Water

Just in case you missed it, Iceland has a lot of water. First of all, it's an island. There is water all around it. Secondly, there are hot springs under the surface all over the country. Third, there are glaciers covering 11% of the land. Fourth, they still have rivers running all over the place (probably either from the hot springs or the glaciers).


The hot springs are a great natural resource. The hot springs provide heat and electricity for the whole country. People pay next to nothing for heat. In fact, our host, Gunnar, told us that we should sleep with the windows open and turn up the heat, so we can get fresh air. Electric companies drill down into the underwater springs, where the water is at about 300 degrees. It comes out as steam, so they put turbines on it, and that creates electricity.


They run the steam all over the country with these pipes. The pipes are angled so that the steam doesn't get too fast.


The country's water comes from the hot springs or from the glaciers. That means that the hot water is scalding and the cold water is freezing. You will always need to mix the two!

The hot springs also create the incredibly warm public pools. No matter how small a town is, it probably has a public pool. These pools usually consist of a lap pool, a play pool, and a number of "hot pots", which are little hot tubs that can range from 104-115 degrees. The locals go every day (often at the same time each day) to swim laps and sit in the hot pots. Even on the coldest days, they will sit in the hot pots.

Our family decided that we should do some activities at the pool. We ended up going to various pools about five times during our time in Iceland.

The largest pool in Reykjavik is called Laugardalslaug, and it's the pool that we went to the most often. The first day, we just spent about 5 hours at the pool. It was not a hot day, so we sort of ran into the water. This place was huge, with both indoor and outdoor pools, walkways all over the place, and different temperatures of water, divided into little mini-pools.



All in all, I tried to experience everything that the pool had to offer. I tried to swim a lap or two, but I'm not very in shape. There were several different types of hot pots, each one getting hotter than the last one. I only spent a couple of minutes in the hottest of them all. There was also a steam room. It was dark, but you could sit and sweat to the hiss of the steam coming out. We also learned that there was massage available. An hour massage was about $40 (it will be cheaper now with a weaker exchange rate). We couldn't get in that day, but we signed up for the next day. In all, we came back to Laugardalslaug three times. Two times involved massage (and more swimming!).

On Saturday, the place was packed with everyone, young and old, pregnant women, senior citizens, young "pretty people", and foreigners (us!). There was one really nice hot pot that was bigger and decorated with rocks (although you can't see the rocks in the photo). That's where my family spent the most time:


Richard had some fun playing with his water-proof camera bag and the water line while I sat in what I though was the "kiddie" pool, but was hotter than the others. Apparently, people use it for sunbathing when it's cold out:


One evening, we also went to a pool much closer to our guest house, Vesturbæjarlaug. It was quite a bit smaller, with the lap pool only being half as long. It also had three hot pots and a steam room. We only spent a few hours there in the evening (most of the other days, we were there at mid-day).

The final place we went was not a public pool, but more of a resort. The Blue Lagoon started as a place to put hot water after it was done being used by a nearby power plant. Eventually, someone noticed that the water reacted with the volcanic rocks, creating a silica mud.


The silica makes the water this glowing blue color that is very cloudy. You can see how cloudy the water is from this photo, taken soon after we got there.


Eventually, someone realized that silica is good for your skin, and can help to heal skin problems like cirrhosis or eczema. Since then, they have built a clinic, a spa, and a hotel around the same area.

We went here on our last day in Iceland, just before getting on the plane. We did most of the recommended activities that were listed on the web site (except for eat and drink a lot):

• A refreshing shower and use of Blue Lagoon shower gel and conditioner.
• We opted to get an in-water massage, which lasted an hour. An in water massage is so different from a table massage. You lay on a floating mattress, partially submerged. When we were there, we had full sun, so my face got a little sun on it. This is my mom getting her treatment.

• Applying Blue Lagoon silica mud mask provided in boxes around the lagoon.This is supposed to keep your face soft and supple.
  

Of course, Richard and I think that if a little is good, then a lot must be better:

• An energizing massage under the Blue Lagoon waterfall.The water really pounds down. Notice how much my family "enjoys" the waterfall.
  

• A geothermal steam bath and sauna followed by a refreshing cold water sprinkle.

Richard and I also found a little cave that was out of the sun.


Of course, the Blue Lagoon also sells all sorts of health and beauty products that incorporate the silica and alge that makes the Blue Lagoon so famous.

All of this is to say that when you visit Iceland, don't underestimate the role that water plays in Iceland's daily life. Next, we'll talk about water in a wilder form: the waterfalls and the geysers.

Getting to Iceland

One of the clenching factors for traveling to Iceland was the low cost that was associated with getting there and staying there. We knew that we couldn't budget too much for this trip. We did a little searching, and found that Iceland Air has a direct flight from Minneapolis (Humphrey Terminal) to Reykjavik that was $800. The flight was 6 hours, and went overnight. We mainly slept, read, or watched personal screens on the plane (they were installed in the seats). As I mentioned earlier, there were some chatty folks on the plane that didn't seem to know when others wanted to sleep. I still got a little shut-eye.

Before we went, I also a little time researching where we would stay. In the past, I've used sites like Venere to find housing, with some success. I think it worked best on our trip to Italy a few years ago. There wasn't much listed in Iceland, so I had to strike out on my own. I found the web site of the Icelandic Tourist Board, which had some helpful information.

I also looked at Gay Iceland, which turned out to be the most helpful site of any that I looked at. It had nice, short articles about Reykjavik and Iceland. Some stuff was gay-specific, but it also had helpful tips. It listed a small handful of hotels and guest houses. I went through to compare prices and stumbled upon the House of the Spirits Guest House. It was a fairly simple web site (set up through Geocities, so I expect it to change soon). However, I found that their prices were the lowest of any of the other places I looked. I learned later that this is a fairly simple operation. It's a side business for a processor of Icelandic language and literature and a student of architecture. Because of that, they do not have any on-line booking capability.

I emailed the proprietor, Gunnar Þorsteinn Halldórsson, about availability. He emailed back very quickly to tell me that there was a two-bedroom apartment available. He also quoted me a price in Icelandic Krona, Euros, and US Dollars. He then told me that the krona price is set, but the Euros and US Dollars were in flux because of the exchange rate. He said that the dollar quote he gave me could be lower but would never be higher than what he quoted. I googled the exchange rate, and the exchange price was really about $600 less than what he quoted.

We also saved money because Gunnar was also a licenced tour guide who could take us on excursions. He only charged one flat rate for a trip, for anywhere from one to seven people. Since we had four, it was a good deal for us to go with him, as opposed to the bigger tour buses. I also like getting a more personalized tour than what a tour bus can give.

Eventually, we decided to get three tours with Gunnar. The first was a 2-3 hour tour around Reykjavik. The second was an 8-hour trip around the Golden Circle. The third was a 10-hour trip to the south coast. I'll describe these all in more detail in later postings.

Finding these good prices really sealed the deal for us.

To see more of the House of the Spirits Guest House:
The exterior of our guest house:





The back courtyard was nice too:






We had two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen (where we ate some of our meals to help bring the cost down), and a "sitting area":



That is our host, Gunnar, standing in the middle of my family.

Why Iceland?

One little fantasy of mine would be to be a travel writer. Basically, I want to go on trips and share my experiences with people. I don't think this dream will ever really come true. My gifts lie elsewhere. I like my job and my life. My writing would have to improve quite a bit. All good reasons that this can remain a hobby and not my most desired future.

However, every time we travel, or I read the travel section in the newspaper, I think how great it would be to be sent around the world to write about my experiences on the road and in the air.

My mother has already started on this. Her blog started because she was sending us these long emails with detailed descriptions about her travels for work. Eventually, she decided that it would be better to create a blog where we could all read her adventures at once. That's how I Wonder as I Wander was born.

So, I'm going to try my hand at this. The next few posts are going to be about our trip. I'll include recommendations. I'll tell you where we went and try to include links, if possible. Richard took some amazing photos, so I'll use those to try to show what Iceland is like, and why I think that you should go there.

The first post that I'll put up there addresses the question that I was asked first when I told people that I was taking a trip to Iceland. "Why Iceland?" I don't think that most people know anything about Iceland. I've heard from folks that only Eskimos live there. I've heard that it is frozen all year long. Both of these are untrue.

Richard and I, and also my family, have been wanting to take a trip for a while. At one time, it was going to be a family trip to Norway and Sweden. The birth of my new niece (NAOMI!!! Did you see her photos earlier? She's fabulous!) put a halt on that trip. We want to go as a whole family, and it didn't seem practical to travel with a newborn. We had also discussed India and Thailand. In fact, we had researched Thailand for a while, until news came out about the riots and civil unrest that is happening with the government. That put a hold on that trip.

Iceland really came up when I was reading an article about the global financial crisis. Iceland got very big into banking and has suffered perhaps the worst collapse in the world (much worse than in the US). Because of the financial crisis, the prices that once made this country prohibitively expensive was a lot more reasonable. Iceland was a lot like the other Scandinavian countries...expensive. But the collapse brought prices down to a level that made the country more attractive for people like me (not loaded with money).

We combined the low prices with the fact that Iceland is a natural wonder. The land is formed because two tectonic plates in the Atlantic ocean, the North American and European plates, are diverging (pulling away from one another). Iceland is being pulled apart from the middle and getting longer by the year.

The country also has an abundance of waterfalls, geysers, and glaciers. At one time, when we were reading about the glaciers and waterfalls, we wondered if this would be similar to Alaska. We went to Alaska as a family in 2007, and liked it. One friend who went there told me that it is not like Alaksa, but it feels more like Mars. The country is covered with volcanic rock that is black and jagged and just litters the landscape. There are hardly any trees to speak of. People tend to make a lot of art out of the rocks.

So, we went because the price was right, and the more we heard about it, the more interested we were getting. However, here is the other part. This is probably the more important part:

We (I) wanted to go to Iceland, precisely because it was a destination that people didn't think about. I'm not interested in a pre-packaged tour that let's me off the bus long enough to snap a photo of the most famous monument and head on to the next place. We wanted to go somewhere that would make people wonder what's in this strange land.

I'm a fan of Rick Steves, and I like his philosophy on travel. He tells you that you need to get away from the beaten path to really discover a country. I feel that the same has to do with your choice of a destination. Of course, you want to see the major cities and countries. London and Paris are beautiful. However, you need to get to those places that are just off your radar. That's why we chose Iceland. It was somewhere that really stretched us.

A few other fun facts about Iceland:

• Because of the economic crisis, they have elected a new governement, which includes a Prime Minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, who is a lesbian. She is the first openly gay head of state in the world.
• Iceland is the only country in the world that alphabetizes people by first name (like in the phone book). Everyone has a first name, but the last name is the father's name with -son or -dottir on the end. You are names as the son or daughter of your father.
• The hot springs make great public swimming pools. I'll say more on this later.
• We went in June, which means that there are 21 hours of day light. I wondered if that would be a problem, but we loved it. This photo was taken out our guest house window at about midnight.

That's all I'll say now. My next post will talk about getting to Iceland.

In Iceland

We made it!

It was a six-hour flight that went overnight. Before we started, I commented that I wondered if it would be worse to have teenagers or senior citizens on the plane with me. I learned that senior citizens are worse, because teenagers just put in their iPod and SHUT UP! The women behind me talked with their screechy voices for the ENTIRE trip! I even had ear plugs in, and they could cut through all that. At one time, one lady was trying to calculate how fast we were going. After doing a lot of division, she concluded that we were going 45 miles per hour. Hmnph.

We got to our guesthouse. It was pretty early, so the people before us hadn't moved out. We waited on the street for a while, but eventually our host opened the door (someone had to go and wake him up!). He held our luggage while we walked around the center of the city.

I was hoping to make it through today without a nap, but I finally caved in and took one. Everyone else is dozing, but I think we should get our city tour now. I might go and see if our host can take us now.

I'll try to post more later. The internet is slow, so it takes a while to get to this page. Hopefully, we'll have some photos too!

The Run-Up

I think that the days leading up to a major trip are so incredibly stressful. I want to make sure that things go OK while I'm gone, so I'm trying to attend to every little detail...and not doing a very good job of it.

My work has a lot going on, so I'm trying to make sure that everyone knows what they need to know.

I still have a couple of things to do to complete the MBA program. I don't think it's going to be done before I leave.

I'm "sort of" packed. We go through this debate about packing/wearing nice clothes or just packing clothes that you can throw away at the end of the trip. I'm not wearing really grubby clothes, but I am wearing some stuff that went out of fashion a while ago (probably before I even bought them).

My family is here, and we are getting ourselves excited for the trip. However, our to-do list is quite long.

What I like is that when I leave for the vacation, my mind goes away from all the stuff that I'm supposed to be worrying about. Then I can truly relax.

I'll try to post some updates and photos here!

Missing

Yes, I've been missing for quite a while. My little post of a Glee trailer is a total cop out. I know. I'm a bad blogger.

BAD BLOGGER!

So, what's going on with my life? Lots.

I'm nearly done with the MBA program. We only have two classes left. Graduation is at the end of June. Richard's family and my family are coming for the big occasion and a big party. A fun time will be had by all.

But first...we are taking a vacation to Iceland! Yes, we are going to spend 10 days in Iceland. We are going to sit in a geo-thermal hot spring. We are going to climb a mountain. We are going to see a geyser.

Fun fact: In Iceland, there is a geyser named Geysir. We get the word geyser from the name of this thing. Cool huh?

People have been asking, "Why Iceland?" My first answer is "Why not?" My second answer is that the country is in a very bad recession, worse than in the US. They had set up huge banking systems and the entire thing collapsed. The country is bankrupt. Ergo, things are less expensive than they would normally be. It seemed like a good time to take advantage of some low prices and pump a little extra cash into the country.

The trip will consist of me, Richard, and my parents. I've been told that we get wireless, so I can probably post while we are there. Hopefully, we can put some photos up as well.

I'll try to get better about the blogging thing. I think that Facebook is taking over what energy I had for blogging.

Glee

This makes me want to watch television again. I just watched the pilot on hulu, and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed.




I'm not sure why I can't seem to format it to fit in my window. Sorry about that.

Oh, and the Rachel character. She was in Spring Awakening as Wendla. I saw her in NYC.