Iceland, Day 2: The Blue Lagoon, or Ninety Minutes of Being Pelted in the Face

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As with most of our days in Iceland, on Day 2 it was pouring down rain. Tuesday was especially bad, as there was a strong wind and the temperature was hovering right around freezing (pre-wind).

Today was our Blue Lagoon day. Anyone who has ever been to Reyjavík swears by the Blue Lagoon. I'm not much of a spa guy, but I figured when in Rome...

I hadn't known it before I got there, but the Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa that, according to the Lonely Planet guidebook,

owes its existence to the nearby Svarsengi geothermal plant, which is powered by superheated seawater drawn from deep bore holes in the lava. After the steam has passed through the turbines, huge condensers convert it back into water, which is channelled into a huge artificial lagoon that permanently hovers at 37˚–39˚C.

We hopped on the hotel shuttle and headed to the Reykjavík bus station (BSÍ), where we transferred to the Blue Lagoon bus. This is what it looked like pretty much all the way there:

The view from the bus

The first thing you have to do upon arrival is get hooked up with a blue, plastic wristband. The wristband allows you to use the lockers in the locker room. The lockers were really cool, if lockers can be cool. The next thing you do is get naked and shower. I had heard about "shower police" who were there to make sure you showered appropriately, but thankfully we were left to shower on our honor. (The shower is necessary because the water isn't treated chemically like a swimming pool, so they want to divest you of anything harmful before you muck it up for everyone else.)

The natural pools outside the spa campus

Duly bathed, I headed down to the entry pool, where I met A. This is an indoor pool that is warm and gets you prepped to move out into the outdoor lagoon. There's a door that hangs just above the water to keep the elements out. You could swim under it if you wanted to, but that wasn't any fun. A was wearing a dark blue fleece hat, which I thought was a little funny looking. I didn't think it was so funny once we headed out into the nearly freezing rain.

It's kind of wild when everything below your neck is toasty warm while your head is being buffeted by icy wind and rain. We were forced to move backwards into the wind, as the raindrops and ice pellets hurt our face if we turned around.

Floaters in the mist

We stayed in for about 90 minutes, taking in the entire pool. There was so much steam coming off the water that at times we couldn't see more than about 3 feet in front of us.

The water is kind of a milky blue, and even though the lagoon is only about 3-4 feet deep, I couldn't see my hand past six inches under the surface. It was a little creepy. The water is cloudy because it contains blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), mineral salts, and a fine silica mud at the bottom. The silica can be used to exfoliate your skin, so A and I both tried it. She had no problems with it, but I ended up getting it in my eyes. It's kind of gritty and uncomfortable, and for about 6-7 minutes I was completely blind. I tried to rinse my eyes out in the lagoon to no avail. So I turned my face into the rain and tried to let the fresh water pummel the goop out of my eyes. Eventually I was able to see again, but I stayed well away from the silica mud. (Besides, to get to the provided containers, you had to haul yourself halfway out of the warm water. Talk about a shock to the system when you stood up...)

A and I figured his was a lonely job...

Once we'd hit our limit in the lagoon, we headed inside, where we showered again (using TONS of conditioner to get the chemicals out of our hair) and then got ready to leave. We ended up missing our bus by two minutes, which meant that we had to stay at the Lagoon for another two hours. It wasn't exactly a hardship, but it would have been nice to get back to the hotel a little sooner.

A and I ended up having linner there. She got a sandwich of some sort, and I got to try out the world-renowned Icelandic hotdog (pýlsur). They are an institution in Iceland, and I was much more inclined to try them as opposed to putrefied shark (hákarl). The pýlsur traditionally come with raw onion, crunchy deep-fried onion, ketchup, mustard, and tangy rémoulade. It was really good, and is probably the cheapest food I ate while in Iceland. I also picked up some dried fish bits, but have yet to bring myself to try them.

The infamous Icelandic pýlsur...

Once it was time to go, we ended up on a smaller, shuttle-type bus. The driver stopped for gas on the way back, leaving the engine running the entire time. Very strange. At least we didn't blow up.

Ultimately, while I may not be much of a spa guy, I must admit that I enjoyed the lagoon quite a bit. It was interesting to be there in the off season when the weather was horrible. There weren't many people and at times it felt like we had the entire place to ourselves. While I'm sure the views are much better when you can see more than three feet in front of you, this was still a great way to experience the Blue Lagoon (as long as I stay away from the silica mud).