Day 4 - What a day! We actually got up on time today, so we were able to go on the Black & Blue trip with Arctic Adventures. Our tour guide, Teena, picked us up at the hotel. We joined two other girls from New York for our ride out to Thingvellir National Park. Once we got there, we put on the dry suits provided by the company. And then it was time to snorkel in glacial runoff. Things did not get off to a good start for me because I immediately dropped my snorkel as we entered the water. Teena was nice enough to go get another one. Then my goggles would not stop fogging up even after numerous times of spitting in them. Regardless of my equipment shortcomings, I still had a wonderful time snorkeling and getting to view the continental plates. Billy really enjoyed himself and did not have any problems with his equipment. The dry suits really did their job because I did not every feel extremely cold. Getting the suits off was an interesting experience because some of the layers are so tight.
After snorkeling, we ate lunch that was provided by Arctic Adventures. We enjoyed sandwiches, cookies and juice boxes. After lunch, it was time for the Black part of the trip...caving. It didn't take us as long to get ready to head into the caves; we only had to put on hard hats with headlamps attached. I have mixed feelings about the caving portion of the trip. I was fine until about 10 minutes inside the cave. As we got further away from the entrance, I began to get nervous. I have never experienced a cave with path ways, lights, etc. This was full on natural cave without any touristy embellishments. As we moved further through the cave, I became a tad bit more comfortable, but there was quite a bit of ice and you had to be able to scramble over some of the rocks. Luckily the crawling part of the trip was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We stopped in the middle of the cave to listen to some stories and drink hot chocolate. After about an hour total, we came to the other end of the cave; this cave was a lava tube. Getting out was the fun part because we had to use our upper body strength to pull ourselves out. I am a definite scaredy cat when it comes to adventurous activities, but I am extremely happy that I had this experience. Once again, Billy truly enjoyed his walk/crawl/scramble through the Icelandic cave. After completing the trip, I would definitely recommend it to anybody and would do it again myself.
We headed back to Reykjavik after our adventurous day. Teena dropped us off at our hotel, where we went to our room to rest and freshen up. Around 10:00 p.m., we decided we wanted to eat dinner so we ate Hlolla Batar (a sub shop). Supposedly this is the place people go after a night out. Billy got a sub sandwich and I ate a cheeseburger. Yum! We went back to the 4th Floor for the night.
Reviews for the Day
Arctic Adventures - Black & Blue Tour - 4 stars
Pros: friendly guide, food included with the tour, unique experience, small group
Cons: no discount for booking multiple tours
Hlolla Batar Sub Shop - 4 stars
Pros: tasty subs & hamburger
Cons: Not open on New Year's Eve or Day
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