Golden Circle

Today I was set to do the Golden Circle Tour. Since it was to leave at 8 and I wanted to catch the first part of the eclipse, I set my alarm for 6:15. Thank god I woke up naturally at 7. I had accidentally set it for 6 pm. So I hustled really fast and was able to grab some breakfast before hoping on the bus where I watched the majority of the eclipse still. I am very glad it was a long eclipse, or else I would have missed it, and it was pretty incredible to see.

The tour was awesome too. My roommate Matt, as well as two other guys from my hostel, Kevin and Justin, went on it too and we all hung out together. It's more fun to share the experiences with people I think. First they took us to one of the greenhouse towns, where we got to check out one of the many greenhouses. Then after some coffee, we all got on the bus to head to the geyser. For an extra treat, our tour guide dropped us off at the top of a volcanic crater (inactive of course) so that we could watch the sun begin to rise.

Eventually we made it to the geyser. This was the second of two, though the first stopped erupting after an earthquake about 20 years ago. Turns out that ones name was Geyser, and it is the one that named all other geysers. After standing out in the open for about 8 minutes, none of us could feel our fingers, but we did get to see the eruption from about 10 ft. in front of us. Of course two minutes after we start walking for the warmth of the cafe we were parked at, it erupted again, about 5 times larger than the one we had seen and photographed. But we were too cold to go try it again.

After the geysir came Gulfoss Falls, or the Golden Falls. This was one of the things I had really been looking forward to seeing here. And it did not disappoint! Several tiers of falls, mostly frozen, plundered down the canyon beside us. And we could walk straight up to the edge of the falls. They were pretty spectacular to see. The river they were on is from the nearby glacier, which was just chilling on the landscape not too far away. This is the glacier I would have climbed, though I am now very glad I didn't. I talked to someone who went on it yesterday, and apparently with the wind chill, it is -40 C. That is just a little too cold for me, especially since I'm using cheap cotton gloves, and only have jeans. I think it would have been more than I could have handled.

Next came the All-thing. This was the earliest parliament sight, forged by the Vikings in the 900's. We got the whole Viking history lesson which was rather interesting, and much appreciated that our tour guide held it from inside the bus, rather than at the All-thing like normal.

Once again, the amazingly hot showers that come in Iceland was much appreciated. I love that they have limitless water, of whatever temperature you dream of!