Straight Up Magic

I know the Blue Lagoon is an expensive tourist trap, but it felt like pure magic from start to finish. It was only about eight in the morning when we arrived and it was still dark outside. We walked between tall mounds of dark lava rock covered in a layer of snow while the moon shone high in the sky to get into the main building. It really was quite the entrance. The first hint of the relaxation that would entail was showering after a day of airport travel⁠—it’s heavenly and the perfect-degree-of-warm water coming from the rainfall showerhead in the locker room made it doubly so. I already felt the airplane grime melting from my body and mind after cleaning off (although trying to shimmy a damp body into a high-waisted bikini is not at all fun). I then found a ramp that led down into the lagoon itself with a giant door you had to push open once you were waist deep which felt quite comical in the moment. Emerging into the December air, my body was immediately enveloped by the warmth of the water and the steam coming off its surface. I couldn’t see very far in any direction and the cloudiness of the steam made for an eerie atmosphere. You would be walking under one of the lit bridges and then a whole group of people would suddenly appear out of the mist. It was equal parts spooky and magical. The warmth felt as if it had seeped into my bones and was attempting to unravel the knots in my muscles—a very welcome effort after being crunched on a plane for six hours. I remember sitting on one of the stone benches and staring into the distance with two of my closest friends in complete awe that we had actually made it to Iceland; the haze made it feel like we were in limbo and it took some convincing, plus a delicious strawberry skyr smoothie, to accept it wasn’t a fever dream. 

When the sun started to come up above the horizon, the sky and snow tinted pink, my friend and I slathered our faces in complimentary mud masks and took a couple obligatory selfies. After reconnecting with the larger group, it was easy to see the excited glow in everyone’s eyes for whatever was next on the agenda after exiting the opaque blue water. Hair frozen in piles atop our heads and eyelashes weighted down with ice crystals, we took in the light of our first day in Iceland. It was rejuvenating and reenergizing and the perfect launching point for all the adventures to come.