Iceland Day 2

I woke up that morning and felt so surreal because I was in Iceland. Not very many times, I feel so excited about a place, but it just felt so cool that I was in Iceland. I grew up in a tropical country, never thought that Iceland would be a place to visit.

After breakfast, we were picked up by a big bus to go to Blue Lagoon. At first I felt it was kinda cheesy but the review was good and while I'm in Iceland, why not? Blue Lagoon is a natural hot spring pool, which was man made but it still felt pretty natural.

Entrance to the Blue Lagoon

The front of the spa

This is not the pool we got in. Just the front of the spa.

I love how blue the water is.

The spa was very nice and modern. after checking in, we all get a wrist band with a magnetic strip. It's used to lock the locker and if we purchase a photo or drink, they just scan the wrist band and we pay at the check out. I knew that we had to bring our own towel. If not, it's an extra charge. I also read that you need to put conditioner on your hair (and leave it on) before jumping into the pool. The mineral is so concentrated, so if you don't put conditioner on, your hair will be so coarse and very hard to comb for several days after.

We got there around 9.30AM, pretty clear so there were not too many people, which was nice. Lauren had a water proof pouch for her iPhone, so it came handy when taking pictures there.

After 45 minutes, we were done. I couldn't stay too long in a hot tub. Being in a cold air from shoulder and up, it actually helped. Otherwise, I had to get out after 15 minutes.

Going back to Reykjavik. Feeling relax.

We got back around 3PM and had a quick lunch at Subway. Subway and Quizno's are everywhere. I also saw KFC and Taco Bell. Not a single Starbuck's. I was quite surprised by that.

Around 4PM, we got picked up for the dog sledding. There was only one dog sledding company in Iceland. Luckily we had plenty of snow from the night before, so for sure we would sled in snow, otherwise dry land, which would be very weird, if you think about it.  The dog sled place was in the middle of nowhere. There were 2 other people that got picked up after us. After driving for about an hour, we pulled over to a side of the road, and switch to a Jeep from a minivan. The road that we were in was not paved. After 10 minutes, we saw the dogs. They were hauling and barking in excitement. The wind was so strong... The strongest wind that I ever experienced. It made the cold air felt much colder. I put my hood and wool hat on. The Aviator glasses that I just bought came very handy.

 

Each sled was pulled by 6 dogs since it was only two of us, three including the musher. Her name is Michelle. She was really chatty, which was great. In the beginning I sat and Lauren stood besides Michelle. Since it was so cold and windy, I couldn't talk loud enough to Michelle because my hood also covered part of my mouth. The good thing was Lauren kept asking questions, and when she wasn't, Michelle just talked about the dogs and her experience. 

We didn't go fast. We stopped quite a bit because the sled in front of us stopped. The wind was crazy. The dogs were cute but not so cute, when we were pooping while running. Quite a multi-tasker.

With the lead dogs

From the sled

Managed to get a selfie

The dogs that were with us were Greenland Huskies. They were not fast but really strong. They loved to burrow, dig a hole to sleep at night. Even though it was really cold. My Super Dry wind proof jacket was perfect. I didn't feel cold at all. I wore snowboard pants that shield me from the cold. My toes were frozen as usual even with winter boots and super thick socks. Overall it was a really good experience.

On the way back to town, we ended up talking about Iceland hotdogs with the driver. Apparently they're super proud of their hotdogs and claimed it's the best even though they never tried other hotdogs. He was kind enough to pull over to a famous hotdog stand. We of course had to try. They put sweet mustard, remoulade, ketchup, chopped white onion and crispy onion.

The famous hotdog stand in Reykjavik.

Apparently President Clinton also had the hotdog, Iceland loved that! Except he didn't do it right, he only put mustard. I think the hotdog with all the fixings was good.

Iceland Day 1

Not in a million years that I would be vacationing to Iceland. I heard about Iceland when I went to Windsor with Lauren and her neighbor in September, Anne, who told us that Iceland was the greatest place that she went. She was lucky enough to see the Northern Light. When Lauren told me that she wanted to go to Iceland for the last hurray trip before heading back to the US, I jumped on it. Why not? It would be cool to go and while I had somebody to go with.

We flew to Reykjavik, the capital city of Iceland on Wednesday night and landed just before midnight. It was a 3 hour flight from London. We took an elevator down to pick up our luggage and saw the biggest duty free area, complete with shopping carts just like a supermarket. Since alcohol was so expensive, people loaded up at the airport before going to the city. Funny. I had never seen shopping carts at the airport. We took Flybus to go to the hotel, and we were the last few people that were dropped off at our hotel. By the time we got to our room, it was 1.30AM. The room was much smaller than a dorm room. It pretty much fit two twin size beds, a small dresser and a night stand in between the beds.

I slept really well that night, and woke up a few minutes before the alarm went off. We had to be ready by 8.30AM. Breakfast was included with the stay. I love getting free hot drinks in the morning. The food selection was also decent, cereal, yogurt, peanut butter, different kinds of bread, lunch meat (very common for breakfast in Europe) and cheese. I made a reservation with Iceland Horizon for the Golden Circle Tour. Every tour company in Iceland had Golden Circle route. The reason I went with Iceland Horizon because of the great reviews in Trip Advisor and they were a small tour. We rode on a mini van instead of a coach or big bus. That means less time loading and unloading people, less time queuing for rest rooms, a bit more flexible. This decision definitely paid off, which I will explain later.

I was a bit nervous because I didn't confirm with them again a day before the tour. I really hoped they remembered and didn't miss picking us up. After 10 minutes of waiting, a maroon van pulled over and I saw Iceland Horizon sign on the side. David was our tour guide and driver. We were the last pick up and there were already 4 other people in the van. Small group. Lauren and I got to know these guys. Mish, Mike, Denise and Anne, the last two are Aussies that live and work near London .

The first destination was Faxafoss waterfall. I don't remember how long was the drive from Reykjavik to this place, probably a couple of hours. By the way, around this time the sunrise was around 10AM and the sunset was around 5.30PM. It was weird to see '9AM rush hours' when it was still in a complete dark.

 We didn't stay long here. There was one look out area that had a picnic table. after taking some pictures, we got back on the van and drove away. David was really great. He was a Brit that moved to Iceland a long time ago. While driving, he told us the culture, history, economy, politics of Iceland. I had no idea that Iceland only had 325K people. Before getting to the next destination, he pulled over on the side of the road to pet some horses. They were not wild. Actually none of the Iceland horses were wild. They were owned by farmers. They were not riding horses because when we came to pet them, we came to us and were so curious. Riding horses were so used to people and they wouldn't approach you. David warned us that they would try to eat our clothes. They sure did. I asked him why, he said to see if we were organic.

They're a bit like ponies, but bigger. They were so pretty and tame. This is the advantage of being in a small tour. If we were on a bus, there was no way the driver could pull over.

The next stop was Gullfoss waterfall. I took tons of pictures. It was very cool because half of it was frozen. If you google this waterfall and see the pictures that are taken in the summer, it looks like a complete different waterfall because of the lush vegetation surrounding the waterfall. To me, it just looked like a regular waterfall. The winter version is different. You don't see this anywhere else in the world.

I loved how blue the water was. The weather was pretty cold and windy. This place also served as our lunch stop. I had Iceland soup, which was lamb, carrots, cabbage and potatoes. It really reminds me of home because the carrot, cabbage and potato soup was like what we ate in Indonesia. The only difference was it was made with chicken, not lamb. If you go to KFC, they have this soup too, Indonesian staple.

The next stop is Geyser.  I don't think it has a name, just the Great Geyser. There are only 100 geysers in the world. Old Faithful in Yellow Stone is one of them.

It popped every 5 minutes. You can get wet if you stand too close. The surrounding areas were pretty also. I found tiny pools with different colors.

Icelandic is very difficult to learn, by the way. It took David 5 years to become fluent. They had more sounds and letters than English. The language was one of the oldest Europe language along with Gaelic and had some Latin influence. The volcano that erupted in 2010 named Eyjafjallajökul. US Military called it E15 for short because it starts with E and there are 15 letters in the word. Genious. One of the locals said it sounds like "I forget my yogurt" with Icelandic accent of course.

We also went to Thingvellir National Park, this place was not huge but pretty historic. It was the home of the Viking Parliament back in the days. There was an earth crack, not sure what the geology term is, that was basically where the Eurasia and America continents split. The pictures didn't do justice. It was a lot prettier with bare eyes.

The surrounding areas and the stone wall were pretty cool too.

Lauren, Anne and Denise

We got back to the hotel around 5PM. It was a long but awesome day. Unfortunately, our Northern Light tour was canceled because of the weather. It started snowing hard after we left the National park. Reykjavik was covered by thick snow when we got back. we went to dinner at  Hamborgarafabrikkan aka Hamburger Factory. Icelandic is very protective of their language, so when there is a new word, the scholars come up with an Icelandic word for it. It was pretty good. I just had a burger with a side salad. surprisingly unlike US or UK, you can substitute the fries for salad at no charge. Iceland has a lot of green houses, so they don't need to import all veggies and fruit. Since the country has a lot of volcanoes, this translates to cheap energy.

If you're a history buff, you may know that in 1986, Iceland hosted a summit in Reykjavik between United States President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. This meeting basically ended the cold war. After the meeting, they wined and dined Icelandic Style. The dish that they ate now became popular and is on many restaurants in Iceland.