The Golden Circle

I'm sure you can understand. But i just can't get excited about my 4,268,735th set of waterfalls as i was about the 1st. Or the highest. Or the most voluminous. But i was actually looking forward to my day tour of the Golden Circle when i was Reyjkavik, Iceland. There was something bizarre about going on a sighteseeing tour in the Icelandic winter. Lest we forget, Icelandic winters have remarkable short days, frequently overcast skies and plummeting temperatures. Not only was i going on this nearly unmarketable tour, pay i was paying damn dear $100 for the "honour" of riding in their bus (a later learned of the horrible intercity transit system).

Right from the get-go, i knew why i was going to like this tour. Henrik, the very Scandinavian/Irish looking 60 year old, whose job it was was to talk about Iceland, loved his job. This guy knew everything. He was somehow connected with EVERYONE in the community and he was definitely "local". I like that. The bus left at the pitch black, 9 am sky. Sun wouldn't fully be up for a while yet. But the first thing on the plan was to do a hike through a canon to get a look a the nature. Do you know how hard it is to see "nature" at night?! But Henrik regaled the crowd of 12 with his stories. We all tried to take pictures in the pre-dawn morning, but it was still really pretty and nice and stuff.

Unfortunately, as the sun tried to really get over the horizon around 11, the clouds won some eternal battle of supremacy over the sun, and snuff out the mighty fireball for the rest of the day. Could have been worse... could have rained or... could been freezing or... 1,000 flying monkeys could have flown out of the mountains and pluck out my eye lashes, one by one or... i could have been without my Henrik. Sweet, sweet Henrik (i mean this in a complete heterosexual manner you realize ["not that there's anything wrong with that" Jerry Seinfeld]). Henrik next took us to the nice, but honestly over-hyped, Gullfoss waterfalls. A few minutes staring at the waterfall and it was time for a $10 bowl of "traditional" lamb soup. Yum!!

And we may have saved the best for last, as after lunch it was off to the

region of Iceland called Geysir, which was famous for (you guessed it) Geysers. The area is still highly active. While it's mildly anti-climatic to see a big white explosion of steam with a backdrop of white clouds, all the pools and steaming pits were still totally cool. And my man, Henrik, was awesome yelling at some of the people for wandering off the path or trying to touch the boiling water or generally being dumb asses. The "little geyser", as it's named, is sort of like Ol' Faithful of Yellowstone Park fame. There are consistent "eruptions" to entertain the tourists. Some of the puffs of steam and fine mist towering quite high into the sky. But keep in mind, the pretty little steaming, blue pools may be tempting, but this ain't the Blue Lagoon, this is 100 degree Celsius water. It WILL burn!!

The tour hadn't wrapped up yet. On the way back to Reykjavik, we stopped at a church. And while the church itself was quite new, the site has had religious significance for nearly a millennium. 4.7 minutes later we headed off, stopping off at a crater that was apparently off limits as the farmer who owned the land liked being on TV and said the tour companies couldn't park there. But leave it to Henrik... And the fun didn't stop there. We passed through a geothermic power station. Amazingly high-tech with numerous interactive displays but i mostly hung out with the workers watching the European Handball finals on the big screen. By the tie we got back into city around 5, it was already pitch black again. So i went to the bar, what else can you do.

There are several companies offering the Golden Circle tour. Some by bus, some by jeep and some by big freakin' tundra buggy. Of course the prices vary. As it is essentially the same tour to the same places, there isn't much difference between the companies. The scenery is pretty and the sights are interesting enough to recommend. But note to self, don't do nature tours in the dead of night.