Not getting much sleep on the red eye flight, I had hoped to
catch a nap at the hotel. Luckily,
I was one of the first to check in.
I received my key card and was off. I lugged my luggage up to my room. Before settling in I needed to rendezvous with the
tournament organizer, Barry, to receive our bracelets. These would allow us access to the
shuttles back and forth to the rink…plus the party and other perks. As I passed by the front desk, the last
three of our team were checking in.
They called me over and I knew it couldn’t be good news. Seems one of our group was left off the
list…and left without a room.
Since I was on my way to see Barry anyway, I said let me grab him to see
where things went astray. Looking
at the list he noticed he had sent an updated one with our last minute
addition, however he added it to an old list that was missing one person. The hotel clerk unfortunately advised
us there were no more rooms left.
Since I had a single with 2 separate beds, and my friend was left without
a room, I said we should just share my room.
We had about two hours before our departure to the Blue
Lagoon. Both of us being
exhausted, we crashed on the beds without even removing the covers. Then it happened…and Christina would
love the irony. My friend began to
snore…and snore so loud I think people down on the street could hear. My chance for a nap was gone. Worse yet, there was NO WAY I was going
to be able to spend the next four nights with Snorezilla. I went back down to the lobby to where Barry
had been, but no one was there. I
asked the desk clerk where he had gone.
He informed me he went up to his room and surprisingly he gave me the
room number. I don’t think he
would have been sold out so quickly in a New York hotel. As I arrived at the door, there was a
“Do Not Disturb” sign adorning the doorknob. Great. I turned
to walk away, then felt…well, hell, I have been disturbed enough myself already. No tag would stand in my way. I knocked on the door and waited. I knew the first try would not
take. I soon pounded a little
harder and I could hear movement.
I could make out a grumble, “I put the bloody sign out there for a
reason.” The door was opened and
his head popped out. I pleaded my
case that I had gotten a single room for a reason. I am a light sleeper and any snorer, even slight, would ruin
my trip. I couldn’t even get some
shuteye now before our spa adventure.
I apologized for waking him and he promised to make things right. I returned to my room to stare at the
ceiling as my friend slept. Soon
the alarm clock went off and my friend arose. He asked me if I was able to catch some sleep. I informed him of his Fred Flintstone
impersonation. We each packed a
bag with our swim trunks and some toiletries and headed to meet up with our
group downstairs. Barry was at the front desk. True to his word, he made things right. He was moving to another of the
tournament’s hotels. He had given
up his room in our hotel for me.
We arrived at the Blue Lagoon and our driver/tour guide
checked us in. It was at this time
I confirmed my in water massage I had booked. I was good to go.
A few others were now interested.
I had e-mailed the guys days before telling them to book in advance
because it usually fills up. None
of them were able to get one once we were there, I would be the only lucky one. We changed and headed into our
geothermal paradise. Immediately
the guys spotted the bar at one end of the pool and swam up for service. I passed on the beer, since I did not
want to have to hold it in while getting a massage. And, being in the water itself, who knew if I was going to
be able to pull off such a daunting task!
We made our way over to the silica mud station. This mud is placed on your face and
is said to gently exfoliate the skin. We were secure in our metro sexuality. Once applied we headed back towards the
bar area. Somehow I managed to get
it in both my eyes. No biggie, we
were in water…I would just wash it out.
That made it only worse. I
was practically blind. I was in
Scooby Doo flashback scene but perpetually stuck at the blurry point. On top of it I was not sure if I washed
out my contacts when I went under water.
I was a mess. Luckily I had
sunglasses to block my blinded eyes.
I was going to ask for help, but pride got the better of me. I was able to make some shapes out of
the corner of my left eye. I
thought it best to head back to the locker room showers to rinse out the
mud. As I headed towards the
building I was able to locate my towel, what I was not able to locate was the
automatic swinging door. And you
guessed it…it swung open and hit me right between the eyes. That didn’t help my vision. I am glad the team missed that sight. I cleaned out my eyes not knowing if my
contacts remained…as things were still quite a bit blurry…but better. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open
since they still stung from the mud.
I now realized it was almost time for my massage and I needed to head
back to the water. Luckily the
automatic door swung only outward.
Once back in the Lagoon, I carefully worked my way over to
the massage area. I was barely
able to read the sign telling me to wait until called. After several minutes a voice rang out
with an Irish brogue, “Mr. Walsh?”
I let her know that was me, I also let her know I was mud blinded. She said something to the effect that
the mud was supposed to go AROUND the eyes, not in them. Yeah, I am well aware of that now. She took me by my hand and led me like
a Seeing Eye masseuse to the private massage pool. I was placed on a floating mat and a wet towel put on top of
me. As far as massages go, the
routine was the same except for every few minutes she would submerse me into
the hot water to keep me from getting cold. I inquired how an Irish girl wound up in Iceland. She informed me that along with being a
sports therapist, she also played semi pro “football”…soccer that is...and came to Iceland to play. She also worked with the soccer players
from the Irish Men’s National Team.
She mentioned it was tough to be a female sports therapist in a male
dominated sport. I pointed out to
her that the Steelers head trainer was female and very well respected and had
broken down some of those gender barriers. Mostly I brought it up so I could work the Steelers into the
conversation. Of course Max was
worked in there too. As we
conversed we started to hear another conversation. She told me that when you went under the waterfall, the
sound will echo and can be heard in the private pools. And wouldn’t you know it…those voices
came with New York accents. Here I
am trying to relax, and all I can hear is my own team. At least it gave me a heads up that
they were coming to take my picture.
All good things must come to an end, as this massage
did. I wished her good luck in her
career and hoped we might run into each other later that week in the bars. I told her I would have to recognize
her by her brogue, as my eyesight had not quite returned. Having kept my eyes shut during that
hour, they had settled down enough to let me at least see. I made my way back to the in water bar,
as I knew that was where my friends would be. They told me that you were only allowed three beers per
person with the bracelet you were issued for payment. I became very popular when they realized I had not used mine
at all. The guys split my beers
and it was time to emerge from the lagoon with our water-wrinkled bodies.
With my eyesight nearly back, and somehow my contacts still
in place, we headed towards the Lagoon’s restaurant for some soup and sushi. A rainbow appeared over the Lagoon, and
it was a great sight to see. “See”
being the operative word. We finished
our lunch and got back in the van to head to the hotel…revived and rejuvenated.
And able to see.
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