What can I say? Iceland is a pretty cool place. It's very different from anywhere else I've been, and I imagine it's sort of what the Canadian tundra would look like.... if the Canadian tundra was built on years and years of volcanic rock? So really, what I'm trying to say is, there is really no place I can compare Iceland to but itself, and it is a very interesting place. There were lots of cool rock formations covered in grass and other small foliage, along with what I liked to call "tiny Christmas trees". Geysers. Hot springs. And you really got the sense that this was indeed a very small country with a very small population.
Also. Damn. This place is expensive. Let's get started, shall we?
Reykjavik
The Blue Lagoon really is a very nice hot spring, and this is coming from a person who has been to a number of hot springs in Japan and really isn't that fond of taking baths. To start of, the place is very modern and high-tech. Everyone gets a wristband that they use to tap-in to the facilities. The wristband is also used in the locker room to lock your lockers. This system... while definitely cool and well-meaning, was not actually a super great system?
So the way the locks worked was that you would close your locker door and then tap a screen with your wristband to lock it. Sounds amazing right? The issue was that there was only a single screen which everyone had to tap. This meant that if someone happened to close their locker while you were attempting to tap the screen to lock yours, you may inadvertently end up syncing up your wristband with someone else's locker. Cue mass confusion and annoyance and people kept slamming lockers while others were waiting to beep their wristband and a lot of self-policing and confusion occurred. Once again, cool system, but didn't work as well as I think it should have.
But besides that everything else worked great. You went from the locker room to showers and then right into the hot spring which was just this one giant pool. You had pockets that were super hot, and other areas that were nice and average. It was a perfect night for a hot spring like this because it was sort of drizzling, a bit chilly, and so you could warm up so nicely by submerging yourself up to your neck in super hot comfy water. Once again, the pool is absolutely huge and I think entirely natural? There were some wooden structures, but most of the pool was super smooth volcanic rock that had been rubbed smooth by the water and minerals etc. Some areas had been rubbed to the point where it was kind of like a small ledge you could sit on. On opposite ends of the pool was a concession stand where you could get your free drink - they offered smoothies, juice, wine and beer, and on the other end was the area where you got your free mud mask! The mud mask was made from the mud around the springs, it was white, and honestly felt like you were slapping hodge podge on your face. You just apply it yourself and walk around the hot spring until you feel like washing it off. I am completely ignorant in regards to the state of how healthy the skin on my face is, but I'd be lying if I say my skin didn't feel damn smooth after this trip!
All in all, a seriously great experience. Pricey - super pricey - but everything Iceland is pricey, but if you want to indulge in yourself a bit I would highly recommend checking out the Blue Lagoon.
So. I mentioned that this trip lasted until midnight right? That's important because the next day my dad had signed us up for another excursion around Iceland's "Golden Circle" that started at... 8am! Which meant that we all got 5 hours of sleep because we had to wake up, eat breakfast, meet with the tour group at 7:15am blah blah blah.
This tour was nice, as in, visually, you got to see a lot of cool things. We saw some waterfalls (the ~Golden Falls~), we got to check out some geysers. Fun story about the geysers, I got soaked under one! So we went to these geysers where one of them would spray out a giant get of water every 10min. Just as I was walking around it to join up with my parents, the geyser decided to spray and I finally understand what people mean when they imagine time just slowing down. I remember staring at the water, first thinking "wow, this is so cool!" and then immediately realizing with belated horror that the water was going to fall on me and just immediately turning around and trying to sprint out of the line of fire. I did pretty good. It could have been worse. I got wet, but I was able to dry off relatively quickly and I also had the foresight to zip up my jacket (it was waterproof, and also, should I remind you that Iceland was COLD) so only the back of my pants got wet.
Thankfully though, it was actually about 15C so it wasn't too col and the water from the geysers is actually lukewarm so all-in-all, not the worst experience I could have had.
Our trip ended at a tomato farm, Friðheimar, which houses an amazing greenhouse that is incredibly energy efficient and staffs a bunch of cute bumblebees. We had lunch there which really just consisted of tomato soup, bread, and ice cream with... tomatoes? I mean, as far as lunch goes it wasn't bad, it wasn't amazing, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't memorable. Afterwards we saw a little horse show showcasing Icelandic horses, and then we were off on our way back to the boat.
Isafjordur
Our next stop was the tiny town of Isafjordur which really is a tiny town in every sense of the word. You could walk down the entire main street in the span of 5 minutes. Just outside the town though (like literally, just outside) are these beautiful cliffs and hills that you can hike, and that's what me and my family did. We only had a couple hours so we didn't go very far, but it was nice just being able to walk and experience nature. It wasn't too strenuous, there were a lot of bugs but I guess that happens.
After our lovely walk we stopped at a restaurant where everyone and their mothers kept saying the soup was super good. They were serving a seafood soup for ~$20USD, it had enough for two. I mean, it was alright I guess. It was a nice hearty seafood soup. Was it worth $10USD per person? Umm..... debatable, but we had money to spend so why not.
Afterwards we just walked around the town, exploring. My dad wanted to find fish jerky, which we did not end up finding. And that was that.
Akureyri
Our last stop in Iceland was Akureyri, a bigger town, but one that we didn't spend a lot of time in due to the fact that we joined another bus excursion. Once again we stopped at waterfalls, and geysers, and we stopped at nice national park that had these really cool and interesting rock formations. We also had lunch at this park in a family-run restaurant where they served us trout and a really interesting curry soup. Again, as with all the food so far it's been alright. I'm not a fan of pink fish, so I wouldn't say trout is my most favourite thing ever but I can appreciate the fact that is was made decently well and you could tell it was fresh.
But the thing I want to talk about most on this trip is washrooms. Okay. So. This bus tour barely let us stop for washroom breaks. Every time we got off the bus we had a good 10-15min to snap some photos and then back on the bus. This. Was. Terrible.
I passed up an early chance to go to the washroom and regretted it until lunch. Why? Because by the time we hit our third stop, which was actually a really cool area with a bunch of geysers and craters, and it was kind of like a... I don't even know how to describe it. Just imagine all these steaming pools of water literally all over the ground as you walk around. It was really cool! But anyway, by the time we got to this stop I really needed to go to the bathroom and there was no washroom.
I was dying. Like, I was literally in pain from trying to hold in my pee and by the time we made it to the restaurant/national park, I literally flew off the bus and RAN to the washroom, which by the way you actually had to pay for. Thankfully our tour guide had tickets on hand, but you had to beep the ticket on a turnstile to get in. Anyway. Let's just say I held in my pee for so long that by the time I made it to the washroom, nothing could even come out. And I was in pain. I swear to god I was three seconds away from a UTI, I was literally dying.
Could I have used the washroom on the bus? Maybe? I'm not sure? I remember asking the tour guide when the next washroom break was at the steam pools and she said "30min" and perhaps I was being too Asian and hoping she could read my mind because I was like "Oh... I see, well, that will be difficult, hahahah". Tour guide was just like "Yeah, I'm sorry" and I was like "Oh my god I'm going to die" before I pretty much stiffly waddled back onto the bus to sit down because standing and walking literally made my bladder HURT.
So um. Yeah. Okay so the scenery. The landscapes. The waterfalls. Lovely. So lovely. Yeah. *cough*. Er..... umm...... here are some photos? :D
Alright, now that you've seen it, time for the last leg of this trip. Norway!
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