Every other swimming pool will seem dirty

Can one really speak about what a country is like after four days? Probably not but I won't let that stop me. We expected Iceland to be cold, but we're pleasantly surprised to be wrong. True it was bitterly cold as we came off the plane and Tova proclaimed the country to be 'too iceland?' True that Iceland brags about being the third windiest place in the world. True that the motto for a local outdoor shop is 'waiting for summer since 1927.' True that there are lots of signs up encouraging people to go out no matter the weather making me believe that encouragement is necessary. True that their claim of having warmer winters than much of Europe is based on the cited weather report from Jan 14 2014. Nonetheless, Iceland seemed to want to impress us and  we had a few beautiful warm sunny days where we hiked in tshirts and swam outdoors every day. 

Perhaps due to the harsh environment and climate, Iceland seems to compensate in many other ways. For example, there are water slides everywhere. They really take advantage of their position on a volcano to harness all the benefits of geothermal warmth. 90 percent of homes are heated with geothermal energy, swimming pools are heated with geothermal energy, meals are cooked in volcanic steam and outdoor bathing in hot springs is a national obsession. We have taken full advantage of all the great swimming opportunities. Noteworthy among the things I learned from swimming here is our complete lack of swimming hygiene. To swim in pools here one must follow a set of procedures involving brushing your hair, showering completely naked while making sure to thoroughly scrub certain parts of your body with soap (they showed us a pictogram highlighting these parts so we would know it wasn't just your genitals but also your feet, armpits and face), then redoing the whole process with with your bathing suit on. Doesn't sound too hard but try doing it with a baby in your arms and then putting on your bathing suit while you and the baby in your arms are soaking wet. Surprisingly, even though it is not part of the rules, everyone seemed to repeat the bathing process in reverse when exiting the pool. Zadie was a champ through this process of preparation but by the time she made it in the pool she was done with the water so her and I, in addition to swimming, bathed with soap about four times in less than an hour. May seem like a waste of ten dollars but really it was a worthy cultural experience and I have never felt so scrubbed in my life. Plus, the pools are all incredible with multiple hot baths, water slides with flashing rainbow lights on the inside, toy boats to fall off of, and more. We leave for Keflavik tomorrow morning at 4:45 am with bleary eyes and happy memories. 

Upper Gullfoss, only 38 million tons of tasty freshwater per day so no big deal

This geyser erupts every ten minutes. There is a marvellous half-second when a shining turquoise bubble bulges up, quivers, then explodes into white spray that drenches everyone downwind

Sophia begged every day to go to the glacier, but we never did

Gullfoss is such a furious waterfall that you can't see the bottom for all the spume