iceland – ToewsTravels

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!

iceland is a wonderful place! i flew out of jfk on thursday night, and arrived at keflavik the next morning. after waiting in line for an extended period of time at customs i took the bus into reykjavik, arriving at around 8 am, and everyone was still sleeping! i wandered about aimlessly looking for some substinance, finally finding a subway restaurant that was open where i inhaled a turkey sub. it was still pitch black; and didn’t become daylight until 11 am! no one came out unto the streets until that time either, and all the stores were closed too. after getting lost on some dark backstreets, i found my way downtown and chanced upon the althingi, the icelandic parliament (according to the icelanders, theirs was the first democracy in the world). there is a wonderful frozen lake in the middle of town, as well as a huge opera house on the harbor that is “under construction” – perhaps to remain that way forever – it was being financed by a huge icelandic bank that lost all of its extensive european assets as that big 2008 financial bubble burst. found myself what turned out to be an excessively small coffee (may have been made up for by the fact that the young lady serving it may have been excessively attractive, a trait seemingly shared by all icelanders). then i climbed a huge hill to a massive cement church that overlooks reykjavik for a fantastic view. across the bay is a very intimidating mountain range called esja that is perpetually clothed in a blanket of luscious fog. i then proceeded to follow a road that i thought might lead somewhere, and it turned into a major freeway that was quite unexpected and impressive, as i had been previously unaware that there were enough people around to warrant such infrastructure. apparently there weren’t enough walkers to warrant a sidewalk however, and i found myself wading through salty slush up a large hill for far too long, jumping off the road each time a truck approached. anyway, when i reached the top there was another great view, and i found a geothermal pool to sit beside that was emanating heat, as well as a couple attractions that happened to be closed (like a lot things seemed to be). then i had to head back to the airport. despite the fact that there are only a couple hours of daylight (which were still rather dim), iceland was a great place even in the winter. actually, it wasn’t even very cold (maybe two degrees celcius), because of the moderating ocean currents.

Category: iceland

how iceland almost killed me

iceland!