Excursions/the cool things I've done!

So since being in Iceland I have done a lot of things. When I arrived here with my parents we got to see some of the city and do a few excursions. Our first excursion was the golden circle where we got to see where the original parliament was, called Þingvellir, which was established around 930. Then we saw Gullfoss a really big waterfall and ate lunch there. From the waterfall the glacier Langjokull could be seen in the distance. Next we went to a geothermal active area where the geysers are. We saw the first geyser, called Geysir although it is now dead. Instead a geyser called Strokkur erupts about every 5 minutes so we got to see that go off a bunch of times. Then it was time to head back to the city, although our tour guide let us stop to pet the Icelandic horses. They are so cute and everywhere in Iceland. There are over 100,000 horses in Iceland, and over 300,000 people, so that means there is one horse for every 3 people in Iceland. 

The next day we did a south shore excursion (15 hour day!), and this was my favorite so far. We first visited this amazing waterfall Skogafoss. You got to stand close to the bottom of the falls and feel the mist on your face and hear the water thundering down. There was also a rainbow by the falls, and the waterfall was surrounded by exceptionally green grass. We drove for awhile and got to see the amazing Icelandic landscape. We could see the ocean, mountains, cliffs, volcanoes, and glaciers in the distance. The landscape is also dotted with lots of sheep, horses, and some cows. Houses pop up along the way, but it is sparsely populated which I like.  Along the way we stopped at this bridge that was wiped out by a glacier flood this past summer. Iceland has this one main road that goes around the whole country (ring road) and this flood wiped out part of it so it was a huge deal and they had to erect an emergency bridge which I believe took about 7 days. We also saw another bridge that was wiped out in the 90's by another glacial flood. I took some pictures of it and that was left was some pieces of twisted steel. Our next and main stop on this trip was the glacial lagoon called Jökulsárlón. It was pretty amazing, you saw the glacier and at the base of the glacier was this lagoon filled with icebergs and you could see the icebergs float out to the sea. The glacier is retreating but apparently not from global warming but because the salt water is melting it. At this lagoon we got on a boat and rode around the lagoon. We saw a seal sitting on an iceberg, and got to taste ice from the lagoon that I think was 1,000 years old. After this stop we were headed back to Reykjavik. We stopped a couple times on the way back--once to these piles of rocks  which were started by the vikings and have continued today by modern travelers (see below or in my pictures).   

We also stopped at a museum that showed a short video about the glacier flood in the 90's that wiped out the bridge. Which now I'm remembering was the largest bridge in Iceland. Our next stop was in the village of Vik where we ate dinner. We all had lamb and was told that it was raised in the village. Animals here are free to roam during the summer and eat grass for their diet. They do not receive hormones and are treated nicely--so much better than our food system back home. After dinner we walked down the the black sand beach (named one of the best beaches in the world--the only nontropical one). Off the shore are these rock formations and legend has it that they are petrified trolls. The trolls played tricks on the village at night time, but one night they were having so much fun that they didn't see the sun come up and they turned to rocks.  Vik also has the most beautiful church, it is perched up on the hill and surrounded by mountains. Our last stop of the day was a waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. This was also really awesome because you could walk behind it.

I will quickly explain the other excursions because I have been writing for long time! I did a bus tour of Reykjavik on Thursday (after my parents have left) and got to see some of the city I hadn't seen yet. I got to stand on the observation deck of the Pearl restaurant and see all of Reykjavik (didn't bring my camera so no pictures oops!), saw a lighthouse, saw residential areas, and got to see the largest swimming pool in Reykjavik. Then on Saturday I did a glacier trip to the glacier Langjokull and got to stand on a glacier! The bus ride was really bumpy and I don't think our bus driver knew exactly where he was going because he kept looking at his map. I went with my friend Emily from Tennessee and we both got carsick. Then we went on this really intense bus that drives up glaciers and that was also really bumpy and a lot of people got motion sickness. Unfortunately it was also foggy at the top of glacier so we couldn't see anything, but the driver did bring us below the fog and we did get to see a bit. It was really cold up there and it felt like winter. After the glacier we stopped at these two really pretty waterfalls that are next to each other. One is Hraunfossar and the other was Barnafoss. Then we went to some geothermal area that I'm not really sure what it was since we didn't have a guide on this trip.
That is all for now! Check out the pictures!