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!
Everything I planned to do today didn’t open until 10am, so I slept in and got my coffee and eventually got out the door towards Ginza station. I stopped right outside to see a Godzilla statue, which was actually tiny and he totally skipped arm day. Then I hopped on the train to Akihabara. The first stop was the Gundam Café, where I got a super delicious strawberry chocolate latte, it tasted like strawberry yoo-hoo heated up and with caffeine. The inside was pretty neat too, with larger Gundam figures and a menu dedicated to all the various characters from the different series. On my way out I got a lemon raspberry concoction in a Duo cup because Duo is my favorite.
From there I headed into Electric Town, and I was only supposed to be looking but I ended up shopping and spending more money than I intended buying stuff that I probably don’t need but man it’s so cool! I was planning on catching the sunset again, but decided to shop more and lose money on those cheating (but fun!) claw machines instead, and then gradually made my way over to Shinjuku. I wandered around the Shinjuku night time chaos for a while then tracked down their Christmas light walking path which was kinda substandard in my opinion. After a couple quick pics I got back on the train to Shibuya and walked to their blue light walking path which was AWESOME. They had those neon electric bright blue lights leading from the train station all the way to the Yoyogi Park entrance which lit up the entire area in an eerie blue color. Then they put a shiny path on the ground to reflect the light up more. It was all really cool looking. At the end of the path were a set of 100 year old bells, and there were four ropes which you were allowed to choose and pull one of them. The ropes would at random, from what I could tell, ring one or more of the three bells. Whichever one(s) ended up ringing meant you had good fortune in those areas. So if you rang all of them you were the luckiest person, in theory. I pulled a rope and one of the smaller bells rang so I asked the guy what exactly that meant, and he said the bell that rang was one for good fortune in school and studying, so I should be looking forward to education and learning in the future. I was satisfied with that, guess I should actually claim and start on that TEFL class I bought on Groupon back in September!
After walking through the lights I headed back to the hotel to drop off my bags. There were only a couple things left on my to-do list while I’m here, both food related: eat shabu-shabu and actually try some matcha ice cream for once. I hunted around for an ice cream store, but even though it felt like there was one on every corner before, I couldn’t for the life of me find one now. So I gave up on that and went to a shabu-shabu restaurant and ordered a meal combo…and oh hey matcha ice cream was an option for dessert! So I crossed both of those items off, the shabu-shabu was delicious but I don’t think I’m a fan of the ice cream. I mean, I still ate it all but I don’t think I’d order it again. After all the walking around my feet were hurting so I went to my room and soaked in the tub for a while.
Today was my last full day in Japan, tomorrow I’ll have the morning to take care of some errands and do a final pack of my bags then it’s back to the U.S.A. I don’t wanna…
