Icelandic Road Trip Diaries: The Golden Circle

Icelandic Road Trip Diaries: The Golden Circle

• June 2, 2015

Joe Fresh Faux Leather Moto Jacket (similar), Gap Black Overalls (similar), Red Oversized Plaid Flannel c/o Sheinside (similar), Timberland Burgundy Authentics (similar)

After finally getting some shut eye after the day that never seemed to end, the ten of us headed out of our hostel and toward the Golden Circle. The Golden Circle is a popular route that tourists take, featuring a bunch of beautiful landmarks conveniently close-by to Reykjavik. We figured, since we were tourists, there was no way we were going to pass that up; also, it was relatively on our way toward southeast Iceland.

Our two cars accidentally split up once we left the city center and my group ended up taking a good number of detours before getting to our first stop. I mean, if you're going to be as ridiculously good looking as Iceland, even the most mundane things make you want to stop and even the smallest mountains make you want to run to the top.

Eventually, we made our way to the first stop, which was Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, shown above. It features a rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Adlantic Ridge, which is where the Eurasian plates and North American plates separate. So I was pretty much in both Europe and North America at the same time, which was what I got out of it. It's pretty geologically breathtaking as well when you realize the majority of the ridge is underwater. So the ridge was pretty much like, "Ayo, Iceland, I'm coming up...just for you bro."

After taking a quick pit stop at Efsti-Dalur II for some incredible homemade ice cream and some horseplay (har har), we reunited with the other car and made our way to Strokkur Geyser. Strokkur is one of the largest and most famous geysers in Iceland, erupting up to 40 meters every 5-10 minutes. My favorite one was the "Little Geyser" though because, even though it didn't erupt half a meter, it tried ever so hard to keep bubbling and bubbling. It's the effort that counts. Also, it's the smell that counts, because no matter what the size, every single geyser had the beautiful smell of sulfur. Strong, egg-like, sulfur.

Our last stop of the day was Gullfoss, which translates to Golden Falls. It's known for it's sheer power due to the multiple directions the waterfall flows before it finally crashes down and vanishes into the depths of the earth (which is the craziness going on behind me). Back in the day there were even talks of using it to generate electricity when it was privately owned, but now it's protected by Iceland.