It’s probably the only country on earth where people think it’s totally cool to leave their babies in their strollers outside of a cafe while they eat and drink inside, child-free.
It is called ICEland, but it is way more green than icy.
Every two feet is a different landscape … Iceland physically doesn’t make sense.
And, as I’ve reported before, people believe in elves. And trolls. And “hidden people.”
This Viking sees elves. And we love him for it. (Photo: Ricky Montalvo)
As locals will tell you, there’s a lot more awesome weirdness that goes on.
And as we at Yahoo Travel always say: Know (the local customs) before you go. You will have a better time and make more friends — which, in a country like Iceland, is easy to do. Trust.
Watch this video, learn the country’s customs and revel in their oddness. They’re fascinating!
Layovers are usually pretty rank. Most are only a few hours – too short to go see the city you’re laid over in, yet too long to not go a little bit crazy with boredom as you stare at countless airport monitors, hoping your flight won’t be delayed and you will be stuck even longer at the airport. By the time you get to your actual destination all you want to do is pass out.
The magical Blue Lagoon geothermal spa in Iceland is more than worth a little travel detour. (Photo: Chris Ford/Flickr)
But, if you took advantage of Icelandair’s free layover on your way to Europe, and are in Reykjavik, Iceland, you are in luck! Just twenty minutes from the airport is the Blue Lagoon – the world’s largest geo thermal spa… and a hell of a better option for wasting a few hours until your next flight than gobbling down McDonald’s and trying to fall asleep in a straight backed chair.
Why spend your layover in the airport when you can spend it here? (Photo: Horst Ossinger/dpa/Corbis)
The Blue Lagoon was created in 1976 in the middle of a lava field. Man made, the lagoon fed by the water output of the nearby geothermal power plant Svartsengi and is renewed every two days. This promise of fresh water – along with Iceland’s strict hygiene code and the chance to relax before hopping on my flight to Greenland – got me out of the airport and into a bathing suit during a snowstorm. It even got me to enter a body of water with a swim up bar [Note: I have a deep-rooted fear of swim-up bars. Everyone starts drinking, and no one ever gets out to go to the bathroom. Especially during a snowstorm. You do the math].
Regardless, I just wanted to get out of the airport and relax. So, off I went – and thank god I did. Despite a snowstorm, I jammed my winter fat into a swimsuit, took the obligatory shower and headed to the ice blue Lagoon.
Iceland is a land where magic happens. Magical people live there — and I don’t mean those Vikings roaming the streets of Reykjavik. (Although, for all you single ladies out there, yes, they are indeed magnificent.) If you don’t believe me about the magic, just ask an Icelander. According to one study, up to 72 percent of people in Iceland believe in elves, trolls, and the huldufolk, or “hidden people” — who apparently look just like us but live in a different dimension inside rocks, which open up (for them, not us) like a Harry Potter tent. I’mnot making this up. This is really what people will tell you in Iceland. They will even tell you that stones which from a certain angle look like faces, are actually elves… like this one:
Can you see the face? It’s okay – I couldn’t at first either. Apparently this elf guards the Elf Park and doesn’t allow bad spirits in.
Elves, trolls and other sorts of creatures apparently wander all over Iceland – hidden to most human eyes – and hiding in plain sight.
There are trolls on that there beach! No, really! You just can’t see them…
But every now and then, they will come out of hiding and even save human lives.
Icelandic Parliament member Árni Johnsen nearly died in a car accident in 2010 but claims he was saved by a family of elves living in a 30-ton boulder nearby. So, to thank them, he agreed to move their boulder onto his property, where they could live their lives in luxury and not off the side of a highway. True story.
So, if you are as obsessed as I am about all this, and if you want to know everything about these fairy people, stop by theHellisgerði Lava Park, aka the Elf Park, just outside of Reykjavik, and ask for Ragnhildur “Ragga” Jónsdóttir, the official caretaker of the elf park and unofficial elf spokeswoman.
Here’s a fun fact: My favorite word is “free.” As in, I like tofeel free (hence my penchant for muumuus); I love to be free (I am a crazy patriot — seriously, there’s nothing like traveling the world to make you really appreciate America); and… I luuuurve a freebie — as in free stuff. I’m the geek that freaks when I go to the supermarket and they have food samples — I will try them all, because you don’t have to pay for it. I also have a large collection of (free) pens I may never use, random makeup (gratis at most makeup counters), and hotel soaps. What can I say — it’s a trigger word for me. So when Icelandair announced it was giving free stopovers to anyone visiting Europe, I stood up and took notice.
I’d never been to Iceland — for some reason, I always assumed it was far, far away. But I was off to film in Greenland and decided to fly via Iceland instead of Denmark, due to said free stopover. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made this year. To start with, it is only four hours away — I live in New York, so Reykjavik is closer than Los Angeles. And with the dollar so strong right now, while Iceland isn’t free, it’s certainly not as expensive as it used to be.
But the best part? Iceland is a land where magic happens. As in magical people live there — and I don’t mean those Vikings roaming the streets of Reykjavik. (Although, for all you single ladies out there, yes, they are indeed magnificent.) If you don’t believe me, just ask an Icelander. According to one study, up to 72 percent of people in Iceland believe in elves, trolls, and the huldufolk, or “hidden people” — who apparently look just like us but live in a different dimension inside rocks, which open up (for them, not us) like a Harry Potter tent. I’mnot making this up. This is really what people will tell you in Iceland. (Note: Wait till next week’s A Broad Abroad episode when I interview the spokeswoman for all the elves!)
After spending just one weekend there, it’s not too hard to understand why people believe in elves and magic. Physically, it’s a crazy (in the best way possible) little island, with landscapes that just don’t make sense to the untrained eye. There are actual lava fields (the older ones, covered in moss, the “younger” ones — only a few thousand years old — still black), glaciers, soaring cliffs, black sand beaches, waterfalls, hot springs the color of frost, and mountains that rise out of flat, verdant fields. It’s a landscape that has inspired thousands of legends and brings to mind every fairytale you ever read as a child.
The entire island is an anomaly, and everything has a story behind it … usually involving elves. It is a place where your imagination can run free. It’s not a big island — you can drive around the whole place in a couple of days — but you can pack a month’s worth of living into a weekend if you do it right. So I now present what to see and do during the perfect stopover in Iceland. Everything is within 77 km — or two hours’ drive — of the capital Reykjavik, which in and of itself is a destination and should not be missed.
1. Seljalandsfoss Waterfall
Located next to the Gljufrabui falls in Hamragardar, which is hidden behind rock walls, Seljalandsfoss is unusual in that it can be viewed from 360 degrees — as in you can walk all the way around it. It’s a massive, 130-foot-high waterfall, and in the fields surrounding it are ancient Viking homes that date back more than 1,000 years. The scenery is like a cross between The NeverEnding Story, The Dark Crystal, andLabyrinth, three of my favorite movies.
