Iceland, Day One. Blue Lagoon.
Letting dreams be memes.
Where to begin? Where to start? Usually the best place to start is the beginning, but Hollywood has taught us it is better to see the end and work back from there.
So here I am sitting in southern California trying to make sense of everything that just happened.
I feel something in my heart. A low somber feeling of realization that I may have gotten myself in a sticky situation. A precarious situation of knowing the world is so beautiful, so unique, and in some cases horrendous. Then coupled with the fact that I put my self on an exile’s diet after eating some of the greatest food on earth. Plus my future is not yet written which leads to some callous thoughts about my value in this world.
So there is that.
But let’s begin shall we?
September 17th, I would be embarking on the last international trip of my twenties.Thankfully I had a friend accompany on my journey. We left LAX and landed in the isolated island of Iceland, a night of sleep poorer, yet still excited to be in the land of vikings. It was late morning by the time we exited the air plane. (WOW airlines, I heard horror stories about their service, but in my experience I had nothing but good things. However, do not expect a spacious ride, and if you want something on the plane, have your debit card handy.) Keflavik airport is about 50 kilometers from Reykjavik, and is modern but is small. The bathrooms were some of the most futuristic and smartly designed I have ever seen. It is interesting to witness that innovation, after walking from the plane to a bus to take us to customs.
As we disembarked the airplane we got to taste some of that cool crisp, Iceland air, and coming from California it was a pleasant experience. Did I mention it was cool? We left southern California in pretty much flip flops and t shirts. Walking around Iceland we realized that apparel would not be adequate for the early stages of the start of the winter season there. Were we unprepared? Sure. Did we not do the proper conversion of Fahrenheit to Celsius? YUP! Our spirits were high, so we roughed it the best we could until we got to the car hire.
Fun fact: what is the penalty for not wearing your seat belt in Iceland?
The death penalty!
We rented an adequately sized car for two people, cramped for three people, and probably not enjoyable for four people, a Nissan Micra. This would be our chariot which would carry us from the farthest northwest point to the southern most tip of the island. Exhausted and hungry from our travels we quickly drove to the Galaxy Pod Hostel in Reykjavik and got our beds. The staff was accommodating, and we were grateful to get our beds before our allotted check in time. We crashed out, for a couple hours and got back on our feet to go to our first Iceland tourist attraction.
The island of ice, is relatively young in terms of geology. It arose from the Atlantic when the tectonic plates of the North American, and Eurasian crashed together. With that fact in mind it is covered in volcanic rock and hot springs. A hot spring would be the first thing we would visit. The Blue Lagoon spring is a naturally occurring spring man made assisted volcanic pool. The reason why the water is blue, (Like imagine turquoise blue) is because of the high amount of silica and other volcanic minerals released from the aquatic thermal vent. Allegedly those minerals are beneficial to the skin, and thus included in your entrance is a face mask.
In Iceland, everything is expensive, due to everything pretty much being shipped in. For example, think of a subway foot long sandwich being close to $20. The Lagoon was no different, at roughly $115 dollars for entry, you get a towel, a face mask, and a free drink at the bar. If you are able too, I recommend going closer to closing, because you can lengthen your waddling in the pool and maybe even see some of the Northern lights. We got there at 8 pm, or as the rest of the world tells time 20:00. I made a mistake and thought that the blue lagoon was close to our hostel. I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t right either. Yes there was a blue lagoon near our proximity, but it was the retail center for all the products derived from the spring, not the actual spring. The wading pool is actually sandwiched between Reykjavik and Keflavik, towards the island center in Grindavik. My buddy got a little mad at my short coming of my directions, but we got there regardless close to our scheduled arrival.
We got checked in by a lovely Romanian girl, and proceeded up stairs to shower before changing and swimming in the pool.
Fun fact: the tap water in Iceland does have a certain odor to it. This is because the water has an air of sulfur to it, because of the volcanic activity of the island.
There are two entrances to the pool. One is outside a pair of sliding doors, the other is covered and allows you to walk in waist deep 102 Fahrenheit water without being exposed to the elements. We choose that entry and was quickly mesmerized by the experience. The water is warm and floating above it is the fog from the warm water.
We met some interesting people, took some go pro footage and enjoyed the beer and mask provided. Spent a good two hours there before we headed back to our hostel.
That was the first day. The trip was off to a good start.
Thank you for reading.
