FIRST DAY OF SUMMER AND LOVE IN THE AIR
Today is First Day of Summer – a cheerful holiday in Iceland that brings a promise about brighter times ahead. To celebrate this we would like to share with you the heart-warming story about a very romantic moment on one of our whale watching tours the other day. Head guide Aksel Bjarnason was there and this is how he describes the tour when (yet another) passenger popped the question on board:
"The weather had been great all week – calm seas, mostly clear skies and one could feel spring coming our way. Rivers in Húsavík were getting louder, the mountains changed from white to brown more and more everyday. All the waterfalls around the bay started to show.
One of the best aspects of working out in nature, is to experience how it is constantly changing. And every tour is never the same.
The same goes for this very special trip on our oak boat Sylvía a few days ago. Like always, we got to enjoy the beauty of Skjálfandi Bay, and everything it got to offer – its surroundings and wildlife. We had made our way out of the harbor and were heading towards the mountains on the other side. We got to see puffins resting on the surface, big groups of common eider ducks and guillemots flying by, as well as many other seabirds.
When we got up close and personal to the mountains, a minke whale surfaced not far from us. We followed it for a while, and the passengers and crew enjoyed the beauty of the whale while it was coming up to breathe on the completely calm surface.
Two of our passengers, Yulia and Anton, were up on the the wheel house of the boat admiring the minke. They met two years ago, and were visiting Iceland for the first time. They came all the way from Israel with their friends, which where watching the minke whale together with them.
A minute after the minke went in for a deeper dive, a life changing moment for two people was about to happen. Anton went down on one knee and looked up at his girlfriend, Yulia. I could see the excitement in everybody's eyes, especially Yulia's. He then took up a tiny box from his overall pocket, he opened it and popped the question to Yulia! It didn't take long before she screamed "YEEES" and all their friends (the crew included) started to jump and cheer of joy. It was a beautiful moment. Anton sure chose the perfect timing to ask Yulia to marry him. The crew was honored to get to be apart of the special happening.
On the way back we celebrated with hot chocolate and Icelandic donuts, and a family of white-beaked dolphins joined us.
Gentle Giants congratulates the happy couple on their engagement, and wish Yulia and Anton all the best!"
Text and photos: Aksel Bjarnason
