Blue Lagoon

Hi y'all

Last saturday we decided to check out one of the most popular tourist attractions in Iceland: the Blue Lagoon. After comparing the prices of the organized trips we ended up renting a car for the 5 of us and headed for some roadtrip that turned out to be quite a lot of fun! The road signs here are not exactly what you would call logical and they are all posted just at where you're supposed to take the turn. So, as you can guess, we drove past our turns quite a few times, but since the distances here are so short, that really wasn't a problem. We had some nice lunch (yammmmmmm juicy burgers) in Keflavik (which I heard is the white trash area of the island) and also visited a spot where the continent changes into America somewhere deep underground.

Blue Lagoon (http://www.bluelagoon.com/top_en/Photos/) is a geothermal spa, where you can have a nice relaxing swim (or rather just float around) in the amazing light blue water, that has the temperature ranging from some +35 up to +45 celcius. A couple of hours in the water were just enough since we wanted to have some energy to go out after returning to Reykjavik. ;) All in all, the day was a very memorable and unique experience.

Life here has found it's everyday patterns quite well, going to school, swimming (a cheap option to get some excercise here) hanging out at our house etc. Every weekend there seems to be some good parties going on: this weekend we are celebrating the birthday of one of my roommates. And on sunday we will gather around with some Finns to see the results of our presidential elections. Yes, it can be fun.

Later,
Kaisa

Ps. My address here in Reykjavik is: Njálsgata 74, 101 Reykjavik Iceland.. Just in case anyone wants to send me a postcard or a real letter... Will answer if that happens!

Pps. And Icelandic cell phone of mine: +354 8613 712 Ring Ring.

Some Pictures

Hey!! Here are some pics from the typical scenes here.
First our Finnish crew, then some views from the shore, the main street (we live 2 blocks from that), the big church "Hallgrimskirkja" and the town seen over from the pond which we cross to go to school.

He-hey, still alive!!

Haudi from Reykjavik, folks!

I have been here in Iceland for 10 days and still taking by surprise by the ever-changing weather. It makes it even more interesting to walk to school 20 minutes every day having to be prepared to take anything that falls from the sky during that time. No wonder Icelanders drive everywhere with their cars! If the weather is nice, it actually is quite pleasant to walk to the campus from our place.. You cross the pond and get to see the old town in the background. Plus you get a nice excercise every day!

I am living in a guesthouse with 12 other students, all foreigners. Mostly I have been hanging out with my Finnish roommates (yes, without knowing better they had placed 5 Finnish girls in our place). It's quite a nice crew and we have had bunch of fun together already! Reykjavik has rather a lively night-life, so there are plenty of options to go out.. If you have the money! The prices are at least the double to the Finnish equivalents, so you better leave your credit card home when going out.. ;0)

The university of Iceland is the largest one in the country with some 9000 students and they offer some courses in English. Besides the couple of business courses, I am taking a glaciology course (yeah, that will come handy!) and an introduction to Icelandic. The language sounds very cool, and I am hoping to learn some during these 4,5 months here.. Not the most useful language in the world, but at least it would be unique to be able to talk that.

Ok. That would be all for now. I will post some pictures soon and write some moor within the next days. We finally have an access to the computers at school...

Kaisa