"You go to Bláa Lónið já?"

So thanks to Icelandair I learned two very important things this past week: 1 – Even though I drank at least a liter and a half before boarding, always have a bottle of water for yourself on the plane. Forget trying to sleep when you’re so thirsty that you wake up every 15 minutes because your mouth is on fire. 2 – Smile and act surprised when you see how much your luggage weighs; with any luck the person at the counter will feel bad for you and send your bag through without charging you. Not to jinx myself, but so far I’ve lucked out ¾ times. Although when I first checked in at JFK my bag weighed 61 pounds, and I did have to take out a few things and jam them in my carry-on, but when all was said and done I was still hovering around 54 pounds.

The flight to Iceland took a little under 5 hours, putting me at Keflavik (rated best airport in Europe 2009) at around 6.30 AM. In desperate need of a nap, I made my way through border control and out to the exit to meet Magnus.

As we turned onto the exit off of the main highway, a dead-animal-esque aroma crept its way into my nostrils. I thought for sure that Magnus had an accident, which combined with the heat on full-blast created a potent cocktail. I shook it off and stopped breathing until the first wave passed. Then, as we got closer to the Blue Lagoon and I could see the steam rising, I was assaulted by a more caustic second round. It was only then that I realized that it was the sulfur from the water that I smelled and not Magnus.

I was able to settle in and gorge myself on an Icelandic breakfast, complete with Skyr (Icelandic yogurt, although technically it’s considered a very soft cheese), bread, pickled fish, smoked meats, and fresh fruit. It was still early, around 7.00 AM, so I had breakfast and the private lagoon to myself. After settling in, I took a 3 hour dip, and reminded myself how awesome the silica mud is. If I look like I’m still in high school already, once I washed that off I probably looked like I was 12. I took a series of naps before I made my way over to the main lagoon via a 600m path through the Icelandic moss-covered lava fields (basically a giant moon-bounce).

This is pretty much what most of Iceland looks like: lava covered with spongy moss.

I spent a couple of hours over at the main lagoon and grabbed a bite to eat before I headed back to my room to re-pack and go to bed. I took another swim in the private lagoon that was supposed to only last a half hour, but once I got in ended up lasting closer to an hour and a half.

One corner of the massive public lagoon.

Part of the private lagoon.

I hardly slept at all that night; I think that I spent too much time in the lagoon. If there was ever a time to experience osmosis in a hypertonic solution (nerd alert) that was it. I had to drink non-stop and consequently was back and forth to the bathroom. I was up at 5.00 AM and on my way to the airport by 5.30 headed for Paris and then Munich. It’s almost 1.00 PM in Munich now, I’m finally over my jet lag and we’re heading out to explore the city.

Tschüß!

P.S. Some fun facts, courtesy of the napkins provided with on-board drinks: geothermal power meets 99% of Iceland’s energy needs; Icelandic is so similar to “Viking” that Icelanders can read ancient Viking texts that are more than 1100 years old.