Day 26 ,27 August 06-07 2014 ~ Reykjavik,

Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 39,769 sq mi. The capital and largest city is Reykjavík, with the surrounding area being home to some two-thirds of the national population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active on a large scale. The interior mainly consists of a plateau characterized by sand fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands.

Many visitors choose not to venture far from Reykjavik, but Iceland doesn’t really come alive until you get out of the city and into the open country. One of the best decisions we made was to rent a car and carve our own way through the stunning scenery. With only 330,000 residents, Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe, and one of the greatest pleasures is to drive its nearly empty roads.
We set out to discover more than just the town  although Icelandic names are intimidating on paper, language was never an issue as the majority of residents speak fluent English. 
Iceland is known for its impressive geological curiosities, and the so-called Golden Circle tourist route features the most popular, tracing a course from Reykjavik to Gulfoss waterfall, to the blasting hot springs at Geysir, the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, and Thingvellir National Park – the location of the country’s first parliament (established in 930) and the place where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. While all are fascinating sites, these can be a bit crowded.  Blue Lagoon is what I really wanted to do and the Geysir as well.  So we did.
While we waited, we had to make a difficult choice. Which package do we take? We wanted to enjoy ourselves, but it was extremely expensive for a dip in a big hot tub. The cheapest choice was €35.

Blue Lagoon pictures

Once we finally entered, we went out separate ways to our changing rooms to slip in to our bathing suits and lock our stuff in the provided lockers. We made sure to have a shower and slather our hair with conditioner. The minerals are strong in the Blue Lagoon and can make your hair brittle, so it was suggested that those with long hair especially, make sure to put the conditioner from the provided dispenser in and leave it in.
Iceland gets much of it’s power from geothermal energy. It’s a volcanic country that is very busy still developing below, so there is a lot of heat going on under the surface. The lagoon is located near a geothermal power station called Svartsengi. The water in the lagoon is provided by the waste from the power plant. A new batch of super heated water filled with minerals like sulphur and silica flows in to the lagoon every two days. And boy, can you ever smell the sulphur. It’s a strong stench that you have to get used to.

The water in the Blue Lagoon is a beautiful milky electric blue colour like nothing we have ever seen. We were surprised with the size of the Blue Lagoon. It is immense. There are little nooks and crannies that you can explore or sit in carved out shallow pools surrounded by a waterfall, steam room, sauna, quiet sitting area with a pool bar in the centre of it all.  We met up outside and walked out in to the cold.

Everyone who enters the blue lagoon wears different electronic bracelets. We only had about a couple of hours in the water before we had to leave. The water changes temperature throughout and whenever we found an exceptionally warm spot, we’d stop and enjoy the moment. When we went over to the far side of the pool, we saw people scooping out white minerals and smoothing it on their own face and realized that they were using that as a mud pack.