More Icelandic Sagas in Magical Realism

After the World Championships I had a blissful 2 weeks at home before I had to head out again. The day after I got back I had an even for my least favorite group, but it went pretty well and I was glad I’d done the legwork. From there it was WorkWorkWorkWorkWork during the week but outside of work hours I was a lazy bum. I think I went to the gym like once, maybe twice during that time. Too much drinking and eating extremely poorly. No swimming. My bad habits were becoming ingrained. The first weekend we went out to brunch on Saturday, drank all day and didn’t get home until late that night. Sunday we were zonked and barely made it up for Bowling (wha?) with my friends I hadn’t seen in a million years. The next weekend I planned a day out for my friend D’s birthday so we went to Spa Castle, met up with more friends at Anyway Cafe for much vodka, and then out to the Bulgarian Bar where dressed in pseudo-Soviet attire, locked ourselves into a oversized glass freezer, and downed vodka shots out of a glass made of ice. The next day was Easter so we went up for early dinner with my mom, brother, and A.

Thursday night we left for Iceland, annoying flight but not as annoying as our last one on Icelandair where a guy got drunk, went crazy, and had to be duct-taped to his seat by flight attendants. Landed early in the morning, picked up our rental car and drove into Reyjkavik. I’d forgotten that the landscapes in Iceland were like being on the moon. Got into town but they wanted some crazy fee for checking in early so we had a nap in the car, got a coffee, and picked up our friend Sinne from Copenhagen, who was in town for the swim too. We drove out to Nautholsvik beach club, the site of the swim the next day. We met up with Birna, the swim organizer, who would also be swimming with us the next day. It was a windy, grey day, and the water felt very cold. I checked out the facility to map out my recovery plan and decided I would mimick Birna in going into the steamroom with a wool blanket to re-warm. Sinne decided she would shiver it out in the recovery room, a warm back room with cots/blankets. After that I did a really short test swim with Birna, Sinne swam a bit longer then we all got into the lovely outdoor hot tub.

From left to right: Birna, Me, Sinne:

After that we checked into the (very cute!) hotel, OK Hotel. It was more like a small apartment with a kitchen and sitting area, plus the bedroom. Very funky decor, lots of reclaimed wood and handpainted wallpaper. We washed up and had a very sedate dinner in the super-cool restaurant downstairs, K-Bar. The food was Korean fusion but I wasn’t sure how spice would affect my stomach, so I went with a pretty bland cod filet with balsamic and lots of water. The cocktails looked amazing but the general wisdom is no alcohol before an ice mile so we did not sample them.

The next day we got up bright and early and headed back to Nautholsvik and it was a much nicer day. The water had gone us a full degree celcius too, from 2 degrees to 3 degrees, air temp was almost 6 degrees.

Me and A:

I was ridiculously nervous, got my medical check, signed waivers, then waited around getting more and more anxious. Then it was time to go in, they brought us out, we got undressed and then there was an issue with the thermometers. Got dressed again, went back inside, then waited until it was (really) time to start.

First batch was me, Birna, and Raggi - the two Icelandic swimmers. They said to get in and I was cooling down just taking off my clothes so I decided to go for it. Walked out to the start buoy, put my hand up, and started. We had to do 4 laps/8 lengths between the buoys which were set back into the water 200 meters apart.

The water was cold and I didn’t feel awful, just kept swimming and doing my normal self-monitoring, checking my skin color (hot pink = good, light blue = bad) and flexing my hands making sure they weren’t clawing up. Birna started behind me and was close to me most of the time, her boyfriend in the kayak right next to her. I’d heard so many horror stories about the last 300 meters of an ice mile I was super afraid for the last lap, but it went fine. Raggi was going super slow and still had over a lap to go when I finished up.

I walked out and A greeted me on shore with a strapping young Icelandic man. They threw a blanket on me, walked me up the ramp, past the hot tub, and into the steamroom. A had a bucket of lukewarm water for my hands and feet, which stopped the blood from rushing back too quickly into my core. The doctors checked me, I thanked them profusely and I shivered and giggled for 20 minutes, totally normal for me. After I was re-warmed I went into the hot tub which felt amazing. Birna and I were both fine and had a nice laugh reflecting on the swim together. Raggi finished but was in really bad shape, she couldn’t walk out and she was so messed up they eventually had to take her to hospital.

Then the other group started, Olle, a local Icelandic swimmer, Sinne, and a Scottish girl, Jess. Olle wasn’t feeling right and did the smart thing and pulled himself. Jess was a super quick fast but very inexperienced ice swimmer, she finished 6 minutes faster than me and Birna but was messed up and kept crashing into the other swimmers. She was screaming when she was coming out and had to be helped into the recovery area. Her recovery took almost 2 hours. Not smart.

But Sinne was the worst. At 45 minutes I got out of the hot tub as I knew we’d probably need to pull her. I got there and she still had a full lap to go and was swimming super slowly. A and I calculated it would take another 20 minutes for her to swim the last lap, which was not safe. We were about to tell the safety team to pull her, when Thora came to us and told us they were taking her out (the safety boat was asking her questions and she was non responsive, although she kept swimming.) I was glad that the decision didn’t come from us. They had to pull her out of the water, into the boat, and then put her on a stretcher. From the stretcher into the medical room. They pulled off her suit and proceeded with medical interventions, so I left the room and asked the team to let me know when it was okay to come back.

I just had a swimsuit on myself, so I put on clothes and waited for news. After about 20 minutes they came and asked me to sit with her. I did and it was really scary. She was totally vacant in the eyes, still shaking uncontrollably, and foaming at the mouth. They had given her IV saline to warm her internally, and goodness knows what else. The EKG machine was still on her, monitoring her heart. It was really scary. I sat with her while the doctors monitored her closely for at least 90 more minutes. Then the doctors had to leave and they asked me if they should take her to the hospital to continue the monitoring. By that point she was well on her way back (able to answer questions and look you in the eye but still shivering a bit) so I said no. A couple of the medics and I remained to make sure she was okay. After about 2 hours she was able to sit up and walk again, but the whole thing was terrifying. We put her in the hot tub for a bit, A came in and sat with us and A and I even took a mini-dip in the little cove nearby for a taste of what the water felt like.

Once she was okay again we went for lunch at Nautholl restaurant, which was super nice, great food and a beautiful view of the geothermal beach. I was happy but still really rattled by what Jess and Raggi and Sinne had done to themselves. After lunch we went home and took a nap, I forgot to set an alarm and it was like 10 or 11pm by the time we were showered and ready for dinner. We walked in for dinner at The Scandinavian Restaurant which was pretty good. I had salmon and salad with wine and we finished the meal with coffee and shots of Brennevin and Vodka in tiny elaborate wine glasses that looked like lilies. Sinne said goodbye after dinner and A and I went out drinking. We went to Dillon Whisky Bar where we’d been a few years ago on NYE and it was fun. After that we headed out and met this Icelandic comedienne and an assortment of people including an Icelandic MMA fighter that A actually knew of. We went with them to a nightclub downtown which was really upscale and nice. On the way we saw the Northern Lights, huge and prominent, although they were grey/white instead of the vibrant green you always see in photos. The native Icelanders poo-pooed this, saying it was nothing compared to what they usually see, but A and I were thrilled. We drank a little, danced a bit, then A wasn’t feeling great so we headed home around 3am, still pretty early by Reyjkavik standards, but a nice celebratory outing.

The next day we slept in, then headed out with Sinne to Silfra. Silfra is the water between the tectonic plates of Eurasia and the Americas. There are “cathedrals” of rock formations under the water and the water itself is so clear and cold. Very very special place to me. We had done a scuba dive there years ago, but we were wearing drysuits and two people died cave diving there while we were in the water so it wasn’t the best experience. I always wanted to come back and just swim normally there so it was great to return. We were a little stressed out as there were a ton of diving/snorkel groups there and someone told us it was not allowed to swim there. But we waited until there was a gap in groups, and went in.

It was UH-MAZE-ZING! So good.

After that Sinne wanted to see the geysir and Gullfoss, so we took a really nice road trip. On the way there was a PONY FARM!

Squee!

I got to pet one…it was the best!

We saw the geysir, and Gullfoss was amazing as usual:

On the way home we got dinner at the Public House, this Gastropub/tapas place. It was okay. Said goodbye to Sinne who was heading out the next day, had a drink at home but went to bed fairly early as we had an early start on Monday morning. Hit the road around 9am and the scenery going out of town was again ridiculous. If you have to drive for 4 hours it’s best if it looks like this:

Hit one pit stop at a Waterfall where A proceeded to climb the fence (it was really high and surrounded by barbed wire!):

Then we got to our destination, the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon! The first area we went to was full of tourists and also a ton of seals. There was an amazing ice formation I would have loved to swim to, but I wasn’t sure if the seals would bother me. Most were my size or smaller, but I knew if a bunch of them got curious and decided to “explore” with their mouths (like puppies) I could be in trouble. We ended up finding a better spot down the road to swim with no one around, so I went in there:

The water was cold, just about 0 celcius, but felt more welcoming than the pool in Siberia. I tried to climb up on the mini-iceberg, but fell right off after this:

It was tough to swim between the two small icebergs, there was some ice between them and little chunks of ice coming at my face. My face had totally healed since Siberia, but here I got another cut on my face where a chunk of pan ice floated towards me. I grabbed it and used it as my kick-board to get it out of the way.

I couldn’t stay in too long but played in the water for about 10 minutes. A very special place, yet again, and A captured so many great moments for me.

After the swim I started to dry off, took my suit off, and then since no one was around, asked A to take a few snaps of me in the water without the suit. I won’t post them but it resulted in some really striking photos, my skin so pale and pink and vulnerable against the water and the ice.

After that I got dressed, we hiked up the hill and got back in the car. It was a pretty basic rental car but with heated seats - so awesome for re-warming. We stopped at some places along the way, grabbed some road snacks, did some mini-hikes.

A climbed up this pretty tough hill but decided to take the easier way back down. Ha!

On a total whim we saw a sign for a “Black Beach” and decided to drive in. Best impromptu side trip ever. The scenery was incredible. The water was way too rough to swim, with big waves, unpredictable currents, and jagged submerged rocks, but it was fun to take a dip and play around on the rocks for a bit. I was glad I brought some extra dry swimsuits!

There were tons of tourists around a quarter mile down the beach, but for some reason no one made it down near where we were. Great for photos but even better to hang out privately in such a beautiful landscape. We had a great time surrounded by the rocks and the water, until we realized it was late afternoon and time to get back on the road.

We drove back to Reyjkavik, got into town around 9pm, then scored the last reservation at one of my favorite restaurants, Fish Market, so we got dressed up and walked downtown. Opened a bottle of South African wine, indulged in the (amazing) fresh bread and warm salted butter, and the server brought out an amazing amuse bouche (two perfect bites of salmon tartare on a cracker, served on a huge volcanic rock) and our starter, “sashimi on the rocks.” So good.

I had the grilled salmon for my main and A did the grilled blue Ling with crispy smoked cheek of Atlantic catfish and foie gras. Both were amazing. We had no room for dessert but made it out just before midnight, chatted over one last drink at Bravo bar, and went to sleep. A perfect last day in Iceland.

The next day we slept in, did a really nice breakfast at Laundromat Cafe downtown, then headed to the airport. We added in extra time to drop the rental car off but things went really smoothly and we had some time to kill at the airport, so we had some wine and snacks while we waited. Flight kept getting delayed and then there was a mechanical problem and we needed to change planes, so we landed at JFK around 9pm. Took the subway home, pizza for dinner, but didn’t bother unpacking that same night since I knew I’d be home for at least TWO FULL WEEKS. Amazing. A very good end to traveling almost non-stop between work and swimming since November.

Last updated April 22, 2016