2 - The Golden Circle

Dear reader(s),

Today we (me and my dad) had a great day again. A few weeks ago we had decided to take a tour around 'Iceland's Highlights' (for tourists of course). This tour consist of driving to three beautiful parts of iceland:

1. Þingvellir National Park
2. Geysir geothermal area
3. Gullfoss waterfall.

We got picked up by the travel agency at 10:05 from our apartment. I have got to say, the service in Iceland is very good. The people are punctual, stay true to their appointments and they are also very friendly. After a 45 minute drive we arrived at the first stop: Þingvellir National Park. I learned yesterday that you pronounce the 'Þ' as 'th'. It is funny to see how strange some of the letters in Icelandic are, I can't understand a single word of it (well, I can say 'yes', 'no' and 'thank you', but that's all). I will probably learn a lot more about the language the upcoming months, probably also at one of the courses I am going to follow at the university here 'Icelandic Nature and Culture Legacy'.

I am drifting off again, I was going to tell you about my trip to the Golden Circle. So, first of all we stopped at the Þingvellir National Park. The first thing I noticed was the amount of tourists. I already knew this was a thing in Iceland since a few years, but it is actually really true: there are so many touring busses. At each stop I saw about 15 of these busses. But I couldn't really judge as I was also one of those people... ;). The view from the viewpoint was stunning. Sadly, the weather wasn't so good today so we couldn't see very far in the distance and it was pretty windy and rainy. The most impressive thing about Þingvellir National Park for me is that you can see how the tectonic plates are being driven apart. You could see how huge rocks had 'splits' and great gaps between them. The Eurasian and North American plates are drifting at a rate of roughly 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) per year. This translates to about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) over the course of a million years. So, it will take pretty long before Iceland is actually 'ripped' apart, luckily.

Then, it was time to move on to the next stop: The Geothermal Valley. As soon as we arrived at this site, we could see the steam rising from

the holes in the ground. This was a pretty amazing site and it felt a bit like standing on the moon, with all those craters. There were quite a few geysirs at this site, but only one of them blew up to about 30 meters high every 4-8 minutes, which was really impressive to see! This erupting geysir is called 'Strokkur'. Also here it was pretty crowded with tourists. Quite a shame how people suddenly all come to one place and make a beautiful nature environment so crowded. But, this didn't spoil the fun: I really enjoyed this place and looking at the exploding Geysir and the other smoking hot waters was really impressive. I would love to come back again.

After an hour of looking at the geysirs it was time to go to the next

stop: The Gullfoss waterfall. This was my absolute favorite. It was only a ten minutes drive to this waterfall from the The Geothermal Valley. As we arrived, we could not yet see where the waterfall was. But after a small walk to the area, this stunning and huge waterfall really made its appearance. It felt like I had arrived in another world. So much water being moved in such a short time is so impressive to see! I read on the information board there that when the water is really flowing very fast, it would be able to fill 60 trucks per second! The weather was horrible at this moment: very cold, hard winds, and rain. But, this didn't bother me. I can just be so amazed about the powers of nature. As I was standing there looking at this waterfall, the only thing I could think about was how powerful and beautiful nature actually is. It is such a shame that some people don't take the time or effort to go out and explore. Just a simple walk in the woods or a park can do a human so much good.

We have just arrived back at our appartment, had some dinner, and now we are going to chill out and watch a movie. I hope everyone will have a great new years eve tomorrow and I wish you all a healthy & happy New Year!

Love,

Camille