Rocking the Golden Circle

By Johnny

In the morning we woke up at a bright and early 8:30 to go get breakfast and catch our tour bus. For breakfast we went to a lovely little bakery/restaurant called Sandholt. After breakfast we went to our bus stop and waited in the pouring rain for our little tour bus. After about 20 minutes we boarded and made our way to our first destination, Pingvellir, the canyon where the tectonic plates of North America and Eurasia split which also happened to be where the Parliament of Iceland was formed. Although it was an awesome view I believe the best thing we saw on the first stop was Abba almost walk into the women’s restroom instead of the men’s. A little fun fact about over here is that they call restrooms “water closets”. After a walk through the picturesque national park, we hopped back on the bus to our second destination, the Geysir Geothermal Field, with Strokkur, a geyser which was beautiful even though it smelled like rotten eggs. After watching it erupt a couple times, we made our way to lunch. We had a way overpriced yet tasty lunch, consisting of wings, lamb soup, and a burger. Fun fact: Gnats are the most annoying bugs ever. After a nice meal we got on the bus and we all took much needed naps. When we arrived for the first time in a while we were able to see the sun! There we spent about 20 minutes taking pictures of Gullfoss, a great waterfall, and we even got a glimpse of a rainbow or two. After boarding our bus, we headed to our final destination called the Secret Lagoon, although it seemed to be not so secret at this point. Grammy and I went into the lagoon for a lovely dip and beautiful scenery. Abba didn’t go into the lagoon with us but took the opportunity to take pictures of us. After our lovely dip we got a snack and drink and got ready for our 1.5-hour bus ride back into Reykjavik. After getting off our tour bus and thanking the guide we decided to get dinner at a lovely restaurant called 73. There Abba got a burger, Grammy got an Arctic Char and I enjoyed a lovely Greek salad. Although the dinner itself was wonderful I believe that the best part of the meal was dessert as we enjoyed a chocolate lava cake and delicious vanilla ice cream with homemade whipped cream.

Grammy’s comments

Getting out of Reykjavik and into the countryside is a must in Iceland. I was struck by the varying landscape—gorgeous soft mountains, lava fields covered with moss, waterfalls, fields with deep rifts formed by the movement of the tectonic plates (North American on the left, Eurasian on the right as we walked through the canyon), traditional farms and pastures, and every so often geysers and hot springs. Since there aren’t many trees, there is not much to block your view. I felt the vastness of the place and the wild nature of much of the country. Our guide, Iceland native Inga, spoke of the “interior” with reverence for its dangers, unpredictability, and beauty. I feel so honored to have seen at least a little bit of Iceland for myself and happy Johnny urged us to make this journey.

Abba’s comments

Johnny and Grammy pretty much said it all. The things that struck me were how little I felt like getting up at 7 a.m. to get ready to go, have breakfast, and catch the tour bus; the weird black volcanic rocks covered with bright green moss that we had seen a lot of from the bus from Keflavik Airport to Reykjavik and saw again from the tour bus; the high peaks in the distance with snow packs and glaciers; falling asleep on the tour bus every couple of minutes, waking up to be tourists, and then falling asleep again; having a nice long conversation about education over coffee with Inga while Johnny and Rebecca were lounging in the Secret Lagoon; and continuing to marvel at the prices of everything in the most expensive country in Europe and possibly the world, but still being really happy to be here.Read more