More photos from Blue Lagoon

Hei Hei, Shelby here !
I just found some more photos from the Blue Lagoon that I thought I would share :)

Here we are at the entrance of the Blue Lagoon.





They had these awesome mud masks that you could put on the your face that was consistency and color of cottage cheese....it kind of burned, but we all had nice soft skin afterwards.




And here is what the majority of the Lagoon looked like....blue and steamy!

We have a few more posts that are in the works, so stay tuned for some more Norway updates!

Ha det bra!

Hei Hei! Here are some of our pictures from Iceland - In no particular order....

This beautiful wedding gown was part of the fashion exhibit at the Reykjavik Art Museum.



Here is one the paintings by Johannes Kjarval at the art museum.
More fashions by Steinunn Sigurðardóttir at the art museum.
Hallgrimskirkja Church in Reykjavik.
The Leif Erickson statue stands in front of the Hallgrimskirkja Church on a mount that very much resembles a ship.
You have to the love the colors that are used in Icelandic architecture! So fun!
It was easy to forget every once and while that we were in this beautiful geographical location...but then you would turn a corner or get to the top of the hill and be reminded with a breathtaking view of the mountains and harbor surrounding the city.
Just a bunch of kids...hanging out at the mall. Two of us are missing, but one was serving as photographer and the other was stuck at the hotel...feeling sick :(
This is the view while you walk to the blue lagoon. The part that you swam in looked pretty similar but was deeper, steamier, and held together by structures.
More lagoon fun!
This is the view we got from the bus of the blue lagoon area....it gets really steamy!

This is the view from the hotel....I just like how modern everything looks...and the number of compact vehicles one finds in Scandinavian countries.


Toon in next time for some news on Norway. But at present I have to go and do some homework for my Norwegian class!

God Natt :)

Shelby (and Kjerstin)

Vi er her !!! (We are here)

Hello Everyone!

Yes, we finally have a blog! It has been a crazy few days and I am glad that we have finally been able to let you know what we are up to. I (Shelby) will be writing this first post because I felt like it, but eventually Kjerstin will add her two cents as well.

So, let's recap:

We started the trip very, very sleep-deprived and here is why. We had to meet at the airport on Thursday morning at 6:30, so naturally none of us got much sleep the night before the trip. Then we started our long day of traveling...Minneapolis to Chicago O'Hare to New York JFK. We left New York at 8 pm Eastern and arrived at Keflavik Airport around 7 am Iceland time. On top of losing about 5 hours of our night due to the time change, not much sleep was had on the plane due to the smothering heat and the distraction of personal video screens with movies and tv shows to watch (..oops). So we arrived in Iceland ready to hit the sack. But alas, that is not the way to fight jet lag so off we went to begin our adventure. The group of us, 10 students total, 6 from Luther, 4 from Concordia, and our instructor/leader Uwe got on a bus to head to the Blue Lagoon.

There is absolutely no way to describe the Blue Lagoon that would give it justice, but we will just have to give you an overview :) It is a spa based around a geothermal hot spot a little ways out of Reykjavik where the hot springs heat up an entire "hot tub." But it is so much more than a hot tub. It is a huge pool built around natural volcanic rocks in a complex that includes a sauna, cave, silica mud masks, and in-pool massages (for a fee of course). It was excellent, relaxing, tremendous for the skin (bad for the hair...we are still fighting to get our hair back to its original texture), and just what we needed! I would recommend this destination to all those who have been curious in Iceland, because while the blue lagoon is not "cheap," the prices in Iceland and at the resort are very reasonable.

Once we got back to our hotel we decided to set out in search of wi-fi (to let our parents know we are safe and sound....not of course to check our facebooks...)and our search led us to the Kringlan mall. Here we sampled the fare of the food court (I had a burrito-not very Icelandic), got a few groceries, and window-shopped. The mall closed at a very early 7 pm (for a Friday...but such is the way in Scandinavia) and we caught a bus downtown to check out the nightlife. I have not quite figured out what happens in Scandinavia from about 6 to midnight, because all of the businesses close early but no one goes out for the night until about 12. We got to a fancy bar about 8:30 or so and there was NO ONE there. But we ordered our lovely drinks and enjoyed each others' company until it was finally okay for us to go to bed! And we all slept about 10 hours....although it certainly did not feel like it!

Saturday in Iceland was another exploration day, we walked to see the Hallgrimskirkja Church, which is a gorgeous cathedral with rather modern architecture. It was under renovation, so we were only able to photograph the outside (hopefully we can load up the pictures soon) and head inside a cafe nearby to get warmed up! After sitting at the cafe, drinking lattes and hot cocoa, and sampling various Scandinavian pastries we were ready to do more exploring.

We visited two museums: The Reykjavik Art Museum: Kjarvalsstadir (included art by Johannes Kjarval and a fashion design exhibit by Steinunn Sigurðardótti, who is a big time designer globally) and the Reykjavik Museum of Photography (also very cool). We ended the evening at Potturin og Pannan (Pot and Pan) where we were treated by Uwe to a four course Icelandic meal: salad, bread and soup, lamb or fish, and a mini chocolate souffle (so good!!!). With our bellies full and our eyelids heavy we headed to our rooms to get some sleep before our 5 am departure the next morning.

We were going to Norway!

More catching up coming soon :)
Ha Det! (Goodbye)

Shelby (and Kjerstin)