Reykjavik to Home, USA: Day 20

Breakfast that was much the same as the one we had had at the guesthouse in Prague started out our morning. We quickly packed up our bags one last time and got ready for the tour bus to pick us up. We were headed out to the Blue Lagoon, one of Reykjavik’s seven geothermal pools.

The Blue Lagoon is about 30 kilometers outside of town and is much like a day spa. As you drive up you see a geothermal heat station (that I believe heats the entire island and provides most of the electricity) and beautiful light blue water in a field of lava (the entire island is pretty much lava rock). Blue Lagoon is a destination for tourists as well as locals and is like no other place I have ever seen. The light blue, opaque water has steam rising from it since the air is colder than the 100+ degree water (today the air was 32 degrees). The large pool is much like a small, man made lake with stations where you can apply silica masks, sit in small areas, or swim under bridges. Around the lagoon are steam rooms, saunas, and warm and cold natural showers.

So our last hours before flying home today were spent relaxing in the geothermal pools of Iceland, alternating between different areas of the lagoon and the steam room. We ate lunch up on the “relaxation deck” inside overlooking the water, and then used their state of the art locker room to shower and get ready for our airport pick up at 2pm. It was a great day. Do note, however, that the salty water is awesome for your skin, your muscles and joints, and leaves you amazingly relaxed but does nothing good for your hair (mine currently feels a lot like straw and Jff’s usually straight very fine hair was easily turned into a spike do while on the plane today).

We left Iceland today less than 24 hours after we had arrived today, but not before I ran in to someone I used to work with at the high school. Ida, a Russian woman, retired from school the same year I left but had been a great friend to me while I was there. We had a great time catching up in the airport and laughing about our good fortune of running into each other. Today on the plane she stopped by to talk again and couldn’t resist telling husband and I that when we have ‘babies’ she would like to babysit for free – that is while she is not traveling the world!

So somewhere over the North Atlantic, I am declaring our vacation an incredible success. It was so wonderful and fun that sometimes I couldn’t believe I was living my life- traveling around Europe for three weeks with the best traveling partner I couldn’t have even imagined? Making new friends, seeing old ones, visiting family, and learning so many new things? How could I ever be so lucky? How is it that this is my life?

Husband and I have recently gotten into the bad habit of saying things like “the next time we come to Paris” or “that is where we should go on our next amazing adventure”. We have also begun post-gaming our packing and planning job so as to refine our traveling and packing skills (I will post on this later). It is true that when travel gets into your blood it is hard to imagine not doing it. Yet, even though I was sad for this vacation to end, there is nothing sweeter than returning to a home, friends, and family that you love just as summer is beginning.