What in tarnation is going on here, has it been 3 years since my last confession, I mean blog post?, have I been in a fever dream or what.  Not gonna lie, sometimes I enjoy writing and sometimes I don’t, I’ve been in a no travel no writing no funny shit phase but maybe eventually I’ll get this trip written down.  I guess it’s my travel blog and there are no rules and it’s likely nobody will read this anyway so who am I even apologising too for the lack of updates haha.  I’ll get there eventually…..

Today was our final day to see some last amazing Iceland gorgeousness so we had booked a Golden Circle tour which hits up some of the highlights in the south west.  After much reading I decided on Troll Expeditions because the reviews were really great and very consistent.

Pick up for the tour was at 9am but with the short daylight hours it was still dark.  And let me tell you friends, it was frozen nipples cold aka a solid minus 9 degrees.  Whoa nelly it was fresh – and by fresh I mean fuggen brrrrr

The driver was on time, David was a really nice chap with a friendly face and we would learn throughout the day – he had the patience of a saint.  You know there are some bitchy stories to come right…..

Blam Blam Blam Blam “Annoying Tourists on the Bus Alert” Blam Blam Blam Blam

We all know how I love me a tour but we also know I HATE with the heat of a thousands suns annoying tourists, and when a tour and annoying people collide I think we all know it’s very stressful for husband because lack of poker face Lisa kicks in and cannot be tamed.  If I was travelling with girlfriends you’ve gotta know I wouldn’t even try to hide how I felt but since husband has fragile sensibilities I do my best not to harm people. (why won’t he let me be great)

Thingvellir National Park

First up on the tour was Thingvellir National Park.  This is where two tectonic plates are – The North American and the Eurasian plates.  They used to be fairly close but now they are moving away from each other.   Apparently you won’t find many places better to see this kind of massive geographic activity or something like that.  You know me, I just want to look at pretty stuff and can only pay attention here and there.  The name Thingvellir translates to Parliament Plains and it is called this because this is where the Icelandic Chieftains formed their parliament back in Old AF AD.  Okay that’s enough educational stuff from me – use Google like the rest of us dummies if you want to know more.

Also loved Husband’s grumpy face – it really was cold

Ice ice baby

I think this is the two plates bit we are walking through but honestly buggered if I know.  It looks kind of cool but on the bus the tour guide sold it as the plates moving at a rapid rate and I watched the shit out of those walls for a total of 20.5 seconds and Nuthun, Nada, Not a Gawtdamn movement so maybe that bus driver overstated the “rapid” part …….

All I know is the whole Plains area was super pretty, especially with all the snow and ice.

I could hear lots of people whinging about cold fingers and I wanted to shout, it’s Iceland people.  Spoiler alert on the weather is right there in the name idjits!  Get a clue and buy some proper gloves. #thecoldneverbotheredmeanyway #loveaDisneyreference

Cows Ice Cream – nice

We had a quick visit at the We visit the Efstidalur farm, owned by the same family since 1850.  They appear to still farm using traditional methods and cows are their jam, or rather ice cream, on this occasion.  They are famous for their amazing icecream.  Truth be told I felt like this stop on the bus tour was pure economics, trying to drive some business towards the farm but I was ok with it.  I got to pat some hairy coos and husband got to eat icecream on a freezing cold morning.  Can’t really complain about that.

Gullfoss Falls

Now this was so stupendously impressive to see.  It was enormous and really quite breathtaking with it’s half frozen water, lots of different areas to view it’s majesticness.  It was giving off definite mini Niagara Falls vibes.  The loud sound of rushing water was deafening and trying to capture it’s awesomeness in a photo was challenging because you really had to see it in person.  I love half frozen waterfalls so much, they seem to have more visual delight than just pure running water.  I felt that way at Niagara Falls and also at Montmorency Falls in Canada.

So many different angles to view this beauty from.

For someone who claims to be a profesh photographer, that Lisa Kelly takes some really shit selfies tho

After this we stopped for lunch at this clearly built for tourists truck/bus stop that had lots of food court style options.  I don’t know what it is about cold weather but soup was again calling our name but man oh man Iceland food pricing is NO JOKE!!!  We paid $46 for 2 small tubs of soup and 2 cokes.  I never want to miss a food opportunity but Christ on a canoe what is going on here, Iceland’s foodway robbery is making me want to go on a hunger strike until my lotto win comes through.

To help me get over my impending poverty, the tours next stop was the Icelandic horseys (or is it horsies, shrug).  They are pretty darn cute and very friendly.  I am not normally a horse girl but these little chubby guys felt like family friends right from the jump so I was into them big horsey time.

Geysir Geothermal Area

Next up we headed to see a Geysir, or as it’s sometimes called The Great Geysir.  I didn’t think it was great, more like below average if I’m honest. This was a tad underwhelming.  It erupts every 5 minutes up to 35 meters high and that is honestly all I can be bothered to say about that.  Is it a seen one seen em all jaded attitude – why yes, yes it is and I’m ok with that.  Here’s some pictures so I can move on lol.

Kerid Crater

Final stop for the day was Kerid Crater.  It’s a volcanic crater lake in Iceland formed 3000 years ago when the magma chamber of a volcano collapsed or at least that’s what Google says. This event created a funnel-shaped crater with a depth of 55 meters.  I’m not saying it wasn’t cool, but it wasn’t cool haha.

I had seen photos like these online before going…..so yeah I was excited

Annnnndddddddd here is what we saw

I don’t know much but I know those other  photographers be photoshopping the shit out of their photos.  There is some fuckery afoot because what I saw looks like a boil on the ass of the crater world.  I’m probably being a bit harsh but hey that should come as no surprise.

Finally the tour was over and I won’t be giving this a great score.  The Gulfoss Falls were cool but the rest was just a bit ho hum.  Maybe we were spoilt from our 2 day tour to all the major Icelandic moments and everything was going to feel underwhelming after that.  Anyway, we came, we saw, other people on the tour annoyed me, it’s over now.

After a little freshen up at the hotel we decided to go to this little Thai restaurant for dinner which had good reviews and wasn’t going to need me to sell one of Husband’s kidneys to pay for.

I was very impressed with the food and the pricing actually.

On the way home from dinner we walked past a Dick Museum, because of course we did.  What a time to be alive.  Icelandians/Icelandics/Ice people, they really are koo koo karchoo.  A whole museum about a man’s little penis brain.  Of course it was only small……boom tish!!!!

And that’s a wrap on our Iceland adventure.  Such an incredibly unique and breathtaking place.  Husbo and I both agree it’s a must see for everyone and we would definitely love to come back again.  We only touched the surface and hung around the south coast.  I think doing a whole loop would be incredible.  I’m torn between wanting to be there when it is all snowy white again or to be there in spring when everything is green and lush.  We will let the travel gods decide…..

Weather High -1 Low -9 (brrrrr)

Next up…..Berlin baby!