2018年3月22日

Adventures in Iceland - Day 3 - Golden Circle trip

The previous day had us with its snowstorm in the mountains, wind gusts on the beach and long wavy roads, so we planned a trip a little shorter for our 3rd day : the Golden Circle ! It's famous for it's few stops and easy, shorter round trip out of Reykjavik and we could not miss it ! So we left in the early morning once more to make our way for a clockwise turn of the circle.

That night we slept pretty well since our previous road trip got us up and walking a lot and driving got me exhausted, so we were up just a little later that morning for our trip. We knew we'd have enough time for mosts stops as there weren't too many on the Golden Circle we planned to see (only main ones) so we took our time and had a breakfast outing on our schedule. But before that, since both other days had been tiring and we ended up not seeing the Gròtta Lighthouse my friend really wanted to see, we made it our first early day spot. So after a short pit-stop at N1 for a coffee, out we were ! 

(If Chaqwa wants to hire me for their pub pics I'm open for business ! :P ) 


It was still quite windy that morning, and the high tide had came early morning so the walking path to the lighthouse was barely accessible when we arrived, so I stayed on the land while my friend did her best to go see it from up close. Very important is to check the tides before going, because if you are at the light house and the tide is coming up, you might get stuck there with no possible way back until it goes down several hours later. 





Our coffee down and with enough pictures taken, we left for breakfast. 
Just out of Reykjavik, a couple roundabouts north east on Road 1 is a small city called Mosfellsbaer. I had seen on a couple forums and travel websites that the bakery at the road stop was quite a good destination for their treats, so we stopped there in the still quite rainy weather.


I had a good breakfast sandwich along with the same pastry I had the previous day and my friend tested a pastry (the biggest cinnamon bun I have ever seen). It was very delicious ! Another stop I recommend if you are in the area, open early ! Back on the road, our first destination was Thingvellir (Þingvellir) National Park, where you can see the fissure between the North American earth plate and the European one ! 




 


The fissure was so big ! The wall of rocks was incredibly higher than I thought it would be ! It was a nice walk since down the hill, hidden by the gigantic rock formation the wind calmed down, and the sun almost showed itself ! We could go see the Silfra fissure, where you can dive and snorkel to see the pure filtered blue water .... 



And of course, we went to see the cute little remote church ~ <3 




After this nice outside walk, we had for next destination on the circle Geysir, where natural sources of geothermal water blast out from the ground ! So we went our way... 


And surprise, what did we find on the road ? I thought we would not see them at all, even though I had heard of this exact spot and farmer who had issues with his animals being fed too much by tourists and all, but driving to Geysir I saw some people parked on the side of the roads and immediately saw the Icelandic Horses ! I was so stoked I couldn't contain myself. We had seen many the day before, but out of our way or too far from the road to give us an excuse to stop and try to have them come over. The meeting was so special and made me so happy, cue my impossibly derpy faces here ! 




They got so much love and petting from everybody it made my heart so warm ! They had so much free land to run on, and they were the fluffiest, nicest horsies <3 




I wanted to stay there to pet the cute horses for a couple hours, but we had more plans for the day, including seeing more cute animals ! We were leaving to go eat at a farm, Efsti-Dalur II . They make their own skyr, cheese and also meat, and they have a very adorable and rustic restaurant at their second floor where you can check out the cows in the farm ! (So DEFINITELY not vegan friendly, sorry... ) My friend even captured my face of pure bliss looking at the cute cows downstairs while waiting for our meal ~ 


Downstairs at the farm is an icecream (fresh from the farm, thank you cows !) booth, and upstairs is the restaurant. Me and my friend both ordered hamburgers, me with some cheese, and her with some skyr sauce (!). 



When some tour buses started arriving and us being finished with our meal, we left for Geysir ! I would have liked to explore the farm a little bit more, they had a couple other buildings with cows too. But we drove the curvy road to Geysir, and stopped a little in the tourist center, where I got a couple gifts for my family, and my friend fell in love with a very expensive wool cape she ended up deciding not to get. They have a nice restaurant too ! And outside layed the Mars like colorful soil and landscape ~ 



It did smell like egg a little bit, but nowhere near as much as I thought ! The colors were very special, the water was a weird unnatural blue, and people were risking getting hard boiled by standing by the big geyser when it blew up. I filmed the Geyser blowing up, so I forgot to take an actual picture... 



So after a good egg time at the site, we put some gas in the car and headed to Gullfoss, at the absolute end of the opened portion of Road 35. I thought we would get very wet from the drizzle, but it really wasn't bad at all ! Of course, on March 15th the lower path to the waterfall front was not open because of snow and a large accumulation of ice, as well as actual danger of falling in the freezing water. You can hear the roar of it from the parking lot on top of the hill ! 




After Gullfoss, we didn't have a set destination except going home. Would have it been earlier, we would have liked to find the small hot pot in Hruni, but we forgot our bathing suits in the morning, so that was out the question. We planned to come back by road 30 and then catch road 1 in Selfoss, but when we crossed road 30, I saw that a part of it was gravel, and gave up. We ended up staying on 35 (instead of staying on the 37, by which we came from) and after checking up online, my copilot saw a picture of Kerið crater and asked that we stop, which we did ! 


The colors were incredible, even with the dark clouds and rain. We didn't stay long, so it was a little expensive (400 ISK each, used to take care of the site) but you can hike around the crater and maybe have lunch there if the weather is better. 




Our day coming to an end, we headed back home, and with my good luck, back on Hvolsvöllur plateau we got heavy fog in the dark, which was quite scary. and coming out of the mountains, we caught heavy rain on the road up to Reykjavik, where we went our separate ways to our rooms to go pack everything. The next day was our last day ! 

For our last day, we were going to relax my tired driving knee and my friend's ankles into the Blue Lagoon, which I will show you next time ! 

Dahlia

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