“The Icelandic lava show in Vik recreates a volcano eruption by pouring molten lava into a room full of people. The red-hot lava flows and solidifies.”
– The Geothermal Energy Exhibition, Iceland

I think maybe I would’ve chosen a different route with regards to giving people up close and personal experiences with a volcano eruption, but I guess that’s just me. Maybe the elves took it too far… If you know, you know.

 

Long story short, Andreas and Barbro asked if I wanted to join them and the boys for a week in Iceland. I said yes and Andreas proceeded to book five business class tickets to Reykjavik… I can’t even.

We decided to opt for an AirBnB so we’d have a home base and rent a car so we could get around. Andreas ordered a car large enough for three adults, two kids and all the luggage, but the car rental company decided to up our order and gave us a super huge land rover type of beast that would, as Andreas said it: “serve us SO well driving around on the streets of Reykjavik and other cities in Iceland”… I drove it to a parking house in Reykjavik one of the days, maneuvered it down the very narrow lane to get in the parking house, but in the end I had to admit defeat and ask Andreas to actually park it cause I didn’t have the guts. The car was enormous, guys… Andreas and I both needed a wing(wo)man while driving it. I wish we had taken a picture with something next to it for comparison, but you can barely see the “normal” station wagon behind it there…

The first day was spent… well, after we managed to park The Beast we wandered around Reykjavik. We bought ice cream for the boys and generally tried to see what this little city was all about. I instantly fell in love with it. Small cities are among my absolute favourites and Reykjavik has so many small streets with small shops, funny names (yeah, I can’t help myself, I am that tourist, sorry #BakaBaka!) and super friendly people. The sun was shining and the little rainbow street up towards the famous Hallgrímskirkja put me in a good mood.

Just imagine how good my mood was when I realized that not only did Reykjavik have its very own CHRISTMAS SHOP(!), but it was RIGHT BY where we were. The whole trip officially saved, I settled for planning my escape to this shop at the first available opportunity. But first:

Hallgrímskirkja

Having two small kids with us we weren’t able to stay very long, they got really bored and weren’t interested in going up into the tower. We settled for taking some photos, catching some videos and I was a little fascinated by the outside walls… They kind of look like cement has been dripped down from above and felt weirdly smooth. The church itself is beautiful, someone really understood the “getting various elements to create a centered focal point”.

I’m not religious at all, but I enjoy the architecture aspect of religious buildings and this church didn’t disappoint. It may be a little hyped up, but I expected that so it pretty much gave me what I wanted. Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Reykjavik. Maybe go up the tower, I have no idea what that’s like, but I think I’ll try to do that next time I’m there.

“Hallgrímskirkja is a Lutheran parish church in Reykjavík, Iceland. At 74.5 metres (244 ft) tall, it is the largest church in Iceland and among the tallest structures in the country. Known for its distinctively curved spire and side wings, it has been described as having become an important symbol for Iceland’s national identity since its completion in 1986. The church is named after the Icelandic poet and cleric Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614–1674), author of the Passion Hymns.”

 

Litla Jólabúðin

I left the family to peruse jewelry in one of Reykjaviks many, many boutiques and made my way down to the little Christmas Shop. I don’t care that it it’s just July. Christmas is almost here.

First thing I saw was a sign counting down to Christmas further proving my point.

I went in and marvelled at the amount of baubles they managed to put into such a small shop. They had a playlist not containing Christmas Music on in the store, probably for the staffs mental health, but it being July I didn’t mind at all. Not even I start the carols this early.

First thing I saw was a turquoise-ish bauble with a white polar bear on it and I immediately grabbed it. I could only see one, so braving the sign which said “You break it, you bought it” I decided to hold on to that one in case my first instinct was the one I ended up wanting.

Turned out, it wasn’t. The polar bear went back on the hanger because I found some half-baubles made of glass with a lava stone attached and paintings of volcanoes on them. They also had “Iceland 2023” written on them, securing my travel legacy in case dementia sets in. I found one with a good volcano on it and it turned out to be The One.

Secret Lagoon Iceland / Gamla Laugin

We opted for another lagoon than the Blue Lagoon because Andreas found a smaller one with less tourists. So in the car we went, packing kids, swimwear, Mariokart, games, pads and whatnot and off we went. It was about a 1,5 hrs drive from where we lived, but Icelandic scenery is beautiful and the weather was exceptionally nice so it turned out to be a nice little road trip.

We drove past the Bobby Fischer Center in Selfoss, but I didn’t think dragging the kids in there would be a good idea, so this is another place I would consider visiting next time I’m in Iceland.

At the lagoon we had to pay, shower, get in our swimwear and avoid hurting all the other visitors when entering the pool, so unfortunately there would be now bomb diving. Probably just as well because I could comfortably have my head over water while standing firmly on the bottom, so the pool is not very deep.

But the spa-feeling was instant though. I got in and the warmth just enveloped me… It was SO comfortable ❤

We were told not to jump the fence no matter how much we’d want to dip our feet in the water on the other side because it held around 100 degrees Celsius (212 Fahrenheit). OK. Don’t put yourself in hospital. Check.

To be honest, this whole time at the pool was just comfortable and fun, but there’s not too much I can say to describe it. If you swam closer to the fence it got warmer so I stayed around there a bit and just let the warm water work on my shoulders… It was really nice. I was happy. That’s all I can say.

The Geothermal Energy Exhibition

On the way home from the lagoon, despite the kids really not wanting to do anything other than go home, we stopped by the Geothermal Energy Exhibition at Hellisheiði Power Station. It showed us a cut out example of the pipes running across the country and it was pretty impressive that the water lost something like 1-2 degrees on its way to the capital. The hot water heating system means the people of Iceland have an extremely low heating bill for how much heat they need in the freezing winters. A lot of the sidewalks and such also have heating under so they don’t have to shovel the entire season.

We also saw several examples of lava stone and I learned of something called “Pele’s Hair”. Cooled lava stretched to form into thin glass strands, named for the Hawaiian Goddess of volcanos (how did I not know that?!). This is also where we learned that “the Icelandic lava show in Vik recreates a volcano eruption by pouring molten lava into a room full of people. The red-hot lava flows and solidifies”… Which sounded slightly terrifying O.o

We dropped the kids and Barbro at home and then Andreas and I went on a store-run getting various stuff we needed to keep everyone happy. For me: Coke Zero ❤

We found something called “Konfekt”, which in Norwegian means “confectionery” or the fancy chocolate you get in various smaller pieces in an fancier box. I think it means something else in Icelandic. And of course I got to become Mario for a second at the end of the evening. Some call it success, I call it being an aunt.

The next day Andreas and Barbro took Erik out on a whale safari while Markus and I stayed home cause he doesn’t really care about animals and would probably be bored af. I have seen so many of them so I was happy to stay at home. I asked him five different times if he wanted to go out, wanted to join me at the playground or if he wanted to go somewhere, but he just went “Nope.” and continued playing his game. Suited me fine cause I’m lazy 😉 We spent the entire day playing various Mario games and going through what makes Mario great and how cool Luigi is, until the fam back with souvenirs and fun stories of watching the whale tails breaching.

Barbro and Andreas then went to their dinner that night and I cooked at home for the boys. Spaghetti Bolognese. As Andreas put it: “I’ll buy something that’s easy for you to make, and something they like so you don’t have to fight them over dinner.” I didn’t, the boys were very well behaved and Erik ate his whole plate (except the onions, which he dutifully picked out himself). Marcus was a bit to preoccupied with Mario to listen to my opinion on his dinner habits…

The next day I got to meet Hófi again! Hófi and I worked at Antelope Park in Zimbabwe together for a month in 2017 and have kept in touch since. It was so joyous meeting her again ❤
She was pregnant by this time and after she got herself into a chair we caught up on everything we hadn’t caught up on while reminiscing and showing photos of our Zim-days.

After Hófi had to leave I spent some much needed alone time in the centre of Reykjavik, stopping by a wool store to get a pair of huge, woolly socks Tiril had requested I find for her. We had a conversation and I sent her some pictures just to be sure she got a pair she liked cause they’re hella expensive. Then I went sightseeing and just enjoyed being by myself for a while. I’m a person who needs alonetime no matter how much I love the people I’m with, so I walked around just looking at stuff and catching some pokémons while I listened to my iPod and caught some local monuments on my phone. I saw the outside of the Harpa Concert Hall (it’s pretty stunning), before I went to Hard Rock Café to have dinner with Messi. Sounds boring, but it was heaven.

Last night Barbro and I went out for dinner and a drink – like a real girls’ night out. We ate at Old Iceland and it was absolutely delicious food. Then we contemplated the tattoos we thought of getting, but never got around to… Next time. Matching runes on our butts ❤

After a drink at The Irishman Pub we got in a cab and showed the driver our address typed out so he could get our tipsy asses home. Doesn’t take much these days…