Snorkeling and Waterfalls Galore

 And so begins our second full day in Iceland and the only day that we actually had anything planned on one of our full seven days. Today was probably the day I was most excited for because it was the strangest thing we could've done. Whenever I told people what we had planned, there was always a massive look of surprise usually accompanied with the question, "You can do that in Iceland? What?"

Snorkeling! Along the tectonic ridge line, none-the-less.

I have a thing for earth science. The reason Iceland is so unique is that it is on the mid-Atlantic ridge. Throw in a few earthquakes here or there to really shake things up and you get geysers, hot springs, and lots of other unique natural landscapes and phenomenon. Most of the island is on the Eurasian tectonic plate and the westernmost portion is on the North American plate.

In Thingvellir National Park at Silfra - the first stop on the majority of Golden Circle tours - you can snorkel between the two tectonic plates. The plates are separating (and have been for a short 150 million years), lava cools and solidifies, earthquakes create fissures and canyons, and voila! You have Silfra. It's extremely frigid at 2˚C or 36˚F since the water flows 30 miles underground from Lángjökull glacier, through the Silfra rift, and into Lake Thingvallavatn. Since the water is essentially forced through an underground volcanic filtration marathon and then some, it is perfectly clear when it reaches the crack in the surface with a visibility of up to 100 meters. Side note: This water is also delicious. Fiji Water or Smartwater has nothing on this.

Thingvellir National Park. All very Game of Thrones-esque.

Thingvellir National Park

We procrastinated until maybe 2 weeks before leaving to finally book this one tour. Originally we were going to do an ATV/Golden Circle tour but thankfully I'm slightly neurotic about this stuff and kept finding new links for day trips. And so I stumbled upon Adventure Vikings. So, we canceled the ATV and went for a tour that snorkeled first and then did the Golden Circle. We got picked up from our hostel, had a lovely 45 minute drive through the rain clouds to Thingvellir, and were almost ready to go. Between the people picked up in Reykjavik and those meeting us as Silfra, there were 7 of us so we had a nice intimate group.

I got to re-experience the joys of putting on a wetsuit while most of the other snorkelers went for the more comfortable option of a dry suit - but where's the fun in that? Wetsuits are awesome for people who don’t normally have to wear them. They make you feel like a bit of a badass. Throw in some instructions, a quick overview of the history and geology of Silfra, and an overview of our swim and we were ready to go! Since it is a one-way swim, they space groups out from the launch point so no one is bumping into everyone. This way, I only got kicked by someone’s flipper one or two times.

The water ranges from maybe 2 feet deep to 120 feet, and you are warned not to touch the bottom or the sides. You'll pick up the mud - and even though it will eventually redistribute itself or flow into the lake - you will have officially become "that guy (or girl)" who ruined it for everyone. No one wants to be that person. All in all, we were in the water for about 30 minutes which was about all I could take as I slowly lost feeling in my cheeks and blood circulation slowed to my feet and fingers. Thank goodness for the gloves and booties that came with the wetsuit.



After snorkeling through an awe-inspiring, crystal wonderland, we walked a few minutes back to the van where we would go back to our dry, not breath-constricting clothing and were greeted by some hot chocolate. By this point, it was time to depart for the remainder of the Golden Circle. The rest of the afternoon was just the two of us; talk about a personalized trip.

Thingvellir is a strange sort of place. Icelandic sagas; volcanic rifts; the Law Rock; witch burnings. It meets a number of UNESCO’s criteria for a World Heritage Site.

• Icelandic Saga’s are a well-known thing, right? Well is a pretty popular location.
• It was the meeting site of Iceland’s first parliament (Althing), if you want to call it that. Since 930, the Vikings would convene at the Law Rock (Lögberg) in early June and the laws would be announced. Of course, there was a catch-22. Since they had no form of writing, the Law Speaker was the only person who proclaimed the laws and only announced one-third of the laws each year. So to hear the full list of laws, you have to wait three year and good luck remembering all of it. I’ve bad news for you though – if you want to pretend to be the Law Speaker, the exact location of the Lögberg is missing thanks to Norway. I’m going to blame the Norwegian king Haakon IV since the Icelandic pledged allegiance to him in 1262. Despite this, the Althing continued for another several hundred years, but the exact location has been lost to history. Maybe archaeologists will make a wonderful discover one day.
• It was also the site of Icelandic magic trials. Before it was the cool thing to do in Salem, Iceland had magic trials. There are eight confirmed burnings in Thingvellir from 1667 to 1681. Magic in Iceland had less to do with the devil then it did with magic. Witchcraft, not so much. Runes, herbs, and spell books. Seven confirmed books of magic. (This has nothing to do with classification as a World Heritage Site; it’s just a fun bit of information.)
• As I mentioned before, the landscape is awesome. I’ll let UNESCO do the talking. “The National Park is enclosed by a varied belt of mountains on three sides, featuring grass-covered lava fields, and Lake Thingvallavatn lies at its southern end. This outstanding scenery gives the area its unparalleled value.” Cool, right? I’d have far more pictures if it wasn’t cold and wet, but that was the theme of our trip.

And so begins our journey to the second and third sites of the Golden Circle. Geysir (pronounced geezer, which is arguably more fun) and Gullfoss. In between Thingvellir and Geysir, we had about a 45-minute drive which gave us a little bit of time to descend the wet scale from drenched to soaked (or should it be vice-versa?) and the rain was slowly letting us. By the time we reached the second site, it wasn't so much that it was raining, but more so that we were in a cloud.

Geysir is as much an area of hot springs as it is the now-mostly-defunct king of geysers that their name is derived from. Geysir was the name given to the head honcho of the geothermal field - erupting to a recorded height of more than 150 feet from the Icelandic word geysa, "to gush" - and became the overarching term thanks to curious Europeans during the Age of Enlightenment. Because all the enlightened want to see natural rockets of boiling water that smells like eggs. Nowadays, Geysir erupting is a rare sight thanks to earthquake activity. There is the much more frequent though arguably smaller Strokkur that is a centerpiece of the geyser area that erupts predictably every 5-10 minutes. After a couple centuries of the land being tossed back and forth between owners including European businessmen who tried to make paid admission to the field, the Icelandic government recently became the owners.

The geyser area of the Golden Circle as viewed from above

The focal point of the geysers that would erupt ~50ft

The landscape continues to climb to two little rocky peaks that you can each quite easily and offer a good view of the surrounding area. In our case, the view was the geyser field down below and bold brush strokes of thick gray clouds. The difficulty was trying not to get blown off during the insane gusts of wind. The two other girls at the top were convinced we were going to get blown away and kept telling us to be careful.


The final stop was Gullfoss, one of Iceland's most iconic landmarks. The three step waterfall plunges 105 feet, narrowing to 65 feet as if descends into a crevice obscured from view, seemingly disappearing into the earth. Once again, the Icelandic made a good decision to not build a hydroelectric dam here. There are a good number of viewing areas that you can wander around and gain different perspectives of the waterfall and peek into the gorge down below. If you climb the steps, there is a visitors area that looked like it had bathrooms, restaurants and such -- we only had a half hour or so, meaning we didn't have proper time to explore the ins and outs.

The full view of Gullfuss

Plunging into the gorge

Gullfoss' first step

At the end of our time here, we were pretty much soaked to the bone and ready to go back to the warmth of the hostel in Reykjavik. Hopping back in the van, we asked our guide to turn up the heat in any attempt to dry and enjoyed the view for the drive back. The sun sort-of finally poked its way through the clouds for a departing glimpse of sunlight that would have to sustain us for the several days.

When we got back with a nice warm shower in our hostel, we took some time to relax and headed out to grab dinner and hang out. Our guide for the day told us there was a World Cup 2020 qualifier with Iceland playing Turkey. Since the Euros that summer and Iceland's miracle run to the quarter-final, they have been the favorite child and everyone was flocking to the bars to watch. They ended up winning 2-0, with the entire bar participating in the Viking Clap to celebrate. Spending time at a bar when the entire crowd is fully engaged with the game -- a mix of tourists and locals -- is an experience that shouldn't be skipped.