The Land of Ice and Fire (but mostly just ice) - part II

The next stop of our Golden Circle tour took us to the origin of the world geyser, where we visited the first one ever described in a printed source.

The OG

Geysir's eruptions are more or less nonexistent these days, but we did see others that were happy to perform, some as frequently as every few minutes.

Waiting to capture the precise moment of the eruption

Mother Nature saying hi...explosively

The fellas, starting to scheme up something silly.

After we got enough of the geysers, we turned to other forms of entertainment.

Wise gey(ser)

Deeply appreciating the beauty and conservation of the site

Life imitating art

We were starting to lose the day's light, and we definitely didn't want to see the next part in the dark, plus we were kinda parked illegally - so we sped off in our camper to our next and final stop of the day, Gulfoss waterfall ("Golden Falls").

Gorgeous Gulfoss

See those three people running below with the camera? Yeah... one of them ended up taking off all his clothes and rolling around in the grass.

Draw me like one of your French girls

A ballsy move

I wasn't sure if it was for art, or for a prank. In any case, I was impressed - if you're gonna pose for a naked picture, might as well do it in front of an incredible Icelandic waterfall.

Gulfoss waterfall #iceland #goldencircle #travels

A video posted by @adidav9 on Sep 13, 2015 at 2:56am PDT

Throughout its history, the ownership of Gulfoss waterfall changed hands several times; at one point it was even rented to foreign investors who were hoping to harness its power to generate electricity. We read about Sigríður Tómasdóttir, the daughter of one of the original owners who lobbied very hard to preserve the waterfall from becoming a commodity. Today, Gulfoss belongs to the country of Iceland and is a protected site. 

Gulfoss kind of looks like California

It was a very liberating experience to be able to walk up to this waterfall and admire it without tons of other tourists around, or waiting in long lines, or having to pay, or being told to stand a certain distance away from the edge. I feel like I admired the same raw waterfall that an Icelandic person did hundreds of years ago. No tacky light show involved, either.

All in all, it was a very good start to the trip, but we were definitely in need of a recharge, some more than others.

We found a restaurant in a nearby town for dinner (hamburger and fries - a very common menu item. Approximately $30, ouch), then a campsite, and then caught up on some much-needed shut-eye.