akureyri, iceland (9)
Halló visitor.
Ahhhhhh. That's how today sounds. The reason is that after being in the wilderness of Iceland for 5 days, being in a main town, Akureyri, feels like a deep breath of fresh air. There are buildings, people, shops, a movie theater, public bathrooms, cruise ships, and major hotels here. In my opinion, this city is a formidable rival to Reykjavik in its charm. It has a lower amount of people because of its location, but its amenities and tourist attractions are as good if not better than Reykjavik's — not to compare apples to oranges, but you get the idea.
One of the most famous attractions in Akureyri, similarly to the ones in Reykjavik, is a lagoon. This one is called Forest Lagoon, and it's only a 5-minute drive across the bridge from the main street in town. It is quite a beautiful building, made of wood that looks very aesthetically pleasing in front of the trees. There is also plentiful parking that is easy to access, and a food truck waiting outside. It's a real treat to look at this beautiful sanctuary of luxury after spending so much time in a van in bumfuck nowhere.
Pictured: Forest Lagoon building. Kind of looks like a large sauna.
When you enter, there is quite a line. Somehow, I have always been ahead of the lines during this Iceland trip, so I was the first of many behind me. The starting price for Forest Lagoon is just $60, which includes no drinks and no towel. Still a great value, though, for the services provided. But you know me. I went all out and got the "Delight" package for $90, and also rented swim shorts and bought a waterproof phone bag. The Delight package is a great deal, because it includes two pretty expensive drinks, plus the towel. All packages take you to a shower room that also has private stalls, thank God. You have to pay $25 extra for that in the Sky Lagoon. Ridiculous!
I got my shorts, towel, phone thing, and a special bracelet, then headed to the changing/shower room. You tap the bracelet to do everything at this lagoon. So I tapped the bracelet to lock my stuff in a locker and went to the showers. I was very glad to see the private showers. They have nice hot water and a gentle pressure, and also have shower gel and shampoo provided. Everybody is naked in there, including old dudes, but there's not really any weirdness to it like you'll find in the US. I went to one of the private showers, of course. I did that and then finally went into the actual lagoon.
Pictured: Rocky secondary entrance to the lagoon.
The lagoon is awesome! The water is warm, and everyone in there is pretty relaxed. Quite a lot of middle-aged and older people go here for whatever reason. The lagoon is fairly large, with a swim-up bar on either side and a Finnish dry sauna that had me excited. I was kinda tense being in a random lagoon by myself, especially since I wasn't wearing a shirt, and throughout my life I've kinda been the kid with a shirt on in the pool. So I was just uncomfortably scrolling on my phone for a bit. Then I thought, I might as well get one of the drinks I paid for, right? So I swam up and got a mimosa.
There were a bunch of middle-aged Americans there at the moment, and I was a bit bored, so I started talking to this couple from Arizona. They were on a cruise throughout all of Europe, starting on July 1st in Greece (maybe? Don't really remember). The guy was a pretty chill motorcycle rider dude, and his wife was also nice. We were talking for a good 20 minutes or so, then they wanted to explore, so I was like, I'll just stick with them. I grabbed a Lava Lagoon drink and went after them. We explored and found a sauna, a second bar, a cold plunge, and a hotter side of the lagoon. They went to the cold plunge, I went to the sauna.
Pictured: Inside of Forest Lagoon.
I was sweating my ass off in the sauna, and there wasn't anywhere to put your phone, so I had stuffed it in a maintenance closet, hoping that no one would steal it. I was also quite dehydrated. Obviously, this was not a comfortable setup, so I left pretty quickly. I chilled in the lagoon for a little while more, but I wanted to really experience the sauna. So I went back to the locker room, put my stuff away, chugged a piña colada and a water, and hopped back in the sauna. It was pretty cool, everyone was quiet and all you could hear was the heat and the drops of water hitting the rocks. I took a shower and left the sauna feeling amazing. My hair still feels soft from the non-chlorinated water.
I got dressed, paid for my extra drink, gave back my bracelet, and grabbed a great burger from the food truck outside. I was so relaxed at this point. The lagoon was such a different vibe from the unhygienic van lifestyle I've been living. I decided at this point that I wouldn't do any more adventures, and I would just chill and do luxury vacation stuff for the rest of my time in Iceland.
I was still hungry, so I went to the Akureyri botanical garden for a bite at Lyst café. This place was great! The building was very aesthetic, and I'm pretty sure they had actual Herman Miller chairs in some of the seats there, as well as some sweet speakers and old-school amps. They had my kind of music playing, too. I don't really know the names of music genres, but it was the same kind of music I've been playing the entirety of this trip. Anyways, someone on Reddit said to get the Arctic char on toast, and it did not dissapoint. The fish wasn't just a salmon clone, it was quite unique and delicious.
Pictured: Arctic char on sourdough with cream cheese and capers.
I left Lyst café and sat in the parking lot for a while chatting with my dad over the phone. We decided that I should book a hotel tomorrow. I know I'm living in a camper van and all, but my flight is day after tomorrow, and I want to be fresh, efficiently packed, and well rested. I booked ASKA Hotel in Heiðmörk, Reykjavik, primarily because it was $140 and their well-designed website says "Rooms that just work. Nothing extra." I'll head there tomorrow morning, with only one stop for a canyon on the way.
Oh yeah, I didn't really tell you about my day prior to Akureyri. I woke up in Laugar and took a shower. It was quite a tense shower, because it was a communal shower, so I locked the door to the entire shower facilities. This was kind of a dick move, but I don't want anyone walking in on me. So I rushed to finish my shower and luckily no one was waiting outside when I left. I left the campsite and drove 15 minutes to my only stop of the day, Goðafoss waterfall. (My frequency of stops on this trip is getting drastically lower as I get more and more tired.)
Goðafoss was nice. It's a beautiful waterfall with only a short trail to walk to get to see it. I parked on the east side, so I got to actually walk down to the ground and see the waterfall from the coast. The rocks were very hard to walk on and slippery. It was beautiful, though. I watched the water, took some selfies, and left. Some lady was being rude about me going in front of her on the way up. This kind of ticked me off. I went into the souvenir shop/cafe kind of disgruntled. I got a teacup, a fridge magnet, and an Icelandic meat soup. The soup was pretty good. There was a ton of filling, so it was kind of pushing the boundaries between soup and solid. Very satiating.
Pictured: Goðafoss from the walking path above.
I was pumping my fist in the air when I got to Akureyri out of a feeling of immense victory. It was great to see a big city. I got some weird looks from other drivers, though, so I continued to celebrate mentally instead of physically. My first stop here was Kaffistofan, a coffee shop. Here, I got a great espresso and a very delicious mocha. I might head there tomorrow morning, thinking about it. It was specialty coffee. Quite a treat.
Pictured: An interesting looking blue building in Akureyri.
I booked my Forest Lagoon trip, but I accidentally booked for 3:00 instead of 4:30, so I was kind of in a rush. I quickly hit the art museum. This was an amazing museum. The art here was really cool. One guy painted a bunch of pretty violent paintings, and another guy made a very unsettling motion piece where all the mechanical pieces around you move as you walk along. The motion builds up, peaks, then suddenly stops and everything resets. Very cool and creepy.
Pictured: Partial view of the scary moving piece. It was scarier in person, I promise.
I was in an unfortunate time situation. If I wasn't, I would have spent a good hour at the museum. But I had to go. So I left and went to Forest Lagoon. So, there's my day. Whew, this was a long post. Tomorrow, I'll stop at a canyon and head to Reykjavik, where I'll finally spend the night in a real building. See you then!
Bless bless,
Ayaan