The more popular certain places become as tourist destinations, the easier it is to forget how potentially dangerous some of them can be.
For instance, just because a lot of people climb Mount Everest, that doesn’t suddenly make it cuddlier than the perilous, unforgiving mountain it really is. I can also remember lots of places where you’d never see me again if I slipped while I was visiting the Grand Canyon.
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Still, the world’s beautifully treacherous wonders aren’t always as obvious as these two. At least, that’s what one unfortunate grandma discovered.
When a Texas family visited Iceland, they wanted to truly experience its natural scenery.
According to Catherine Streng, who received updates from her family while she stayed in South Korea to teach English, her dad hates the cold, but figured the beautiful sights like the Jökulsárlón Lagoon shown above would be worth it.
When they got there, Streng’s dad apparently found a way to amuse himself: Sending her photos of her grandma’s adventures on the “ice throne” they found.
Streng told Buzzfeed News that the grandma had the idea to sit on it for her royal debut and they couldn’t have found a better photographer.
Why? Because he didn’t stop taking photos no matter what was going on.
Perhaps that’s not the best reaction when a sudden wave disconnects the icy chair from the shore, but we otherwise would’ve never seen what happened next.
Although Streng’s grandma managed to stay on the ice throne through all of this, she also found herself drifting out to sea.
As Streng tweeted , her dad captioned this photo with “lost her kingdom when she drifted out to sea.”
Streng also said that her dad, another English teacher, had a colorful way of describing what was going on.
As he told Streng, “She ascended the throne after a wave had pulled back and left it briefly exposed on the beach. Then a wave washed in and dislodged the ice throne, rocking it from side to side. When the wave retreated, it lifted the dislodged throne and carried her out with the tide.”
In case the dad’s response seems a little insensitive, he also posted this reassuring update.
Yes, the exiled ice royal was escorted back to her kingdom unharmed. It’s amazing how quickly she got so far away, though.
Fortunately, a boat captain from Florida with professional water rescue training happened to be touring the lagoon as well.
According to Streng’s dad, Captain Randy Lacount waded out into the rough waters and pulled the woman off the iceberg before bringing her back to shore.
And to anyone who wants to say that the grandma should’ve known this would happen, let’s hear some additional details first.
As Streng told Buzzfeed News , her grandma had seen several others take photos on the chair without incident and asked if she could as well.
This was just a stroke of bad luck.
h/t: Buzzfeed News
