Well, fast-forward a few months, and I’m doing just that! I’m going to the City by the Bay!

I managed to find a fantastic flight deal from Ohio, and will touch down in San Francisco at about 5 p.m. local time today.

I’ve always wanted to visit San Francisco, so I plan to pack as much sightseeing and as many adventures as possible into the next week.

Highlights will include:

• Exploring the city with some fellow travel bloggers
• Touring the city and Alcatraz with Get Your Guide
• Riding a a cable car
• Biking across the Golden Gate Bridge
• Roaming around Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39
• Possibly a movie-centric tour (for my new site!)
• Finding the “Full House” house
• Checking out Lombard Street
• And much more!

Readers have also suggested (via my Facebook page) visiting a fortune cookie factory in Chinatown, touring the Ghirardelli chocolate factory, going to the top of Coit Tower for sunset, checking out Golden Gate Park, and eating in the Ferry Building. So much to do!

And I’m not confining my adventures to San Francisco, either! I’ll also be visiting:

• Yosemite National Park
• Muir Woods National Monument (hopefully)
• The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose (possibly)

The weather forecast so far is full of sun and mild temperatures, and I can’t wait to see what San Francisco has in store for me!

Note: Due to all the fun I’ll be having in California, I won’t be posting any Photos of the Day while I’m gone.

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Do you have any other suggestions or must-dos for me in San Francisco?

Photo credit

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…

Uh, what tongue are we talking about here?!? Because it surely isn’t mine. A word with THAT many consonants cannot possibly just “roll off” a person’s tongue. Can it?

Well, in Iceland, apparently it can.

Here, syllables squish and meld together in odd ways. Nothing is pronounced like you think it should be. There aren’t enough vowels. Oh, and did I mention the weird letters like ”Þ” and “ð”?

I’ve studied German (I have a minor in it, actually). I’ve muddled through basic Mandarin. I tend to have an ear for accents. But Icelandic? It is truly a language that baffles me; leaves me stupidly tongue-tied.

Close as it is to Danish, and since Danish is a Germanic language, I very naively thought that maybe I would be able to recognize a few syllables of Icelandic here and there.

But oh, how wrong I was.

Seriously, these words may as well not even be in the English alphabet.

As it turns out, I’m probably not ever meant to speak a Scandinavian language. Ever. It’s just sad.

I had hoped to film myself trying to sound out various words while touring around Iceland, but I quickly realized it would be nearly impossible. My tongue just can’t wrap itself around these syllables.

But, because I still want to give you something to laugh at, here are 3 Tips to Pronouncing Icelandic Words:

And now some photos to help illustrate my point of just how impossible these words are:

But at least Icelanders are aware of how impossible their language is for the rest of us…

… and have a good sense of humor about it.

This headrest cover made me fall in love with IcelandAir.

And I am exaggerating and being over dramatic here? Yes, of course. There are obviously plenty of people who CAN pronounce all of these words.

But I am definitely not one of them.

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Have you ever encountered an language that you’ve really had trouble pronouncing?

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This coastal location can be found about 2 hours northeast of Wellington, and makes a fantastic weekend trip either as an alternative to or in conjunction with a visit to the Wairarapa wine country.

And now for the pretty pictures…

Castle Rock from afar.

The wind-swept lagoon.

The lagoon from above.

Pride Rock?!? Where's Simba?

Sea cliffs.

A curious fur seal.

No, the color of that water is not fake!

Climbing in the cliffs.

Swirling water.

At the lighthouse.

Castlepoint Lighthouse

One last farewell shot.

If it’s natural beauty and a bit of adventure you’re looking for, Castlepoint is a great off-the-beaten-track destination to consider.

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Which photo is your favorite?

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Pacaya Volcano Guatemala

1. How do you define the word “traveler,” and why would you consider†yourself one?

Travelers are connoisseurs of places. Since we’ve been on the road these past four years, we’ve sampled some of the world’s finest… but it only makes us hungry for more.

2. What has been your favorite travel experience thus far?

Darcie: Hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, drinking sparkling wine in Champagne, and exploring U.S. National Parks.

Adam: Pub crawls in London, “experiencing” Amsterdam in my early twenties, and doing a 10-day meditation course in India. I’m not a hippie. Seriously.

3. How about your proudest travel moment?

Darcie: Crossing the Thorong La Pass during a 17-day trek. Or holding my own at Oktoberfest.

Adam: Cycling across Ireland. We had a one-man tent, hybrid bikes (not ideal for touring) and zero experience cycling. But we still did it.

4. Have you had any travel mishaps or bad experiences? If so, have these influenced how you view the place where they happened? Would you go back?

Darcie at Oktoberfest

Traveling through Rajasthan during the summer. Adam got sick so we were stuck in Pushkar for a few days. Then, as we left for the bus there was a torrential downpour. I mean it was pouring buckets of water… and as we were walking in the rain towards a bus a motorbike came by and clipped me. I wasn’t hurt, but it was such a shock. That was the only time where we felt like calling it quits. I don’t think we’ll go back to Pushkar.

5. Name one thing you can’t travel without.

Laptops. Since we both run our business online, we need to stay connected a lot more than your average backpacker.

6. Name one thing you wish you COULD travel without.

Laptops We’d love to ditch the damn things and hit the road without. But hey, it’s better than an office!

7. What do you think has been the biggest thing youíve learned while traveling (about yourself, a destination, a culture, travel itself)?

Darcie: I’ve learned travel can be a way of life… not just a two week vacation. You can live on the road and always enjoy new surroundings and cultures.

Adam: I’ve learned people are essentially the same. Friendly… or at least not evil. Whether it’s Hanoi or Holland, Buenos Aires or Bangkok, people will help you get by if you make an effort. A smile gets you by in most cases.

Thorong La Pass, Nepal

8. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

We travel very slowly (1-3 months in each location) so it’s very much like “living” instead of “traveling”. But we’ve considered Antigua, Guatemala, the central coast of California and Austin, Texas.

9. Name one place youíd like to see or one experience youíd like to†have before you die.

Just one?! How about 15?

15. Drive across Canada.

14. Spend one month each in 12 major cities (Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Sydney, St. Petersburg, London, Rome, Tokyo, Tehran, Johannesburg, Vancouver, Madrid and Berlin) and write a book about it.

13. Make wine in Tuscany. Or at least drink a lot.

12. Brew great beer (we’ve tried, but it was far from great).

11. Learn to fly fish in Chile.

10. Renew our wedding vows on top of the Rockefeller Building in New York.

Angkor Wat

9. Visit Antarctica.

8. Help build a school in Africa.

7. Ride the Trans-Siberian railway.

6. Hike the full Appalachian Trail (unlike Bill Bryson, who tiptoed the first part and wrote a book about it).

5. Learn to fly in Alaska.

4. Cook a gourmet meal for 50 in Paris.

3. Sail the Mediterranean.

2. Scuba dive the world’s top 10 dive spots.

1. Go scotch tasting in Scotland.

10. If there was one thing you wish somebody would have told you before you started traveling, what would it be?

Darcie: Pack less. Large bags are a hassle to carry, don’t fit well on buses and half the time you don’t use all that stuff.

Adam: That I needed a visa before visiting Vietnam. I got there and was promptly sent back to Singapore on the same plane. Oh well, lesson learned.

Visit Darcie and Adam’s site: Trekity
Follow them on Twitter: @trekity
“Like” them on Facebook: Trekity

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Are you a travel blogger who has something to say on these topics? Do you know of somebody really interesting in the travel universe that you’d like to see interviewed? Speak up! The Thursday Traveler needs some interview subjects.

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I was in the middle of a swirling world of fog and mist, the lapping of waves the only major sound to be heard. Out of the steam, two women with their faces covered in white goo materialized, jabbering in a foreign language as they glided past, their hair arranged in odd piles atop their heads. From the other direction, a teen boy floated by, munching on an ice cream bar.

And everywhere I looked, I saw milky blue.

But this wasn’t some weird dream — it was the infamous Blue Lagoon in Iceland.

Located between Reykjavik and Keflavik International Airport, the Blue Lagoon is the perfect place to either begin or end your trip to Iceland — in fact, you’re even encouraged to do so by Reykjavik Excursions, who run the Flybus that is the easiest way to get to Reykjavik from the airport. You can buy Flybus tickets with the Blue Lagoon built in for a reasonable price.

I chose to end my time in Iceland with a few hours of relaxation at the Blue Lagoon.

I was a bit skeptical at first, and could not fathom how I would enjoy spending 4 hours floating around in a pool of blue wastewater (because that’s what the Lagoon really is — wastewater from a nearby power plant; but don’t worry, it’s not toxic).

I’m not a spa person or a beach person. Honestly, I’m not any kind of person that is required to wear a bathing suit.

I don’t like massages or any other activities that require strangers to touch me repeatedly, either. And I didn’t even have a travel buddy to chat with to keep my mind off feeling uncomfortable in such an atmosphere.

But, as soon as I arrived at the Blue Lagoon and stored my backpack in the free cabin provided by the Flybus, I quickly realized that I didn’t have as much to fear as I originally… feared.

Upon arrival to the Blue Lagoon, you walk along a lava path for a short while until you get to the spa building itself. If you want to take some photos of the unreal blue water, make a quick detour off to your left before going inside — this part of the Lagoon was empty when I got there, and was just as breathtaking as any photos I’d ever seen of it. Yes, it’s true that the Lagoon is not natural, but you’d be surprised at how unbothered by this you become when you actually see it up close.

After snapping some photos in the cold morning air, I hurried inside to hand in my ticket. I decided spur-of-the-moment to splurge and pay extra for a towel and fluffy white robe, and was given both of these as well as a blue plastic bracelet that would serve as my locker key and bar/cafe tab all at once.

Then it was into the changing areas. Thankfully, I had been warned.

If you have no clue what I’m talking about, let me be blunt: If you are a women, be prepared to see lots of saggy old lady boobs. Perhaps some perky young ones, too, but definitely lots of saggy ones.

As surprising as it may be for most Westerners (I’m looking at YOU, Americans), not everyone else in the world is as obsessed with privacy and modesty as we are. While the Blue Lagoon does provide a few fully-enclosed changing rooms, most of the changing here is done out in the open, for all to see. No shame, ladies, no shame.

Showering — which you must do sans clothing before you enter the Lagoon — is also done mostly out in the open, so don’t be surprised to walk around the corner and see… well, everything.

If you aren’t too traumatized after changing, figuring out the locker system, and hopping under a shower, then it’s finally time to head out to the Lagoon itself. You can either walk straight outside and enter the water that way, or you can ease into the water indoors and then make your way outside via a huge, heavy wooden door.

I opted for the latter option, and was pleased to find that the water was just about the perfect temperature for relaxing in — somewhere in between a bathtub and a hot tub.

Once outside, I was struck by just how big the lagoon is. There are various little pools everywhere, a cave, multiple covered bridges, a waterfall, and even a floating bar. Yes, a floating bar. Grab a drink and maybe even an ice cream bar, and get to floating. If you want a massage while lazing in the Lagoon, you’ll have to book it far in advance.

The Blue Lagoon is renowned not only for its odd color, but also because the water is rich in silica and sulphur — both said to be fantastic for the skin. Find one of the stations full of white silica along the edges of the Lagoon, and slather up. I put a bit on my face, but honestly can’t report any drastic improvements to my skin… Maybe I was doing it wrong?

The 4 hours I had to spend at the Lagoon actually flew by. I floated around for a while, seeking out the extra-hot spots in the water and watching goo-faced people glide through the steam. I took a break and sat in the “relaxation area” inside with my fluffy robe and my kindle for a while, and also grabbed some lunch before going to soak some more.

I loved the fact that the blue bracelets they give you allow you access to your secure locker as often as you want. And I loved how truly relaxing this place is.

Say what you want about the Blue Lagoon — I loved it, and would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Iceland. Even if you don’t like spas or massages or saggy old lady boobs, chances are you will still enjoy the Blue Lagoon. I know I did!

And now…

Some practical tips for visiting the Blue Lagoon:

• Go early. Around noon or 1 p.m., the Blue Lagoon starts to get crowded. If you want to enjoy the warm water in peace, try to get there as early in the morning as possible (or later in the afternoon would probably also be less busy).
• Leave the modesty behind. As mentioned above, forget about being self-conscious — no one else will be. And don’t be surprised (or offended) when you meet stark-naked people in the changing rooms.
• Beware your hair. The silica and sulphur in the water of the Blue Lagoon may be good for your skin, but it’s definitely NOT good for you hair. Especially if you have long hair, apply conditioner liberally before going into the Lagoon, and don’t rinse it out until you’re ready to leave. Otherwise you’ll be dealing with dry, brittle hair for days.
• Pay for the extras. No, you don’t need a fluffy robe or extra towel or drink from the floating bar… but they sure are nice to have. Just be aware that they do cost extra!
• Relax. After all, this is what the Blue Lagoon is all about!

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Would you visit Iceland’s Blue Lagoon?

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Enjoy some of my favorite New Zealand photos, presented to you in postcard form!

So who’s ready to book their flights to New Zealand? I know I am.

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Which of my New Zealand postcards would you send home to your family and friends?

*This post was sponsored by STA Travel.

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