Going to the Pool, Iceland Style

When in Rome, right?  Today's adventures included a visit to the Akuyeri Community Pool.  Our airBnB owner says it's what every Icelander does regularly.  So we put on our suits and flip flops, grabbed some towels, and headed on down the road...but that's not what the locals do....

Step 1, pay for admission, and get a locker
Step 2, get naked (fully naked)
Step 3, shower and make sure your dirty areas are not dirty (see diagram below)
Step 4, put on bathing suit (which, in theory, could be dirty as all get out)
Step 5, go swim
Step 6+, reverse the order. 

Part of the departure process included sticking your wet bathing suit in this marvelous machine that somehow vaporizes all of the water from your bathing suit.  Shove your wadded up drenched suit in this wall hung cylinder, hold down the lid, listen for the vibration to stop, open lid, and presto, dry suit in 20 seconds.  Fascinating!

As for the swimming, it's a year round thing for these folks, so the water is quite warm and there were many different pool options - kind of like the non waterslide area of a water park in the states.  Two of the pools were particularly intriguing to me, the 50 °C (122°F) pool, and the 5°C tub (yeah, that's cold).  Again, when in Rome... I started in the hot pool, and holy moly, that's hot.  I sat there in the pool (10ft diameter thing) and just stared at the locals, who said nothing - An odd silence really.  A dozen people just suffering together.  But after a while, I think your body just gives up and you sort of don't notice it.

Now for the cold tub.  This tub is decidedly smaller, only room for two people to submerse themselves with just their heads popping out.  I patiently waited my turn as a younger fella, who has been sitting in there for an astonishing 30 minutes, emerges as though he got out of a pool at the Bellagio without a care in the world.  Perhaps I was still cooking from the hot tub, but when I got in to my ice bath, I had some kind of protective heat shield going.  Didn't notice it much... for about 5 seconds, then the chill set in.  Holy moly, that's cold.  I turned to my tub mate, a law student in the local university, and he chuckled, and said, "if you start getting cold, just stick your fingers out of the water.". I tried, he lied.  Still crazy cold.  But then, as I carried on my conversation, the insane cold subsided in favor of a mild irritation.  After about 3 mins of becoming a popsicle, it's back to 50C pool to cook yourself again.

Now that is a really weird sensation, somewhat the reverse of before.  There is a cold shield and you don't feel the heat.  Then there is a curious tingling all over your skin, and it feels like all your cells start racing inwards to your torso, being replaced by the heat.  Fascinating.  I can see why the locals like to do it, and if we had these pools at home, I would probably make a habit of it as well.

Botanical garden

If you know me at all then you know I enjoy gardening. Not the kind where where you try to plant things to feed your family, but the kind that makes the yard look pretty and makes me happy when I walk out my front door. I enjoy planting things for the birds and bees and butterflies to fill up on.  I especially love native plants that have adapted perfectly to their environments and hard to kill wild flowers that may be a weed to someone else. And if it has a nice scent, all the better!

What I've discovered in botanic gardens throughout the world is that I am not alone! They are such a comforting place for me. To know someone else enjoys figuring out which plant likes what spot best, which bit of shade is perfect for the leaf, the low spot that gets the most moisture for the roots, the most sun for the fragrant flower... It's just so.... Well....ahhhhh! Everything else is different and challenging and frankly, foreign! The rest of the family, I will admit, was a bit bored, but I was happy.

Hello,
Autumn here again.
Here are answers to questions my dad asked me because I couldn't figure out what to write.

All of the driving is fine, despite the fact that I've been squished in the back with my brothers. I don't mind how long the driving time is because the views are great. I don't get bored, yet I mindlessly listen to music while staring out the window. My mind has been blank lately, and I'd like to keep it that way if it keeps me from becoming homesick.

Supermarkets are interesting. Most Icelanders speak English, which is good, and about half of the food labels are in English, which is great, but the other half of the labels are in Icelandic. This is not a problem, however, because Icelandic has a lot of cognates to English. (ex. kaffi=coffee they sound and look alike)

I've liked all of the Air B&B's so far, especially the modern house in the hills.

There are a lot of trampolines, waterfalls, mountains, lupine, sheep, horses, and waterslides here.

There are marshmallow-looking hay bales all over the farms in Iceland. My dad would like me to explain the process in which the hay bales get wrapped. There's a machine that cuts the grass and puts it into lines. Then comes a 'pooper' machine (named by Bryce and my dad) that collects the hay lines and rolls them into a cylinder in the back and the 'poops' it out the back. After the 'pooper' machine comes the 'wrapper' machine, and it wraps the hay cylinder in saran wrap looking plastic. The finished hay marshmallow is then put onto the field where it was wrapped to dry in the sun.

 This cat likes me (I'm pretty sure she lives across the street)

 Blue water in an underground cave

 Sheep. I love all of the sheep around here. :)

 We keep finding random chairs on top of mini hills as we drive on the Ring Road.

 Flowers by a waterfall

 Me by a waterfall. The hike up to it was nice.

 No filter...the icebergs in the glacier lagoon were flowing out into the sea.

 A bridge that got deformed by a quickly melting glacier

 Looking at icebergs

 Duck on her eggs by the edge of the glacier lagoon

 This duck is staring at you (this was by a glacier lagoon) (she is sitting on her eggs)

 Our place to stay in Southern Iceland. The house is modern and cozy.

 Seal lying on one of the icebergs I was looking at on the iceberg tour in a lagoon.

 Bryce with his shell by a sundial

 Bryce got tired and grumpy on a long hike

 The church and graveyard by Giljaland

 Church near Vik

 Vik beach

 Vik beach...the black sand was smooth and strange; because black sand is normally rougher than most sand, but this particular black sand was smotth

 The Icelandic horses are majestic looking.

 The horses are very friendly here, and walk right up to the fence to see if you have food.

SHEEP. (I love sheep, and the fact that they are everywhere is awesome) (oh, and the lambs following the adult sheep are very cute)

Vermerking!

We're cruising highway 1 along the southern coast on our way thru the Vatnajokull National Park (which is a stunning display of volcanic cliffs, waterfalls, coastline, and glaciers - imagine morphing the California and Hawaiian coastlines and inserting glaciers in the valleys). 

Owing to the fact that Iceland has a total of 300,000 people on a landmass the size of Maine, and nearly everyone lives in Reykjavik, there is only need for a narrow two lane highway around the perimeter.  Moreover, the need for two lane bridges is overrated, so when necessary, there is a dosey-doe type dance required with oncoming traffic in order to make passage.  Mind you, there is nobody out here, so it's rarely a problem, but there is commonly a need to pass the slower moving vehicles.  That is the premise of today's episode of: Iceland is Nice.

We were cruising along at a brisk 110 (km/h) and came upon a road maintenance vehicle with warning sign exclaiming "Vegmerking!".  In front was a larger truck doing something (think street sweeper on the freeway with a warning vehicle behind).  Given the width of the machine, and a desire not to be the rude American tourist, I patiently waited behind the two vehicle caravan, edging over to the left to peer around the side in anticipation of a window to make safe passage.  Our moment had arrived after a one lane bridge and the work trucks pulled over.  We inched along the side and suddenly the young driver pops out of the big truck and walks in front of our car.  He wasn't exactly upset, but he wasn't necessarily happy either.  As he walked up to my window he looked down at my tires.

"You've been driving on my lines." He says matter-of-factly.
"Excuse me?"
"We're painting lines on the road and you have been driving on them.  But don't worry, it's not too bad on your tires.". He smiles.
I apologize and slowly move on, wondering if that was the right thing to do.

Now the warning message makes sense... Vermerking must mean - We're Marking!

Iceland, in one word...

If I had to describe Iceland in one word - Youthful.  And with youth comes innocence and trust.  I suppose it starts from the fact that the island itself is the newest to appear on the planet and it is constantly growing, but it's also about the people. 

I've already mentioned that nearly everyone we have met is 25 or less, and the one elderly fellow so far, our innkeeper Siggi, has such a wonderful spirit and friendly demeanor that he might as well be in his 20s.  When we arrived (deep in to a glacier carved valley), he was adorned in his carpenter overalls building the next cottage in his complex.  Even paying for our stay was a very casual and trusting endeavor whereby, if we hadn't asked him how to pay, I'm not sure if it would have happened and we probably would have just left a pile of Kroner on the table.

Even our first apartment in Reykjavik, the owner just left the keys sitting on the counter in plain view behind an open window!  So, just enough concern to lock the front door, but with enough faith that nobody would breach the sanctity of the home by reaching in the window.

I think we have seen perhaps two police cars so far, and one of them flashed his high beams to remind us to turn on our headlights (mind you, it never gets dark here, so what's the point...).

Lastly, and this may get long, so you can stop here if you like, but it was a microcosm of my experience here:

Trying to find one of those super cheap styrofoam coolers we all take for granted in the states was another display of youthful exuberance.  It started with a half successful pantomiming of my needs to a grocery store worker, which she lead me on a quest to find the better English speaking worker, which lead to an excited conversation about where I might find such a thing to keep our food cold during our road trip.  It was decided I should go to a Ramsbarfurgim.  Ok.  Thanks!  How do we find such a place, and what type of store is that?  Google it! We made our way to the next Ramsburfurgergurger (turns out it is exactly a Bed Bath & Beyond), and I found the only cooler they had, a $75 dollar plug in style thing.  Yeah no. 

Up walks another 19 year old blond kid and asks me, "flugy blurgen takk pleeby deeby?". (note, I'm sure he said something coherent in Icelandic, but that's what I heard).  Based upon my expression of American confusion, he quickly toggled to English, and I began over with my request.  He takes me to a water cooler.  I said it was for food.  He said..."oh, for fish!". I thought, well, no, but figured that was close enough.  He then walks me to the front and engages another youthful employee in a debate as to where I might find such a thing.  The fish and tackle store of course, at which point they brought out a piece of paper and began to sketch a map of the town and where I would find it.  See below for reference.  We made our way over, and because it's not America, and it's Sunday, the store was closed. The end of our quest. 

We ultimately improvised and Nicole created a make shift cooler with a couple bags of ice and some aluminum trays from the original grocery store we started in.

But Wait, There's More (Behind the Scenes)

Seems Autumn is doing a great job of posting some amazing pics, so I'll spend a little more time on some behind the scene's stuff.

It's been a rough start for Zane.  Four days in, and he's still not quite right.  This was him on Day 2, sprawled on the couch with a "safety" bowl.  While Nicole, Autumn, and Bryce were out exploring downtown, I took the liberty to dust off my sketching skills.  I'll be trying to keep this up throughout the trip.

Bryce, our hot dog connoisseur, will be trying a hot dog in every place we visit.  His verdict of Iceland: 2 out of 5 stars.  "The texture was crunchy, but after peeled, it tasted ok".

Here is how we are getting around - Subaru, of course.  Love, It's what makes a Subaru, a Subaru.

Safety first. Our kids are each wearing an ID bracelet.  Hope it never gets used, but you never know.

Jet lag is still with us, 4 days in.  Of course, the sun setting at midnight, and rising at 3am doesn't help.  But man, once a-slumber, a herd of Icelandic horses could gallop through the apartment, and they wouldn't budge.

They weren't kidding, "Dining" at a restaurant is EXPENSIVE!  We took one look at the menu, saw that a standard burger was $25, and said.... "Let's go to the cafe and get fresh made ice cream instead."  If you squint, the cows that gave birth to our ice cream are in the windows.

One of our favorite past-times is watching other tourists (primarily of Asian persuasion), and then mimicking their picture poses.  (Zane is clearly not part of this game)

While it's always fun to see a Geysir, if you've been to Yellowstone, you'll be a little disappointed with Iceland. (Sorry Iceland, it's true)

Bryce particularly enjoyed saying "Geiser" (like an old man), not Geysir.

Nicole was particularly happy with this particular selfie

Then Bryce came along...

OK, so this little side adventure - tip-toeing over rocks, through a creek, between a chasm, to a hidden waterfall was pretty spectacular. (And Wet).  The waterfalls in Iceland are all spectacular really.  I can't believe it.  And so accessible.  And so "Un-American-ized".  If you want to scale that rock and get right in there.... go right ahead.  But if you get hurt, the nearest hospital is.... who knows.

Quick camera trick. If you want to get a star-burst on your SLR camera, set your aperture to at least F22.

I think we're going to have fun noting the different ways businesses around the world indicate where to "tinkle".