The next day, we awoke and prepped for our first of two guided tours – The Golden Circle & Secret Lagoon tour. Aside from my friend Amy being extremely smart, she is also very organized. She loves to plan and coordinate adventures when traveling, and especially loves maps.
We were picked up around 8:30am by a bus/van that sat around 15 people. Because the sun never actually set the night before, I couldn’t quite tell if it was actually 8:30am or not. We were met with the shock of my life upon the bus, though. Already seated were 3 American women, and upon talking with them further we learned that they:
-Live in Chicago
-Have children at Matilda’s school
-AND ARE IN THE SAME PRESCHOOL
WHAT!?!?!?!
Basically I had to leave Chicago to find cool mom friends that live in Chicago. What makes it even more insane is that one of these families lives an actual 2 minute walk from us. Needless to say, we had 3 new friends to hang out with during this tour.
But back to the tour itself. The Golden Circle included viewing Thingvellir National Park, Gullfoss waterfall and a Geysir hot spring area.
The national park was absolutely stunning with these rolling hills and wild green grass growing everywhere. We walked along the coast line here and quickly came upon a waterfall. The sun shining through the specks of water created a stunning rainbow effect that felt fake.
A few people even climbed on these rocks to get a better photo. My friends and I realized quickly on this trip, though, though I have a tendency to prioritize fashion over function. This wasn’t always the best for these outdoorsy days, so I stayed off the rocks.
On our way to the geysers, we stopped by a natural hot spring where we saw water actually bubbling out of the ground – bubbling because it was naturally boiling hot!!
I had never seen anything like this before. As mentioned earlier, I was also dressed completely inappropriately for such an adventure, and had to watch where I stepped. I mean, I thought platform Converse were quite suitable….
The smoke coming off of the water is steam given how hot to the touch it is. I really wanted to understand how this was possible. Nordicvisitor.com explains that “Iceland lies across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary point between two tectonic plates, and sits above an area of high volcanic activity known as a hotspot. As a result, this island nation is home to numerous active volcanoes and hot springs.” Our tour guide also explained that Iceland is the only place on earth where seismologists can study the tectonic plates above ground.
Next up were the geysers. The word geyser itself is Icelandic, meaning “to gush”. We Americans may also be saying it wrong, as our tour guide kept pronouncing it “gay-ser” rather than “guy-ser”. There were a variety of geysers of all sizes at this location, some active, some dormant. It wasn’t long before we saw one go off, and I even caught the big one on camera!
Some people actually got soaked from it. Thank goodness I wasn’t standing where they were, I was wearing Versace…
It was then time for lunch. Our Golden Circle tour guide drove us to Fridheimar, an Icelandic greenhouse and restaurant. The family that started Fridheimar produces 40% of the tomatoes grown in Iceland. Most items on the menu are also tomato based, including the alcohol!
Our final stop on the tour was to the Secret Lagoon. To be honest, I don’t really know what was so secret about it. And now I wonder if I should be talking about it on this blog, since it’s supposed to be a secret?
We had to shower before putting on our swimsuits, and then into the natural spring we went. By this point of the tour, we were hanging out more with our new American friends, and sharing beers and stories with each other.
This was also the day we decided to be triplets in our cool matching swimsuits. I know you’re jealous.
Once again, I couldn’t get over how naturally warm the water was. I had to get out at certain points to cool off, just like it was a hotel hot tub. It was really mind blowing, and it sure made the beers that much tastier (and effective).
At the end of our tour, we made a plan to meet back up with our new friends after dinner. I had booked us at a brewery/meat restaurant for this particular evening, but it was underwhelming. We were surrounded by many young drunk males who kept stumbling past our table. Which reminds me, our tour guide mentioned that Iceland has a high alcoholism problem related to the sunlight messing with people. This made perfect sense to me because we finished dinner around 9:00pm and were again shocked at the bright sunlight.
We bar hopped a bit before we met up with our new friends. This photo is from a bar that looked like a library – there were books covering every wall!
We then settled at a bar near our rental where our new friends quickly joined us. All of us had to rely on our cell phones to keep us honest about the time. We tried to be adults and send ourselves home around 1:30am, even though the sun had other plans.
And that’s a wrap on Day 2! Next up on Day 3 is the Blue Lagoon, one of my favorite days of the whole trip!
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