Despite the alarm going off at 8am, we didn’t get out the door until after 10am because that’s just who we are as people. Our first stop was Geysir, a geothermal area in the Golden Circle with hot springs, bubbling geysers, and one decent sized geyser that went off every 5 to 10 minutes. It went off as we were walking up and seemed fairly high, but once we got up close we noticed it was mostly leftover steam. Once the super-hot water hit the super cold air it almost instantly turned into snow/ice and never got up very high. It was kind of cool, in a literal sense. After grabbing a bite to eat we continued on to Gullfoss Falls, which are HUGE and very frozen. Then we made the icy road trek west to Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, and drove through the park and looked at the glaciers and mountains. Then we stopped at the main visitor center and walked between two tectonic plates leading down into the valley to a large frozen lake. It was getting dark by that point, so we made the kinda dangerous trip back towards the hotel. We were both getting hungry again, but dang food is EXPENSIVE here. The cheapest I’ve seen for a hamburger is almost $20, a toast and oat meal breakfast is around $12, a can of pop is around $3…it’s crazy. We went across the street to a local restaurant but they wanted $80 for a meat slice buffet, so we walked down the street to Subway and got something more substantive for far less. I actually managed to stay awake until a reasonable bedtime today, so we’ll see how I sleep tonight!
Iceland – Day 4
