The Grand Reyk/Russian Adventure, Part 4: I'm Blue (Da Ba Deedee) Lagoon

Twas a little house, and yet much beloved(:

Well the time has come to leave Isafjordur... While I'm personally excited to see Reykjavik and see what all the fuss is about, it feels like we're abandoning our own personal honeymoon spot. Honestly it was so remote up there in the West Fjords, we generally felt like we had the whole town, and all the natural splendor, to ourselves. Granted, I do enjoy city living a little more than out in the country, but I'll still miss it here.

First intrigue of the day: unlike when we drove here, when the weather could literally not have been clearer, it's been raining off and on just since we've woken up. And that wouldn't have worried me, but we have narrowed down our return-to-Reykjavik route options to two: either the way we came, or the road that we took to Dynjandi.

Behold, the Wall of the North

Now if you read about that road to Dynjandi (TGR/RA, Part 2), you know that even when the weather was warm and the sun was out and not a drop of rain was to be seen, between the switchbacks, the dirt/gravel roads, the steep inclines up the mountains and the 8ft tall walls of ice and snow that stand next to a large portion of said switchbacks, it was terrifying. Now with the rain, I'm envisioning just that little bit of rain and water weight putting juuuust enough weight onto those snow barriers to make them topple over. And now the 100ft cliffs next to said switchbacks are looking a lot scarier than before.

Of course the problem is the way we came isn't exactly a picnic either. It has it's own share of cliff driving and driving near lakes and a certain portion that last time we drove through was covered in snow. Mind you, the road we completely clear, so it didn't warrant any notice back when I wrote about our first day. We ended up actually starting to drive the Dynjandi route, but then realizing that that was the route we were taking at the time, decided to brave the snowy portion and head back the way we came.

And it was ALL GOOD until JUST THAT POINT(: We crest this hill, and all of a sudden we're back on the top of these mountains, and it looks like the Passage of Caradhras Now in my beloved Honda Element, I KNOW we can charge that, no problem(: But since we just have a KIA C'eed? Yep, half the time driving through that, I was just envisioning Mommy's look of fear if she'd been there as we slid our way through that mess(: We passed a shoveling truck, but the dude must have been taking it easy that day, cause we didn't see any signs of road improvement.

What it looked like going there

What it looked like going back...

Actually mentioning The Passage of Caradhras reminds me...

On the way back to Reykjavik that we took to get to Isafjordur, the Passage of Caradhras was marked by the snowy road on top of the mountains. On the Dynjandi route that would have taken us back to Reykjavik too, there actually happened to be a long, long tunnel that went straight through a mountain. So you could say it was the "Way through the Mountain", or possibly, "The Mines of Moria", if you will(:

But wait, there's more! No sooner did we get to Reykjavik and figure out our Airbnb here then we left for a night of fine living(: At the insistence of Mama, and inspired by a lot of advertisements placed all over Reykjavik, we decided to do something perfectly touristy and visit Blue Lagoon! Honestly, I have to say that I was over the moon excited about this. It's basically a naturally occurring silica hot spring in the middle of this huge rock field that has been built up into this dope spa resort place, and it looked amazing! The best part? All my built up expectations were met and exceeded!(when does that ever happen?(: )

Honestly, there's not a ton of super crazy things to do there. The whole experience though, from the special showers and the armbands they give you, to running outside in the freezing cold weather and jumping into this crystal blue water that is the PERFECT temperature, to getting a complimentary drink and a silica mud mask, it's all what makes it so awesome. If vacations are for relaxing, then Blue Lagoon is for a proper "Treat Yo Self" Extravaganza(:

As the pictures go on in time, they get hazier and hazier(:

Finally, a trip to Blue Lagoon would NOT be complete without a visit to the infamous LAVA restaurant. Thankfully even though the service is super fancy, you don't have to dress up, and the food is SUPER good. I went with a classic fish meal (since fish in Iceland has yet to disappoint) and Allison got a huge beef tenderloin. Combine that with a dessert of salted caramel mousse and truffles and it shaped up to a spectacular night for eating. Mmmmm definitely a great time between everything.

That just about wraps up that day, catch you tomorrow(: