Europe > Exams: Iceland (Days 3-4)

Hola todos,

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 checked out their Parliament building, Althingi (spelled Alþingi in Icelandic). It is really small when compared to the US Capitol, and they’re currently in the process of building an extension to house more offices and staff. It had no security, barriers, or guards we could see. We were able to explore around and get really close.

National Cathedral 

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.

The water was this milky blue color. I’m used to clear pools, but I think I liked this better—you can’t see everyone awkwardly squatting in the shallow water!

They also had saunas and steam rooms, mini-massage waterfalls, and more. It was so relaxing and soothing for our worn-out walking muscles! The water was extremely salty.

They also had mineral face masks that you could apply and rinse off in the water.

We got some refreshing drinks from the swim-up bar. Em and I had juices—some of our only veggies while in Iceland (whoops!).

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

Europe > Exams: Iceland (Day 2)

Hola todos,

We slept soundly. So soundly, in fact, that we slept through a level 5 earthquake! We had no idea until our tour guide mentioned it the next morning. Emily thinks it’s because we were stacked in the bed like sardines—there’s no way to feel movement when you’re all smushed in together. As it turns out, we’ve been “experiencing” earthquakes all trip but none of us would know.

That’s when we learned why Reykjavik mostly consists of lower buildings and no skyscrapers. They’re more resistant to earthquakes!

South Coast Tour

We hopped on another tour bus today: an all-day tour to the southern coast of Iceland with Reykjavik Sightseeing. Our tour guide Monika is originally from Hungary but has been in Iceland for 6 years. It was a perfect day for our big sightseeing tour because the weather was a bit warmer and the sky was incredibly clear. We got to see several different glaciers during our drive that our tour guide said she normally couldn’t see during that drive.

The white at the top of that mountain is a glacier!

Skògarfoss

Our first stop was the waterfall Skògarfoss. Some people were camping at the base of the waterfall. We were able to get pretty close, although you risked some serious misting if the wind suddenly changed directions. It was more than 80 feet wide!

All around us during the drive were these amazing cliffs surrounding flat plains, which led to the ocean. Local mythology says that trolls and elves live in the caves.

Rejnisfjara

This was my second black sand beach. (First was in Kona, Hawaii.) They’re pretty cool to contrast with a traditional beach.

The sand was actually pretty warm, probably because of the obvious physics of a slightly sunny day and the color black. But I like to think it’s because the lava from the nearby volcano is still cooling ;) Technically, it could be… the magma can take 1,000 years to cool!

We saw some birds flying around but didn’t realize until after we left that they were puffins, the famous penguin-like bird of Iceland. We also saw some seals just bobbing around in the water watching the people on the beach.

There were also these really cool rock formations from the cooling magma. Apparently, when magma cools and solidifies, it can form the hexagonal shapes in the rock. Check them out! 

Rock stacking is also popular here. You stack some rocks and then make I wish, I think. It’s cool to see these little rock stacks everywhere. So we did that at the black sand beach, too!

Vik

“Vik” means “bay,” so this southernmost town on the coast in Iceland is simply but appropriately named. This was our lunch stop, and Em, Jo, and I camped out on a nearby black sand beach for an hour or so. We packed a grocery store lunch, so it was pretty chill.

This is the Vik church, which is at the highest point of the town. If there is some natural disaster emergency, the town is supposed to meet up there.

Sólheimajökull Glacier

Next up was a glacier! This was my second glacier (the first one was in Patagonia) and we didn’t hike on this one. But we got pretty close to it! We also got to drink some glacier water from the pond. It was a little cloudy from the ash and some minerals, but it tasted really refreshing!

We saw some of the glacier fall into the lake beneath it as it slowly melted. Some facts about the glacier:

• the top layer isn’t “dirty” per se—it’s covered in ash from the last local volcano eruption in 2011;
• the really blue parts of the glacier are freshly cleaved—as the “fresh” ice is exposed to the sun, it gets white;
• there is water running through and underneath the glacier;
• it takes 12 cubic meters of snow to make 1 cubic inch of glacier ice—it’s way more compact than ice in your freezer!

Seljalandsfoss

Our final stop was Iceland’s most famous waterfall. It’s 20 meters high, but the coolest part is that you can walk behind it! We got pretty wet from all of the mist (we probably needed showers anyway!) and the path was a little slippery, but very manageable.

The tour concluded by dropping us off again in Reykjavik near the top of the main promenade or touring street. We wanted to eat some local cuisine, so we hunted for a decently-priced menu that included lamb soup and seafood. We found one!

I'll post more about the food itself on a food-focused post (my true talents as a food critic have been entirely wasted on the traditional education system, I think...) but it was all really good. We also got ice cream from one of the more popular ice cream shops on the way back to the Airbnb.

By the time we got back, cleaned up, and made sure we were fully prepped for the next day, it was nearly 11PM and we were exhausted. We didn't realize how late it was getting because of the sunlight!

Step tracker: 43,513 steps

Besos,

Tina the ExploraDora

Europe > Exams: Iceland (Day 1)

Hola todos,

Well, the trip started out with adventure… traffic. Causes were a combination of rain and bad luck (hopefully it’s out of our system now, and the rest of the trip will be smooth sailing!).

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, though, and security was a breeze. Two of us regularly had to go through body scan security to enter work, so we’re old hands at security checkpoints.

We took PLAY Airlines, which is a new Iceland-based budget airline. Baggage restrictions were, well, restrictive.

To my surprise (and relief), they didn’t measure our bags. We were all roughly within the size requirements, but I was concerned they’d make us prove it. And after going through security, I just wasn’t sure things would fit back in our bags the same. But we had no issues boarding. Passports in tow, we each made it through with our one personal item.

PLAY has an option for you to pay extra money to choose your seat. We didn’t do that, although I was tempted to pay $50-ish dollars for extra legroom seats given my long legs. Thankfully, it wasn’t necessary at all! The legroom on the regular seats was great, even for an overnight flight.

Emily and I randomly ended up sitting next to each other, which is great for relying on a friend’s shoulder for a pillow. The flight was about 5 hours, and I was exhausted from the weekend. We were all ready to cuddle up for a few hours of sleep.

…

45 minutes. That’s how much sleep I got on the flight. Johanna thinks she got the same; Emily got a couple of hours. We boarded at 7PM DC time and landed in Iceland at 4:45AM local time, so we needed to be ready to go. But we were dead. Tired.

A fascinating thing about the flight was that there was no darkness outside during the overnight flight. We flew north over Canada and Greenland. We started out in sunlight, watched the sun *almost* set in this beautiful horizon of red, and then watched it rise again by the time we landed. While I was exhausted, that was kind of a cool experience.

The Reykjavik airport bathrooms were fascinating. An entire self-contained bathroom in each “stall”! Even the smallest or most commonplace things are different abroad.

We took a bus from the airport (brand: Airport direct) that took us into the city, about a 45 minute drive, for about $22. Even though it was early in the morning, there was so much light (the sun sets around 10:30PM and rises around 4:30AM right now!) so we got a great view of the landscape and countryside while making our way downtown. *cue Michelle Branch*

The country side is beautiful—a mix of life and lifeless, a blend of greens and browns and blacks that juxtapose volcanic rock with small groupings of trees with an undercurrent of green grass on the plain. There’s a lot of lava rock covered in moss. (Fun fact: The moss grows super slowly—1mm per year. Scientists can use the moss to learn the age and other information about the lava fields.) The landscape is relatively flat along the coast (where the main road is) except where it’s not; a visual variety of plains that are flat but not smooth, and rolling hills.

In the bus ride over, we met an American named Pat. He just graduated undergrad and had a 36-hour layover in Iceland before continuing on to Belgium. We chatted a bit but then parted ways when we got to Reykjavik.

We then walked into downtown Reykjavik (about 20 minutes). It was deserted, and almost everything was closed. Then again, it was 7AM and super cold! (Also, it was the Monday of a holiday weekend. We didn’t realize this, but Monday was Commerce Day, which appeared to be the day to celebrate service industry and customer service-focused jobs. Several places we tried to go for a meal or coffee were closed because of the holiday.)

We eventually found a cafe and had breakfast (dinner? Who knows…) and some coffee. Then we went to find our Airbnb and walk through town.

We dropped off our bags at the Airbnb, changed up our layers to add some warmth, and headed off to explore town. I cannot recommend enough walking through Reykjavik! It’s small enough to be manageable and charming enough to have surprises on every street for those who are looking for cute sights!

Hallgrimskirkja

Hallgrimskirkja is a church dedicated to a father of the Lutheran church in Iceland. (Lutheran Christianity is the state-endorsed religion of Iceland.) Its architecture combines simplicity (no ornate decor) with complexity (complementary geometric designs throughout).

Peep the pipe organ—5,275 pipes!

Entrance is free to the chapel, and we paid a bit extra to go to the bell tower. From there, we had an incredible view of the city. We were also there while the bells chimed!

It was warm inside and relatively quiet in the main chapel area (you couldn’t hear the bells, to our surprise) so we decided to have a group power nap in a jo pew. After about 45 minutes of actual sleep (finally!), we felt like brand new women. We were ready to grab a quick bite and quick sip of coffee before our Golden Circle tour.

The Golden Circle is the most popular road around Iceland, so our bus tour took us on part of that to get out of Reykjavik and check out the countryside. We loaded up on the buses, got comfortable, and …

Slept.

I’m only partially kidding, but we did sleep a lot on the bus ride. There was plenty of driving time passing the beautiful, idyllic countryside and I sleep easily in cars. But I didn’t sleep the whole time!

Our half-day tour was with Gray Line, and let me tell ya—this was the way to go. Having a guided tour, as opposed to renting a car, was totally worth it. Our tour guide Darren was amazing—he’s originally from the US but has lived in Iceland for about 20 years. The entire bus ride he was giving us background on Icelandic culture, history, and politics. It gave such helpful context to what we were experiencing and seeing. Way better than just seeing the things themselves!

Some things we learned about Iceland: they have some of the best fishing in the world; during the summer people golf 24 hours a day; about 200,000 people live in Reykjavik, which is about 2/3 of Iceland’s entire population; their average winter temps hover around 0C/32F (warmer than I thought).

There were three stops (each with restrooms, hot food for sale, and souvenirs!) with a bit of driving in between. We brought our lunches to save money, but it wasn’t necessary.

Gullfoss

Our first stop was a waterfall from glacier melt. We could actually see the source glacier, which was huge. But, it was only 25% the size of the largest glacier in Iceland, which is 5 times the city of London! So this glacier was 5/4 the size of London (#math). Huge!

The waterfall was beautiful. It’s always so cool to see the power of water in cutting and shaping the earth around it.

And while there, we saw Pat again! He was on our tour bus. Of all the tours and places we each could have chosen, it was just funny that we ended up on the same day tour.

Geysir

The next stop was Geysir, the oldest geyser in Iceland (and the one after which all geysers are named!). It’s inactive, but we did see a live geyser that goes off every 5-10 minutes.

The whole place smelled like sulfur, but we got used to it pretty quickly.

Lögberg

Tectonic plates usually push together to cause earthquakes. But in Iceland, the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are pulling apart, causing frequent earthquakes and a flatland valley (as opposed to mountains).

In this valley is an incredibly blue lake with some of the best scuba diving in the world, apparently.

But more attractive to me was the history of Lögberg. It is the home of Iceland’s judicial system, which sounded surprisingly like our own American system (a local judicial system with a series of appeals courts and a highest “supreme” court.) Judges were picked from the local community. Lögberg was one of the original settlement places where they had civilization and government in Iceland.

The law was originally kind of tribal or clan-based (i.e. revenge killings permitted) until the King of Denmark took over Iceland’s legal system. He installed a government enforcement regime for criminal law. It’s a part of the history of the world’s legal systems that I’m definitely interested in learning more about now!

We returned to Reykjavik that evening by about 7PM. We stopped at a grocery store for an easy dinner, as well as breakfast and lunch the next day.

We got situated at the Airbnb, which had a shared bathroom and kitchen. We ate, showered, and went to bed. With the three of us in a queen bed, we weren’t cold at all! I thought that between the sunlight and the continual napping I would have trouble falling asleep. But we all passed out promptly and slept soundly!

Step tracker: 24,954 steps

Besos,

Tina the ExploraDora

Europe > Exams: Packing Light

Hola todos,

If you caught my Blue Backpack Break series from my time in South America, you know that I took the word "backpacking" very literally. I had no idea that "backpacking" involved really large camping backpacks. My school Jansport backpack had everything I needed for a trip lasting a little over 5 weeks.

What was the trick? Minimalism. I had like 2 changes of clothes that I washed in hostel sinks. My sneakers were my only real shoes. (I packed super thin flip flops, but those don't really count.) This was before there was pressure to have Instagram-worthy pictures in a cute new outfit every day of your trip. Back then, that kind of challenge was novel and exciting.

And while I now know what "backpacking" entails, I also made this trip (relatively) affordable by choosing budget airlines with restrictive bag policies (think Frontier or Spirit but for Europe). When I calculated how much extra money packing a modest carry-on would be (about $180 total)... well, challenge accepted. If I could do it for a 5-week trip in college, I could do it again for a week and a half in Europe. 

I'm fitting 12 days worth of clothes and toiletries in a backpack that is 40x30x20 centimeters, or roughly 16x12x8 inches. (And, since I'm currently training for an Ironman triathlon, I need to bring some training gear, too.) *re-reads that paragraph and gulps*

Here is the bag I will be bringing, packed and within the allowed dimensions:

(I'll carry my water bottle and wear my coat!)

I think the trick will be relying on:

• Multi-purpose clothing: Every clothing item should have multiple purposes or "wears" in it. Sports bras? Good for a day of touring and a run (in that order, please) before washing. Shirts and leggings? Same. I'm also bringing one casual black dress--the black makes it easy to wear several times, even if I spill food or coffee on it (likelihood of such incidents: high) and reduces the need to make a cute "outfit" that works. Black works with almost everything, even Saucony sneaks and ballcaps (I hope...).
• Emergency toiletry purchases in Europe: It's not Mars. Need more toothpaste? Deodorant? Shampoo? They have it. I don't need more than a small travel size for a trip less than 2 weeks. I'm not even packing sunscreen--it's going to be cold, cloudy, and rainy in Iceland, so we'll be in lots of layers. No sun exposure there! (Calm down, some of you--I have a teeny tube of face sunscreen.) I'll just buy a small bottle of regular sunscreen when we get to Portugal. I'll share, and if we don't use it up in a week, I'll just leave it at our Airbnb for the next traveler. An $8 bottle is still cheaper than $180 in luggage fees last time I checked (but in this economy, who knows...)
• Friendly neighborhood laundromats: I used these in South America and they were great. Drop off a load in the morning and come by that afternoon to clean, dried, and folded laundry. Have to hover at your machine? Bring a book and get this done during a group nap time or rest time. It will still be worth it, I think.

Oh, and I'll be wearing a lot of my bulkier clothing on the flight. (I see you, running sneakers and winter puffy coat!) Hey, I get cold on flights anyways. And we have a few overnight flights--a puffy winter jacket makes a great pillow (multipurpose--check!).

Besos,

Tina the Exploradora

Europe > Exams: Getting Ready!

 Hola todos!

Miss me? I've been on a "back to regular life" hiatus since I last updated the blog. I finished undergrad, started a job in D.C., quit said job to go to law school, and finished law school. Phew!

I just completed the bar exam, but we don't have to talk about it. Let's just say that I am ready for another international adventure! And since I have a few weeks off before I start my new job, I figured there was no better time to gallivant across the world.

... okay, maybe not across the world. But I am going to be checking two more countries off my list:

Iceland!

Ah yes, the land of the Northern Lights, hot springs, volcanoes, and excessive hours of summer daylight. We'll be seeing waterfalls, glaciers, and black sand beaches, going for an organized day trip around the famous Golden Circle, and taking a dip in the Blue Lagoon. I'm hesitant about trying all of the cured and pickled seafoods that seem to pop up on Iceland "foodie" websites, but it appears that (Icelanders? Icelandians? Icelandics?) the good people of Iceland have a sweet tooth of epic proportions, and you know that I'm down to try their ice cream.

Portugal!

Between my Spanish and English, I know just enough language to get us in trouble. We'll start in Porto and then bounce over to Lisbon for the majority of our time. We'll walk beautiful cobblestone streets, walk along beachfront views, walk through museums... a lot of walking. And I hear Lisbon's streets are practically vertical in some parts, so if I don't have calves of absolute steel by the time I return to the States, I want a refund.

I'll probably get some weather whiplash (hot and humid D.C. to cool and rainy Iceland to warm, coastal Portugal) but you won't catch me complaining.

Check back here every few days for updates and pictures! And if you want to learn about something specific, leave a comment! If I can oblige, I will :)

Besos,

Tina the Exploradora