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My first morning in Iceland leaves me extremely confused... I wake up in fulldaylight, startled and pissed off cos my alarm hadn't gone off,fearing I had missed a precious half of my day. I hadn't, it was 4 am and I still haven't wrapped my head around the 24/7 light out situation.
Someone like me, who barely ever sleeps would thrive in such a situation. After evaluating the endless array of possibility offered by an extended 'daytime' I am drawn to this country like a moth to the flame.
On the other hand, winter months, during which there is a very limited amount of daylight could push me over the edge making me a part of those cliché statistics which claim Scandinavians ( is Iceland scandinavian?) have the highest suicide rate as their moods get influenced by the lack of daylight.
I picked up my car early and headed abt 100km out of town, destination: blue lagoon.
Of course, leave it to me to get lost on an island with one road, veeery few traffic lights and just a bunch of roundabouts ( those of you who know me know roundabouts are my weak spot..) but i didn't mind taking long detours as the views in Iceland are MAGNIFICENT.
At times it feels like i'm driving across the moon surface, at time it feels like a movie scene. Most common view of all is black shiny bubbly rocks covered in pink grass and yellow moss (I have yet to understand the reasoning behind this) and endless fields of what I believe is wild Lavender, my favourite plant.. how wonderful!
Most recently I've been left in awe as after a particularly foggy and windy bit of road the view just opened up on a green valley, river running in the middle, surrounded by snowy mountains, waterfall and all. I felt like the tiny dinosaur in the land before time, when after perils and suffering he finally finds the enchanted valley.
I honestly am so glad I made this questioned by many, choice to visit such a glorious land.
I got to the blu lagoon, some time and curses later and I instantly regret my callous determination to remain single. The place is magical, it's basically a natural pool of milky blue water in between volcanic black rocks. The colour of the lagoon is a dense white/blue, as if you were bathing in a pool of anice ice lollies, top that with the steam rising and the mountainous back drop and you get a dream scenario come true.
Sadly I didn't get a chance to bathe ( but I am putting it on my must do before I leave list) as the weather was miserable, it was freezing cold and the winds were blowing so strongly it was hard to stand straight.
If there is one, tiny thing that I'd point out about the blue lagoon it is that the smell in the air is anything but romantic; the Sulphoric clouds responsible for its natural heating are also responsible for a variety of nasty smells being released in the air and into the water, which though, is also what makes it so healthy and so good for your skin.
I wonder if you come out of there smelling like rotting matches, as I sampled some of the body care/lotions sold on site and I must admit, the fragrance wasn't all that appealing.
I later drove up to Geysir, place from which the term Geyser derives, (d'uh!) and went for a short hike up the mountain to take some panoramic shots of the steaming views.
The natural bubbling hot pools and the steaming spraying shooting water explosions ( geysers, in fact) painted an outlandish setting which will hardly be forgotten.
I got showered by an abrupt explosion ( you only get about half a second warning before water shoots up, you can normally tell when the surface of the water domes up in a rounded manner) and I am pretty sure because of it I will be out sick for a while but it was entirely worth the experience.
I ended my day with a bang, gorging on an entire kfc family value bucket ( fast food is a big thing here, unlike in Italy- make way for the fatass coming through!!), passed out and then woke up at 2am convinced I'd taken a 5 minute nap and it was 7pm. I am sensing this whole nigh light thing is going to be a problem.
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