The Icelandic pools, they are amazing.
It only took one visit to the pools for me to see why Icelanders love them. The fact that you can always count on a nice pool to relax in no matter what tiny town in Iceland you end up at, that is just amazing. And while I don’t love the chilly dash from the locker room to the warm waters I suck it up to enjoy those lovely pools around Iceland.
My first experience at the Icelandic pools though, I can’t say lovely nor amazing are the words I would use to describe it. More like confusing, naked, and totally out of my comfort zone.
My first Icelandic pool adventure came on my second day in the country, the pool of choice was Laugardalslaug, one of the larger pools in Reykjavik. If I had known that the pool I was about to go to had one of the biggest locker rooms I would have to navigate around I would have rethought my decision. But the Viking, he didn’t say anything different I should be prepared for in the Icelandic pool culture, all he said was see you in the pool.
And so into the locker room I went, straight into a room full of naked ladies.
Now I am no prude, but the locker rooms in America, they tend to be a bit different, as in you won’t come across many ladies walking around naked. In fact, you hardly see anyone trying to change without holding a towel over them, we in the States don’t really understand the purpose of a locker room just yet and try and magically change with showing as little skin as possible.
So all the nakedness around me, it was different than I was used to, but when in Rome.
But then all those ladies just walked off carrying their bathing suits, and I stood there totally confused as to why they didn’t put on their bathing suits before they headed for the pools. I couldn’t see where exactly they were going as I had chosen some far off corner of the locker room to change in, but I didn’t think I was at a nude pool, but really who knew what I had signed myself up for. Not wanting to stand out I too stripped down and followed the next lady to wherever they were all going.
The showers.
Of course they all were heading to the showers, not out the door. In my defense, I didn’t see the showers before, and us in America are gross and tend not to shower before jumping into the pools. Shower first then hit the pools, makes sense. I know, it sounds simple, but I have never seen this in the states before, we usually put our suits on and then rinse off.
Keeping with my plan of following what everyone else was doing I tucked my items away into the storage area and headed over to a shower. And then I noticed the signs all over the place clearly showing all the areas I need to be sure to scrub down before heading off. I may of taken a picture of one of those signs later to send to my sister, it made me smile at the time :)
As I was walking into my shower prepared to following the sign and wash up I notice an interesting booth overlooking the showers. My first thought, “must be a storage area”. And then I did a double glance, was that a person watching me in there? Third look, yes there is definitely someone sitting in there observing the shower scene.
Okay, I wasn’t sure what that was about but I just went with it.
So now I am in the shower, rinsing off all the important areas shown in the pictures all over the locker room, trying to keep an eye on the person sitting in the booth who has yet to appear. In my mind I have almost successfully navigated my way around the Icelandic locker room, no thanks to that boyfriend of mine, and am giving myself a pat on the back. And then, as I put on my bathing suit and began to make my way out to the pool I was blasted with ice cold water to my legs. What in the hell!!!
I looked over to see the woman from the strange booth in the shower room, holding a hose, apparently rinsing down the floor, but more water seemed to be hitting the ladies walking around than the floor. I shuffled out of there as fast as possible and made my way out to the pools. Only when I was settled in the oh so lovely warm waters did I look at my Viking and say, “thanks for the tips!”
My kind of Icelandic swimming pool
Now it is no problem for me to navigate my way around the locker rooms, but almost every time I visit the pools I can spot the first time visitors who are totally confused as to what is going on. Just know you are so not alone, I have totally been there, and just strip down, the pools are worth it!
Question of the Day?
Have you ever had a experience that took you completely out of your comfort zone? Have you visited the Icelandic pools?