Sunday, June 25, 2017

"Swimming"

Here in Iceland, they love their swimming pools. There is one in almost every town, no matter the size. That's partly because they are so cheap. Either you live near a geothermal heat source that heats up the water naturally or you live near a hydropower plant that supplies so much electricity that heating the water is dirt cheap. On top of that, Icelanders don't pay to chlorinate their pools. Instead, you have to shower before entering. More on that later. 

Another important piece of information is the definition of swimming in Iceland. I looked it up, here you go:

Swimming (v) : soaking yourself in hot water and making sure not to get your hair wet 

The first time I went "swimming" was at the Blue Lagoon on the very first day of the trip. Face masks and fancy drinks and photo shoots. 

We went "swimming" this week in a town about a 25 minute drive away called Flateyri (population 180...with a pool). To get there you have to drive through a 2-way 1-lane tunnel. If you do the math, the tunnel comes out to be... (divide, add, carry the one)...yep. Terrifying. 

But the pool was super nice, we went there with Helga (age 2) and our host parents (Christian and Hofi in case you forgot). There were 2 outdoor "pools" (probably half a foot deep, we sat out there while it was raining which was awesome), an indoor hot tub, and a normal-sized lap pool (yes, mom, I swam some laps while I was there). 

Remember how I said that thing about showering before entering? So we get to the pool, we go into the locker rooms, and Hofi goes, "Here in Iceland, we are not shy..." 

Not shy (adj): naked.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, you have to shower *naked* before entering. Not the most comfortable thing to do if you've just met someone. So Megan and I were like "I won't look if you won't look", and went for it. When in Rome I guess? 

Yesterday we also went "swimming" in a natural hot tub right next to the ocean. It was a 2ish hour drive away, but definitely worth it. While we were there, we met a couple and their 2 kids from Michigan (@andrew they were from the UP) who went to Pitt (@mom and dad, they went there for med school I think). After staying with Helga for a week and not being able to communicate, I was really excited to talk to 5-year-old Stanley and 6-year-old Henry and try to throw rocks from the very hot hot tub into the freezing cold ocean with them. They were super cute :) Helga had a different approach and tried to take every single stone (stin in Icelandic) that wasn't in the hot tub and put it into the hot tub. She also swam back and forth between Megan and I, so we're making progress. More on Helga in my next post :)

Moral of the story: Just keep "swimming" :) hehe

As you can see, Helga was preoccupied by the stones and really not feeling this picture

That's me!



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