Pram Bam Thank You Ma'am

I've been doing my laundry in the shower and hanging it up in the closet on hangers to dry (which still isn't dry. My sister-in-law would tell me I should've packed more SmartWool. I'll listen next time Juliann, I swear.) Wash, rinse, repeat. Laundry has always been one of my least favorite chores. In case you were wondering, shower laundry is not more fun.

Oh, and this has nothing to do with anything, I just think it's kind of funny. Babies around here aren't pushed around in typical American strollers. You know, the ones that come equipped with cup holders and jogging capabilities. The strollers around here are prams. Like actual prams. Think Downton Abbey but with less lace. They bob and bounce over everything. It's pretty fantastic.

On Tuesday Josh and I went to a travel agency on the main downtown street in Reykjavik to book a bus tour taking us around the Golden Circle of Iceland. It's a big thing to do as a tourist. It hits three of the main scenic hotspots of Southern Iceland. When it was finally our turn at the travel agency Josh asked if any of the tours were accessible and she said 'Ummm nope'...Ummmm crap?  But she did give us the name of an agency that helped someone else in a wheelchair just last week. There's hope! We turned around and walked to the other end of the country (I'm not a city girl. In the country we drive everywhere, not walk. This is a new concept. One that makes my feet hurt.) Lo behold 'Iceland Unlimited' resides in a huge office building way off the normal walking area. It's in a more industrial/business park sort of place. Basically a place that you don't typically go without an appointment. It's on the sixth floor so we hop on the elevator and get to the correct floor. Once you step off the elevator you can go either way, neither of which is marked with signs. Josh looks at me and says, "which way do you think we should go?" I kid you not, no sooner had the words left his mouth, than a guy in a wheelchair comes rolling around the corner to the left. Maybe you had to be there but I pretty much thought that was the funniest thing ever. Turns out he's Jon (the 'j' is pronounced like a 'y'), the owner of the company. Jon is on his way out but his associates can help us if we just go through the doors. So we do and eight people in headsets and swivel chairs all turn simultaneously to look at us. Really, we should have made an appointment. But seriously, they turned out to be like the nicest people ever. They stopped what they were doing and got us set up with a rental car with hand controls (I'm so not driving) and booked us a tour. Perfection. Actually, it seems like all of Iceland is an incredibly friendly place. People aren't exactly approachable. Very stoic. And tall. But as soon as you ask them a question, they are so helpful and so nice!

We drove first out to Gulfoss, a gigantic waterfall. A GPS, named Kate, came with the car. If you ever need a laugh, have a British GPS robot voice try and pronounce Icelandic words. That was our entertainment for the ride. Kate's final direction to us as we neared Gulfoss was "In 300 meters, navigate off road". That was not a gravel or dirt road. Off road was the waterfall. Thanks Kate. We didn't listen though and stopped in the parking lot like good little tourists. We thought it was prettier than Niagara. Also, please note the rainbow!! And it was St. Patrick's Day. I'm pretty sure that means good luck or extra leprechaun magic or something, right?!

Rainbow Selfie :)

Here you can actually see the waterfall without our heads blocking the whole thing

Next we went to Geysir, a geothermal hot springs area home to Strokkur, a geyser that explodes every few minutes. Each blast isn't the same height as the last, so some of the spouts are just little things and sometimes they reach up to 40 meters! This was actually our favorite natural wonder we saw on our trip today.  Here's the progression of Stokkur:

The geyser is starting to explode...

In all its 'sploding glory

All of the water falls back into the pit and leaves a cloud of steam? water vapor? Not actually sure what it  would be, technically

It's all over.

Here you can see it from farther away. Some of the blasts were SO big! And some were itty bitty

It was pretty comical to watch the people watching Stokkur. Most of the people were trying to get a selfie with someone when it blasted. So all around were people with their cameras poised and ready in prime selfie position and smiles pasted on their faces. And then they waited that way. And waited. Sometimes it would bubble and burble and they'd be like "oooh get ready!" and nothing would happen. Gotta love when nature makes fools of us all.

We watched Stokkur for awhile and then headed to þingvellir (pronouced 'Thing-vell-ear"), a National Park of Iceland. It houses the area where to you can see two tectonic plates drifting apart, creating a canyon called Almannagja. It's huge. As in, they've built a walking path that you can meander through the great fissure.

Almannagja

Almannagja, no heads

Other fissures. So crazy to think something so deeply separated could've been together at one point

One more fissure. With snow!

We made one last stop along the road for me to meet some Icelandic horses! It wasn't like an organized tour or anything. Just the side of the road where some horses were hanging out. Clearly they were waiting for me to pet them.

My new bff

Evidently some of Game of Thrones is filmed here and these are the horses used

Once we made it home, we drove out of the city to a really dark area that's supposed to be good for spotting the Northern Lights. Sadly, we didn't see any. Too much cloud cover :( It's still on our bucket list though. So maybe we'll find somewhere else to see them. Or maybe we'll be back to Iceland. I mean, with views like this...