I’m an Honorary Hungarian

Today is our last full day in Iceland for this trip. Our pickup spot for today’s tour is much closer to our apartment. We all got ready, and crammed into our DACIA car (pronounced dashya - this will become relevant later), and drove to the bus station, where our tour bus would be picking us up.

When we got on the bus, 3 of the people from yesterday’s tour were already on. They had heard our plans to change the pickup spot so we wouldn’t be in the back of the bus, and when they saw us, they moved back to give us the first 2 rows.

We proceeded around Reykjavik, picking up the rest of the tour peeps, and headed out for our Golden Circle adventure. Our driver, Nico, was from Hungary. He was night and day different from yesterday’s guide. Kamil, our guide from yesterday, was very nice, but not very talkative. Nico gabbed practically the entire trip. He had lots of personality, and shared many many stories about the areas we were seeing.

We stopped for coffee and pastries (most of our team got caramel donuts and loved them), and hot chocolate. After we enjoyed them, we loaded back on the bus to head toward Kerid Crater. This is an amazing volcanic crater with a beautiful pond in the center. The clouds threatened a little rain, but gave up quickly. Here began our battle with the little annoying flies.

Back on the bus, we drove through Geysir to see Gullfoss Waterfall, through we would be coming back there. When we were here in 2017, we saw these falls, but now they have really developed the area with a cafe and gift shop. In fact, when we were here before, there were not many public restroooms out and about, and they were in the process of building tourist infrastructure. We are now paying that cost, as everything went from expensive to CRAZY expensive.

After Gulfoss, we drove back to Guysir to have lunch and see the namesake of our English word “geyser” - I don’t know of any other Icelandic words that have made it to English. Our lunch consisted of small chicken salads, a burger, and fish and chips. For Pat, Carrie and me, our 2 chicken salads, one burger and fries, 3 sodas, and a slice of cake came to $100. YOWZA!

After lunch, we walked across the street to see the geysers, and the other steam and bubbling water pits. I was all set to take a great slo-mo video of the eruption when Mr. Clueless came up to me to ask if this was the big geyser. I turned to answer him, and the geyser promptly erupted. I was astonished. I wanted to look around at all the people standing at the ropes that encircled this one specific geyser and say “what do you think?”We waited for the next round, but it was nowhere as spectacular as the one I missed.

We walked back to the shops for toilets and browsing, and went back to the bus. The next stop was Hingvellir National Park. This is a great place that we visited last time. Here you can see the fissure caused by the separation of the North American and European tectonic plates. It is also the home of the world’s first parliament, held over a thousand years ago by Vikings.

We got some awesome photos, and walked down the gully created by the fissure down to where the bus was waiting to pick us up. While we were waiting for everyone else, I told Nico that our rental car was Romanian, and so was our guide. He asked how I liked my DACA, and I got him to help me pronounce it again. I told him it was ok, but that I had to remember driving with a stick shift. He had sympathy for this poor tourist.

We loaded back up and started to drive back to the city. He stopped at a nice scenic viewpoint over the lake. Sometimes, he said, you can see the big volcano, but today, it was covered by clouds. Back on the bus, we headed back to Reykjavik. He announced the stops order, and we were first again! As we were getting off the bus, I told him we were heading to our dashya (pronouncing it right, of course), and he told me I was an honorary Hungarian, and would be welcome to lead a tour.

We left the lot, and stopped in at a gas station with a Subway inside for a quick dinner. Carrie found the Icelandic chocolates Nico gave us on the bus. We got a few bags to bring home. We ate our meal, then drove back to the apartment to finalize the blog and photos, and pack up for our morning flight. I know that we are all ready to be home, and we are especially ready for this flight to be over. I only wish I had shorts to wear, as Icelandair keeps their planes toasty warm. Goodnight!