Today we had a couple activities planned, the first being a free walking tour of Rekjavick. Prior to heading there we grabbed  a quick breakfast at the same place we did the day before, today I had a quiche and Nick porridge. We then set out to find our meet up spot, we were really surprised to find out how many people were on the tour, but here to find out a lot of them didn’t sign up on line as required, they just showed up.

Our walking tour was great, the rain held off and the weather was overcast but nice. Our tour guide Erick was the co-owner of the small company and a history major, currently working on his masters at the local university. He was great, not only was he knowledgeable but had a great wittiness to him as well. We saw some sights and learned interesting facts about different places within the city that we had already walked past, which is always fun. It’s great to learn the little details about hidden parts of the city as well as the major sites. We learned how Iceland was settled, rhey had the first women Prime Minister, they are a feminist country and most interesting to me is how they are named. They do not take their fathers last name, but their last name is made up of their fathers first name with either “son” or “dottir” on the end, therefore if I were Icelandic, my name would be Megan Timmdottir, Nick would be Nick Paulson. This explains while watching the Crossfit games a couple weeks ago it seemed like everyone from Iceland had the same last name 😉

Iceland was founded by a Dutch prisoner who had escaped and they have a statue in the middle of town honoring him, fun fact is that last year during their gay pride parade someone painted his lips pink and it’s still there. Erick made a good point that Iceland was honoring its founder, a prisoner who was in prison for murder. At the end of the tour Erick passed around some delicious black licorice treats, some which had marscapone in them, they were quite tasty so my goal was to find these before we left.

After the tour we headed over to Iceland’s best hot dog stand (again) for one last lunch. Don’t laugh that we ate so many hot dogs, they were cheap and good. I honestly hate to see our bank account at the end of this trip, things in Iceland are ridiculously expensive and Erick ensures us this is better than before the financial crisis 😁 Apparently prior to things were double, all I know is we only saved money by eating PB&J all week and I’m ready for good Mexican food (Laurie Parker – you in?!?!) 😉

Literally translates to “best hot dogs in town”

Our next activity of the afternoon was a trip to the Blue Lagoon, I had booked this through Viator and it gave us a transfer from the hotel close to us to the lagoon and back. Our tickets said 4:00 pm so since we were ready a little early we did a little walk around town again and then we dipped in to get a coffee. Getting coffee ended up being where it all fell apart. Even though our tickets said 4:00 pm, apparently the bus picks you up prior to that at the hotel to transfer you to another bus terminal where THAT bus leaves at 4:00 pm, this was not clear. Coffee was taking awhile and so I headed to the hotel, arriving at 3:35 pm to see the shuttle bus pulling away! When Nick joined me I went inside and the front desk called Grey Line for me who told me our only option was to get a taxi to their terminal, well the day before we saw what I thought was their terminal a few blocks away. Being in a panick I guess I wasn’t fully understanding what the guy on the other end was saying, so we hurried down to what turned out to be their booking office to be greeted by four rude Icelandic employees(note these were the only rude Icelanders that we met all week) that just stared at us like we were idiots. We were told again that we could take a taxi to the bus terminal, and they pointed across the street to where we could grab a taxi. We hurried across the street and advised we needed to be taken to the bus terminal, we arrived there within 5 minutes only to find out that Grey Line has their own separate bus transfer station, not sure how we would have known this. At this point our only option to get to the Blue Lagoon was to buy yet another bus ticket on Rekjavick Excursions, which was pulling out of the parking lot as we spoke. Thankfully they stopped the bus, we dropped yet more money but we were on our way. We had no idea if the voucher we had would even get us into the lagoon, or a ride back. 

Thankfully when we arrived they were able to look us up, and we were in. Needless to say the whole time we were there I still had doubt in my mind whether we round get a ride back on Grey Lines as we didn’t have the required ticket to board the bus and none of the Grey Line employees were helpful whatsoever. 

The Blue Lagoon however was amazing, after visiting the Myvatn baths the other day I was prepared to be disappointed (based on locals feedback), but was not. The check in process was very efficient and all staff were very friendly. They had approx 4-5 changing rooms for each gender,  and directed you to the least crowded one. The rules of these baths are to take a shower with no clothes on prior to entering and the Blue Lagoon differed from the other where they did have a private changing room and private showers, which I thought was a nice touch for those who might have felt uncomfortable. The other just had one huge shower area, no choice.

The lagoon itself (in my opinion) was much warmer, and blue. Seeing the steam rise from it was just really pretty. The amount of people there is kind is intimidating, but in all honesty I never felt cramped while in the lagoon. The had a nice swim up bar and various parts that you could hide out in, some of those being ridiculously hot that you couldn’t stand the water temp. We also were able to enjoy their steam room, wanting to be sure we have ourselves enough time to get ready, grab a snack and talk with the bus driver knowing we didn’t have a return ticket, we left the lagoon about 8 pm. It was amazing how many people at this time were entering. Even with all the complications, miscommunications and unanticipated money spent the Blue Lagoon was amazing and I’m glad that we didn’t give up (which I wanted to do during all our troubles).

Seaweed mask – hoping for youthful skin!

Enjoying a beverage while soaking in the Blue Lagoon

Knowing the we had a early morning departure, 8:30 am flight, and knowing that the buses do not wait on you we planned to get up at 3:30 am, of course I could not fall asleep and had a terrible nights sleep as I worried about missing our bus again. But the good news is that we knew which bus terminal we needed to go to this time and knew it would only cost about $12 to get there if we did miss the bus 😉

A full recap of our tour can be viewed here on our flickr page.