Iceland Day 1 : Gale force winds and getting in hot water

This trip has been a glimmer in my eye for so long, it’s hard to believe it’s now over.  I’m on my way home from Reykjavik now.  My co-worker Kristen and I are both avid travelers and when the amazing deals for Iceland started coming fast and furious to our inboxes, we couldn’t resist.  We both decided back in November that we wanted to see the Northern Lights and so we booked a trip over a few random days in February our office gives us off each year.

Even in late February, when I should be heading south in search of sun and some reprieve from the bitter cold and ice of this 2014-2015 DC winter, somehow this year it was very important to me to fully embrace winter.  This means looking for beauty and joy even in the ice, snow and cold.  I can wholeheartedly recommend Iceland to anyone in the Winter months.  Hopefully you won’t need to read this whole thing, you’ll only need to see some of the pictures to agree.  

So we set off on a Tuesday to IAD, which we discovered is a relative ghost town on Tuesday evenings. We flew through traffic, baggage check-in, and security.  Our flight over was easy and we arrived ahead of schedule.  Which was a good thing, because soon after we touched down, all flights were grounded due to a blizzard.  There were 60mph gusts and snow so thick you couldn’t see anything more than 15 feet in front of you. Luckily, although this makes it unsafe to travel by air, it doesn’t phase Icelandic bus drivers.  

Keflavik Airport during the start of that day's blizzard.  

Kristen and I had purchased a bus ticket from the airport to our hotel which included a stop at the Blue Lagoon. We wanted to check it off our list early on.  We headed there and after we dropped our bags off at the luggage station and then walked to the actual entrance to the Blue Lagoon.  It was a long quarter mile because we were being pelted by snow and freezing rain, blown all over the place by the fierce wind, and trying to see the path which was icy.  

Finally making it to the Blue Lagoon, we arrived exactly at opening time, and went right to the locker room. We were with many other tourists coming straight from the airport as well as a few other tour buses trying to make the best of the day.  We found out later that many of the regular tours that run in Iceland were cancelled due to weather and so all rerouted to the Blue Lagoon since it was basically the only manageable tourism game in town that day.  

We dutifully changed into our swimsuits, showered like they told us to, and headed to the entrance area. The deck where we would normally enter was closed (iced over) and they told us to enter the pool through the covered area.  We got in the water and it was warm, but definitely not hot.  Then we opened the door and waded out into the blizzard, already wet from our shower.  My hair froze instantly and I dropped down to my knees in the shallow water so I could only have my face exposed to the elements, using the water as warmth and protection.  Kristen and I high tailed it for a cave where we found shelter for a few minutes, listening to the story of the Blue Lagoon’s geothermal wonders and the healing powers of the silica in the water that turns it that lovely milky turquoise color.  

We decided we should at least try to see more of the Blue Lagoon and we had been given a description of the facilities by my check-in lady.  We had to take her word for it because we couldn’t actually see the whole pool, only parts of it at a time.  The pictures you see if you google it all have a nice layer of welcoming, healthful steam coming off the water, and it’s usually sunny and the water is calm and glassy.  In our case, the water in the pool actually had waves, and the steam off the water wasn’t rising, it was being blown horizontally and it was mixed with micro-grenades of freezing rain.  My skin was trying to be pampered by the magical watery powers under the surface, but any part of me that was exposed, namely my face, was stinging from the rain and snow, and the wind chill was so low that it hurt to have it outside the water for too long.  

The Blue Lagoon in a Blizzard, with some brave bathers.

After wading around the pool backwards to keep our faces out of the wind, we managed to find shelter against a rock outcropping on one side of the pool.  We also found that the water over there was much warmer, and even uncomfortably hot in certain areas.  We stayed there a long time.  To our dismay, others from our bus and from other tour groups quickly discovered our secret alcove and it became crowded.  We decided to try and explore other areas of the pool.  We had very serious discussions, strategic ones, about what moves to make and when.  It sounded like we were in a war situation.  Okay, where are we headed next? That bridge? Okay on my count, go when this gust of wind is over and STAY LOW! Our main target is the steam room, but understand that you'll be exposed and completely out of water for at least 5 seconds while you run up the gangplank to gain entry.  Good luck, and Godspeed.  

The covered real-estate was hard to come by and it just seemed a little silly to cower under bridges and in caves.  We headed to the steam rooms and the sauna but good reason dictates one can only stay in those for about 10 minutes at a time.  In between those sessions, the cold, wet, windy weather outside continued to hiss and spit at us.  But we lasted about almost two hours in between bridges, the cave, the cove, the sauna and steam rooms.  Then we packed it in, got cleaned up, bundled up and headed to the cafe area to wait for our bus to the hotel.  The cafe was completely overrun with people because it was so bad outside.  We did find a seat, thankfully, and then we dragged ourselves through the blizzard again to the bus.  We felt woozy and unenthused about the rest of the day.  

So we took the bus into the city and checked into our hotel, where we thawed, and rehydrated.  Even the people at the front desk said that the weather was really bad that day.  We didn't want to seem like the pansies we felt like about the weather, so it was comforting hearing that this was very bad weather, even for natives. Though, that afternoon we did venture into downtown Reykjavik amidst the snow and biting wind again.  We had a bit of trouble catching the bus and getting there, getting splashed by icy street water and getting passed by a few buses to begin with. Once we got downtown we had about a 20 minute walk ahead of us to get to the place where we would pick up our car.  

On the little shopping street we found that many storefronts were boarded up or closed. We also saw lots of quirky American pop culture themed bars, i.e. The Chuck Norris Grill, Lewbowski Bar (a whole menu of just white russians!), and Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, to name a few.  

We turned off the little narrow shopping street and into a wide open area and were hit with an arctic blast that cut right through the many layers of winter clothing we were wearing like a hot knife through butter.  The gusts of this wind basically blew us in the direction of the car rental place and I was SO glad we didn't have to walk back to catch the bus.  Getting the car made me immediately feel better about life in general.  We turned on the seat heaters and drove home and crashed.  Not a chance at seeing the northern lights that night, it was way too cloudy.  Day 1 in the books.