We left for our honeymoon the day after our wedding.  Matt and I were so excited and exhausted and overwhelmed and relieved and ecstatic.  The day before was such an amazing day, and now we were headed to a crazy country in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  We had gone back and forth a few times when choosing where to vacation- warmer places, more exotic locations, more typical honeymoon spots.  When it came down to it, Iceland incorporated a lot of our interests- hiking, extreme beauty, getting out of our comfort zone, being stranded near the arctic circle, having our bodies found decades later, and camping.  It also happened to be the peak season.

We took a red eye via Iceland Air out of Logan Airport.  The flight was around 5 hours long.  For the past week we had kept telling ourselves “Don’t worry, we’ll sleep on the plane”.  Until we were up in the air and on our way though, I couldn’t relax (I learned from our trip to Italy that just because it took off, didn’t mean the plane couldn’t turn around.. but that’s a story for another time).  Finally our much deserved time to sleep.. here it comes.. any minute now..  I got a solid two hours in while Matt decided to pull an all nighter (he’s an animal).  Who needs sleep anyways?  We deplaned on the tarmac and were shuttled to the airport on city buses, landing around 5:00am Icelandic time.  Iceland is about four hours ahead of us (eastern time).  This changes during our daylight savings, as they do not observe it.  So there we were on a tarmac in Iceland at 5:00am (1:00am our time).  The weather was a bit dreary and cold.  I was hoping it wouldn’t last all day.

We hopped on another shuttle to get our rental car.  We used Sixt rental which worked just fine.  Matt filled out paperwork for our Chevy Cruze, while I tried to stay upright without falling asleep.  We were finally there.  I was excited for our wedding day, but I have to admit, this had been the finish line: an off the grid adventure with my new husband.  If only I could stay upright.

We jumped in the car, cranked the seat warmers and were off!  Well.. kind of.. There were a few nervous moments which included a map check, second guessing street signs, and making a few uneasy turns before truly heading out.  Once we got comfortable, we proceeded with our plan: a little exploring around the Reykjanes Peninsula, then we’d head to the Blue Lagoon for noon, later driving to Reykjavik for the night.

Talk about a weird welcome to a new country.  Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was our exhaustion or maybe it was the time of day, but the area seemed like the beginning of a sci-fi movie.  Our first stop was Brimketill, a lava rock formation in the shape of a pool on the edge of the ocean.  I’ve seen photos of people swimming here.  Judging by the weather conditions today, I’d bet you’d get washed away into the frigid ocean almost immediately.  It was a cool little spot, I can imagine its draw on a nice day.  After jumping around some lava rocks, snapping a few photos and a quick catnap in the parking lot we were back on the road.  We drove past a few towns, around some mountains and through what looked like a zombie apocalypse- dirt, rocks, a lot of brown rubble, no people or wildlife, if they had enough underbrush there would be tumbleweeds rolling around cartoon style.  The towns looked abandoned (but to be fair it was still early).  The houses here were very practical.  They served one purpose- to keep the elements off of their inhabitants.  There were very little adornments or frivolities- not a lawn gnome in sight.  The highlight- this is where we spotted Icelandic horses for the first time.  They are so short and stocky.  I love them.  If anyone has seen our old dog Riley, they are to horses what Riley was to dogs.  We finally ended up at the Blue Lagoon and as our tickets weren’t until noon and it was still early, we napped again.  We were wiped.  Let me tell you, nothing says “married adults” like sleeping in your car.

We woke up slightly confused.  It was still raining, but time to head in.  We geared up in the parking lot, stuffing our packs with the essentials: bathing suits, towels and cameras.  It was a cold and breezy walk to the front door.  We walked down a long hall made up of two giant walls of rocks which lead to the bluest river running along the main entrance.  The building was modern with clean lines and little adornments.. I’m starting to see a pattern here..

While checking in in the lobby, we were given waterproof bracelets that opened our lockers, tracked our drinks and were connected to our credit cards.  We were told to shower and were given a few pointers (like to leave the conditioner in your hair so the sulphur and minerals in the water wouldn’t destroy it).  On to the locker rooms.  I found a locker, unloaded my stuff and took a deep breath.  Time to shower.  

Now I had been warned about the bathing situation in Iceland:  everyone must take a shower before enjoying the hot springs.  This rule applies to all regulated springs.  The problem comes with the showers themselves- they are public.  Like no walls public.  Like open room public.  Like showering with the whole locker room public.  Like shower party public.  Now I completely understand why we need to shower, in fact- I appreciate the push for cleanliness, but if I’m being honest,  the whole public nudity thing isn’t my cup of tea.  I blame the United States.  Either way it must be done, and I had prepared myself and was ready to participate.  I was all ready to take my clothes off when I realized, the Blue Lagoon had shower stalls with doors (this was the only time I saw them and I thought it was the universe giving my sleep deprived body a break)… I’ll take it, until next time.

I headed for the lagoon.  The water was strikingly blue.  The photos don’t do it justice.  The white silica bottom must assist in creating an almost surreal looking glow.  You can enter the pool from inside the complex or by walking outside.  I went outside and was greeted by a glacial mist of rain.  I threw my towel on one of the hooks and made a run for the pool.  Matt was already enjoying the warm water.  The lagoon was a huge glass of spilt milk.  Jutting out in different directions, each space was unique and offered a multitude of areas to explore.  We headed for the submerged hut that provided a clay silica mask (included in our admission).  After lathering up, we moved on.  The mist mixed with the hot water and brought fog.  The atmosphere (although not sunny) was other worldly.  If you moved too far away from each other you disappeared.  Fog was rolling around us.  It was romantic, mysterious, and spooky.  Someone should write a murder mystery set here- the ice blue water turned red.. WITH BLOOD.. See? It writes itself.  Moving around we started to notice that there were pockets of warmer and cooler areas.  You could feel the heat bubbling up from the ground.  We explored the back passing under a bridge with a water fountain. It offered a mucky shallow clay bottom nestled against a rocky hill.  We then scooted over to the swim up bar for some well deserved adult beverages.

Swimming around I overheard conversations from all over the world.  Everyone was relaxed and happy.  The pool was filled with people from all walks of life and countries.  They were mingling with people they’d never met, happily chatting about who knows what.  I have a theory that if the United Nations held a meeting here they’d solve the world’s problems in a day.

After relaxing and drinking, we swam over to the waterfall, a natural steam room, a modern steam room, and a cave.  The waterfall had enough pressure to feel like a massage.  The cave (like the waterfall) is man made, a nice spot to escape the elements and relax.  We then popped into the hobbit-like steam room to sweat it out.  The steam hit you like an oncoming train.  It took a second to catch your breath from the dense heat.  The steam was piped in from the geothermal activity in the area.  We kept jumping from spot to spot relaxing, sweating and drowning ourselves in the waterfall.  We stayed for hours.  This was the PERFECT thing to do on our first day.  It reset our minds and released all of our stress.  

After coming to the realization that they probably wouldn’t let us live there (which came around hour 5), we reluctantly collected our things and headed for the showers.  Besides the welcomed shower doors, another perk to the locker rooms was the blow dryers waiting for me.  I was worried about my hair, as it takes about a year to dry after a shower.  I was relaxed and dry coming out of the locker rooms.  I met Matt by the cafe to take some photos and grab a sandwich.  Without going into too much detail, pack your lunch.  Food prices in general in Iceland are steep, but at the Blue Lagoon it was even pricier.  We found the car and took off for Reykjavik.  It was a short drive but I still squeezed in my third car nap, waking up in the city.  The mist had let up and we were rolling into an overcast gray night.  I have to tell you, the weather and temperature had me worried.  What if the whole trip turned out to be this dreary?  

We found our hotel and rested until dinner.  Our room was very basic, but served its purpose.  Another disagreement the US and Iceland have (besides the shower door situation) is dinner time, but I guess it’s more of a US versus the world disagreement (it’s basically just us).  We set out starving around 6pm on the hunt for dinner.  We drove around excited to try some traditional Icelandic meal or at the least something new, but there wasn’t a lot open in the city at this time.  We hated ourselves for choosing the restaurant we did.. But we had no choice.. It was “American Style” or start hunting the marine life in the harbor.  Don’t judge us.. You would’ve done the same..  We walked into the restaurant confused and slightly embarrassed.  I was afraid to find out what Icelanders thought “American Style” was.. And hoped I lived up to it.  What if we disappointed our whole nation because we weren’t stylish enough.. Maybe we should leave, there’s too much riding on this.  It turns out they were pretty spot on.  It was a burger joint.  There were photos of “the Fonz” and Elvis along with other american icons plastered all over the walls.  “American” music was playing in the background.  At the very least it made us laugh.  

After dinner we found a supermarket to stock up on food for our road trip and camping.  I loved looking around their supermarket.  They had a few american items, but a lot of things I didn’t recognize.  We picked up a little of everything and headed out.  We decided to drive around the city.  Now if you have seen my other blog posts, you might be able to tell that I am not a city person.  I can appreciate them for a short weekend, but I much prefer the woods.  With this said, I enjoyed Reykjavik.  It is a charming little city located right on the water.  We explored further on the tail end of our trip, so for now we drove around and headed back to the hotel.  The night stayed a gray dusk but never got completely dark.  The sun sets for only about 3 hours a day in the summer in Iceland.  Getting back to the hotel, we charged all of our devices, made plans for the next day, and finally got a full night’s sleep.