Boarding the Oceania Insignia

26. July 2017

The bus from the Blue Lagoon dropped us of at Skafabakki Harbour, where the Insignia was already docked. We entered our home for the next 15 days and it felt like a ghost ship – there was no one in sight! Having been on bigger cruise ships we’re used to having to wait in line for a bit to get checked in but this time we just walked straight through, seeing almost ten crew members but not a single guest until we hit the Waves Grill, Oceania’s poolside grill. It’s our favourite venue for lunch and the Grilled Reuben Sandwich is still as good as I remembered from our last cruise. Being a German living in Switzerland I guess I just can’t resist the combination of Sauerkraut and Swiss cheese 😉

We had booked a mid-ship inside stateroom on a low deck because both Rik and I are prone to seasickness and that’s the most stable place on the ship. We were assigned a handicapped cabin which means it’s a lot bigger than a normal inside cabin but the layout is a bit weird. There is no couch and the TV is next to the bed rather than in front of it. Also the TV is tiny – smaller than my computer screen at home – and for some reason it uses only half of that tiny screen to actually show the movie… But we don’t plan on spending much time in the cabin anyways so it doesn’t really matter.

 

The Blue Lagoon

26. July 2017

We got up early on day two to catch a bus to another Icelandic classic: the Blue Lagoon. It’s a geothermal spa that received it’s name because of the bright blue colour of the water. It is man-made but the water naturally maintains 37 to 39 °C because it runs close to lava in the ground before being fed into the pool. When you get close to the areas of the pool where the water gets injected you feel that it is actually way hotter, but it cools down because the air temperature is much lower.

At the lagoon we were able to store our luggage before getting changed and washing ourselves, which gets taken very seriously in Iceland, and spending about an hour in the pool which was very relaxing. The water is rich in minerals such as silica and sulfur and it’s believed that it has “healing powers” – but then again more than half of all Icelanders believe in invisible elves so I’m not sure if you can trust them. What I can attest to is that they are not lying when they tell you the water will make your hair hard to manage. Even though I followed the instructions and put tons of conditioner in my hair it felt – and looked – like straw for a few days.

 

How to become Icelandic

25. July 2017

Turns out all you have to do to become Icelandic is to attend a comedy show in the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavik. Now I know how to behave like a local: be rude, love the smell and wash!

If you’ve never been to Iceland this might seem strange to you, but it was actually pretty good advice for our first few days on the island.

1. We learned that the icelandic people have a very northern charm – they aren’t exactly talkative. So don’t expect the receptionist at the hotel or your taxi driver to say anything to you that’s not strictly necessary for getting the job done. Don’t take it personally!

2. Iceland stinks – literally, not figuratively. Every time we took a shower the entire bathroom suddenly started smelling like rotten egg. At first we thought there was a problem with the shower but when we smelled the same at the geyser area and the Blue Lagoon we looked it up and found out that it’s the smell of sulfur, caused by the volcanic activity in Iceland. There is no avoiding it so you just have to get used to it!

3. When you go to a public bath or as we did to the Blue Lagoon you are expected to wash properly before entering the pool – naked that is, leaving on your bathing suit is not allowed. Do it and you will be rewarded with a great bathing experience!

These were just three of 12 lessons the show thought us while also being quite entertaining. We would recommend it to everyone who likes some lighthearted comedy and wants to learn something about Iceland.

Touring the Golden Circle

25. July 2017

On our first day in Iceland we went for a classic tourist attraction: the Golden Circle. The tour consists of several stops at iconic Icelandic sights of which the Thingvellir National Park, the Geyser Hot Spring area and Gullfoss waterfall are the most famous and impressive. Unfortunately there were tons of people at all these stops which spoiled the experience a bit. We later heard it’s better to go later in the day so that’s what we would do if we came to Iceland again. Here are a few impressions of these beautiful natural wonders:

Thingvellir National Park


Thingvellir National Park was my favourite stop of the entire tour. Not only is it a really pretty place it’s also loaded with Icelandic history. The Vikings came to Iceland in 871 (or did they?) and as population grew there was a need for a general assembly to settle some affairs – for example passing laws. The Thingvellir area was easily accessible from the most populated regions of that time and offered some great acoustics so that’s where the Vikings decided to hold their parliament.

Fun fact: This is also where they some scenes for Game of Thrones, for example the battle between Brienne and the Hound.

Geyser area


At midday we stopped at a geothermal area that featured several geysers, among them the one in the picture, the Strokkur geysr, which erupts every ten minutes into a fountain of 15 to 20 meters. In between it sometimes does so called “fake eruptions” that are less high, so stay around for a bit as to not miss the real thing!
The eruptions are caused by water seeping down onto rock heated by magma. The water gets turned into steam but it can’t immediately rise, as steam usually does, because there is more water from above that keeps it down – until there is just too much energy and the steam breaks out. Or something like that, check out How stuff works for a way better explanation.

Gullfoss waterfall


And finally what looks like it could be in New Zealand: the Gullfoss waterfall.  Around 140 cubic meters of water fall down every second – in two steps of 11 and 21 meters – into seemingly nowhere. On the picture you can’t see it very well but there was constantly a rainbow in front of it that made it look quite magical. I’m not sure if the Niagara Falls will be able to top that.

The summer of 2017

15. July 2017

Crossing the Atlantic by ship – twice

For the first time ever my boyfriend Rik and I will be travelling for almost two month this summer. As you can see on the map above we’ll fly to Iceland first and spend a few days in the capital Reykjavik. There we will board the cruise ship Oceania Insignia which will take us to Greenland and Canada before disembarking in New York.

As I dislike driving and Rik does not have a license we’ll be using the train to get to Niagara Falls (Ontario), Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and QuĂ©bec. From there we’ll fly back to New York and after a week we’ll join the last true ocean liner, the Queen Mary 2 to cross the Atlantic.