New Thing #87 - Iceland - Day 3 (Golden Circle)

Friday, October 28, 2016

After a restless night, we were up at 6:30 to get ready for our day. Surprisingly, the hostel was bustling with activity that early in the morning, so it's a good thing we showered the night before. The one drawback to our hostel was that each floor (with 5 rooms of people) only had a single use bathroom that included the sink, shower and toilet. So, taking showers and/or trying to brush your teeth was winner take all.

The hostel breakfast didn't sound appealing or filling, so we ate some of our snacks we brought, and headed down to the main office to await pick up for our first day tour. Only being in Iceland for a few days in the winter drove us to taking pre-scheduled tours versus doing our own driving. I didn't feel like going through the hassle of renting a car, worrying about gas, etc. I just wanted to enjoy the ride and have someone else brave the elements for us.

Ready to explore the Golden Circle!

Our pick up at 8:00am was right on time, and we were the first ones to board. That gave us the opportunity to pick the front seats, so we were always the first ones off the bus throughout the day. It also gave us a close up view of our tour guide Sverrir (not Sven like we originally thought), who was a delight. Iceland's tour buses are great because they pick you up at your place of lodging, rather than having to take a cab to a meeting point. They just build the time in for pick ups into the day's itinerary.

We settled in to watch the sun rise (in the winter, the sun doesn't rise before 9:00am), and the views were spectacular. There was a layer of snow on the ground and in the mountains, and I'm glad I didn't have to drive. No idea how our bus driver made some of the trip.

On the road again.

Good morning, beautiful.

Around 35 degrees Fahrenheit, so not too terrible.

We stopped for a quick bathroom/snack break and this was in the parking lot.

Our first stop was the Kerið crater. (Do not ask me to pronounce any of the places we went. I will fail. So don't do it.) It's a 3,000 year old volcanic crater lake that is known for its red volcanic rock, but I had no idea of that until I just went to write about it. Sverrir never mentioned anything about red rock, and it's clearly not visible in the photos. We didn't spend very long here, but managed to get a few photos as it began to snow.

I am the worst at selfies. Why do I always look so disenchanted?

Not sure why we were squatting, but I think the lady taking our photo told us to.

Just starting to snow!

Just some Icelandic mountains. No big deal.

I have no idea the name of the first waterfall we stopped at, but all I know is that the parking lot and sidewalk down to view it was a solid sheet of black ice. My hiking boots did fantastic the entire trip, except for this small patch of ice. I was like a baby deer learning to walk. It didn't help that the tour bus full of little old ladies managed just fine.

The only photo I got with the zoom on the turtle.

The next waterfall was much better, in every way imaginable. Gulfoss Waterfall is "yuuuuuuge". The Hvítá river is wide as hell when it stairsteps down a few times to create the beheamoth waterfall you see below. We started with a snowy walk up at the top to get a few photos, but the wind had kicked up quite a bit, and it was downright frigid up there.

Afterwards, we headed down some damn slippery stairs to get more views close to the bottom. We could have gotten even closer still, but we were restricted on our time, and I didn't think we'd get down there and back to the bus in time. Besides, we were content to just stand and gape at the raw power of Mother Nature churning away in front of us. Eventually, we took the stairs of death back up to the bus and awaited all the slow pokes to get back on with us. Sverrir had been pretty adamant about arriving back to the bus on time, and he wasn't afraid to shame anyone who didn't comply. I was totally on board with that. I hated waiting for all the slow people to get back.

Our next stop on the tour was the geothermal area of Haukadalur, home to their famous Geysir and Strokkur geysers. Geysir is actually the first geyser known to Europeans and where the term geyser originated from. It's about 10,000 years old, but is mostly dormant now. We instead went to see Strokkur, which erupts pretty frequently, and we were able to catch numerous eruptions.

Actually translates to "the little geyser". So cute!

Iceland has capitalized on its fame, and they have a tourist center right near the hot springs, where you can get food and souvenirs. We hadn't had a chance to buy our own groceries yet, so we settled for some tomato and basil soup, hot ham and cheese sandwiches, small salads and a cookie for about a billion dollars. Seriously, Iceland is expensive. At least it was pretty good food (that soup was to die for). We had more time to kill before we had to be back on the bus, so we perused the souvenir shop, but as soon as I started converting the krona into dollars, I said hell naw. And I'm a sucker for souvenirs. I think Ang ended up getting a handful of magnets and a bell and her total was around $70! So, buyer beware. Make sure you have an app that converts the money for you, so you know how much you're spending.

Yum!

Meh.

Random painting in the restaurant. Looks like he's checking out his own bicep.

Sverrir!

Full bellies and a warm bus. :)

Our final stop of the day was Þingvellir or Thingvellir, a national park of great significance for the people of Iceland. Not only is it where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates collide with the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (thank you Wikipedia), but it's also the site of the first Icelandic Parliament, held in 930 AD. The continental drift between the two plates is pretty visible in all the cracks and canyons, and we were told that the lake in the middle (Iceland's largest lake) offers scuba diving and snorkeling for visitors. (Our plane buddy, Jess, was going to go snorkeling here today.) They provide you with wet suits to stay warm, but I can imagine even those don't keep out the cold entirely. Can you imagine how clear the water is and how interesting the lake floor would be? Too bad scuba diving terrifies me.

My hat kept my head toasty warm.

Site of Iceland's first parliament more than 1000 years ago.

Absolutely beautiful up here.

The views were absolutely breathtaking and with all the fresh snow on the ground, it was a site to behold. We covered quite a bit of ground today, but I imagine if you do it on your own, you can cover it much more quickly than on the tour bus. A quick 30-35 minute ride back to Reykjavik and they dropped us back off at our hostel. Since we had spent a small fortune on lunch, we opted to head to the grocery store for dinner and to pick up a few supplies for meals the rest of our trip.

Food at the store was still pretty expensive, but at least we had better control of what we bought. Some bread, ham, cheese and chips for dinner, and yogurt (skyr), along with some cookies and drinks. We were planning on some sweet PBJ sammies to get us through the rest of our trip.

I love the street names.

A damned fancy way of saying "ham".

After a quick dinner, and repacking for the next day, we headed back out for our northern lights tour. This right here was one of the main reasons I picked Iceland. Of course it has a billion other reasons to go, but the NL have been on my bucket list for ages. And Iceland was cheaper than Norway or Finland and much cooler than Canada (sorry Canada). Anyways, back to our trip. Our voucher hadn't really been clear on what time pick up was, so fortunately, our earlier guide Sverrir had called and confirmed our 8pm shuttle. This bus driver wasn't quite so ecstatic to see people, but luckily, he was just the pick up guy who took us all to a much larger bus at the bus station. From there, we drove out in to the wilderness to try to catch a snippet of those elusive lights.

I'm super excited for tonight.

Come onnnnnnn Northern Lights!!

I will say that the beginning and nearly all of this tour sucked. From our bland tour guide who put us to sleep with dull conversation on the way out of Reykjavik, to the fact that we literally just went back to Þingvellir where we had been only hours before, and finally because we essentially went to a rest stop. Now, I know we were on a giant tour bus, so we couldn't go out into the arctic tundra, but seriously? Tutka told us the entire time we were driving that in order to get a clear view of the lights, you had to 1) go where it's completely dark, 2) turn off every light including cell phone lights, 3) make sure it's a clear night with little to no clouds or precipitation, and 4) did I mention it needs to be dark?

And what did they do? We pulled off in to what was really just a roadside cafe with 20 other buses (with interior and running lights all on), lights on the damn building and out buildings, and headlights from all the cars driving by. This isn't exactly what comes to mind when they say "go where it's totally dark". Once we parked, they gave us no direction, other than what our bus number was and good luck. So, we walked off the bus into the unknown, trying to figure out just how far we could walk without falling into a giant icy hole or something.

Luckily, I remembered to bring a flashlight (what was one more light going to hurt?), and we tried to walk as far away from the cafe as possible without veering into rougher terrain or onto the road into oncoming traffic. We switched spots a few time, then spent the next 2 hours staring at the night sky trying to keep the blood flowing. Looking back, the number of people there, along with all the bus lights, etc was almost laughable. People (and lights) were everywhere. An hour into our tour, a good majority of the buses left, whether to move on to a new location or back to Reykjavik, I'll never know. Slowly, the number of buses diminished and with them, their running lights. Angela and I persevered though, not once leaving our spot to get back on the warm bus.

I thought about it though. So. Many Times. But Angela's determination kept me outside. She was firm in her belief that we would see them. I had already convinced myself we wouldn't, just so I wouldn't be disappointed, but she had complete and utter faith. A few times we thought we saw the beginning of something behind the mountains and were pretty convinced we were actually seeing them, though they were obscured by those damn mountains. The illuminated night sky gave it away, but it still wasn't clear.

By the 2 hour mark, I figured they were going to wrap it up and call it a night. My body was cold, and I couldn't really feel my fingers and toes anymore, and I was about 3 minutes from getting back on the damn bus. No, seriously, for real this time. And then we heard it. That sweet sweet sound. Someone was screaming. It took a few tries before we could understand her, "GET OFF THE BUS! GET OFF THE BUS! THE NORTHERN LIGHTS! THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!"

We looked left and right and didn't see anything, confused as to what she had seen. But then we saw it. Directly above us. Swirling from left to right, top to bottom. You guys, I can't even begin to describe what we saw. It was truly one of THE happiest, most fulfilling moments of my life. To stand there and see the greens and blues and purples of those lights literally dance across the night sky. It was just.....miraculous.

And FAST! I had no idea they would move that fast. Based on photos I had seen, I just assumed they'd be there one minute, just filling the night sky, but I had no idea they would create such a magical display of rhythm and motion for us. Our necks were killing us, and I still don't know why we didn't just lie down on the ground. It would have been easier to see. But we kept spinning with them, watching one direction to start their dance on one side of the sky and waltz all the way to the other, and then start again at a different spot.

I think I said "OH MY GOSH!" 376 times in those first 5 minutes. There was a brief intermission - if you will - and then another brief 5 minutes of dazzling lights, and then they were gone.

Just....gone.

Two hours of waiting in the bitter cold for less than 10 minutes of lights?

Totally. Worth. It.

I think I went to bed later with a smile still on my face. It's still permanently attached even as I write this a few months later. I know I just typed a lot, but these words in no way can compare to the real thing. You're probably asking where the photos are since I am always taking photos, but it was impossible. I even took the turtle (my fancy camera), but I never bothered to set up the tripod or the camera. Mainly because it was so cold, and my camera probably wouldn't have even worked. Then, everything happened so fast that I didn't want to miss anything setting up a stupid camera. And no, my iPhone wouldn't have worked. You have to have a slow shutter speed to let in all the light, and a stable base to do so, and my excited frantic hands would not have been able to capture it. Looking back, I'm a bit bummed we didn't get photos, but at the same time, I would not have wanted to miss a single moment looking through a camera lens.

This is our "holy crap we just saw the Northern Lights" faces.

I truly am smiling ear to ear under that scarf.

After they were gone, the tour guides quickly herded us back onto the bus for our ride back to the city and to our respective lodging. One lady on the bus asked if we got a photo, and we said no, but the guy behind us piped up to show that he had gotten some fantastic shots. We asked if he wouldn't mind emailing them to us, and he said sure. My biggest regret of the trip is that we didn't get his email as well, because he never sent those photos to us. :(

As we were leaving, Tutka was getting all of our hostels/hotels written down for the drop off plan, and when she came to us, we thought she asked what our name on the reservation was, so Angela told her Heather Jones. She moved on down the line and we heard her asking people the name of their hotel. We had to grab her and tell her that Heather Jones wasn't the name of our hotel, but that was my name. She just laughed and said "there are so many new hotels popping up, I just assumed that's what it was." So, perhaps I should start my own chain of hotels in Iceland. :)

Sleep was a long time coming that night, but it was still one of the best nights ever.