The last location we went to was my FAVORITE. It’s where the fight scene broke out with the wildlings and the Thenns. It was my favorite because the house looked so cool and really gave you that sense of ‘wow, I’m standing where one of the greatest shows out was filmed’ kinda feeling.
The view from where this last location was absolutely beautiful.. It was high up and overlooked everything. It gives you such a deep feeling of appreciating life and appreciating how close to the Arctic circle I was and how amazing this experience has been. Never would I have imagined to be in Iceland meeting people and traveling all by myself.
The tour was over but the tour guide wanted to take us to one last place before it was all over.
We stopped at this waterfall that was pretty rad. We had enough time to literally take a photo or 2 and get back on the bus since it was getting late. They wouldn’t let us go down more to take photos since it wasn’t really part of the tour and it was getting late.
On the way back we stopped at one last convenient store. While I was there I was looking for this rune that my friend Kelly was telling me about. It was the Vegvisir rune the vikings would use before they set sail.
Description:
“the wearer of this symbol will not lose his way during storms and bad weather, even if he does not know of his destination”.
I told myself that I HAD to find this symbol while in Iceland. I said to myself that if I find this symbol then I’ll have hope that I’ll find my way back in life and be able to live with everything going on.
I wasn’t going to get off the bus since I didn’t really need to piss but I figured I might as well just in case I really have to go and who knows how long we were going to be on the fucking bus again. So I got off went to the restroom and just decided to check out the gift shop. I started looking and keychains and boom there it was. The Vegvisir staring right back at me. The entire gift shop was all handmade viking and game of thrones souvenirs that the shop owner makes BY HAND. I made sure to get a handful of keychains with the Vegvisir symbol just in case I didn’t see it again. I even bought a coaster and necklace of it lol.
This symbol means everything to me right now…
There’s no worse feeling than feeling lost in life which has never really happened to me..
To try your absolute hardest and lose so many important people or things in life.
I understand this is all the process of life and life isn’t always going to be easy because that would just be boring as fuck but these major events that have happened in my life, have really made me realize how quick I can lose my way. Before my vacation I was drinking just to numb the pain and to avoid becoming too depressed. I was beating myself up to try and fight pain with pain and it just wasn’t working..
So to have gone to a foreign country and found a symbol that gives me hope, was 1 of the biggest highlights of the trip.. It was a piece of the puzzle of my healing.
I was dropped off at my bus stop and I went back to my place to shower. I took this opportunity to take photos of the city and all its glory.
There was snow all over the roads and I loved it. I’m not a fan of crazy amounts of snow but in Iceland I didn’t mind. It made Reykjavik seem that much more dreamy because of how cute the town was already. It was about 6:30pm when I got back and my time was limited because I needed to get to a restaurant before everything started to close! Not to mention it was Friday so I needed to hurry and make sure where I went wasn’t packed!
I got dressed and decided to go hotel 101 for dinner and had their lobster pasta which was AMAZING.
The food was so good in Iceland but I noticed they don’t really salt, so it all tends to taste pretty plainnn.
I had a glass of wine and had a window view of the street. There was a big table next to me with business people at it being loud as all fuck so I was kind of annoyed by that. I again was the only person in the restaurant alone and it was ok. But again the same thoughts kept creeping in about how much it sucks not having Nick with me. How much I miss doing group dinners with me him and our friends.. Thinking of what could of been and how my life would of turned out to be with him.. Everything was going to get better for us and then everything just kind of completely slipped out of my hands and into the dirt.
I finished eating and went back to my place. I was going to go out for awhile for drinks but I wasn’t feeling that good and I was afraid I’d get sick so I went back home and waited for Eyvi to come over again so we could chat more.
He came over around midnight-ish and I was thrilled to see him since I just felt really comfortable with him.
The night was beautiful and so was the weather. Occasionally we would go outside to see everyone walking up and down the streets. I made sure to keep the door cracked a bit since the house tended to get warm quick.
He had been drinking a bit and so instead of drinking more I made us some tea and we sat on the couch and just talked. I opened up to him more about what happened recently with me and he went on to tell me about someone close to him that passed away in the same fashion.
He told me all about his story and it just made me sad but it kept bringing my attention to, is suicide really in someones destiny or does life give you choices and some people just continue to choose a negative path until it leads to suicide? I’d like to believe that suicide is not in anyones fate but I just don’t know.
We continued to talk about life in general and he was telling me more about his life in Iceland. I couldn’t help but to be so fascinated by everything he was telling me. He didn’t even really live around Reykjavik he lives like 4 hours away which made our meeting that much more spiritual. How did I manage to fly 5,000+ miles to find someone as interesting as this guy and that looked similar to Nick and had a past similar to mine? This was no coincidence and I definitely feel like it was fate putting us together. I felt the magic of Iceland and the universe working together with me.
We stayed up talking until about 2am and then he went home.
I stood out on the balcony and finished my tea watching the crowds of people walk by and just seeing how simple life is in Iceland. At one point I was looking at everyone in their apartments to see what they were up to and I remember seeing a man eating pizza in his dining room that wasn’t furnished at all. He had a table and food and was watching TV from what I could tell. It made me think of home and how everything is so over the top sometimes with furnishing houses and making sure you look good and are wearing designer or what not when life could be more simpler. I feel like anyone who just wants to live a simple life should just move to some part of Europe where people don’t judge and just go about their life.
The following day I was doing the snorkeling tour and I could not wait. I cannot wait to share those photos because everything about the tour was so majestic..
♄Brian ☾ Jamesøn♃ 