Day 0: So day 0 was basically boarding a plane laaate at night so I'm going to skip that.
Day 1: we landed in Reykjavik around 6:15/7 in the morning, rendezvoused (?) With one another, and then bought some wine at duty free because we heard it was crazy $$ in-country. Turns out, yes. Very expensive.
Then we figured out our ride to the Blue Lagoon, Haven of tourists and most well known spot on the island. It's not far from the airport but Iceland is des-o-late and there's no uber and my flight was delayed so we missed our reservation and it ended up being a bit if a challenge. But hey-we're travelers, damnit! Finally, we were there. It lived up to the Instagram photos; super beautiful (plus BAG STORAGE!!) and we got silica face masks, in-water back massages, and tried skyr smoothies which didn't quite live up to the hype if I'm honest. We didn't bring our phones near the pool because we're elder millennials and just wanted to enjoy, plus we we're just worried about phones and water. However, we (Audrey) did snap some shots of the opalescent blue water and black lava surrounds. It was 3.5 hours of blissful soaking with left us relaxed, rejuvenated, and with crazy messed-up hair (the high levels of silica are not friendly with your tresses).
Anywho, my (very) short hair bounced right back with a few intensive wash-condition- repeat cycles but Audrey's is still recovering a little. We then finished the transport quest with a harrowing transfer at the Reykjavik bus terminal which kindly dropped us just 6 min walk from our Airbnb which was clean, central, and cute enough but nothing to write home about, so I won't.
The rest of the day included a will full reemergence from the Airbnb to sightsee even though we were exhausted, having tried and failed to sleep on the plane. We saw the very famous church and looked out from it's balconies, grabbed a late lunch, shopped the very cute and cozy touristy down town area, and then realized 7:30 was a completely reasonable time to go to sleep so we walked home, accomplished some honey-dos, brushed our teeth, and passed out.
Day 2: Has been long but good, and full of navigational adventures. The tasks of the day we're to rise, collect our Noble ship, grocery shop, collect our gear from the Airbnb and then hit the road. The place where we had to go for our camper van was pretty far out so we got to catch a few more Reykjavik icons on the way (the statue of a viking ship on the harbor and Harpa the big music venue with really cool architecture.) The street got a little twisty after Harpa and we got a little lost before finally (45 min later) getting where we needed to be. Then we grabbed food from a local supermarket, packed up, and hit the road. Got a little lost on our way out and it ended up taking few tries. Turns out icelanders don't believe in signs. It's spotty, hard to read, and only happens AT THE THING so by the time you've seen it, you've passed it by.
Finally out, we drove down a crazy picturesque little winding road out to our first stop and even took a few little detours to check out some overlooks, etc. Then we saw a beautiful fissure which has a path running down the middle and leading to our first waterfall of Iceland:oxarfoss (Foss=falls). From there we grabbed food at a local dairy farm. We felt bad looking out over the cattle as we devoured our delicious burger. Less so as we enjoyed ice cream in their midst. Then after pouring over the map, we decided to see another fall (Gulfoss) and a famous Icelandic hot spring before heading to camp. Gulfoss was thunderous and huge and generates it's own lovely personal rainstorm as you make your way towards the lower overlook but both views we're breathtaking. The hot springs were farther off the beaten path and we took some single lane roads to reach it but it was totally worth it, tucked in the side of a mountain and nestled against a little 'hobbit house' was the most perfect little pool of bathtub-warm water to soak in. We had company and spent a little time drinking prosecco and chatting with a pair of travelers from Austria, a couple from Norway, and an icelandic native who had moved to new Jersey but returned with her friend and grandkids. Pooped, we made it to our first campground, nested in our camper van, and are calling it a night!
Logging off,
Chelsea (Audrey gave up when I decided to write a novel and is well into REM at this point.)
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