Final Preparations - Going Home

Well it's been a really nice trip.  Tomorrow, I begin my return home.  The last few days, I've been at the Eve Online Fan Fest and it's been fun but really nothing to take pictures of or really to relate.    I did meet a few players here and will most probably hit them up online.  

There were a few tours that I would have liked to take, foremost among them a trip to the Blue Lagoon, but the weather has been pretty foul the last few days (rain rain go away) so it wasn't really in the cards.  But that's ok.  It gives me some other places to hit up next time. And there will be a next time.

This will be my last blog entry for this trip unless something spectacular happens in New York tomorrow.  It's been really nice and I have enjoyed myself immensely but it is definitely time to come home.  See you all soon!!!

Love,
Cris

Tour Part 2: The Golden Circle Afternoon

Again, I apologize for my late posts.  The Eve Online Fan Fest has officially started and I've been these most of the day.  I've also been really really damn tired.  Today, May 2, 2014, I actually slept till 1 pm to play catch up.

So the Golden Circle tour consists of like 6 different sites all centering on Thingvellir National Park.  The Golden Circle Afternoon tour is shorter and only visits the three main sites:

* Thingvellir National Park and the site where the first democratic parliament (The Althing) was convened in 930 AD.

*The Gullfoss Cascades

*Geysirstoffa - main site for geysers and hot springs.  site of Strokkur, large geyser that goes off every 8 minutes or so.

To get an idea of how far the tour takes you, please see map marking Reykjavik and the sites I visited.

The landscape on the trip is filled with ice capped mountains as you can see below.

 

About an hour into the ride we get to our first stop, Thingvellir.  There is a typical Tourist Help Center.

Complete with restrooms if need be.  There is one catch though which I found very interesting....

 ...It will cost you 200 kr (about $2.00) to use the restroom.  So if you need to go, hopefully you brought cash with you. :)

So this park straddles the North American and European tectonic plates which leads to among other things beautiful and varied rock formations.

Thingvellir Visitor Center is also situated near a beautiful lake near city where the Althing was formed.  

Here is the actual town area.

Here are the lakes surrounding it.

 The next stop on the trip is the Gullfoss Cascades.

It begins with a very very long walk from the visitor's center.

 Here is the Gullfoss Cascade seen from the highest most area.

 To get a better view, you must go down the below stairs.  At  first I was not going to descend because it was fairly high and I was pretty exhausted just walking from the visitor's center.

 The view once I got to the bottom was well worth it.  It was worth all the labored breathing, aching back and every other pain to get there and back up to the visitor's center.   There was also the sense of accomplishment of pushing myself and the great reward I got from doing so.

I have to say so far, this is the most beautiful area I have seen.  The descriptions, the pictures cannot begin to describe the sheer beauty of this area.  It can only truly be appreciated first hand.

 

While I was sitting on the bench appreciating the beauty of this magnificent site, a British couple offered to take my picture next to the waterfall.  Talk about a stroke of good luck.  It came out perfect.

Finally, we reached Geysisstofa, or the Geysir Center.  As you can see on the opposite side of the sign, there is a hotel in the tourist/visistor center which is pretty nice.  The tour guide also said the restaurant is quite good.  All in all the geysers  were quite fun to watch, a marvel of the forces of geology and physics.

What I found hilarious was that the tour guide felt the need to explain that we should not touch the water or flow from the geyser's as they were boiling point or above and that this could cause major burns.   It seems some very intelligent people who come on these tours feel the need to "test" the water's temperature.  Will wonders ever cease?

To wit, please see the sign indicating the general temperature and please feel free to read the warnings on the below sign.  The last one cracked me up.

Now that we have gone through the precautions, here are a few of the hot springs....

And here is the geyser Strokkur which goes off every 8 minutes more or less.  The original geyser which gives use the word geyser (GEYSIR) is currently dormant so we could not see it.  Well, we could see it we just wouldn't see much action. :)

Here are some videos I took of the geysers and springs.  Please forgive the idiot who walked in the way of my filming, I have despite the choice words I had for him in Spanish when he did that.

Finally, I leave you with this creepy statue/wood carving of a farmer found near the geyser area.  That shit scares me. Really.  And it's like only 300 meters away from the hotel.  I would never sleep there.  Fuck that.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my posted. Until next time...I am thinking of visiting the Blue Lagoon tomorrow so maybe some pics from there.

A whaling we will go...

Yesterday, April 30, 2014, I went on two excursions.  A whale watching tour and what is called the Golden Circle Evening tour.  Here are my notes on part one...

I've always liked going out on boats.  The fresh air of the sea is both invigorating and relaxing at the same time.  It was a bit chilly but it was manageable most of the time.  Every once and a while that north wind would come in though and GODDAMN!! :)

The lobby of Elding Whale Watching is in that red boat in the middle of the pick.  It has a neat whale skeleton in it (see next picture).  The boat to the right of it is the ship we did the whale watching on.

Here are some pics of the water from the boat, a set of mountains, the horizon, Reykjavik.

Here is a view from POV the boat.

A funny thing happened on the boat. From time to time, we would catch the swell and maneuvering was challenging.  On a few occasions, I wondered if I would go man overboard. I had to hold on tight to, well, whatever was available.    Shortly after I sat down, there was a little old lady who was holding on the back of the seating and looked very unsteady.  It looked like she was trying to get to the other side but wasn't quite sure if it was worth the trip.  I offered to take her and steady here on the way (mind you I didn't feel all that steady myself).  Well, we both fell off the boat..... Just Kidding!!!.   I brought her over to her husband...this gained me some much needed karma which came back around for me during the Golden Circle trip.

Close up of the mountains from the boat.

For those freezing their asses off above, this is the below deck.  Quite comfortable and much warmer...

 ...and complete with barista.

 Here I am sitting smug and warm on the lower deck.  This was as we were heading out to sea. I spent 95% of the time outside.

 Here is another whale watching boat in the area.  The different boats, even from different companies, alert each other when their is a sighting so they tagged along with us once we saw a humpback whale and several minke whales.

We did see a humpback whale and several minke whales.  Mainly we saw their blows (when the come up for air and blow out air/water).  The humpback whale breached (jumped out of the water and splashed down and the minkes came up for a few moments.  So where are the pics?  They were much to fast for me to get on camera.  The most I got was these pics of some sea birds.

The trip was great though, even without the whales.  I really enjoyed being on the boat and breathing the cold sea air.

Here are some pics of the harbor:

An odd end to my Whale Watching post but I found this odd trash can at the harbor.  It seems especially in the harbors they outfit their trash bins with a "cigarette" drop so you don't throw your butts in the water and the wild life doesn't eat them, choke to death, etc.  Pretty Smart!  Ok, next post will be on the Golden Circle Tour.  Hope you've enjoyed my blog so far.

Center Hotel Plaza

Hello, all.  I've been a bit slow in posting.     The time difference and 16 hours days is kicking my ass and yesterday was a long, tiring but very fruitful day.   But first things first.   Here's a look inside at the hotel I am staying in (other than my bathroom).

Here is the lobby.  As you can see on the left hand side there is a stand up in preparation for the Eve Online Fanfest.

And here is the hotel bar (very important place).

Here is proof that I drank at the bar.

...Further proof.  The beer, I believe if called Viking Gull (not bad really considering I usually don't like beer).

Within the bar is a nice fireplace where you can get warm as you drink.  Very very nice. 

So that's it for the tour of the hotel.  My room was small and is way too messy right now to take pictures.  The mess hall for breakfast is --- un-extraordinary. :)