Blue Lagoon

The drive to the Blue Lagoon was on a highway through fields of lava rocks covered in snow, it looked really neat! The lagoon, which has been named the world’s best medical spa for 5 years in a row, holds 6 million liters of geothermal seawater that is restored every 40 hours.  Before you are allowed to enter the lagoon, you must have a NUDE shower.  There are people working here to ensure that you do; they are shared showers and thankfully, a few private showers (for us North Americas).  I spent a wonderful 3 hours bathing in the bright blue hot water.  There was a waterfall, steam room, sauna and basins of silica for applying to your skin to make it nice and soft.  Everyone swam around with this silica mud mask on.  The lifeguard was in a huge snowsuit, toque and mitts, which was funny to see since, in contrast, I work short shorts and a tank top when I was lifeguarding this summer.

 

 

I met 2 Americans from NY and considered going out for drinks with them afterward until I realized they had taken a cab the 45 minutes from town to the Blue Lagoon and didn’t pay their driver and left him to wait an hour until they were done.  They spent 4 hours there and had no intention of paying the poor driver who must have waited for nothing and didn’t get paid.  That threw me off a little, its guys like that that give Americans a bad image.  But then I met a sweet older couple from Pennsylvania who were wonderful and gave me all sorts of travel tips.  I wanted to get pictures of me there but by the time I remembered to get my camera, it was already to dark.  I chose the less expensive bus to get there and everything was great on the way there.  On the way back, the bus kept stalling and then the main door wouldn’t close but I made it back safely.

When I got back to my hostel I met 2 of my roommates, a dental hygienist from Denmark and a government worker from Hong Kong.  We chatted then went out for an Icelandic dinner.  We went to a place with the original name of “Icelandic Bar” and I had a platter with veggies, goose, lamb, puffin and whale!!  It was all very good; I washed it all down with an Icelandic Viking beer, also good.

Today I learned about Icelandic last names.  Children take on their father’s first name with the addition of “son” or “daughter” at the end, in place of a family last name.  So, if I were Icelandic my name would be Leandra Timdaughter and my brother would be Charles Timson.  Our waitress said this is very confusing because everyone ends up having similar last names so they are more often then other nations identified by their social security numbers.  I’m not sure how true this is but it is pretty interesting.

Iceland has a total population of around 320’000 and of that, about 200’000 people live in the capital city of Reykjavik.  Apparently Iceland is a nation with one of the lowest crime rates in the world.  Nobody locks their bikes in town; kids are trusted to play everywhere with minimal supervision and apparently the prime minister’s phone number is listed in the phone book (fun fact).  The small population makes it so that everyone knows someone who knows someone etc. so somehow that and whatever other social characteristics makes for the low crime rate.  Our waitress says that because of the small population and lack of news (crime), that whenever something even remotely interesting happens, it is a big deal and is widely publicized.  Reykjavik has a crazy nightlife so it is apparently very easy to be in the spotlight and to be known if you go out often enough.

Anyways, then we checked out some live music back at the hostel bar.  Now, time to shower the lagoon water out of my hair, then time for bed because I have to be up early for my Golden Circle tour.

Im sitting in a cute café right now sipping on some much needed coffee; there is free wifi everywhere here, it is excellent!  I slept in, checked out of the private room and into a shared dorm.  I walked up and down the main shopping street.  This is a touristy city so there are several tourist info centers, gift shops and genuine Icelandic wool stores targeted toward tourists.  Reykjavik is a place that is so accessible (not even 5 hours) from North America.  Lots of people stop here on their way to Europe because of less expensive plane tickets and to experience unique place.  Everyone that I have met so far seems to be only spending 3 days here just like me; just enough time to experience some culture... and get over jetlag.

In an hour I am catching a bus to go to the Blue Lagoon, which is Iceland’s biggest tourist attraction.  It is a geothermal spa that is said to have several health benefits especially for skin conditions.  The temperature is a natural 40deg C.  I’ve seen pictures before and it is absolutely gorgeous… except for towering geothermal power plants nearby.  Hopefully by the time I get there it will be light enough out for me to take some pictures!

a walk about Reykjavic

I met an Icelandic girl in the hostel café who taught me a few words; most are very similar to Norwegian words I have learned.  Regardless, I can’t understand a thing that I hear or read in regular Icelandic.  She also shared some dried codfish with me, which is a traditional Icelandic snack; it was surprisingly good…. like fishy chips and super healthy. In return I gave her a hard maple syrup candy. 

I then went for a walk around the downtown sector.  I had a basic map but there are few street signs and it never really knew where I was according to the map.  Everything is pretty close together though so it’s hard to get lost.  I went to a few gift shops, walked by the ocean and in some residential areas.  My walk would have been a lot better if it wasn’t SOOO windy!  The weather itself is only around -2C but the wind makes the temperature unbelievably cold!  The wind nearly pushed me over a few times and once it pushed me on a slab of ice so I was skating but couldn’t stop!  There was no one else walking and I only seldom saw cars, everyone must be hiding from the brutal wind.  I ended up in a café and got a coffee and a kleina.  Kleina is singular for a traditional Icelandic fried pastry… kind of like a twisted doughnut.  It was yummy!

Grocery stores are always so neat in foreign countries.  Some things are so similar to what I am familiar with while other things are completely different.  The prices are also something that will take a while to get used to.  I ended up whipping out my ipod to use as a calculator to convert all the prices into Canadian to make more sense.  On average, the prices aren’t to outrageous here (aside from a $26 block of cheese I found), it is just strange that everything costs hundreds or thousands of Krona as opposed to their North America equivalents which are 1 or 10 dollar items.  Basically, if I don’t mind looking silly with my calculator, I can divide the Krona by 122 which gives me the dollar amount.  I ended up with some yoghurt, crackers, cheese spread, dried fruit, juice boxes etc…  it should last me the 3 days.  I didn’t get the pickled fish or bacon wrapped dates that I saw :S.  I’m also hoping to go out for food at one point and try some putrefied shark (which is apparently very difficult to find) or some puffin.

Tomorrow I will try to go to the blue lagoon for the afternoon and the next day Ill book a full day Golden Circle tour, which is “the” thing to do here.  It’s a loop from Reykjavik to inner Iceland and back to see geysers, waterfalls, farms, geothermal activities etc…  I just hope I can get some good pictures and that it’s not to dark.  As for now, I have managed to stay up until 930pm so its time for bed!  I have to be up for 10am to check out of my private room and into my shared dorm.  I can still hear the wind outside, its brutal!

Iceland!

I sat next to a friendly old Danish man who was very interesting to listen to.  I learned about Danish politics, Scandinavian language similarities, his niece’s baby shower and about his life as a soldier.  The flight was only 4.5 hours so I didn’t bother trying to sleep, I instead just chatted with him and watched some TV.  As we flew in to Reykjavik, all I could see from the plane was snow and lights.  So after 5 planes, 5 times going through customs and 9 months of anticipation… I have arrived in Europe!  Its already strange that English is the secondary language on all the signs and I cant understand what anyone is saying but I’m so excited to be here! 

My plan was to store some luggage at the airport and just take what I needed for my 3 days here in a backpack, but there was no storage area.  The airport was supposed to be less than 45 minutes from the city’s downtown where my hostel is, but due to a crazy snowstorm and rush hour (people getting to work since it is 8am although I can barely stay awake), it took 2 hours in the bus to make it.  On the bus I met some girls from Rhode Island who were in Iceland for a 3-day holiday!  Seems like a far away place to go for only 3 days from the states!  Along the way I saw several cars pulled over on the side of the road with their lights on and a snowdrift already forming around the vehicle.  It didn’t look as though they had been in accidents, more like they just gave up on driving in the storm; there we at least 10 of these along the way.  It was very dark so I didn’t see much on the drive, just snow, wind and cars.

The hostel’s check in isn’t until 2pm but I showed up at 930am to try my luck anyways.  My original plan was to stay awake all day and sleep all night to get myself used to the time change but my eyes were bloodshot and I could barely stay awake so I needed some sleep.  My original dorm room wasn’t available yet so Id have to wait until 2pm but the dark stormy outside didn’t look to appealing to wander around in so I instead opted for a private room.  It is fantastic!  A nice big room, double bed, 2 fluffy comforters, a private and very modern bathroom/shower; so glad I chose this so that I can get some real sleep.

I just woke up from what I was hoping would be a longer sleep.  I just had a 3-hour nap but cant sleep anymore I think because I am to excited to explore!  When I went to sleep at around 1020am it was still pitch dark outside but now at 230pm it is light as though it were 10am at home.  I think Ill shower, get ready and go find some food.  The storm seems to have blown over but it is still very windy outside.  It is -2 but it apparently feels like -12 with wind chill.  Hopefully I can stay awake until tonight to get back on my sleep schedule so I don’t look like a zombie walking around.

a day in the US of A - 2

Im in Boston now and have 2 hours to wait until my next flight to Reykjavik which is a 4.5 hour flight.  The flight to Boston was almost as empty as the flight to NY.  It was a bigger plane and had only 9 passengers and I was the only girl.  Although Im glad these flights got me where needed to be, I am disappointed that they are allowed to run such big fuel guzzling planes with so few passengers… it just seems like such a waste.  I ended up chatting with probably the only other non-American person on the flight.  He was a friendly English businessman who travels to every big city in the world for his job.  Im not really sure what he does, but he really seemed to be living the life.  He says he goes to Oslo often and said that on average, a pint of beer is about $12!

At the airport, I was starving so I got myself a delicious sandwich from someplace that claims to have the best hot sandwiches in the whole world… it is alright.  I went to pay with my debit card and got a strange look from the server… apparently debit cards don’t exist in the states?!  Who knows, anyways, visa worked.

I thought I did such a great job packing everything into my one suitcase but when I got to the airport, I was about to get charged an extra $100 for overweight luggage (12lbs over) so I had to by another little duffel bag… just something else to haul around with me!  I also bought some Canadian luggage tags because I just wouldn’t be a stereotypical Canadian traveller without them, eh!?  I got some maple syrup and maple candies to share my culture with whomever in Europe but I’m about halfway through the bag of candies already, whoops.

I get to Reykjavik at 6:40am local time, which is 1:40am Montreal time.  The problem is, I can’t check into my hostel until 2pm which means I have 6 let lagged hours to kill exploring the town.  I’m loading some geocaches onto my GPS so that Ill have something to do and even then, Ill try to stay up until evening so that I can try to get used to the time change quickly.  I hope I sit next to someone interesting on this flight!