CONFESSIONS OF A TRAVEL ADDICT….
MY PERSONAL AIRPLANE POLICY INCLUDE SEVERAL POINTS: FIRST, I DO NOT FLY WITHIN NORWAY. SECONDLY, I TRY TO USE OTHER MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION WHEN POSSIBLE. THIRD, IF I FLY, IT SHOULD BE WITH THE PURPOSE OF STAYING FOR A LONGER PERIOD OF TIME… WELL, NOBODY IS PERFECT, AND I’M DEFINITELY NOT NOBODY!
So when my dad a few weeks back offered me a ticket to Iceland for a five day long family holiday, I went against all my principles and accepted the ticket, and unfortunately I can’t gurantee that I’ll never catch a flight to Iceland again – beacause I really would love to go back some day.
Friday the 5th of february I sat in the plane at Gardermoen waiting for take off, with all these mixed feelings.. Struggling with the fact that my short little holiday the next few days would lead to more emmisions of CO2 than the emmisons of an average person in Malawi througout a whole year, well aware of the fact that it is the people in poor countries like Malawi that will be worst affected by the effects of climate change, like shortages of food and water and increased risk of flooding.
At the same time I was so excited about soon being able to cross out another country on my have-been-there-list. I could not wait to see Iceland; Reykjavik, the Blue Lagoon, the hot springs and so on. I felt very lucky to have this possibility to experience Iceland in such an inexpensive way, my dad paid for the flight and I could stay for free with my sister.
I tried to convince myself that this opportunity was too good to decline for a “poor” student, and that it is not easy to travel to Iceland without flying, and of course the people of Iceland need tourists to come now during this economic crisis they are experiencing… Still, I felt bad.
My name is Ann Kristin, and I am a travel addict. Probably an over the average environmentally conscious travel addict. Which means I often find myself having moral dilemmas. My way of dealing with this, in addition to having a strict airplane policy and trying to follow it, is to buy climate tickets when I choose to fly.
Oslo-Reykjavik-Oslo is 3564 km, which means emmisions of 0,728 tons of CO2, which again costs 150 NOK. The money are used to reduce this amount of CO2 through climate projects in developing countries. The way I see it, if we can afford going on holiday we can afford a climate ticket too. If you fly a lot in your job I suggest that you try to convince your boss/organisation/company to start buying climate tickets.
Around four pm the 5th of february I landed at Keflavik airport in Iceland, and my days there were really great. My sister is in Reykjavik for five weeks because of her studies, so the whole family (me, my dad, mum, brother, his girlfriend and my sister’s children) visited her. Only an hour after I arrived in Iceland I was swimming around in the extremely enoyable Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is a expensive and very touristy thing to do, still; it is totally worth it. Specially at this time of the year. The cold weather and the so hot water is a very nice combination. We were also very lucky with the weather – blue sky. So it was so nice when it got dark, with all the lights around the pool.
Saturday we spent in Reykjavik, a city I really liked. Located down by the sea with the beautiful view of snow covered mountains. On Sunday we went on a roadtrip/sightseeing. First we went to see the geyser Stokkur, which was very impressive. The waterfall Gullfoss was also beautiful and impressive. At the end of the trip we visited the nice place Thingvellir. It was a great day, driving through the more or less deserted landscape inhabited by the very beautiful icelandic horses.
Monday, we again spent the day in Reykjavik. A lovely day, that included a lot of walking around town and a very tasty vegetarian lunch. If you go to Reykjavik, I highly recommend you having a meal (or more) in the vegetarian reataurant A næstu grösum in Laugavegur 20b. A last tip from me today is to eat a lot of the great product skyr. That was a nice new product in the supermarkets here in Norway when I got back from Ghana, and in Iceland it is cheaper, better, more flavours to choose from and available everywhere. In summary, Iceland is great! (To see a few pictures from our trip visit my brother’s blog here).
Well, I have to find my position in front of the tv again, the Olympics in Vancouver is calling me…
NEXT TIME YOU ARE TRAVELING, BE CONSCIOUS ABOUT THE CHOICES YOU MAKE. IF YOU CHOOSE TO FLY, REMEMBER YOUR CLIMATE TICKET!
Which you can purchase here:





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