Coming straight back from an awesome vacation to a big deadline is not the ideal way to relax after having such a blast. Actually, it really stinks. We had 12 hour shifts almost every day for a couple weeks, and we managed to have a 19 1/2 hour shift the night before it was due.

Seljalandsfoss
Waking up to Seljalandsfoss was such a good decision! This was the waterfall that I was most excited about. Honestly, I was a little surprised that it didn't have as much water as I expected and had seen in photos. My guess is that those were all taken in spring when the snow melt was prevalent. Regardless, it's still a neat waterfall. You can walk all the way around it, though you will get wet from the spray. Water from the river Seljalandsá falls 60 m (200 ft) over a cliff that used to be the coastline. The ocean has since receded about 6.5 km (4 mi) to the south.

Seljalandsfoss

Seeing it while the sun was coming up was really nice. As time wore on while we were there, many more people showed up. As I've stated earlier, the waterfall is maybe 1 km off the Ring Road, and Seljaland is only about 1 hour from Reykjavik. So I think it's probably a more touristy area since it's so accessible. Regardless, still a neat place!

Seljalandsfoss from behind the falls

Gljúfrabúi
We were on a fairly tight schedule the last day because we needed to be back in Reykjavik to turn in the mobile wifi we had rented from Trawire (we will talk about this in a later post) by 4 p.m. However, a sign at Seljalandsfoss pointed toward Gljúfrabúi, which was only a 500 m walk north of Seljalandsfoss. I'm so glad we decided to make the quick jaunt over. From the field in front of the cliff, there wasn't much to see. You could, however, hear water. Peaking between some small cliff faces, we saw part of Gljúfrabúi. It was a waterfall tucked in a narrow crevice between the small cliffs, 40 m (131 ft) tall. Since it's now winter, the river was not high. We were able to hop from rock to rock to make our way back to the falls. I've read online where the river is higher in spring and that wading boots are suggested. Luckily, the rocks led us back to the breathtaking view of an intimate waterfall between some small cliffs. It seemed like a discovery to us, which always makes visiting these places even more exciting.

Gljúfrabúi from outside, peering between the rock cliffs

Justin standing below Gljúfrabúi

Gullfoss

We hopped back on the road and made our way to Gullfoss. Gullfoss is northeast of Seljaland and east of Þingvellir (Thingvellir). Gullfoss is located in the canyon of the river Hvítá. Since there is an abrupt turn right before the falls, it looks like the Hvítá springs straight from the ground. The falls have two "steps" - one that is 11 m (36 ft) tall and one that is 20 m (65.5 ft) tall. The falls pour into a crevice that is 32 m (105 ft) deep. The river then continues perpendicular to its original course, with a width of 20 m (60 ft) and a canyon length of about 2.5 km (1.5 mi). During the summer, the average amount of water over the falls is 140 m³/s (36,984 gal/s). The highest flood measured was 2000 m³/s (528,344 gal/s!). That is a lot of water!

Gullfoss

It was so very windy that day. So windy that it was almost blowing us over standing next to the falls. Between the low temperatures and the high winds, we didn't spend a lot of time at Gullfoss. The wind was pretty unbearable.

Gullfoss

As it happens, Gullfoss is fairly close to Reykjavik (only 1.5 hours away), so Gullfoss and Geysir both are some of the top tourist attractions in Iceland. After Justin and I had spent an amazing 2 weeks traveling Iceland with virtually no other tourists, making every site like a discovery expedition, we were not stoked to be in a place that had tourists everywhere. Funny how a short jaunt around a beautiful place with just you and the countryside can make me despise coming back to civilization and other humans. 🙂

Geysir

Geysir is only maybe a 5-10 minute drive from Gullfoss. It too had many tourists. The Geysir (Icelandic for "gusher") field is at a fairly low altitude of 105-120 m (345-394 ft) above sea level. Located near the mountain Laugafell, the geothermal field is home to many geysers. Geysir is THE geyser in Iceland; while the term "geysir" describes many geysers throughout Iceland, it also descibes the Great Geysir. The Great Geysir, tales of which date back to 1294, is one of the most famous geysers in history. It use to spout every 3 hours or so, but the time between each spout has progressively gotten longer, and Geysir is largely dormant now and has been since 1916. Throughout history, this approximately 10,000 year old geyser had been known to spout up to 60-80 m (197-262ft) into the air. Frequent tremors and earthquakes in the area do stir it to some activity, but it's fairly infrequent.

hotspring at Geysir

Strokkur (Icelandic for "The Churn"), however, is quite the excitable geyser. This guy is active, spouting every 4-8 minutes. First mentioned in 1789, this is a fountain geysir that spits water up to 20 m (66 ft) in the air. We actually saw this geysir spout several times while walking around. While this geothermal area didn't seem to be as vast and colorful as Hverir, this one did have spouting geysirs.

hotspring at Geysir

How do geysirs work? Located in geothermal areas with active rifting and volcanic activity, the temperature of the subsurface is higher than 200 degrees C at less than 1 km (0.6 m) deep. If the temperatures of the hot springs rise above boiling, the hot spring erupts, becoming a geysir. The actual eruption of the geysir itself occurs when the boiling water below the geysir is trapped by the cooler water above it. This boiling water converts to steam, and since steam has a greater volume than water, the water above the pocket of steam explodes into the air.

Check out our video of Strokkur's eruption here!

Reykjavík

We made our way back into Reykjavik on that busy Friday night. While we were dropping off our Trawire mobile hotspot (also called a mifi, though we thought calling it a mwifi was much more fun), we met an American couple who were visiting Iceland for the man's 50th birthday. It was nice to rehash our journey to them and give them suggestions of what to do. It became the precursor of the many, many (many, many) conversations we've had with people about all the exciting things we saw and experienced.

Hið íslenzka reðasafn (Icelandic Phallelogical Museum)

The Phallelogical Museum was interesting, to say the least. To paraphrase what we learned about its creation, a man named Sigurður Hjartarson started the museum. While growing up, Hjartarson was given a cattle whip made from a bull's penis. As an adult, friends and family jokingly began giving him animals penises as gifts. He became interested in this collection and eventually collected a total (so far) of280 specimens. These specimens come from 93 species of animals includes 55 penises taken from whales, 36 from seals and 118 from land mammals, allegedly including Huldufólk (Icelandic elves) and trolls (source). One of those specimens is even human! So honestly, this museum was not for the feint of heart. Beyond the strangeness of it all, you did learn quite a bit about penises and animals.

Kiley with a sperm whale penis

display at the Phallelogical Museum

Sjávargrillið

 Sjávargrillið, or Seafood Grill, was our 2nd favorite meal behind Vogafjós in Mývatn. It was suggested to us by one of the employees at the Phallelogical Museum. We told him we were looking for great seafood at a moderate price. He suggested this place, although he didn't really think it was moderate. You can't really find "moderately-priced" seafood in Iceland. It was absolutely worth it, though! It was quite a posh place, and we got the last available table without a reservation - thank goodness! The restaurant was started by a young master chef named Gústav Axel Gunnlaugsson from Húsavík who won "Chef of the Year".

They had puffin as an appetizer, but we didn't get it. We opted for the multi-course grilled meals, which included an appetizer, dinner, and dessert. Justin got the Fish Feast, which was comprised of Hallgrím's shellfish soup (with langoustine, blue mussel, shrimp, fennel),  the grilled fish combo (with arctic char, ling, broccoli, barley, cauliflower), and chocolate cake & gingerbread (with salted peanut, mandarin, white chocolate, 5 spice). I got the lobster feast, which was comprised of grilled langoustine & ocean perch (with sunchoke, pearl onion, chili, dill),  grilled & crispy langoustine with grilled spotted wolf fish (with organic barley, golden beet, date, kale), and  créme brûlée (with strawberry, vanilla, sorrel, cocoa nibs). It was absolutely delicious, and the wait staff were very knowledgeable and helpful. We would definitely recommend it!

Justin and our dinner entrees at Seafood Grill

Justin and our dessert at Seafood Grill