I haven't ventured very far out of Reykjavik, and I'm still fairly certain I won't be able to get enough of this country. The jet lag was horrendous.. We almost slept until noon this morning! But we didn't..
The wind was strong, and there was only a little rain, which inspired us to go home and get our jackets before venturing out further. Glad we did.
I can't wait to find out more about this place. 
Icelandic is one of the most interesting sounding languages, one that I aspire to learn (as soon as I can properly pronounce "Eyjafjetlayökull" without tripping on my own tongue..)
We checked out a geothermal pool and fitness center, just about 12 minutes by bus outside of Reykjavik. The hot water was excellent, and the absence of chlorine, even more excellent. I found my way over to their hottest pool as soon as I could. Just a short distance from that was a small black tank (maybe 80 gallons) full of frigid water (4~6 celsius)
After one go in the cold water, back to the hot pool, I decided to try a little longer. I stayed in the cold water (or warm ice) for about 2 minutes! Not so cool when I got out. The whole place looked like it was spinning. Any faster and I would have performed my first successful backflip! my stumbling caught the attention of one of the staff, and they came several times to check on me ("how are you feeling?" "much better, thank you" "Just pay attention. This is a different world")
So that concludes my dumbAmerican tourist story..
As you might have guessed, not many pictures taken by me have made it to this blog, and they won't for a while. They will be developed as soon as possible, though, and I'll share the good ones with you. More to come!
(3D map of Iceland at Reykjavik city hall)
Everything I hear and see only makes me more interested, aside from one surprising thing I learned not long after entering the country. There is a fair bit of litter around the city of Reykjavik. It makes me wonder how people could not appreciate it enough to let that happen, but I guess it's just anywhere these days.Icelandic is one of the most interesting sounding languages, one that I aspire to learn (as soon as I can properly pronounce "Eyjafjetlayökull" without tripping on my own tongue..)
We checked out a geothermal pool and fitness center, just about 12 minutes by bus outside of Reykjavik. The hot water was excellent, and the absence of chlorine, even more excellent. I found my way over to their hottest pool as soon as I could. Just a short distance from that was a small black tank (maybe 80 gallons) full of frigid water (4~6 celsius)
After one go in the cold water, back to the hot pool, I decided to try a little longer. I stayed in the cold water (or warm ice) for about 2 minutes! Not so cool when I got out. The whole place looked like it was spinning. Any faster and I would have performed my first successful backflip! my stumbling caught the attention of one of the staff, and they came several times to check on me ("how are you feeling?" "much better, thank you" "Just pay attention. This is a different world")
So that concludes my dumbAmerican tourist story..
As you might have guessed, not many pictures taken by me have made it to this blog, and they won't for a while. They will be developed as soon as possible, though, and I'll share the good ones with you. More to come!
(This blog post title might be confusing, if you read the blog. Harðfiskur "dried fish" is a traditional Icelandic food. Imagine jerky, made of fish, and a little crunchier. Hannah thinks it tastes like cat food, but I think it is pretty good)
No comments:
Post a Comment