Iceland Day 2
For our second day in Iceland, we went around the Golden Circle to see lots of natural wonders. Our first stop was Kerið crater, a giant crater created by the collapse of volcanic rock. It was beautiful and cool. The tiny yellow, pink, and teal dots are Leah, Molly, and Jen.
We then headed to Brúarhlöð, a beautiful canyon flowing with water. Most of the places around the Golden Circle had crowds, but this was a hidden gem with hardly any people there.
These two sisters always get along.
See...
We then headed to the biggest waterfall we'd see on our trip (and we saw a lot of waterfalls) - Gulfoss. Gullfoss is huge, and very popular. Tons of people, but the waterfall is spectacular. Be prepared to get wet if you go to the closer vantage points.
Our next stop was Geysir. Geysir is the original geyser that the rest take their name from. It's dormant now, but still steaming.
Strokkur, right next to Geysir, goes off every 8 to 10 minutes. I got a nice burst of photos of it going off.
Then we moved on to Þingvellir National Park. It's is a beautiful park with lots to see. This is a view overlooking the landscape from the visitor center.
A fun thing to do in Þingvellir is to walk the continental divide. The North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are pulling away from each other here, and you can walk in between them.
After that, we continued exploring Þingvellir, checking out Öxarárfoss - a beautiful waterfall.
After Þingvellir it was getting late, but we had to squeeze in one more waterfall. Þórufoss was the most hidden gem we hit. Beautiful waterfall, but not a soul around the entire time we were there.
Molly tried to hold super still for this long exposure.
Then we headed back to Selfoss to turn in for the night. But not before a very late dinner. Icelanders are very proud of their hot dogs, called pylsur, and you can find them everywhere. We ate them a lot, including from gas stations. Our first experience was at Pylsuvagninn in Selfoss. The normal preparation is with both fried and raw onions in the toasted bun as well as ketchup, then the hot dog on top of that, then mustard on top (which is a bit more like honey mustard, but not all the way to how sweet American honey mustard is). I also got the potato salad hot dog, which has potato salad. Molly got their deluxe dog, which had french fries, garlic sauce, and cheese under the dog.
It was a fantastic day, but the adventures only got bigger as the week went on.
Table of contents for the whole trip
