and its not how you’d think! i had an eight hour layover in iceland on the last leg of getting back to the usa for the last time in a while. it was fitting too, as iceland was the first stop i made back in 2008 when i made my first international trip by myself! this time i decided to visit the blue lagoon, an outdoor, lava-strewn geothermally-heated pool close to the airport. it was so amazing i stayed immersed in its silica-laden hot waters for five straight hours!
and then all of a sudden muscles all over my body started cramping up. i had been drinking liters of water, but no salt, so i guess i had some hyponatremia going on. the cramping quickly became completely debilitating and i could barely ambulate out of the pool and back to the changing rooms. and i clearly had some heat exhaustion too, as when in the changing rooms my field of vision really closed in and i suddenly got super nauseous. the culmination was collapsing in the showers and some teenage icelandic janitorial staff had to revive me with cold water. i haven’t been that messed up in a while, if ever. finally managed to get some clothes on despite the continued cramping any time i moved, and very slowly made it outside to the bus stop. by this time though my bus had already left. luckily there was another one which got me to the airport five minutes before my flight started boarding. cramps continued throughout the flight until i was able to get some good ol american electrolytes in the system but: survived!