We left at the dark hour of 8:30am to embark on a day of sightseeing, adventuring, and learning. On our way to the "Golden Circle" (three famous Icelandic sites that can be visited in one day), we stopped at a crater close to Solheimar. We've driven past it a few times, but had never stopped to look down. It was so deep! After spending about 20 minutes climbing around and skipping stones in the water, we hopped back in the bus.
Our next stop was Þingvellir National Park (pronounced Thingvellir). This is an important site in Icelandic history: both culturally and geologically. From 930 AD to the 1700s, the Icelandic parliament and thousands of Icelanders met at this site once a year in the summers to create new laws, solve legal disputes, and catch up with one another. This is also the place where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is clearly visible, the place where the North American tectonic plate and the Eurasian plate are moving apart. Very cool! It made me miss North America, but just a little bit. Flurries fell as we walked around and the sun was shining, making the visit even more... "magical".
Church at Thingvellir and to the right, the Prime Minister's Summer House!
Iceland has mountains. Have I mentioned that yet? :)
Tectonic plates splitting apart... On the left, the Eurasian plate. On the right, the North America Plate.
Saving each other, playing around
After Thingvellir was a stop at the Gulfoss waterfall. The sound of this waterfall was incredibly loud and powerful. The mist from the waterfall had frozen on all the grass, rocks, and paths nearby and made for some beautiful pictures and treacherous walking.
Gulfoss from above
Still alive!
Frozen grass, so cool!
The next stop was Geysir, an area of geothermal geysers and pools. Here we watched two "eruptions" of a geyser and found a geothermal pool that was glowing bright blue- no lights or anything! It was the craziest thing I've ever seen! We also had a bit of fun in the parking lot before getting back on the bus...
Geyser.. I wasn't patient enough to catch an eruption on camera
Glowing blue pool. No lights, I swear!
Me standing next to a "Super-Jeep", a very common site in Iceland
Jordan and Dusty doing what they do best
Ok, by this time it's about 4 in the afternoon. But we're not done yet! We drove to a mountain, hiked to the top, I got scared, we played on the frozen pond on top, ran back down the mountain, and drove to our final destination: Skaholt church. This church has been the Bishop seat in Iceland since about the year 1030 AD! We got a tour from a very strangely sarcastic priest, heard some "ghost" stories about the church, went through a secret passageway, and finally ate dinner! The dinner was amazing and we all ate way too much! Icelandic trout, sweet potatoes, salad, apple cake, and coffee were on the menu.
Skaholt Church at night
I'm not sure what it was about this day that made me really fall in love with Iceland. It could have been the flurries and sunshine in the morning or the ridiculous amounts of fun I had with my group, but something hit me that day. I realized how truly special this place is and that I need to appreciate every moment of my last month here. It's going by too fast...
No comments:
Post a Comment