Unexpected Iceland: Crazy Walking and Swimming :)

It's been quite a while since I've written anything on my blog, because I've been tired and lazy (mostly lazy, let's admit that), but don't worry, I'm not abandoning it yet! ;) I just need some time to relax after the most adventurous winter I've ever had in my life. And of course to share my adventures with you. :)

I took the flight from Copenhagen to Keflavík on 6th February. Until the last minute I was worried that something would go wrong and so I wouldn't eventually fly to Iceland, especially after I tried to do self check-in at the airport and saw my name written as "Kseniamahanna", while in reality it's Ksenia Marianna. Fortunately, they didn't pay much attention to such tiny details, Kseniamahanna has become my new nickname, and I was finally flying to Iceland :) The island looked so beautiful from air that I even forgot to be scared of landing!

A few minutes before the landing

When we landed in Keflavík, we couldn't get out from the aircraft, because there had been a problem with electricity supply at the airport. The perspective of spending 5 days in the plane didn't sound like fun, but luckily the problem was solved after some 15 minutes! ;) Iceland welcomed me with a very strong wind and snow. I took a bus to Reykjavík and after some 50 minutes I was already in world's northernmost capital city. And, as it usually happens to me while visiting faraway countries, I still couldn't believe I really was in Iceland :)

Even when I finally met Søren and we went to have a lunch together, I still had the feeling that I must be dreaming and so I'd wake up in a while! But apparently it was reality, because the next morning I woke up and I was still in Reykjavík. :) Unfortunately, Søren had to work - that was the reason why we couldn't stick to our original plan of meeting in Sweden and Denmark - but we'd go on some trips or do crazy activities every afternoon and evening. :) The first adventure was a walk to Hafnarfjörður, which is a town located some 15 km away from the capital.

On the way to Hafnarfjörður

The road was actually much more busy than I had expected. In fact, Reykjavík also looks much bigger than cities of similar size in Ukraine in Poland. As the whole capital region of Iceland (which includes Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður and a few more towns, which have names too difficult for me to remember) ;) has just about 200 thousands of inhabitants, so I expected to see a really calm and sleepy place, while in reality it's quite a busy city! It must have something to do with the fact that in Iceland almost everyone has a car, so the traffic is high. You see, it's a very poor country with no railways at all! :( After spending 5 days in Iceland I realised that you can't really do much there without a car, but I'll tell you more about it in my next blog entries. So we walked down quite a busy road through two other towns, but as soon as it was possible, we'd just walk closer to the sea, where I could see the black volcanic rocks. My mum saw the pictures on FB and said that it looks a bit like moon landscape. ;) Well, indeed, it does. But there's something unusual and tranquil about it.

In Hafnarfjörður

When we came to Hafnarfjörður it was already dark and we were completely wet after walking for more than 2 hours in the rain, but it was still such a great experience! And I didn't even feel tired after walking 15 km, but we decided to take a bus back home nevertheless. Then came my lovely experience with hot water in Iceland! :D You see, they have hot water for free, because the country is full of geothermal sources. Great, right? But the hot water stinks like... Okay, I won't write it here, because some of you might be eating while reading my blog. ;) Anyway, I ended up taking cold shower and even washing my hair in cold water for this reason. But you know, cold water isn't really a problem for me... ;)

Søren and me being crazy :D

The next day we went ice-swimming! On 1st January, when I decided not to swim in the ice cold sea while I was already sick, I promised myself I'd still do it this winter. But could I imagine that I'd do it in Iceland?! Never! :) There's just one beach in Reykjavík, because in all the other places the sea is just too deep and dangerous to swim. It takes quite a long while to walk there from the nearest bus stop and we had to walk against a storm wind, so I must admit I had some doubts whether we'd actually dare to do it! ;) But we promised ourselves and told some other people about our plans, so I'm afraid we had no choice! ;) In fact, the temperature of water in Iceland is higher than in Ukraine at this time of the year. That was quite surprising to me, because just the name of the country: "Iceland" already sounds quite freezing! ;) But in reality it has quite a moderate climate and the sea was +5 degrees warm. :)

I'm crazy and I love it!

Then we wore white robes on top of our jackets and were ready to head to Kleppur - Iceland's biggest mental hospital! ;) Actually, we walked like this almost to the city centre! I think it's really precious to have a Friend, with whom you can do the most insane things without the need to hide your quirky nature! :) With such person even a gloomy and windy day can turn intro a great and funny adventure :) We didn't go to Blue Lagoon or any other fancy place like that, but I bet it wouldn't have been even 1% as fun as swimming in the ocean in such a terrible weather! I'll tell you more about our next adventures tomorrow! (If I'm not as lazy as I've been lately!) ;)