We arrived in Iceland on a Monday afternoon and were scheduled to leave the following Thursday afternoon. That left us with two full days and an evening and a morning to manage to do all we thought we wanted to do. Tuesday we devoted mainly to stalking Crossfitters (obviously Cody's idea) and preparing for the crazy New Year's Eve fireworks extravaganza. Wednesday we found ourselves embarking on a driving tour, the Golden Circle tour, that was recommended as a manageable dip into the real Iceland of photographs and movies. We had no idea the adventure that awaited us when we set out in the pre-dawn dusk (10a.m.) of Wednesday morning.
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| The sunrise as Cody pumped gas at a self-serve gas station in Reykjavik at about 10a.m. on New Year's Day. The coming and going of the sun never disappointed. |
We started our Golden Circle driving tour with no gas in our car. Also, since we set out for the inland portion of Iceland on New Year's Day there was hardly anything open. We spent literally over an hour looking for a gas station with working gas pumps and then another good chunk of time looking for a gas station with humans working in it to ask how in the world we actually start driving in the direction of the tour. At the time, we had no idea how much the gas cost exactly because we are ignorant Americans who don't understand liters rather than gallons and kronur rather than dollars. When we got home, we did notice that a tank of gas cost around a hundred dollars. Ouch. We also realized that the Golden Circle Tour that the Internet touted as a very doable self-dive experience was a bit more intense than we imagined.
After asking some convenience store workers for directions that led to an impassable road due to ice followed by asking a Yugoslavian couple with a GPS in their car for help, we finally started on our drive in the right direction. We noted over and over again the lack of road signs in Iceland. We assumed that the most popular tourist experience in the country would be well advertised but it was not. Moments after seeing the last signs of civilization in Reykjavik we were surrounded by mountains and snow. The disparity between the city and beyond was drastic and disarming. The countryside of Iceland was unlike anything I have ever seen and something I will never forget.
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The view only minutes outside of the city.
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The Golden Circle consists of three sites, the national park Pinkgvellir, the waterfall Gulfoss, and the geothermally active valley of Haukadulur, which contains two geysers, Geysir and Strokkur. We drove for what seemed like an eternity before actually making our way to the first stop, the national park. The eeriest part about the whole experience was that there were no buildings anywhere and only the occasional car moving in the opposite direction of us. I had read warnings about the icy roads and we very soon realized that the weather, specifically the wind, was completely foreign to us. At some point our car was literally being blown off the side of the road. There were some tense moments to say the least. If it had not been for the six inches of ice-free asphalt near the shoulder of the road and a kind Irish man in an SUV behind us, we quite possibly could have found ourselves stuck in the multiple feet of snow off the side of the road. It was completely out of control. We were fortunate that all of the roads were not as ice-covered as the most treacherous part. After discussing our crazy driving experience, we heard stories of car doors being blown off by the wind. The wind was for real, my friends. So scary and real.
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| What we looked at for miles and miles or, excuse me, kilometers and kilometers on our drive. |
I will recap the actual stuff that we saw on our tour at some point. I felt like the journey to the actual sites deserved a post unto itself.
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