ICELAND: the Blue Lagoon ain't so Blue

So for our first day in Iceland, we began in London, getting up at about 4 am to get to the airport for a 7:30 a.m. flight. Took a taxi to Victoria station to catch the first Gatwick Express train which was supposed to leave at 5 a.m. We went to the appropriate platform, got on a train that was leaving at 5 a.m. and going to Gatwick. It was not, however, an "Express" train of any sort. Instead of a direct 30 minute train ride, it was about an hour long and stopped about 15 times, letting off various grotty sorts of the type you would expect to be taking the train home from London at 5am on Saturday morning. We didn't have much choice but to stick it out, though, as the next train arriving to take us BACK to Victoria station would have been so late it would have made things worse.

We finally arrived around 6 a.m. and had to go to the other terminal. when we arrived in the departures hall it was absolute chaos and mayhem. See, we hadn't been warned that this was the first Saturday of the summer break, and apparently every family in London was showing up at 6am to take a cheap flight somewhere. When we tried to get in the line that snaked across the gigantic hall, we were told to go use one of the automatic checkin kiosks and that the line was just to drop the bags off. Although why the line to drop bags off was that long I have no clue.

Well we used the automatic kiosk, and Mike was smart enough to think to use his passport, since mine never works on those things because when I changed my name after I got married they didn't give me a new passport, they just typed something in the back. Which means that my passport doesn't really match the name on the tickets. his passport worked fine though. BUT, they asked for the credit card number used to make the reservation for confirmation, and we guessed wrong and entered the wrong credit card number. And were directed to the "check in assistance" line, which was only mildly shorter than the bag drop off line and apparently just as slow. We stood there for close to an hour, the whole time thinking "ok there is no way ALL of these people typed in the wrong credit card number on the machine, what the hell are they all doing here?"

About 30 minutes before our flight was supposed to take off someone came by calling for people who were on the Reykjavik flight, and they pulled us out of line and we got checked in. Then through a moderately painless security check and a separate "shoe screening" station which was odd, and then to our gate. Oh, forgot to mention that since we were "the last people to check in" we had to sit in separate rows, so Mike was in the first row of economy and I was way in the back. Lucky butt. He got in one of those rows with only 2 seats.

I cringed as we boarded with a whole group of high school students on a class trip or something, but a combination of it being 7 in the morning and the fact that the last Harry Potter book came out that morning made them all very nice and quiet. I also read about Harry's last exploits which made the trip go nice and quickly.

The flight took off on time and landed on time, and the Reykjavik airport was perfectly painless. I looked around in their little grocery store/duty free whatever shop, having been advised to "stock up" on stuff because things were so expensive. I figured the selection at the store would give me an idea of the things to be prepared for a shortage of.

Cigarettes, Booze, toys, and candy. Lots and lots and lots of candy. Seriously, like a crazy amount of candy.

So, we set off, comfortable with our little cache of granola bars, fruit and dried sausage that we picked up at the store in London the night before.

We landed around 9:30, and Robbie and Alexa were arriving that afternoon around 3:00. We had agreed that we would just meet at the Blue Lagoon and head into town together, although after arriving after about 3 hours of sleep I was seriously racking my brain trying to remember why we thought that was a good idea. We were able to get a bus to the Blue Lagoon around 10:45 (confusing the driver terribly, as they always sell combo bus/Entry tickets and I had booked a massage whose price would include entry to the lagoon so i only needed the bus part. He finally figured out how to sell me just a 1 way airport-blue lagoon ticket and told me to buy the ticket to reykjavik when the bus came to pick up.

After driving over the surface of Mars for about half an hour......

We arrived at the Fabled Blue Lagoon.

So, the Blue lagoon was what first got me excited about Iceland. It was the first Pit Stop on the Amazing Race a few years ago and I thought it was the most otherworldly, amazing thing I'd ever seen. Basically, it's actually just a collection of runoff water from the power plant next door (power in Iceland is geothermal or hydroelectric, and after utilizing the water for energy it's sent into these lagoons.

The pools outside the lagoon were definitely gorgeous

But when we paid our entry fee, changed, showered, etc and went out to the lagoon you actually get into, it was more of a "YMCA green." Apparently its the result of some algae bloom that the web site insinuates happens every summer but I'm not sure if they're just covering their butts and making excuses. I asked if it had anything to do with all the people swimming in it and they said no, but I don't see how that's possible, since all the pools around the big one are still blue. Anyway, kinda like hot dogs, the less I know about the bugs floating around in the water the better. They had all of this goopy silica mud to slather all over yourself which of course we did, and I got the amazing experience of having a massage while floating on a mat in the water. It was soooooo fab. Although I'm sure the copious amounts of massage oil the masseurs were squirting onto everybody doesn't help the water that much either.

Not sure if it was the silica mud, or the massage or what, but my skin definitely felt tighter and smoother, on my legs at least. But it certainly turned my hair into a knotted straw-y mess.

We spent a looong time at the Blue Lagoon. We finally got out to the pool area around noon, pausing briefly for hot dogs with mustard and crunchy fried onions. The hot dogs were harmless, actually kinda bland like they needed salt. Their mustard was more like honey mustard. Actually more like honey. It was so sweet. And yet it was this weird brown color. Not like grainy mustard brown, but like ummmm, dang, I can't think of anything else that's that color. I tried some remoulade sauce and it was insanely sweet too. I'm starting to detect a trend (remember the candy in the airport?).

Anyway, hot dogs, then water (warm, about 110 degrees) and mud, then relaxing and reading for a little bit, then I went to get my massage. Then I took a bit of a nap and went into the pool for a while longer, and then went to wait for Robbie and Alexa. Since the dressing rooms were divided by sex, Robbie wouldn't be able to help Alexa, and I know that if I had wandered by myself into a locker room full of naked European women and mystery lockers I would have been quite confused and a bit intimidated. So I waited for her, and we shared a locker; I showed her a dressing cabin where she could change, and told her she could keep her bathing suit on while she showered even though nobody else was doing it. They expect you to thoroughly shower and shampoo your hair before and after getting into the lagoon, and everyone does, in big communal shower areas.

We went out to meet Robbie and Mike, and Robbie realized he hadn't rented any towels so we had to wait a bit for that. By this time it was probably about 4:40 p.m. We hung out in the pool, took a few pictures, did some more mud slathering (Alexa loved doing it to her dad but didn't like it so much herself), then went to get cleaned up and head back out to meet the bus. Robbie and Alexa still had their bags on the bus, while Mike and I had stowed ours in a locker for the day. The bus was full! And the next one wasn't scheduled to arrive until 9 pm. Thankfully the driver called for another bus to come pick up us poor stragglers and we rode into Reykjavik and were dropped off down the street from our apartment at Room With a View.

I had read about Room With a View on the Fodors.com travel message boards and we had booked the cheapest apartment that could conceivably hold 4 people, which was number 502, a 1 bedroom with a fold out couch and another bed brought in. Imagine our excitement when we arrived and were shown one of the largest apartments in the building! Apparently if it is possible with availability they will upgrade you to a nicer apartment. And boy was it nice. Right off their balcony with the jacuzzi, it had a living area/kitchen and two bedrooms. The whole apartment was so nicely and tastefully decorated, but with some nice kick and modern touches. We can't say enough good things about it. We were able to stay in this apartment for the duration of our stay, and we are so so grateful. It worked out very very nicely for us.



We headed out to explore central Reykjavik. Its a cute little town, somewhere between a town and a city. It was Saturday night and the "main drag" was crawling with groups of teenagers and young adults "cruising." We had hot dogs....Alexa didn't like hers because she said the skin was too thick. Mike taught her that if you try something and it doesn't taste like what you think it should, just give it another name and see if it is better that way. Hence the birth of "Crunchy dogs." See, they're not supposed to taste the same as hot dogs, they're not hot dogs, they're crunchy dogs! Alexa was able to eat a couple of crunchy dogs during her stay. I was a bit hot dogged out so I had a chicken sandwich, which cost more than everyone else's hot dogs combined but it came with a gigantic sack of french fries that everyone happily shared.

Happily we puttered back to our luxury apartment and went to bed, despite the fact that it was barely even a little bit dusky, because it was close to midnight!

While I was getting ready for bed, I noticed some movement out on the balcony, and some music that sounded very close by. I looked out the window and saw two men in black cloaks and their faces painted with black streaks doing some sort of synchronized fire baton twirling on the edge of the balcony. It went on for quite some time, and included them spitting out flammable stuff to make giant fireballs, and all sorts of other neat tricks.


It culminated in a very loud, Karmina Burana-style overture and roaring applause from whoever it is they were doing this for. Puzzled and shaking our heads at those wacky Icelanders, Mike and I went to sleep.