North of the Wall

"The best way out is always through."

- Robert Frost

The Golden Circle is not actually a circle, and it’s not actually golden.  It’s probably the worst nickname in the world come to think of it.  It’s more of a series of roads that lead to a few of Iceland’s most popular attractions.  There’s the original Geysir from which all other geysers in the world have been named, there’s Gulfoss which is one of the greatest waterfalls in the world, and then there’s Thingvellir National Park which is where you can see the North American plate separating from the Eurasian plate.  We saw all of them including a few other attractions along the way.

Kerid Crater

Our first stop was unplanned.  We pulled into a parking lot to take some pictures, have a snack, and maybe go to the bathroom.  There was a sign that said “Kerid” with an arrow.  Then I remembered the Kerid Crater from some of the research I had done and felt stupid that I’d forgotten about it.  We’d have missed it altogether if it wasn’t for how fast the red bull had gone through my system since the last gas station.  There’s not too much to say about the crater, only that it’s not from a meteorite but from a caved in magma chamber.  Basically the magma underneath the Earth was swelling the surface up into a bulge until it drained and the surface collapsed into a crater.  Very much like a sinkhole in the southern United States, except here it was magma and not water.  Anyways, it took us 20 minutes to walk around the rim and take pictures before we continued on.  When we had arrived the sun was breaking through the clouds and when we left it was a full on blizzard.  That’s Iceland in February.  We would get very used to it.

Geysir

The original “Geysir” is not very active anymore.  From what we were told, it used to go off regularly, kind of like Old Faithful in Yellowstone.  Now it goes off at random intervals that are hard to predict and pointless to wait for.  Its sister geyser is named “Sokkur” and she is more predictable.  Nowadays Stokkur goes off once or twice every ten minutes and steals the show.  We saw her go off at least ten times as we walked through the geothermal fields on our second stop of the Golden Circle.  Old Faithful is more impressive but Stokkur is more frequent.  I recommend it for the impatient geyser hunter.

Gulfoss

So we came to Gulfoss (meaning the Golden Waterfall).  I read somewhere that it’s debated as the greatest waterfall in the world.  I don’t know who has the time to debate a waterfall’s greatness compared to another’s but I will agree this one was great.  Unlike some other great waterfalls I’ve seen, this one has formed from a fracture in the Earth’s crust and its subsequent flooding.  There are a few different drop offs that lead down into a final canyon where the Olfusa river continues.  “Olfusa” is actually spelled with a bunch of dots above the O and slashes above the A, but I don’t have the motivation to find those characters on my computer.  Call me American.

Being winter, it was surrounded by sheets of snow and ice, giving it a dangerous but beautiful feel.  Every time I see a waterfall like Gulfoss I can’t help but wonder how painful it would be to kayak down it, and how scary.  Just the deafening sound of the rapids would be enough to give most people a heart attack.  The power of nature is unfathomable.  We had a nice British man with obvious photography skills take our picture above the falls and then we left over the icy walkways.

Thingvellir National Park

Last stop on the golden circle.  This is where you can actually see where North America is separating from Europe.  Having been a geology major in college this was like standing on holy ground.  The fissures that open up along the boundary are craggy and deep, some of which you can actually walk through.  Out of all the places that have looked like mars in Iceland this was the most marsy.  We got there as darkness approached and so there weren’t many people there besides us.  Looking out on all the nothingness that surrounds the national park was humbling especially in the dark blue light that blankets Iceland in winter.  We stayed for awhile after it became completely dark hunting for the Northern Lights, but as our luck would have it, clouds pushed in and it began to snow.  Again, we’d missed them.  The weather so far in Iceland has not cooperated one bit.  We’re beginning to think the country doesn’t like us being here.

Iceland

"Some people feel the rain, others just get wet."
- Bob Dylan

After a long week of waiting and packing, and an even longer time planning, north we go to Iceland.  The forecast looks ominous this week, but we've been told that the weather in Iceland is never a sure thing, and a 10 day forecast is unreliable.  Here's to hoping that's true!  Our plan is to see the northern lights and overcast skies don't play into those plans.

The lady at the rent-a-car place was informative and nice enough for 7 in the morning, but I could have done without all the scare tactics of driving in Iceland (clearly a ploy to get you to buy additional insurance).  She tried to sell me theft protection.  I read somewhere that Iceland has one of the lowest crime rates of any country in the world.  If I never got my car stolen in Quincy, MA, I think I'm all set in Reykjavik.

Driving in Iceland is surprisingly similar to driving in New England.  You drive on the right side of the road, pass on the left, and street signs and lights are similar.  It's a universal understanding that anything with a red circle with a slash across it is no good.  Yield signs are mostly the same, too, which is helpful through the numerous roundabouts.  Getting used to yellow street lights notifying you of a coming green light was new, but I kind of liked it.  I got driving down pretty quickly in our little 4x4 Suzuki.

After a long nap at our guesthouse we explored Reykjavik.  It was overcast and windy, but we did our best not to let that stop us.  We were happy there was a warm booth to eat hot dogs in.  I think my toppings (and there were many) would have flown off into the Atlantic Ocean had we eaten outside.  Hallgrimskirkja is the famous church at the apex of the city (the one designed to look like a basaltic lava column) and getting to it was like walking on the observation deck at the Mount Washington observatory.  Inside, we sat in a pew and prayed not to be blown into the Atlantic on our way down like hot dog toppings.

My first impressions of Reykjavik were good.  So many places don't feel like they should, but Reykjavik felt like a cold sub arctic European capital.  Most of the buildings are short to protect against high winds, and colorful to protect against depression in the winter, where daylight can be limited to 3 hours.  The people were nice, but standoffish, and everything was outlandishly expensive.  In fact, I would compare Iceland to Switzerland in that respect.  I think they're secretly having a competition to see who can get away with charging the most for a standard main course. 

After exploring the city, we went back to the guesthouse and finished the night off with some Brennivin vodka; also known as "Black Death" to Icelanders, and fell asleep.  Naturally we slept in.  When we woke up we took a drive to Reykjaladur Valley.  Here we took a hike to a geothermal river where the water was flowing at the temperature of a warm bath.  That was all well and good.  The river felt like Heaven on Earth, it was the hike in and out that gave our duo some trouble.  Though it was only a 5 mile round trip, the conditions weren't ideal.  Ice particles were blowing hard in our direction on the way up and against us on the way down; very similar to a day above treeline in the White Mountains.  In between we got wet bathing in the river and had to do our best to dry off quickly and put our clothes back on before freezing to the Iceland ground like trolls caught in the sun.  Anybody from the outside looking in would have found that part particularly amusing.  On the trail, we were surrounded by snow, ice, and steaming water, an unusual combination.  Around the time we got back to the car it was dark.  We took advantage and tried to find a place where the sky was clear so we could see the Northern Lights.  No luck.  The sky was either too cloudy or was too close to Reykjavik for us to see anything.  The Golden Circle awaits us...