Back to the States! Someone made an offer on my condo a while back and we’re closing soon, so I got a lot to do when I get home! For today, we woke up, drank coffee, packed our bags and went by Hard Rock Cafe so I could get my pin. Then we stopped in town near the airport and had some yummy middle eastern food. After gassing up the rental car we dropped it off and checked in at the airport.
Lucky me, I got selected for additional screening. It wasn’t too bad, we waited until shortly before our flight so I just got pulled into a room where my bags and socks and hands were swiped and tested for explosives, then after questioning I rejoined my mom at the gate. The flight home was uneventful, with a gorgeous sunset almost the entire way. I was so tired I didn’t think to get a picture! Oh well…
Photo of me being cooked by an Icelandic troll for attention 🤣
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!
We got up and out the door before the sun rose…which isn’t a difficult thing to do here it was like 10:30am and still dark. We got in the car and drove east into the frozen tundra, up and down glaciers and mountains and valleys until we reached Seljalandsfoss, a huge series of waterfalls off a glacier. We didn’t walk all the way around it since parts of the pathway were solid ice, but it was still really gorgeous. Then we continued east until we got to Skógafoss waterfall, another big one but this one liked to spray people and it was way too cold for that! There was a couple there doing wedding photos and I have no idea how the bride was managing in her sleeveless dress.
In December there’s only about 4 hours of solid daylight, so we were already getting close to sunset. We skipped a couple destinations we were planning that involved a lot of walking and went straight to Reynisfjara Beach, or the Black Sand Beach. This place was really, really cool. A black beach made up entirely of volcanic rocks and ash with gigantic waves that have literally swept people away because they “sneak” up randomly and with a lot of force. We hung out there for an hour looking at rocks and watching the sunset before we decided to wrap it up and start heading back west.
We were going to stop at the Solheimasandur Plane Wreck but it’s like a mile walk off the parking area so we opted not to do that, too cold! We stopped in Hella for an early dinner, and I tried the local lamb shank which was kind of like roast beef in texture, but saltier. It was pretty good! It was pitch black by the time we got back on the road at 7pm and the skies were clear; however, we apparently picked a week where the chance for aurora is low and we likely won’t be seeing it. The gigantic full moon has been pretty awesome though since when it rises and sets it turns an orangey almost red color and it’s super bright when it’s up in the sky. When we got back to the hotel a little after 8pm and crashed, I’m not a fan of the 20 hours of dark here. It makes me tired!
