Brenna Abroad

I snorkeled in 2 degree celcius water today. I also saw the most gorgeous national park, an erupting geyser, and a wild waterfall that took my breath away.

When we woke up, the sun was shining and the wind was calm for the first time since we’ve been here. We left the house right as the sun was coming up and headed straight to Þingvellir National Park. Everywhere we looked was stunning. We stopped countless times to take pictures. It was funny looking through them because we started out taking pictures of every single, relatively unremarkable thing and they just became more and more impressive.

We made it to the park, took in the views and went hiking on down through some paths.  I stopped for awhile to just lie down and take it all in. It was a perfect morning.

We headed down the road just a bit to meet up with our snorkeling guides.  They were friendly and humorous and helped us every step of the way. We drove to the snorkeling site, Silfra, which is the ever-widening rift between the North American and Eurasian continental plates.

The process of getting ready to snorkel in 2 degree water is an intense one. We were told to wear thermal underwear and two pairs of wool socks. They gave us thick, warm thermal suits to put on over that. Once we managed that part, we were to get our drysuit from them. The dry suit was incredibly difficult to put on. It was thick, heavy, and insulated with boots attached to the end. It was nearly impossible getting our hands through the wrists of the sleeves and our heads through the neck.

At this point it was already difficult to breathe due to the tightness and weight of everything, but since I have a thin neck, the guide got a choker to wrap over the material surrounding it to be absolutely sure no water would be able to get in.

Next came the hoods, also airtight… then the gloves. At this point, I had practically lost all circulation to my hands anyway. After all this, we were handed our fins and our snorkel masks and had to waddle across the street to the water’s edge. It took another 10 minutes for us to get our masks and fins on, and that’s where the fun began. We hopped into the freezing cold water, but the suits kept us warm everywhere but our hands (the gloves were neoprene, allowing a layer of water to get in), and the exposed parts of our faces. It was certainly a shock at first, but I quickly got used to it and looked under the water to see for 100 meters of various shades of blue and green. It was beautiful.

I followed our guide, trying to figure out how to use my fins while taking in as much of the view as possible. We stopped about halfway to make sure everything was good. The sun was still shining and the weather beautiful. I ducked my head back under and continued on. The next time we came up was at our exit point. All of a sudden, it was blizzard conditions outside. I was not ready to get out of the water in that, so we snorkeled around the area a bit more.

At this point, I was starting to feel the cold again. We clumsily climbed out of the water and got our fins taken off. We carried our fins for the 300 meter walk back to the cars. Before we were done, Anthony jumped off a cliff back into the water.

The process of taking our gear off was every bit as difficult as putting in on, but soon enough we were back to normal, sipping hot chocolate and eating cookies. We grabbed our stuff and continued on our way. Next stop: Geysir.

The Great Geysir, which is what all geysers are named after, is very unpredictable with its eruptions, but there was another large, active geyser right across from it named Strokkur.  It was fun just waiting for the geyser to erupt with the cameras ready, eager to catch it.  After a few eruptions, we turned around and went along our journey.

Gullfoss waterfall was our final destination for the day, and in my opinion, we saved the best for last.

We explored every area around Gullfoss that we could, wanting to make sure we didn’t miss a single view of it.

Gullfoss is wild and ferocious, and the weather around it while we were there was just as much so. We were there for around an hour, and during that time we had snow, rain, hail, with the sun appearing for awhile in between each of those. It didn’t bother us though. We were more than content hiking around the waterfall and feeling its spray.

Once we had our fill, we headed back home driving up through mountains and back down to the lava-scarred landscape that we have become used to.

In retrospect, it was good that there was no chance of seeing the Northern Lights last night due to cloud coverage- we really needed a good night’s sleep. So sleep we did. We woke up refreshed, though getting a later start than we would have liked. We headed straight to the capital city, Reykjavik. Iceland has a population of around 320,000 and around 120,000 of those live in Reykjavik. Unfortunately, that meant busy roads with plenty of stop lights and roundabouts. As I mentioned yesterday, Anthony isn’t exactly an experienced stick-shift driver… thus, I nearly had a heart attack multiple times, and once we finally parked and I was able to take a breath, I immediately started crying due to my frazzled nerves. I took a few more breaths and headed into Hallgrímskirkja, a church in the middle of the city with fantastic views.

Outside of this church, I encountered the strongest winds I have ever felt and am amazed I managed to stay upright. We wandered across the street to downtown. Reykjavik is a beautiful city with a vibrant, quirky downtown.

We ate at a cute seafood restaurant for lunch, called Sjávargrillið. As a ginger and a blonde, we blend in well in Iceland which caused the the server and others to try speaking Icelandic to us. We just give them a confused look, and they quickly switch to English, and we quickly feel guilty for not knowing Icelandic. We both ate the grilled catch of the day which was delicious and reasonably priced. Afterward, we wandered the main streets, stopping at different shops along the way. After awhile, we headed back to the car and drove home (after Anthony practiced in a parking lot for awhile).

For the evening, we grabbed our bathing suits and hit up the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa with milky blue water set within a beautiful lava rock landscape.

The Blue Lagoon is the biggest tourist attraction in Iceland, which is obvious by the number of people there (even at 6 in the evening on a windy, rainy day).

We explored every area of the lagoon which was an experience. For the most part the water is warm, but there are areas where it is extremely hot and areas that are a bit too cold for weather like today. In wide open parts of the lagoon, the wind and rain pelted us, so we learned to walk backward when heading in the direction of it. There were a few different areas where you could get silica mud out of a bucket to exfoliate your skin. We were sure to make use of that.

If you wanted to spend some extra money, there is plenty to keep you busy at the Blue Lagoon. They have two nice restaurants, a swim up bar in the lagoon, and spa services. We are trying to stick to a budget, however, so we just relaxed in the water for awhile and left.

If you do decide to visit the Blue Lagoon, some things to keep in mind:

–Be comfortable with your skin. You must shower naked in a locker room with many other people (of the same sex). Everyone minds their own business, and it’s not a big deal.

-Put tons of conditioner in your hair and leave it in when you head to the lagoon. The mineral water dries it out like crazy.

-Use the silica in the buckets. DO NOT just pick it up off the floor of the lagoon because that’s disgusting. It has hair and who knows what else mixed in.

We had a great time while we were there and are glad we went. It is something unique to Iceland and something you have to say you did while here. However, if we ever come back, we won’t make another visit (it’s quite expensive).

We arrived in Iceland before the sun had even come up this morning.  Having gotten only around 8 hours of sleep combined for the previous two nights, we were exhausted and a little lost.  After finding our rental car, we went straight to our home base, a beautiful downstairs apartment in a local’s home right on the coast about 20 minutes from Reykjavik, and took a quick nap.

We felt refreshed enough to venture around the Reykjanes peninsula a bit and were awed by landscapes filled with lava rocks, fissures, and white mountains.  We felt like we were discovering a world that no one else had seen since there were no other cars on the road and nothing but land in sight.

On the way back to the house, we saw a sign with the American flag and stopped to see why. We had stumbled upon the “Bridge Between Two Continents”.  This bridge goes over a large fissure caused by the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates drifting apart.  The bridge is symbolic of the connection between the two continents.

I am back at the house now, cooking dinner and reflecting on what we have learned so far:

1.  If you are not experienced with a manual transmission car, you have three options: pay the extra money to rent an automatic, practice a manual somewhere safe before travelling, or be prepared to be a nervous wreck. I went with option 3. We have not gotten in an accident yet, and Anthony is catching on quickly, but it certainly made for a stressful first 10 minutes of vacation.

2.  You will need a GPS, or an excellent road map, or well-researched directions, or a SIM card that allows you to use GPS on your phone, or a great sense of adventure. I had a general idea of the locations I wanted to hit up on the peninsula today, and a very, very basic map of it, but we ended up lost a time or two and also not sure what we were looking for in some of the locations I had marked.  Luckily for us, we don’t mind being lost in a foreign country and creating our own adventure.

3.  People aren’t kidding when they say Iceland is windy. Hold onto your car doors.

4.  Icelandic people seem to be kind and helpful, but not the most outwardly friendly people I have ever met. They are a bit more reserved and not as quick to smile as I am used to. However, the ones I have met have been more than willing to share their knowledge and advice with us.

5.  To save money, buy alcohol at the duty-free store (or bring it from home), and buy groceries at the nearest Bonus. Iceland is not cheap, but these two places will make it hurt your bank account a little bit less.

We are still exhausted, so we are postponing the Blue Lagoon until tomorrow. Tonight, we are going to hang out in our hot tub, drink Icelandic beer, and sleep like babies.