Spring Break Iceland - Part Five

Today was a good mix of the adventurous and the relaxing. Jon woke up wicked early and went to the lobby to do some homework (lame) but since I'm in my last semester and don't care about any of my classes, I slept in. He came and woke me up a couple of hours later, and we bundled up to head back to the cave we passed yesterday. It was a pretty amazing caving trip. The whole thing starts with just a hole in the ground, and is actually a lava tube, which I tried not to think about (hot lava raging through the tunnel I'm in - no thanks!) That was a bazillionhttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=25451953 years ago though, and the uniqueness of being in a lava tube made for some gorgeous images. Instead of stalagtites, there were icicles and instead of stalagmites there were these weird pillars of ice all over the place. They looked like little ice blobby ghosts, as you can see.




We went back into the cave about 600 meters, not even halfway, really. It started off all light with snow, as there were other "entrances" which were basically holes in the ground that provided for some great snow sculptures.




Then, the cave turned into slick icy blobs all over the rocks, so we were careful there. Careful, mom!! Then towards the middle of the cave, it dried out and the lava rock was very sticky so it was easy to maneuver, even though it was pitch black. We had packed little helmet lights with the anticipation of doing some caving, so it all worked out.

Next we returned to Reykjavik to shop around the city, which was kinda lame. Picked up a couple of souvenirs for my boss and my friend who collects flags, but the clothes were too pricey to try on, and everything else wasn't that interesting.

Finally we ended the day with a trip to the famous Blue Lagoon, Iceland's #1 tourist spot. It's a big geothermal lake in a lava bed where you wade around in mineral water. Cooler than it sounds, I swear. It might be 30 degrees out, but you're relaxing in your bathing suits with steam billowing all over. Parts of the water were downright hot. There is silica clay mud stuff that you can put on your body as a mask to dry and rinse off. I tried it, but Jon wasn't convinced.




After a few hours there, we stayed at the Blue Lagoon to eat at their Lava restaurant where we got to eat whale (raw, but good with wasabi) and reindeer (in burger form, kinda tough) which was a new experience for us both. The whale wasn't the endangered kind, but that didn't stop us from feeling sad anyway.



Now we are back in the hotel hanging out, but we're going to grab a couple of beers in a bit. Hoping to sleep in late to attempt to get our clock back on track, since we leave for Boston tomorrow evening.