Iceland Day 2: The Golden Circle
I woke up a few times during the night since by body was still quite confused about what time it was, but ended up getting a pretty good stretch of rest in the end. I woke up around 9am on Thursday morning ready to take on the Golden Circle, the most famous sights within easy reach of the capital and a must for visitors.
Morning broke in Reykjavik much clearer than the previous day, giving us renewed hope in the possibility of surviving our trip to Iceland and actually being able to see things.
Kristen and I opted to rent a car and do everything ourselves instead of going the tour company route, although there are plenty of options in that category. As with most things, I just like to design my own itinerary and do it at my own speed and stop where I want to stop, and not have someone dictating those things. So we set off from our hotel, our suitcase of food in tow.*
We drove through the central highlands and Þingvellir National Park. It was cloudy and very windy up there. At times the snow drifts were blowing sideways across the road and you almost couldn't see the asphalt. It looked like I was driving across a white frothy sea with dry ice smoke underneath the car. We made it out to Geysir, which is the namesake for all other geysirs on planet Earth. I was messing around with the high speed burst function on my camera and caught an eruption in real time:
Being around here reminded me of being in Yellowstone. The terrain looks so similar. Though Yellowstone has Iceland beat for geysirs and hot springs in my book. Our next stop after Geysir was Gulfoss, a huge waterfall just a bit further northeast. I'll stop typing now and just show you the pics.
Waterfalls are my favorite natural feature. I've already mentioned many times over how I will hike any distance and travel out of my way many miles to see one, even a small one. This one was much bigger than I thought it would be, and the biggest of any we saw on the trip. The snow-filled canyon and icy trail leading down to it were so gorgeous, and highlighted the gray-blue water.
I knew that I wanted to go to Iceland in winter to be able to see the Northern Lights. I went knowing it would be very cold, dark, and knowing there was a very real possibility I wouldn't even see the Northern Lights. I also went knowing it was important to look for beauty in this cold and bitter time. I keep trying to use that as inspiration for when things feel dark and cold and barren in my own life. I try not to miss the beauty that is always around me just because the environment may not be my favorite one. Sure enough, I saw stunning beauty in the ice sculptures naturally formed from the spray of the waterfalls on the walls of canyons. I went seeing the dramatic cliffs made even more stunning by the white snow's contrast against them. I keep thinking I would like to go back and see Iceland when it's all green in the summer, and everything is mossy and full of life. But the ice and snow set the blues of the sea and sky off so beautifully too. No matter the season, there is loveliness to be found.
Driving home was a bit trickier than getting out there. At one point, when driving back through Þingvellir, there was a total white out and we had to stop our car because we couldn't see anything around us. We saw multiple cars slide off the road due to ice. It was adventurous driving for sure. I was thankful to get back to Reykjavik where the clouds were starting to roll in over the city and snow kicking up again. I knew our Northern Lights tour that night probably would not yield any sightings but we got on the bus all the same. It was included in our package after all, and it was our dinner ticket.
We were transported out to Laugarvatn to another outdoor hot tub area called Fontana. It's right next to a thermally heated lake as well. It was snowing again and the wind had picked back up to howling, yet put on our swimsuits and dutifully shower we did before we stepped back out into the subzero temperatures. We couldn't run on the cement because it was iced over, so we walked as quickly as our wet personages would allow us and it was so cold I literally jumped into the first pool I came to to keep out of the wind. After I had thawed enough, I got out and tried the very next closest one which was much hotter. Blissfully hot. My hair and fingers thawed, and I regained feeling in my feet quickly. I stayed in as long as I could stand it then went back to the lukewarm pool. Then I found the entrance to the thermal lake which was almost pitch black. I walked out across snow and ice in my bare feet and walked to about knee deep in the water. It was definitely not warm enough to merit a swim, plus being in unknown water in the darkness is scary to me, so I got out and got back in the lukewarm pool.
After swimming around a bit more, we got out and went to eat dinner at the buffet the place had set out for us. By this time it was 10pm. The buffet was amazing. They had this incredible brown bread that they bake in steam ovens heated by the geothermal pockets in the ground. The bread is dense, moist and sweet. SO good. You eat it with Icelandic yogurt sauce, pickled herring or smoked salmon. And the smoked salmon here is absolutely delicious. I tried Gravlax for the first time, which is basically just smoked salmon with herbs and spices on it. The pickled herring was also very good. Icelandic yogurt is delicious and the only dessert they had was Skyr (the yogurt) with coconut in it and it was incredible! I would have eaten it at every meal if I had ever seen it again.
Anyway, after the trip all the roads taking us home were closed due to weather so we had to take a rather extreme detour to be returned to Reykjavik that night. We did not stop to try and see the northern lights because it was so late and the roads were terrible. Our tour guide happened to teach geology and so she had lots of fun facts for us on the way home. She probably could have talked the entire 2 hour ride back but she got wise to the fact that we were all entering a food coma and stopped lecturing about volcanoes about an hour in. She definitely knew her stuff. She had seen the northern lights many times and talked about the most spectacular times she had seen them. I really didn't want to hear it. I wanted to see them so bad and I knew we weren't going to that night, so it felt cruel to hear about someone else's Best Of compilation, when I don't even have a debut album to work off.
It was blissful to arrive back at our hotel that night. We had our biggest road warrior day ahead of us and knew we needed to be up early. We crashed almost immediately.
*Kristen and I had decided that to save money we would bring some snacks with us. Food is very expensive in Iceland so we thought we could probably get by just eating breakfast and lunch from the stuff we brought and figuring out dinner on our own. Well, we had this generous baggage allowance and so we decided to just bring an extra suitcase and put snacks in it. We filled an ENTIRE suitcase with bars, bags of almonds and walnuts, 3 different kinds of jerky, freeze dried fruits and vegetables, and more. It was slightly out of control, but I tell ya, I don't regret it. It was kind of hilarious heading out each day and bringing a big pink suitcase with us to load into the car with our backpacks and things. I'm glad no one but us knew what was actually in it.
Morning broke in Reykjavik much clearer than the previous day, giving us renewed hope in the possibility of surviving our trip to Iceland and actually being able to see things.
 |
| View from our hotel room window on Thursday morning. |
Kristen and I opted to rent a car and do everything ourselves instead of going the tour company route, although there are plenty of options in that category. As with most things, I just like to design my own itinerary and do it at my own speed and stop where I want to stop, and not have someone dictating those things. So we set off from our hotel, our suitcase of food in tow.*
We drove through the central highlands and Þingvellir National Park. It was cloudy and very windy up there. At times the snow drifts were blowing sideways across the road and you almost couldn't see the asphalt. It looked like I was driving across a white frothy sea with dry ice smoke underneath the car. We made it out to Geysir, which is the namesake for all other geysirs on planet Earth. I was messing around with the high speed burst function on my camera and caught an eruption in real time:
Sweet!
Being around here reminded me of being in Yellowstone. The terrain looks so similar. Though Yellowstone has Iceland beat for geysirs and hot springs in my book. Our next stop after Geysir was Gulfoss, a huge waterfall just a bit further northeast. I'll stop typing now and just show you the pics.
Waterfalls are my favorite natural feature. I've already mentioned many times over how I will hike any distance and travel out of my way many miles to see one, even a small one. This one was much bigger than I thought it would be, and the biggest of any we saw on the trip. The snow-filled canyon and icy trail leading down to it were so gorgeous, and highlighted the gray-blue water.
I knew that I wanted to go to Iceland in winter to be able to see the Northern Lights. I went knowing it would be very cold, dark, and knowing there was a very real possibility I wouldn't even see the Northern Lights. I also went knowing it was important to look for beauty in this cold and bitter time. I keep trying to use that as inspiration for when things feel dark and cold and barren in my own life. I try not to miss the beauty that is always around me just because the environment may not be my favorite one. Sure enough, I saw stunning beauty in the ice sculptures naturally formed from the spray of the waterfalls on the walls of canyons. I went seeing the dramatic cliffs made even more stunning by the white snow's contrast against them. I keep thinking I would like to go back and see Iceland when it's all green in the summer, and everything is mossy and full of life. But the ice and snow set the blues of the sea and sky off so beautifully too. No matter the season, there is loveliness to be found.
Driving home was a bit trickier than getting out there. At one point, when driving back through Þingvellir, there was a total white out and we had to stop our car because we couldn't see anything around us. We saw multiple cars slide off the road due to ice. It was adventurous driving for sure. I was thankful to get back to Reykjavik where the clouds were starting to roll in over the city and snow kicking up again. I knew our Northern Lights tour that night probably would not yield any sightings but we got on the bus all the same. It was included in our package after all, and it was our dinner ticket.
We were transported out to Laugarvatn to another outdoor hot tub area called Fontana. It's right next to a thermally heated lake as well. It was snowing again and the wind had picked back up to howling, yet put on our swimsuits and dutifully shower we did before we stepped back out into the subzero temperatures. We couldn't run on the cement because it was iced over, so we walked as quickly as our wet personages would allow us and it was so cold I literally jumped into the first pool I came to to keep out of the wind. After I had thawed enough, I got out and tried the very next closest one which was much hotter. Blissfully hot. My hair and fingers thawed, and I regained feeling in my feet quickly. I stayed in as long as I could stand it then went back to the lukewarm pool. Then I found the entrance to the thermal lake which was almost pitch black. I walked out across snow and ice in my bare feet and walked to about knee deep in the water. It was definitely not warm enough to merit a swim, plus being in unknown water in the darkness is scary to me, so I got out and got back in the lukewarm pool.
After swimming around a bit more, we got out and went to eat dinner at the buffet the place had set out for us. By this time it was 10pm. The buffet was amazing. They had this incredible brown bread that they bake in steam ovens heated by the geothermal pockets in the ground. The bread is dense, moist and sweet. SO good. You eat it with Icelandic yogurt sauce, pickled herring or smoked salmon. And the smoked salmon here is absolutely delicious. I tried Gravlax for the first time, which is basically just smoked salmon with herbs and spices on it. The pickled herring was also very good. Icelandic yogurt is delicious and the only dessert they had was Skyr (the yogurt) with coconut in it and it was incredible! I would have eaten it at every meal if I had ever seen it again.
Anyway, after the trip all the roads taking us home were closed due to weather so we had to take a rather extreme detour to be returned to Reykjavik that night. We did not stop to try and see the northern lights because it was so late and the roads were terrible. Our tour guide happened to teach geology and so she had lots of fun facts for us on the way home. She probably could have talked the entire 2 hour ride back but she got wise to the fact that we were all entering a food coma and stopped lecturing about volcanoes about an hour in. She definitely knew her stuff. She had seen the northern lights many times and talked about the most spectacular times she had seen them. I really didn't want to hear it. I wanted to see them so bad and I knew we weren't going to that night, so it felt cruel to hear about someone else's Best Of compilation, when I don't even have a debut album to work off.
It was blissful to arrive back at our hotel that night. We had our biggest road warrior day ahead of us and knew we needed to be up early. We crashed almost immediately.
*Kristen and I had decided that to save money we would bring some snacks with us. Food is very expensive in Iceland so we thought we could probably get by just eating breakfast and lunch from the stuff we brought and figuring out dinner on our own. Well, we had this generous baggage allowance and so we decided to just bring an extra suitcase and put snacks in it. We filled an ENTIRE suitcase with bars, bags of almonds and walnuts, 3 different kinds of jerky, freeze dried fruits and vegetables, and more. It was slightly out of control, but I tell ya, I don't regret it. It was kind of hilarious heading out each day and bringing a big pink suitcase with us to load into the car with our backpacks and things. I'm glad no one but us knew what was actually in it.
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