Leaving Skaftafell we drove west again, backtracking the route of the last two days (at least to Selfoss). By around noon we stopped in Selfoss for gas and a hotdog. The weather was overcast and a bit rainy, but the temperature had climbed to around 5 Celsius, not bad at all. Gassed up and ready we headed for the Blue Lagoon, the famous hot springs characterized by deeply baby blue water. Approaching the park you drive past a somewhat less than attractive geothermal power plant but are soon greeted by pools of the wonderfully blue water amongst the rocky lava fields.
The entrance to the spa facility takes you through a long path cut through the lava rock to a very attractive building housing a cafe, restaurant and gift shop as well as changing rooms and spa areas. The weather was pretty cold and rainy at this point, so after changing the drill was to basically run to the hooks for towels and bathrobes, hang them up and run into the water as fast as possible. The water was warm, though not as warm as I would have liked, but it was still comfortable. Its filled with all sorts of minerals and algae they say is good for the skin. Around the edge there are buckets of goop you're supposed to put on your face. Doing this I managed to get some in my eyes, which felt about like having sand rubbed in your eye. I immediately dunked my face in the water and got myself a big mouthful of it, which is salty as hell and tastes terrible.
We floated around for a little over an hour or so, pruning ourselves up nicely before we decided that was enough and headed for the showers, not before applying our algae masks... A lot of people seem to be super excited for the Blue Lagoon... my take on it though, was pretty much that it was a super expensive hot tub that made your hair all rough feeling and your skin all dry. Not really my thing, but I suppose its part of experiencing Iceland. I don't really feel the need to do it next time. It is pretty rad to see though, and I'm guessing most people would appreciate it more than I did.
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| An anti-EU billboard we passed as we returned to Reykjavik. |
After our soak we drove back to the city and checked back into Backpackers. We dropped our stuff off and decided to head to an Icelandic History comedy show in the city center that's rather heavily advertised in the touristy spots around the city. We walked down to the city center for dinner, Erin and Lance headed to the Sea Baron to have some of the lobster soup. I didn't really feel like having that for dinner, so we split up and had a boat again. So delicious. The comedy show ended up being pretty hilarious, it was a one woman show where she the audience through 1200 years of Iceland's history in a rather hilarious manner which included a lot of yelling, audience participation and singing. Good stuff, highly recommended to anyone who visits.
We left the show and headed out for a few drinks, we hit a couple of places and ended in The Dubliner, an Irish pub in the heart of the city where a group of musicians played rather decent traditional Irish music. Didn't really expect to be spending my time in Iceland in and Irish pub, but it was Thursday night and fairly quiet, so our choices were limited and that place turned out to be rather fun. That group was followed by a duo who played rock covers and reminded me of an Icelandic Tenacious D. They were quite funny and played some pretty good songs.
Leaving the Dubliner we headed home, but not before grabbing a hot dog, this time at a famous little roadside stand which many consider to be the finest hot dog joint in Iceland. President Clinton once ate there, which they tend to kind of brag about. 300 isk buys you a pretty decent size dog, which is traditionally ordered with everything, which includes fried onions, chopped onions, ketchup, sweet mustard and a sauce... which I can't remember the name of at the moment... Its a cheap meal that's available late for hungry bar goers. It really hits the spot after a few beers.
From there we called it a night, belly full of hotdog and ready to face our last full day in Iceland.
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