Today was (supposed to be) our last day in Iceland… (more on that later) but we packed up and left the Airbnb with enough time to check out a few more things in downtown Reykjavik before getting our scheduled bus to the Blue Lagoon.
Alþingi
We also saw the Cathedral of Reykjavik, the national church building of Iceland. It was built from 1787 to 1796, which is crazy since that means the church is roughly as old AS THE UNITED STATES. The church serves a government function for ceremonies and services (again, Iceland has a national religion) and is literally across a little walkway from Parliament.
Harpa Concert Hall
We did some souvenir shopping and then we went to the Harpa Concert Hall. The architecture of Harpa is really cool! It is a super open space with beehive-looking windows.
The last thing we did in Reykjavik was eat a pulsa (also spelled pylsa) or a hotdog—we’d heard a lot about the hotdogs and were curious. The most famous hotdog stand (called Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur) is this super unassuming stand in the middle of a pedestrian square. Did it bother us that it was 10AM? Only until we took our first bites! I’ll discuss in further detail in a later food blog, but they were actually really delicious.
We then got our bus to the Blue Lagoon, a hot spring that’s been built out and turned into a spa. We used the bus company paired with the Blue Lagoon itself; surprisingly, it was cheaper than many of the other bus services. We could purchase one-way tickets to the lagoon from Reykjavik and then to the airport from the Blue Lagoon.
All of our buses up to this point had been relatively flexible in timing (“Arrive at 8:45 sharp” meant the bus would load at 8:52 and depart at 9:18.) but the bus to Blue Lagoon was prompt. We were running a little behind and I had been tempted to blow off the timing, but I’m glad I didn’t!
About 45 minutes after departing Reykjavik, we arrived at the Blue Lagoon ready for our spa day.
They had a series of different pools and the water temperature varied throughout. Water was pumped from 2,000 meters below the surface into the spa pools. The water was pretty shallow—the deepest section was maybe 4 or 4.5 feet deep.
They had a full locker room/showers/changing room situation, so we were able to clean up before going to the airport!
This was definitely the best way to arrange the Blue Lagoon trip (props to Emily, who arranged almost all of the Iceland details) because we rested our sore and tired muscles and then got freshly cleaned for the overnight flight. No concerns about being stinky backpackers!
The Blue Lagoon bus to the airport has limited times, so even though we had a 10PM flight, we took a 4PM bus to Keflavik. And good thing we did, too. As soon as we loaded up and got connected to Wi-Fi, we opened our emails to the most dreaded news of every traveler: flight cancellation.
A volcano erupted, which caused sufficient air debris and visibility issues that our airline cancelled our flight. Reporting that evening claimed that no international travel was affected, which was obviously false, and I am convinced that our flight was the only one changed because of the volcano. But anyways, we spent the 20-minute bus ride to the airport trying to figure out what we were going to do. The airline wanted to rebook us on a flight that was a full 24 hours later—not ideal, to say the least. EU regulations require that the airlines give us hotel accommodations and food vouchers for flight delays overnight. The silver lining was that we knew we would have somewhere to stay and something to eat, and none of the additional costs would be coming out of our pockets.
We got to the airport and asked around for information, but we were there so early for our flight that we were told to wait a few hours (Yes, you read that right. A few hours.) for someone with more information. We grabbed a late lunch since we hadn't eaten at Blue Lagoon (Believe it or not, the prices at the Lagoon were more expensive than at the airport!) and we chilled out (as much as one can in such a situation) for a few hours.
Eventually someone with more information came by and got us on a bus to a local hotel. It was the Konvin Keflavik airport hotel, and it was a nice little place. It was our first hotel all trip, and felt pretty luxurious after the Airbnb because we had a private bathroom and we each had our own bed. We all shared a room that comfortably fit three people.
We ate dinner at the hotel around 9:30PM, and it's amazing that between the stress of the situation and the lack of food we didn't kill each other (or, more accurately, that I didn't kill anyone!).
We tucked in, exhausted and a bit frustrated at our changed travel plans.
The Next Day
The next morning we woke up, packed, and grabbed breakfast at the hotel restaurant. We had received travel vouchers for breakfast (and good thing, too—the breakfast cost 2,600 ISK, or roughly $20 USD, per person!) I can usually manufacture a cheap travel breakfast made from protein bars and yogurt in a pinch (#babeonabudget), so I would never have paid for that.
The last bus from the hotel to the airport left the hotel at 10AM, which is nonsensically early. So even though our flight wasn't until 10PM, we had to leave the hotel twelve hours in advance with the knowledge that we would just be hanging out in the airport all day.
Earlier flights to Barcelona (our layover) existed (and would have given us time to explore Barcelona as opposed to sit all day in Iceland) but for some reason we couldn't get on any of those flights.
We decided to go through security so that we could be near better food options and close to a gate agent in case we could make any last-minute changes.
Of all the complications I expected during this airport day, I didn't expect one of them to be going through security! I have flown enough and gone through enough metal detectors for work at the Capitol that I thought I was an old pro.
I was wrong.
Iceland airport security is similar to US travel in that you still have to separate liquids (of which you can only have a limited quantity) and large technology and take off metal clothing terms (like watches and belts). But while traveling in the US, I can almost always have a few straggler liquids—a renegade body lotion or toothpaste tube floating in my bag that doesn't get flagged by TSA. In Iceland, no such luck! I had my separate liquids baggie, but a small hand lotion and tiny face sunscreen tube got flagged and my backpack was searched. Embarrassing travel faux pas! Also different was the sensitivity of the metal detector we walked through. My *ahem* clothing set off the metal detector and I had to get a full body pat down. (And there was no privacy room, so everyone could see the whole thing go down.) My face is probably still beet red...
The rest of the day was uneventful. We walked through the (small) airport and switched up seating every so often.
I wish I could say that we boarded uneventfully, but alas! One more dramatic thing had to happen: we scanned our boarding passes and got all the way down the jet bridge when the flight attendant told us that masks were required on the flight. I had one, but Jo and Em didn’t. Mind you, this is the first time we’d heard of this: no gate agent announcements, no reminder on our tickets. They had to beg one off a fellow traveler because the gate agent told them that the plane would not wait for them if they left the boarding area in search of a mask.
Upon takeoff, we did get to see the volcano that had interrupted our plans. It was still smoking and you could see the magma. That was cool!
The worst thing about this extra day was not that we had to spend an extra day in Iceland. It was that we had to spend an extra day in not doing anything—the hotel we were at was not close to Reykjavík, and we had to spend most of the next day in the airport based on when the shuttle bus traveled. I’m also definitely bummed that we miss out on a day of Porto. But, that’s part of the adventure of international travel!
A Quick Note (Fine, A Rant) on Vueling, our Airline
Something I didn’t realize when booking was that Vueling, the airline that we used to get to Portugal, didn’t have any airport-based staff. They used shared staff to check in passengers and board flights. But, they had no gate agent or service desk to help answer questions about flights or your delay. I asked several staff around the airport who were dealing with our flight to help get us on an earlier flight to Barcelona or change our flight to Porto, but none of them could. They kept telling me to go back to the website, which was giving me an error page, and I never was able to talk to an actual human when I called.
After that lack of last-minute assistance (and the mask incident, which was definitely the straw that somewhat unreasonably broke the camel’s back), I definitely wouldn’t recommend flying Vueling. It’s definitely worth spending a little bit extra to go with a main airline that will be able to actually help you if something crops up!
Step tracker: 68,455
Besos,
Tina the ExploraDora
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