Iceland Day 2 - Travel Photography

To be honest, we may have done too much yesterday. I was so tired last night and I slept in this morning. Today ended up being a great day but we definitely took it easy after the marathon of yesterday (it is looking like Saturday will be similarly busy so get ready for another lengthy blog post like the last one).

Reykjavik

We began today in the world's northernmost capital city, Reykjavik. After lunch (I slept in that late) we walked around the city aimlessly and found some cool things on the way in terms of architecture and sculpture. I still cannot get over how beautiful this city is. I cannot imagine waking up every day and seeing this kind of landscape. We also ended up in the National Museum of Iceland (sorry no photos allowed) which is where we got to see a great exhibition on the history of Iceland.

Blue Lagoon

Right when we started to feel like Iceland might actually be on earth and is not actually some alien world, we went to the blue lagoon. Other than being totally awesome and warm (these last few days have made me question the existence of warmth with a nice throwback to winter) it really looks like it cannot possibly exist on this planet. Water isn't that color, rocks don't look like that and, to top it all off, you drive for 40 minutes across land that can only be described as lunar to get there.

Iceland Day 1 - Travel Photography

We arrived in Reykjavik very late and ended up sleeping in our rental car because we screwed up our hostel reservation. It was certainly better than nothing but not much since the sun only really sets for around 3 hours this time of year here.

Our first day was extraordinarily busy and we ended up hitting a lot of the major things to do, the names of which are incredibly hard to remember because they are all in Icelandic.

Hallgrimskirkja

Because we did not sleep much, we were out and about around 8 A.M. We grabbed breakfast at a bakery downtown then set out for Hallgrimskirkja, the tallest building in downtown Reykjavik. It also just so happens to be a church. The trip to the top of the belltower was a little cramped in a tiny elevator but the view was certainly worth it.

Thingvellir

After our trip to the top, we decided that today was a good day to do the 'Golden Circle,' a three hour loop around the southwest of iceland with stops at many of the famous natural landmarks in the country.

First up was Thingvellir, the site where the North American and European plates meet (actually they are pulling apart from each other, making it possible for Iceland to exist). Essentially, when tectonic plates pull apart, they cause magma to be pulled towards the surface where it may or may not create a lot of volcanoes. In Iceland, that is the reason why it is has only existed above the water for 8 million years. 

The park itself was very easy to get to and the hikes to the different interesting parts of the park were very easy and short.

Geysir

Next up (after a long lunch detour) was Geysir, an active geothermal area around 40 minutes from thingvellir. This is where the name 'geyser' comes from even though the original Geysir now only goes off after earthquakes. There is still the Strokkur geyser which erupts every 8 minutes or so and is quite large as well.

Gullfoss

This was definitely the highlight of the day for me. This waterfall is really too much for words to describe so photos will have to do I guess. If a picture is worth a thousand words, here are 2000 on this waterfall.