Ice, Ice(land), Baby

Iceland was the first of many whims along this grand adventure of mine. Way back in April, when I was pricing tickets for this shindig, Icelandair had the best deal for round-trip airfare. As I was booking my flights--the first step in making my pie-in-the-sky travel dream a reality--the website suggested that I extend my hour-long layover into a couple of nights in Iceland, for no additional airfare. Now, up until this point, I had never spared more than a passing thought for the nation with the northernmost capital city in the world. But I'm a sucker for a sale, so I pushed my flight to Frankfurt back a day so I could spend 24 hours in Iceland. Why not?

Since I was only in Iceland for the one day, I decided that the best way to experience it was by taking a day-long bus tour of the famous Golden Circle. So I dragged myself out of my hostel bed after far too few hours of sleep, and hopped on the island nation's only double-decker bus.

Let me start by saying that Iceland is, hands-down, one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. The first thing that struck me was that, once we were out of the city, there was so much wide-open sky. It was the perfect backdrop to the mountains (or in some cases, glaciers) that lay in every direction.

As we trundled along the two-lane road towards our first stop, the tour guide spouted (in charmingly accented English) various facts about the sights that we were seeing, causing me to flash back to my campus tour guide days. Some of my favorite facts included:

- The colorful doors we were seeing in many of the rocks at the base of the first mountain were for use by the elves, or the Hidden People of Iceland.

- Iceland has only one breed of horse, and they are extremely careful to keep it that way. The unique thing about Icelandic horses is that they have 2 special gaits, distinct from the standard walk, trot, and gallop, for a grand total of 5 gaits.

And...

- Iceland's largest industry (in terms of both employment rates and foreign currency collected) is--drum roll, please--tourism. The irony was almost too much for me to handle.

Anywho, we got to stop number one, at which a tomato farmer showed us his techniques for growing tomatoes (as well as cucumbers) in a greenhouse year-round.

Thirty minutes later, we arrived at stop number 2: a geothermal area, home to Strokkur, Iceland's most famous active geyser. (Side note: the word "geyser" comes from the name "Geysir," which is what Icelandic settlers named the first one that they came across, which, incidentally, was the island's largest when it was still active.)

After the obligatory five minutes of standing in the crowd, pointing my camera at the geyser to catch a video of it erupting, I struck out on my own and explored the pools and the hills in the area. It was exhilarating, being up at the top of the hill, and looking for miles in all directions, the wind whipping around me (occasionally causing me to fear that my big trip would end on day one with me tragically falling to my death at the bottom of the ravine).

Stop number three was the Gulfoss waterfall. (It's actually a double waterfall, but you can only see the upper in the picture here.) It falls from level ground into a deep valley (more like a canyon, really). It was pretty spectacular, especially up close and personal.

The fourth stop was the one that I was most excited for. I'd splurged an extra 2900 Icelandic Krona (about 25.30 US dollars) for the ticket to Fontana wellness center, which features some of Iceland's famed geothermal baths. When we first got there, they showed us how they bake bread using the hot springs, by burying it in the hot sand right next to the spring.

Then I hopped in one of the baths and enjoyed the view of the lake, which was about 2 feet away. And then I decided, what the heck, I'm only in Iceland today. So I hopped in the lake.

And then hopped right back out. Because that lake was apparently not even slightly heated by the hot springs. I returned to the geothermal baths and resumed gazing at the lake, ignoring the snickers of my fellow bathers.

After dozing a bit on the bus (the jet-lag and general lack of sleep were hitting me hard at this point), I blearily stumbled around for the half-hour we spent at our final stop. The scientist in me perked up, because this stop is where you can see the rift between the European and North American tectonic plates, which are pulling apart. The fissure grows approximately one inch wider every year. Here's a picture of me with the European plate in the Background.

Then the bus dropped me off at my hostel. It was at that point that I noticed the hostel I had chosen was directly across from the Icelandic Phallological Museum. (Unfortunately it was already closed for the day, because I'm sure I could've written an entire post about that place alone.)

Then I walked 20 minutes down the road to meet up with a family friend, who just happened to be in town with friends on a day-long layover on the exact same day as me! (We became aware of this fact when my mother saw on Facbook and immediately messaged the both of us.) The odds still astound me.

So we grabbed a drink at the hotel bar (I sampled a local beer that I can't remember the name of), and then we wandered up the main shopping road in search of a place for dinner. We settled on a table for four at Le Bistro, where we were talked out of sampling a local specialty (rotten shark...even the waitress insisted it was disgusting), and I settled on the slightly less adventurous lamb stew (lamb is another Icelandic specialty). Apparently, in my 3-plus years of vegetarianism, I had forgotten how much I dislike lamb.

Dessert more than made up for it, though. I got the sampler (because Lord knows I can't make a decision when it comes to dessert). It came with a café au lait, a small chocolate mousse, a mini Skyramisu (tiramisu made with Skyra Icelandic yogurt), and a mini créme brulée. All I have to say is YUM.

Iceland, I'll be back. Next time, it's just for an hour stopover on my way home. But you can be sure that the time after that, it'll be for more than just a day.