Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Blue Lagoon - Grindavik - Iceland

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After breakfast at Kex Hostel, I grabbed a roundtrip shuttle to the Blue Lagoon for 2,500 Icelandic krona (ISK), about $21 USD. The Blue Lagoon, Bláa lónið in Icelandic (Ha! Yeah, right, like I could even attempt to say that.), is a man-made geothermal spa created as overfill for a nearby plant. The Eurasian and American tectonic plates literally meet at the lagoon. There's a scientific explanation about the geothermal seawater coming into contact with cooling magmatic intrusions, capturing minerals, silica, and algae that make it good for your skin, but really, all you need to know is eerie warm aqua water that you can laze about in because it's good for you.

It was also the first pit stop on the Amazing Race 6. :P

The Blue Lagoon is closer to the airport than Reykjavik, so a lot of people either stop off on their way in, or before their flight out. Since my flight landed so early, I'd be waiting around for hours for the spa to open so I couldn't do that, but keep in mind that it's an option if your flight times are more accommodating.

While chatting with my mom during my layover in Washington, D.C., she was surprised that the entire country only had 320,000 people. I told her since there's so few people, they still keep the old system of last names such as "son" or "dottir" to signify parentage. When we exited the shuttle, everyone asked the driver if we needed a receipt. He has our names and remembers our faces, he said. Huh!

I followed the crowd through the rock formations toward the spa.

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It's really hard to capture the pale blue lagoon with a camera.

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A kind of spooky pale aqua.

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Admission was 5,250 ISK ($44 USD) and towel rental was 750 ISK ($6.30).

The showers had these rainfall spouts that poured from the ceiling. Shower before heading into the water. I remember reading that while the minerals in the water were good for your skin, they were hellish on hair. So make sure to coat your hair in conditioner before entering the pool. There are lots of lockers to leave your stuff, so I kept my point-and-shoot camera out to snap some photos, before stashing it away and entering the water.

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A wet bar for drinks and other snacks. You get an electronic wristband when you check in that gets scanned when you buy something. Pay when you leave.

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There are wooden boxes along the edge with mineral mud or whatever it is for your face, but they were all empty.

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The minerals are pretty slick so be careful.

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There's a waterfall and sauna area too. I ate a chocolate-covered ice cream bar (470 ISK, $4 USD) and a blue frozen slushy called "krap is" (500 ISK, $4.20 USD) that I wished I photographed just for the words, but that would have required me to get out of the water and back into the locker room to get my camera.

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After about three hours, I was done. There's a fancy restaurant and casual cafe too in case you're hungry. I was still full from breakfast, and it was technically the middle of the night for me, so I just chilled out until it was time to take the shuttle back to town.

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Some more pictures of another side of the lagoon. It's really quite vast.

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And if lazying about is your thing, you can easily spend the whole day here.

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But I had an evening tour that I signed up for, so it was time to go.

All Europe posts can be read in Series: Europe, but I suggest reading the Iceland trip in this order:
Saigon's Bakery and Sandwiches - San Gabriel
Kex Hostel - Reykjavik - Iceland
Blue Lagoon - Grindavik - Iceland
Icelandic Phallological Museum - Reykjavik - Iceland
Solfar (Sun Voyager) - Reykjavik - Iceland
Mid-Atlantic Ridge - Thingvellir National Park - Iceland
Gulfoss (Golden Falls) - Iceland
Blue Lagoon
240 Grindavík
Iceland
+354 420 8800
Check the website for updated hours, which varies by season.

*****
1 year ago today, Dai Ho Restaurant - Temple City.
2 years ago today, So-Yah! Creamy Coconut Curry Tofu Shirataki Noodles.
3 years ago today, Breed Street Food Fair - Los Angeles (Closed).
4 years ago today, Cocary Shabu Shabu BBQ - Monterey Park.
5 years ago today, Chicken Pot Pie with Cilantro Biscuits.

2 comments:

  1. Nice post WC. Though I couldn't get the mental picture of a really bad movie of the same name transposed here!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kirk,
    Haha! I had forgotten about that movie! It came out when I had just come to America. I don't think I was really old enough, nor was my English good enough, to understand all the implications.

    ReplyDelete

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