Fancy But Frugal

It was November 2017 and we still hadn’t chosen a Christmas vacation... Madeira and Galapagos Island were top on our list, but we hadn’t pulled the trigger yet. Then one night as we were cooking dinner, Jon says “I've always wanted to visit Scandinavia. What about that for Christmas?” Me, a southern girl who notoriously hates winter, ever so gently reply:  “ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAH . Good one”.  Silence.  I look at him: “Wait, you’re serious?” My budget bug has definitely rubbed off on Jon over the years. He was searching for flights and came across dirt cheap tickets to Sweden and, yes, he was serious. We dropped the conversation, started eating tacos and went on with our night. Over the next few days, I did some research into why on earth Jon desired to go to (practically) the North Pole in -9 F weather and saw things I'd never imagined. Dogsledding, igloos, snow mobiles, northern lights . It was a literal winter wonderland. ⛄❆ I was starting to warm ...

Oh, Iceland... Iceland started off as an idea in late 2014 while I was working in Singapore. It was supposed to be the ultimate  girls trip. I had a lot of experience in short 3-4 day trips around South East Asia but didn't truly considered myself a backpacker. One of my good friends there , Sok, was an  infamous backpacker... like go solo 2-3 weeks, stay in a hostel, cook her own food, make a hundred new friends, and only pack two outfits kind of backpacker. She's hardcore, and I wanted to be like her! So when she invited me on a road trip around Iceland in March 2015, of course I said YES !  ***Keep in mind that this is insane since Iceland is only a 3-4 hour flight from the USA,  yet it was a solid 20+ flight from Singapore. Not the most practical trip for me, yet so worth it!   Fast forward a few weeks before the trip, and one of the 3 other girls found out she was pregnant and couldn't travel. We were all very bummed, but I'm so grateful it happe...