The Golden Circle// Paris & Iceland, Day 9

Monday, October 9, 2017
Our morning began with a pretty extensive breakfast spread at Hotel Hella.

We backtracked a little bit to see Skógafoss.

For some reason, we thought this was one of the waterfalls that you could walk behind. Francisco walked back to scope it out, but that didn't actually seem to be the case.

However, we were right in that our next waterfall, Seljalandsfoss, offered the opportunity to walk behind it.

Gearing up for a water adventure

It was definitely very wet and breezy behind the waterfall. Francisco recorded our whole journey on his GoPro.

There were a few other planned stops we'd had for that day before we would make our way into Reykjavík, but we realized we might be a bit limited without a 4WD. We'd originally thought we'd save the Golden Circle for the following day, but we realized it might actually work out better to do this now, and we knocked it out easily in half a day.  We essentially ended up reversing our planned itinerary for the next day and starting with Gullfoss, the Golden Waterfall fed by Iceland´s second biggest glacier, the Langjökull.

Next up was Haukadalur, a geothermal area on the Golden Circle. It is home to the famous Geysir, which is dormant and the Strokkur geyser, which erupts regularly - pretty much every three minutes. I probably mistakenly referred to this erupting geyser as Geysir many times in my vlogs lol.  In this area, you will also find the Blesi, a turquoise color hot spring; other geysers, including Sódi, Smiður, Fata Óþerrishola, Litli Geysir (the small Geysir) and Litli Strokkur (the small Strokkur); steam vents; and mud pools.

Strokkur geyser erupting

There was a gift shop and a couple of restaurants across the street here. The Golden Circle is heavily trafficked as it's a very popular tourist route in southern Iceland, looping from Reykjavík to the southern uplands and back, so it wasn't very surprising to see a bit more of this kind of infrastructure here.

Souvenir shot glass; Vegetarian sandwich; Forest berry cake

The Kerið Crater Lake is a stunning body of water surrounded by red volcanic rock.

We walked around the rim to get the full perspective.

Besides Haukadalur and Gullfoss, the other primary stop is the Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park. This is a historic site and national park, known for the Alþing (Althing), the site of Iceland's parliament from the 10th to 18th centuries. The park lies in a rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. 

Þingvellir from the information centre overlook

There is an area here where you can snorkel at the Silfra fissure, the only place in the world where you can snorkel between two continental plates. We'd considered doing this, but I never made the time to order contacts. #blindpeopleproblems

It had started raining during our hike to Silfra, but at least that meant we were rewarded with a full rainbow.

Öxarárfoss was our last stop before heading into town.  It was artificially built in the Middle Ages to provide water at the sacred meeting place of Thingvellir.

We quickly scoped out our airbnb location in Reykjavík just to make sure we weren't going to have any trouble locating it or getting access. Then we headed into town for dinner. I don't think it was just the severe lack of hot meals on the trip that made us fall in love with the food at Gló.

We were a little bit worried when we first saw the Icelandic menu, but the helpful employee we spoke to knew English and walked us through the ordering process. It's kind of Subway-style in that you select all of your ingredients for the bowl, and it was absolutely delicious.

Our airbnb was an adorable, fully-equipped annex. It was a renovated garage that was turned into a small apartment that basically functioned as a guesthouse.  The bathroom was in the front entryway, and the rest of the living space was one large room. The bed was a bit small for two adults, and the shower was a little on the old side, but it was so perfect for our stay overall. And the tap water in Iceland definitely smells like sulfur - it seemed extra sulfury in this residential area. 

Use this link to save $40 toward your first Airbnb trip: www.airbnb.com/c/flopez157.