Adventures in Iceland, Part Two

After much delay, I finally present part two of my adventures in Iceland!  The couple of days I spent on the south coast of Iceland was an overload in nature's most spectacular displays.  themselves.

We stopped by Strokkur geyser.  Our tour guide warned us that we would be so surprised when the geyser first erupted that we would forget to take a photo.  I didn't believe her and stood posed with my camera.  And then the geyser went off and everyone watching went "whoa!" and forgot to take a photo of course!

Luckily, the geyser erupts fairly frequently and we were able to watch it quite a few more times!  There were also smaller bubbling geysers.  The signs warned that it was 80-100 degrees Celsius and since I still don't understand Celsius I just dumbly looked at them and though, "oh, that's probably really hot."  It wasn't until later when I was back on the bus, that I downloaded a conversion app and exclaimed, "Oh wow!  That water was really hot!"  It wasn't a delayed reaction, I had just realized that it was 212 degrees Fahrenheit!

We also saw lots of waterfalls.  it was basically Narnia. 

We also got to see the gorgeous black sand beaches.  There was also a terrifying moment when the insanely crazy wind blew my Scotland hat off and sent it flying toward the sea.  Luckily, a South Korean tourist caught it for me and retrieved it.  There was another moment when a wave nearly swept me away, but I was just glad to be reunited with my hat!

We also stopped to watch a film of the 2010 volcanic eruption that interrupted European air travel, as we sat underneath the volcano itself.  It is called Eyjafjallajokull.  No, I don't know how to pronounce it and I only know how to spell it because I used Google.


Another spectacular feature of Icelandic culture is their obsession with hot tubs.  Every city has at least one.  The water is really hot (obviously), but is geothermally heated and without much chlorine.  I visited two during my stay in Iceland, one in the south coast and another in Reykjavik.  I always do something hilariously stupid in every country.  This time I went to return my locker key, but accidentally gave him my room key.  I didn't even notice until he said, "Ma'am, I don't need this."  Then, I realized what I did and thought it was hilarious though it prompted lots of jokes throughout the rest of the trip!

One of the highlights of the trip was the visit to Blue Lagoon!  The water is an eerily pretty milky blue colour.  When getting in the pool, you can get in inside and walk through a door to go out.  The lagoon is covered in steam and is such an otherworldly experience!

On the second-to-last night of my trip, I made a last-minute decision to go on fjord Northern Lights cruise around midnight.  It turned out to be a fantastic decision!  When I was at the bus stop, I saw the Northern Lights already.  As soon as the boat departed, we could see the lights.  They lasted the entire tour.  We even saw the purplish lights, which are rarer.  They twist and alter, but just so incredible to watch.  I don't think I can adequately describe them in words.  I was quite proud of myself to capturing them on my iPhone, but a fellow American on the cruise took even better photos and kindly emailed them to me.  I leave you with some of her amazing photos! (Photo credits: Trena Repp) 

It was definitely one of the best nights of my life!  If Iceland isn't on your bucket list, I highly recommend adding it now!  Thanks for reading!