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cathyn and I even touched down in Iceland, we flew over Greenland (kind of hard to get there without flying over Greenland). I snapped a shot of some breathtakingly beautiful glaciers you can see from over Greenland. Since we will be there in a mere 2 weeks, I simply stared intensely at Greenland, templed my fingers together, and menacingly muttered, "Soon."
We arrived in Iceland at 6:30am. First impressions of Icelandair is...I expected it to be somewhat nicer, knowing that the Icelanders have one of the highest standards of living in the world. The stewardesses were...frosty. In fact, in the two days we've been here I've discovered that the Icelandic people and their friendliness can be rated on a scale I've devised which I would describe as "from somewhat terse to mind-blowingly rude." And I am rating them from one grumpy face :-( to five, based on just how Icelandic they are, from here on out. Stewardesses of Icelandair = :-( :-(
However, going straight from the airport to Blue Lagoon, the most well-known mineral pool/spa in the country, gets a big old :-D from me. GREAT IDEA! Totally refreshing! It's also beautiful - milky blue water set into a black lava field!
Soaking for an hour or so, enjoying a beverage from the in-pool bar, slathering white mineral mud on our faces and letting it dry before dunking to wash it off certainly put a spring in my step (even though this pic was taken before we got in, in sums up how I feel about Blue Lagoon)!
After our refreshing dip, we decided that instead of going straight to our hotel, as our itinerary directed, we felt so good we wanted to check out the Seltun geothermic field.
Bubbling mud pots:
Steaming fields:
And right across the street, in what I thought was surely a huge dose of good luck, and large herd of Icelandic ponies clustered up against the fence so we could photograph them!
Ponies!! I was very excited to see the ponies because I've heard of Icelandic ponies and their wonders. However, I say above that I THOUGHT it was very great fortune to get to see a herd so close up, but in our travelings since then, so, all of a day, I've since discovered that the landscape is literally infested with herds of ponies. Ponies here, ponies there, ponies everywhere. In fact, I have seen probably 20 times as many ponies as I have seen either sheep or cows. Icelanders eat a lot of lamb, I hear, but if the sample I've seen is representative, then surely they must eat a lot more horse. I mean, there are WAY more ponies here than people to ride, train, or groom them. They've got to be doing something with all these ponies, I say to myself. Perhaps they are simply an efficient brush-reduction mechanism...? I don't know, but the novelty of seeing a herd of ponies has worn off by now. I've seen all of 7 ponies being ridden by people, by the way, for the hundreds I've seen just hanging out, lying down even, in fields.
Ok, after that we braved a rocky gravel road to get to Kleifarvatn, a starkly beautiful (I borrowed that phrase from the guidebook, like it?) lake, surrounded by black sand beaches.
And then we headed to our hotel in Hveragerdi, the last few miles were a death march because the jet lag was really kicking in. I have a method for beating jet lag, and I'm going to tell you what it is now, because it is contrary to most advice one hears regarding how to get over jet-lag. Other sources tell you "Oh you HAVE to stay up all of the day you get there no matter how hard, painful, torturous, etc, it is!" That's bullshit. I've been the International Woman of Mystery long enough now that I have a system. Here's the system: When you get there late in the morning or early in the afternoon, take a friggin' nap. Set an alarm for sometime in the early evening, and go to sleep. Why on earth put your body through the shredder by doing something it desperately doesn't want to do and is fighting hard against? So we got to the hotel around 1:30 and slept from 2 til 6pm. Then we got up, had a nice dinner, walked around the town (which has a Geothermal Area right in the center of town! More steaming, bubbling geology!), headed back to our room and slept straight through to morning.
And today - no jet lag. We've been up since 7am, going strong all day and having a blast. Next post: Day 2 - the Golden Circle!
cathyn and I even touched down in Iceland, we flew over Greenland (kind of hard to get there without flying over Greenland). I snapped a shot of some breathtakingly beautiful glaciers you can see from over Greenland. Since we will be there in a mere 2 weeks, I simply stared intensely at Greenland, templed my fingers together, and menacingly muttered, "Soon."We arrived in Iceland at 6:30am. First impressions of Icelandair is...I expected it to be somewhat nicer, knowing that the Icelanders have one of the highest standards of living in the world. The stewardesses were...frosty. In fact, in the two days we've been here I've discovered that the Icelandic people and their friendliness can be rated on a scale I've devised which I would describe as "from somewhat terse to mind-blowingly rude." And I am rating them from one grumpy face :-( to five, based on just how Icelandic they are, from here on out. Stewardesses of Icelandair = :-( :-(
However, going straight from the airport to Blue Lagoon, the most well-known mineral pool/spa in the country, gets a big old :-D from me. GREAT IDEA! Totally refreshing! It's also beautiful - milky blue water set into a black lava field!
Soaking for an hour or so, enjoying a beverage from the in-pool bar, slathering white mineral mud on our faces and letting it dry before dunking to wash it off certainly put a spring in my step (even though this pic was taken before we got in, in sums up how I feel about Blue Lagoon)!
After our refreshing dip, we decided that instead of going straight to our hotel, as our itinerary directed, we felt so good we wanted to check out the Seltun geothermic field.
Bubbling mud pots:
Steaming fields:
And right across the street, in what I thought was surely a huge dose of good luck, and large herd of Icelandic ponies clustered up against the fence so we could photograph them!
Ponies!! I was very excited to see the ponies because I've heard of Icelandic ponies and their wonders. However, I say above that I THOUGHT it was very great fortune to get to see a herd so close up, but in our travelings since then, so, all of a day, I've since discovered that the landscape is literally infested with herds of ponies. Ponies here, ponies there, ponies everywhere. In fact, I have seen probably 20 times as many ponies as I have seen either sheep or cows. Icelanders eat a lot of lamb, I hear, but if the sample I've seen is representative, then surely they must eat a lot more horse. I mean, there are WAY more ponies here than people to ride, train, or groom them. They've got to be doing something with all these ponies, I say to myself. Perhaps they are simply an efficient brush-reduction mechanism...? I don't know, but the novelty of seeing a herd of ponies has worn off by now. I've seen all of 7 ponies being ridden by people, by the way, for the hundreds I've seen just hanging out, lying down even, in fields.
Ok, after that we braved a rocky gravel road to get to Kleifarvatn, a starkly beautiful (I borrowed that phrase from the guidebook, like it?) lake, surrounded by black sand beaches.
And then we headed to our hotel in Hveragerdi, the last few miles were a death march because the jet lag was really kicking in. I have a method for beating jet lag, and I'm going to tell you what it is now, because it is contrary to most advice one hears regarding how to get over jet-lag. Other sources tell you "Oh you HAVE to stay up all of the day you get there no matter how hard, painful, torturous, etc, it is!" That's bullshit. I've been the International Woman of Mystery long enough now that I have a system. Here's the system: When you get there late in the morning or early in the afternoon, take a friggin' nap. Set an alarm for sometime in the early evening, and go to sleep. Why on earth put your body through the shredder by doing something it desperately doesn't want to do and is fighting hard against? So we got to the hotel around 1:30 and slept from 2 til 6pm. Then we got up, had a nice dinner, walked around the town (which has a Geothermal Area right in the center of town! More steaming, bubbling geology!), headed back to our room and slept straight through to morning.
And today - no jet lag. We've been up since 7am, going strong all day and having a blast. Next post: Day 2 - the Golden Circle!
