Iceland Road Trip Day 6: Reykjavik & The Golden Circle
I'm really drawing this thing out, aren't I? Amn't I?
The morning of Day 6, I climbed out of my top bunk and showered in the amusingly tiny but entirely sufficient bathroom of our little cabin and got everything packed up. This was a daily routine. It was snowing lovely delicate fat snowflakes so we took a few pictures and headed into the "town" of Hvammstangi to see if anything was open or if any seals would be visible.
The day's drive would only be about 2-3 hours to Reykjavik, so we didn't rush. The single restaurant in town was open, so we stopped in for coffees, but were disappointed that the "seal center" was closed and we didn't see any seals down by the water. There were a bunch of sea birds floating lazily near the pebble beach though; they looked a lot like loons and made a very interesting sound, sort of like, "whoooaaaaa".
Speaking of Icelandic wildlife and its general rarity, in earlier posts I totally forgot to mention the wild reindeer we saw! Holy shit, what a highlight. On the Eastern side of the country, between Hof and Egilsstadir, we saw lots of them grazing leisurely between the road and the sea. They didn't look like your typical North American reindeer; these had a more blondish color and were very elk-like. I wanted so badly to pull over to take photos, but there was never a place to pull off where they were. Coincidence? Probably not.
We got back on the road and since we didn't have too much driving to do, decided to check out some of the obligatory Golden Circle highlights before settling into Reykjavik. We stopped at Geysir first, and then over to nearby Gulfoss. Both had loads of tourists milling about, as usual. It was cool to visit in the early evening though, as the slowly setting sun made for really nice photos, especially at Gulfoss as the sun set and cast dramatic shadows across the sparkly, clean snow.
After getting whipped by some of the coldest, most intense wind of my life at Gulfoss, it was more than time to get back to urban living and track down a hot meal in Reykjavik. At this point, all I'd eaten for the day was my (stolen) kiwis and skyr for breakfast, and a few car snacks; hardly enough to sustain an intrepid explorer such as myself. Our dreams of hot soup or giant burgers were dashed, however, when we arrived to our Airbnb later than expected and had to settle for one of the only places in downtown that still seemed to be serving hot food: the trusty kebab shop. Oh well.