F or decades Icelandic swimming pool enthusiasts have cursed many a foreigner who stupidly jump into the local swimming pools and more popular hot springs without a thought.
You see, we kinda like our pools and hot springs to be rather void of old sweat, bacteria and who knows what else lurks on your body. Which is why we have communal showers and soap and offer free shampoo boxes to boot in every swimming pool hall and around a number of more popular hot springs.
Which bothers a whole heap of people apparently. The very idea you have to undress completely and actually wash those privates of yours IN FRONT OF STRANGERS seems not to gel too well with many.
There have actually been incidents here between foreigners jumping into pools and hot tubs without washing themselves beforehand and locals not keen to share the sweat and dirt. And doubt not the staff will throw you out if noticed. You will also be stared at which is never comfortable on foreign ground or pool in this instance.
But before you shake your head and cancel all swimming while in Iceland keep in mind that these rules are there for a reason. You see, the geothermal water pumped up to heat our pools is minimally treated chemically (unlike the shit you bathe in back home.) And the the natural flow filling our hot springs naturally is not treated at all. Most pools here have chlorine and that is it. Some even have only saltwater.
Which means you are bathing in probably the cleanest, most uncontaminated water you will ever find on earth.
We would like to keep it that way here in Iceland. And that is why you have to strip down and wash yourself before entering. That is the price for uncontaminated dip into a fantastic pool of water. Get used to it or go visit Britain 🙂