Summer Adventure - Reykjavik, Brussels and Amsterdam 2015 - Rude Awakenings, Fishy smells, boiling mud and The Blue Lagoon

---

Our first full day in Iceland! We had a tour pickup scheduled for 8:30... Alarm set for 7, and at 5:30am I am appalled to wake up to the upstairs neighbour blasting (and singing) Baby Got Back... WTF SERIOULSY!?! We later found out that like Canada, Iceland also has a national holiday today. Asshats upstairs didn't get home until 5:30 and decided to have a singing party upstairs.

So jetlagged as I am - Maxine and I were up early to start our day and first full day of vacation. 😞 Todays tour was a full day through the Reykjanes peninsula - which contains Reykjavik, Grindavik, The Blue Lagoon and a number of other important towns. the peninsula is also where the North American and European tectonic plates are divergent plates, meaning they are opposing each other. Because of the seismic activity, Iceland has frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. It also means Iceland has lots of geothermal energy... So a fun fact - The main use of geothermal energy is for space heating and 85% of homes in Iceland are heated with geothermal energy. The remainder of homes and buildings are heated with energy derived from renewable resources such as geothermal, hydro or wind power. Renewable energy provides 100% of electricity production in Iceland and as a result, the country is the world's largest green energy producer per capita. Very cool statistic, the geothermal energy was evident as we made our way through the peninsula.. steam vents poking through black lava fields, hot springs and extensive geothermal pipelines and plants.

Our first stop on the tour was just outside of Reykjavik, to see where they dry fish on racks. The towns on the peninsula are primarily fishing towns... Dried fish has over time become part of Icelandic tradition. In an effort to preserve the catch and have food through winter, fish were dried for months in the sun in order to preserve their nutrients. Dried fish is packed with Omega-3s and have high protein content. Recently, there has been demand from Africa for their dried fish. We got out of the van and while this was certainly a tour for the sight, we quickly learned it was also going to be a tour for the nose... Maybe we should be calling it the olfactory tour haha. The Monk fish, cod and other types of fish drying in the sun certainly had quite the smell!!

After a few photos, we were on the road again, stopping along the way to enjoy the stunning scenery.... As I said before the frequent volcanic activity has created some interesting topography... Black lava fields and craters resembling the moon surface can be found covering much of the peninsula.. The land is barren (aside from some moss and lichens) and not suitable for habitation.. . Apparently lots of zombie movies are filmed in Iceland lol. The towns have sprung up around the fields and mountains close to the sea. Our next stop we visited our first hot spring/geothermal area. It was unlike anything I had seen (or smelled) before... Stepping out of the van there was a strong sulphur smell from the hot springs. We saw boiling mud and water pools along the ground.

After the hot springs, we stopped for lunch at a fishing town called Grindavik, had some lobster soup... As I mentioned before, things are not cheap! I think I payed $18 for a bowl of soup!!! It was pretty good however. A short distance out of Grindavik, is a lava field. Our guide told us of lives that have been lost and great shipwrecks from large waves throwing boats into the lava fields. Remnants of many shipwrecks are still present today. the government decided to leave them as a reminder to heed safety protocols. The extreme loss of life over the decades also prompted authorities to require a strict training protocol for sailors. For instance, they have to train in being rescued!

Our next stop was another hot spring - this one had a gusher - Hot water spewing out at high pressure. An earthquake last year caused the explosion of water... It took out a foot bridge!!! Hopefully no one was injured! I've attached a photo of the damage. The area also has a geothermal plant.

Our next stops were to see the divergent plates in action. the North American and Eurasian plates are actually pulling apart from each other at a rate of 2 cm/year. You can see the rift between the two plates most evident on the peninsula. First stop was a hike up a steep cliff overlooking the shoreline. From there you can see the ridges of the 2 plates. We also visited the bridge between 2 continents, which is really just a bridge spamming the rifts. of both plates. Very cool.

We finished our day at the Blue Lagoon - which is a hot spring full of silicon and salt as opposed to sulphur, which again had another smell! The Lagoon was amazing, There was a swim up bar, complimentary facials and utterly relaxing. The water is a bright blue color and simply stunning. It was an hour ride back into town but completely worth it!

Maxine and I got back to the flat and were completely exhausted. We managed to drag ourselves out to a restaurant ($27 for a freaking Quesadilla), glass of wine before calling it a night.

First impressions... People in Iceland are super friendly! Everyone speaks English (Good thing as I cannot for the life of me grasp Icelandic), While certain areas are a bit touristy, you don't feel as overwhelmed as you do in some parts of the world. Tourism is still fairly new here- infact has grown so much over the past 5 years, infrastructure has not kept up... A reason prices are also so high.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are doing another tour - the Golden Circle which is supposed to be amazing!

---