And everything he sees is just blue

Eiffel 65

Everything was blue in the Blue Lagoon. I had heard about it but didn’t have a clue what it was like to “experience the radiant powers of geothermal seawater. An otherworldly wonder.”

All this just a couple of hours after we had arrived in Keflavik Airport. An airport Pádraig visited on his way from Cape Cod to Dublin in his private air ambulance Learjet almost nine years ago. He doesn’t remember it as we do. We were not sure at the time whether he would arrive home ok.

This time, he is not with us. But he and his sisters last Christmas gave us a very generous present: a 5-day visit to Island. Flights, lagoons, 3-day expedition, hotel, dinners – all included.

We have been here a few days and still have some days left. This must the closest thing to Alaska Europe has to offer. Probably on a slightly smaller scale. But breathtaking.

And I have to think nonstop of Pádraig’s (and my) dream trip.

We relaxed in hot springs, stood in the freezing cold waiting for the Northern Lights, we walked between the tectonic plates, couldn’t believe how high the water shot out of the geysers and how bad it smelled, we climbed up a glacier in gear that would have brought us up Mt. Everest, walked on a black beech covered in white snow, saw what feels like dozens of the (mostly frozen) ten thousand waterfalls in the country, and just drove by Iceland’s largest glacier with a volcano underneath, the one nobody wants to erupt.

We have been travelling with a small group of nineteen tourists in a bus driven by an ex-school principle who now works as a photographer when he is not driving the bus. Most of our co-travellers are Asian. When we were admiring the scenario, they opened up our eyes to social media. Seeing them ‘capturing’ the scenery and themselves for their sites is nearly as interesting as the countryside and really ads to the excitement. Different worlds.

Today, one young lady, who must have thousands of followers on Instagram, asked us whether we would like her to take a picture of us. She took two dozen. At least. To us, they all look the same. To the trained eye, I am sure there are vast differences.

Last night we received a text from the Police telling us that we were close to Hekla. A volcano about to erupt. First we thought it was a fake. When we showed it to our guide this morning he said it was kosher and came from the police. But not to worry. We should only take those texts seriously that told us to get the hell out of wherever we were.

Pádraig and his sisters send us on a trip we won’t ever forget. Time for us in a different world. I am writing this driving through a snowstorm. Never mind the volcanos.

We finished today as we started our Iceland adventure. Blue. At a lagoon.

We didn’t get into it though. It wasn’t nice and warm but filled with 600 year old blue ice. Still an otherworldly wonder.

Da ba dee da ba di.