One can only like/upvote so many Instagram/Reddit posts of
the northern lights before the urge to see Iceland goes from a slow burn to a
fever pitch. Before coming here, all I knew about the country was that it had a
crazy volcano that stopped air traffic for days a few years ago and that
Kristin Wiig did a silly impression of Björk as a tourism promoter. Now I know
a little bit more, so enjoy!
Iceland has been on my list for a long time. It’s a 4.5 hour
flight from the east coast and is often a stopover between the US and European
flights. Even on Thanksgiving weekend, I got tickets for about $600/person.
Outside of holiday weekends you can probably get a ticket for half that price,
so it’s a good deal. However, all of the money you save on airfare will
quickly be spent on even the most essential items once you’re in Iceland. It is
extremely expensive here.
Most international flights arrive in Keflavik, about 45
minutes away from the capital (Reykjavik) by car. It’s about $4 non-stop to
take the public city bus from the airport to Reykjavik, but to come BACK to the
airport is gonna cost you! It’s about $20 and requires a transfer in another
city (Fjörður). I hear there are private shuttles that take you straight from
your hotel to the airport for about the same price, so I would take the public
transit from the airport but private transit on your way back.
We stayed close to the city center and walked most places.
Reykjavik is the northernmost capital in the world, and it is quite
small/walkable if you’re used to walking. The main landmark is a modern church
(Hallgrimskirkja) with some noteworthy architecture:
Churches aside, most of the things you’ll want to see in Iceland are not
man-made. Almost as soon as we arrived in the city center, we were getting
picked up by a tour van and on our way to the Blue Lagoon.
The Blue Lagoon
Iceland is full of tectonic plate fault lines and geographic science science science that result in lots of boiling hot water below the surface (keep this in mind for the geyser section). None – I repeat, none – of this heat is perceptible until you are actually in the water. It is extremely cold here in November, I think we averaged about 25-32 degrees with ~30 mph winds. It’s two-pairs-of-pants kind of weather, so of course I only brought my underarmor running pants and my kneecaps froze. You will definitely want hats/gloves/scarves.
So there’s this gorgeous geothermal pool outside the city.
The walkway leading up to the pool is surrounded by fragmented hardened lava
pieces that range in size from pebbles to sedans. Once inside, you’re shuffled
expertly to the desk where you can pay about $80 for your ticket into the
lagoon and any upgrades you want (we pre-booked the standard ticket, then
upgraded $15 worth in order to include a towel and some lovely facemasks to put
on in the pool). Conditioner is provided so the silica doesn’t dry out your
hair.
Then, you learn: You have to take a shower before getting
into the pool. Pretty standard, yes. Veeeeeeeeery different when between the
shower and the hot pool there is a maze of locker room to navigate and then the
open air, sub-freezing patio that leads to the pool. Let me reiterate: you must
go, barefoot and in your swimsuit, SOAKING WET, into the sub-freezing air.
Someone who knows where to go could probably get this step over with in 1
minute. I, however, was a first-time noob. Plus, my spatial awareness was
rapidly declining because my brain, honed by thousands of years of evolution,
decided that frantic shivering was Priority Number One and sorting out
directions would need to take a back seat. I was probably at least half way
dead when bf spotted me wandering around a doorway and herded me into the pool.
It is glorious! The water is really warm, with some areas so
hot they were borderline uncomfortable. The water is really clear, and the
contrast in temperatures above and below it results in ethereal wisps of steam
constantly blowing along the surface. Once inside, you can wade up to a
full-service bar, or (like us) drift over to the face mask station, where employees
in half-submerged little cabanas dole out silica and algae masks. Then, the only thing left to do is to find a spot away from the English people who are quickly becoming blackout drunk.
Tangent: my view of English people has completely changed on
this trip. I would normally go out of my way to engage a Brit in conversation,
enraptured by their quick wit and accents that add intelligence and charm to
even the most banal statements. No more. Most times we heard a British accent
in Iceland, it was screaming something like “AAAAAAAAY! That’s THAT off the
bucket list, innit? God that girl is FIT! Get ova heeeee! It’s my buhthday,
dammit! Oh my God, I louve this song, I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY, I WANNA FEEL
THE HEAT WITH SOMEBODY aaaaaaaaaaaaghahahahaha.”
So get away from them, which is pretty easy to do since the
lagoon is big. Most people stay in the main area but with a few minutes of
paddling you’ll be under a bridge and into a separate little pool. You will
probably want to stay there forever, despite the strong smell of sulphur. There
is also some construction happening on one side of the lagoon with cranes and
drills, but it was subtle.
Also: we saw a guy propose to his girlfriend. They were wet
from the pool, but standing on the bridge. She said yes and everyone cheered,
but we concluded that the girl would have said anything to get out of the cold
and it was very clever indeed of that guy. Actually, when it’s time to get out,
it’s not nearly as cold! The water heats you to your core and you might even be
overheated, so walking from the pool to the locker rooms is totally bearable. Plus they offer tea and hot drinks for a small fortune, which are totally worth it.
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| Post lagoon tea. |
We left the lagoon to go check into our apartment, which was
really cute. The bathroom had heated tile floors and a heated towel rack, and
the radiators did a good job of keeping things toasty. After dropping off our
(really small) luggage and taking a substantial nap (it was 3am in Boston at
this point), we headed to the old harbor for a boat tour to see the Northern
Lights by night.
Northern Lights Boat Tour
The tour left around 9pm. It feels even colder at night
(which is basically all the time; sunrise is around 11am and sunset is around
3:30pm or so).
The tour boat is really comfortable. The company provides
warm jumpsuits to put over your clothes so the cold sea air doesn’t keep you
from standing on the roof to see the lights. These are obviously extremely stylish. More
than once I considered buying one.
 |
| Get in line, boys. |
The boat itself is small, but big enough to avoid
seasickness; it could hold about 100 people, a café, and regrettably, a bar. The brits found the bar quickly and wasted no
time in screeching over the guide’s explanation of what exactly the northern
lights are. Despite their raucous caterwauling I was able to hear a few neat
stories, like how Viking parents would tell their misbehaving children that the
lights were gods coming to punish naughty kids, or other tribes that thought
the lights were reflections of fish scales and portended a bountiful fish
harvest for local fishermen, who would rush to string their lines.
The lights are tricky. Everyone wants to see them, but they
only come out on clear nights, and Reykjavik is often cloudy and rainy. Still,
we went out to sea and were able to glimpse a few through gaps in the clouds.
It was beautiful and thrilling, but definitely not a transcendent success. We
headed back to the hotel around midnight local time.
Nature
The next day, we rented a car to get out of the city. Our to-see list consisted of various sites along what is known as the Golden Circle, a road along the immense natural park called Þingvellir (pronounced ‘THingvellir’). I definitely recommend driving yourself, even though there are tour companies that will take you to the sites. Being able to spend as long as you like at each site, then coming back to a warm car to drive to the next one, was invaluable.
The first stop on the Golden Circle is a small waterfall.
It’s neat to see because the landscape seems extremely rocky and desolate, and
if you didn’t know right where to look you’d never guess there was a waterfall
there. Rocks were covered with a thick
layer of ice that formed from the waterfall spray.
Next, you can see Silfra, a site famous for the two tectonic
plates that meet there. You can see these easily as you walk along; the land
looks like it was recently struck by multiple earthquakes. Rocky ledges flank
craggy ravines. There is very little soil, just rocks. What I’m saying is, you
can tell that the plates meet there just by looking.
Still, some people decided that they want to see the underground portion of these plates. So they scuba dive there.
Guys, let me say this again. It is below freezing. This is
not the blue lagoon – any water in Thingvellir has a thin layer of ice on it
and comes straight from glaciers. There are no locker rooms or spa areas. And
people were voluntarily getting into the water and staying there. We overheard
a guide sharing “stay warm” tips to his gaggle of tourists. His advice was to
join your last 3 fingers together but to – and I quote – “just forget about
your index finger. It will work again later.” People paid money to freeze their
appendages beyond function. Bf and I had a good laugh at the thought and got
back into our warm car.
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| Wearing wetsuits but still - must be miserable. |
We made our way to Geysir, which is the namesake of - you
guessed it – scalding water. Seriously though, it’s where the word geyser comes from, and while that one
doesn’t erupt anymore (apparently volcanic eruption sealed the opening shut
with lava), there is a smaller geyser named Strokkur that is just as
entertaining. It erupts about every ten minutes (take that, Old faithful!) and
has this epic bubble that rises before the water explodes 100 feet into the
air, leaving lots of steam behind.
This is from youtube, start at :17.
Then we went to Gullfoss, an enormous waterfall. Even
hundreds of feet away, the ground is frozen solid because of the spray. There
were lots of freezing tourists jockeying for picture room, and the ground was a
mess of frozen pebbles that I could barely walk on upright. Naturally, I
decided this would be a great place for a handstand. Here’s a rare behind the
scenes look at what the handstand experience is like:
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| Glares and confusion abound, I'm also terrible at handstands. |
Here’s the finished product, that won’t even go into my
album since I took another one by a huge crater and can only have one per
country.
 |
| Note the frozen rope and ground. |
So indeed, there was a huge crater named Kerið. This little
guy used to be a cone volcano but then got too heavy and collapsed on itself, a
fate I was sure I would share after having multiple Icelandic desserts.
 |
| Kerið |
Northern Lights
After a disappointing boat tour to see the lights, we had
basically given up after returning our rental car and having a nice dinner in
Reykjavik. We walked around town for a bit, noticing that it was pretty clear
tonight, wouldn’t it have been cool to be on the boat tonight instead of cloudy
last night, yada yada. Bf was getting tired so we went back to the apartment.
That’s when, on a whim, I went through Instagram to see if there were any tags
of people seeing the lights in the city. Several pics had been posted in the
last hour! Bf was too tired but I immediately bundled up again and went for a
long walk to the water’s edge, armed with my iPhone.
As I got close to the water, even with the city lights
blazing I could see a telltale swath of green lighting up the clear dark sky.
It was gorgeous but faint, and obstinately refused to show up on my camera. I took a few
pictures anyway, hoping I could edit them afterward to reflect some semblance
of what I had actually seen, they all came out black. Still, I spent about 45
minutes out there, just watching and shivering and loving it. On my way back, I
saw a group of Japanese tourists with tripods and lovely real cameras taking
pictures of the lights. I glanced at the camera screen of one of them and saw
the gorgeous bright colors I had been hoping to capture and failed miserably. I knew
I could google amazing images of the Aurora Borealis, but I wanted a picture of
the one I saw with my own eyes. With nothing to lose, I walked up to that
person and asked if I could take a picture of her camera screen. She looked at
me, terrified, as I gracelessly motioned to her camera and made picture-taking
gestures. Luckily one of her fellow photographers spoke some broken English and
translated for me, and she laughed and showed me several of her shots.
When I got home, I edited the iphone shots, and lo and
behold, there was actually something there! Bf joked that it looked like
night-vision footage, but I was still pretty happy.
All in all, this short little trip to Iceland was awesome!
Even with the cold, I recommend going in winter since the lights are most active
then.
In case you go, here are the details from our trip!
Accommodation: Luna Apartments
Rental car company: Lagoon Car Rental
Blue Lagoon pickup/admission tour: Viator
Northern lights by boat tour: Special Tours
Awesome book I read on plane: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Travel buddy: my boyfriend
Awesome book I read on plane: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Travel buddy: my boyfriend
