Þingvellir National Park, Iceland

Strolling between two continents does sound like an unreal idea, particularly if you have no clue that it’s even possible to do in Iceland. This singular UNESCO World Heritage Site on Icelandic mainland is one of the ABCs in anyone’s Iceland bucket list. The Golden Circle visit (Icelandic: Gullni hringurinn)  – Gullfoss Waterfall, Geysir Geothermal Area, and of course, the Thingvellir are the unmissable landscape marvels that Iceland has to offer.

This is a National Park that’s in a rift valley and at the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates - thus, making it in between the two continents. To its south side, you’ll also see the Þingvallavatn, which is the largest natural lake in Iceland. The name Þingvellir is derived from the Old Norse Þingvǫllr, from þing (“thing, assembly”) and vǫllr (“field”), meaning assembly fields. The area has so much history, from its founding of Iceland’s parliament back in 874 AD, to emerging as a nationalist symbol during the 19^th century.  

Definitely, the Þingvellir place will instantly become a personal favorite among the Golden Circle gems, because of its truly major historical, cultural, and geological appeal. I like how the world can suddenly astound you in a way that you have never dreamed of – this is one of those moments that you will definitely want to share with your loved ones for the rest of your lives.

The good thing about the Þingvellir National Park is that it’s a beauty no matter the season, but it’s guaranteed to be undeniably striking during winter time. Despite continuous snow showers like tropical rain showers almost every day, once you visit the Þingvellir National Park, you’ll get a chance to behold this legendary natural wonder full of vast space and festive Christmas kind of snow. 

If you are a fan of Game of Thrones, fun trivia: the character Jon Snow had ventured north of “the Wall” here, and seeing everything wintery here will remind you of the icicled White Warkers emerging out from the distance. But of course, during summertime, it’s a whole new different story: it’s about snorkeling around these tectonic plates – one of the world’s finest cold water snorkeling and diving spots. So cool, right? #punintended

The view looks like it was instagramed out of a fairytale book; the panoramic distance embraces your eyes into believing so many good things in life!

After entering the parking-assembly site, you can easily get lost in the options of things to do here so it would be best to plan your visit. Although the Information Center and interactive maps can give you a clue as to what you can do and must do here, it’s always a good idea to complete the Hiking Trails here. There are several hiking trails extended around the National Park, and you can even go horseback riding in some of the trails. Along the way, you’ll be able to see abandoned farms and old bridle paths, and you can even drop by the Thingvellir Church. Camping, Angling, and diving are also options equally good ideas to try out, but it all depends on the season and weather on Thingvellir.

The Eurasian and North-American plate boundaries that run through Iceland are most understood and experienced here at the Þingvellir, without a doubt. But, even if it’s a rather full geologic history and wildlife place, visiting during winter time gives it an element of mystery and naivety to it, that makes you want to learn about and explore the place a bit further. The snow covering the lava fields and the water and landscape ratio makes things look so surreal.

The icy Oxararfoss Waterfall and the view from the top of Almannagja are unbelievable, you really have to take your cameras with you and take good photos to immortalize the moment. At night, you can just imagine the Northern Lights covering the area too, so surreal! Truly, this World Heritage Site by UNESCO is a must visit when in Iceland. Who wants to join me do a snorkeling trip to Þingvellir in summer?

Explosive Experience Along the Golden Circle of Iceland

Today is one of those days that I get to spend some considerable amount of time on the web. Not that I don’t on other days of the week, but today’s quite different, because I join the bandwagon of well-informed people here to do non-work stuff during actual work hours. All thanks to Trump (United States) and Kim (North Korea), because every single one of us in our office area right now are too busy being relevant and discussing the most appropriate topic of all: Trump-Kim Summit. 

In case you haven’t heard, it’s history in the making! And since I know you might also want to steer away from too much serious history session, let’s have CNN tackle that for us, right? 

Let’s just relax our minds and alleviate any tension of thinking about too much world news and just focus on the world. How about some travel friendly news: the Strokkur – the most famous Icelandic geyser known to everyone.

Sometimes known as The Great Geysir, this geyser in southwestern Iceland is all about eruption times and hot waters. It can hurl boiling water up to 70 metres in the air, probably a comical version of a waterfall, except that geysirs periodically spout hot spring waters. As soon as we arrived in the Geysir area, we have received words of warnings about the dangers of being too close to the geysers, of not following rules, and of potential deaths. 

Apparently, we have not heard of a man completely dissolving after falling into this acidic spring – good thing it did not exactly happen in this particular geyser, but it was a wake-up reminder to every one of us. So much so, we walked so slow and observed every inch of the area before walking and following the map. 

We could see people flying around and falling flat on the ground due to the icy and slippery floor bed, so we just walked like lethargic snails with big cameras strapped on our bodies. The Strokkur belongs to the Haukadalur valley area, where various other geothermal feature such as mud pools, fumaroles and other geysers are located around it, so we were stoked to see them all.

This geyser island in the Geyser Geothermal Area is in fact the greatest active geyser, that erupts more regularly than any other geyser – at least around five to ten minutes on average. Since it was winter season when we visited, we could barely feel the hot air, but we could clearly see the evaporating water smoke coming off from the natural beauty of the area. 

You could see the ground’s color pallet full of yellows, greens, and red, despite the snowy layers. These colors are the elements within the main geothermal area such as sulfur, copper, and iron. I’ve never seen such a thing this close, so it was pretty cool view!

After hanging around the area, with the rest of the travelers surrounding the Strokkur, we decided to visit the nearby restaurant, café, hotel, and luxury gift shop that was just across. Inside, we decided to grab lunch and enjoy the views seen from the outside of their massive windows. 

What’s cool is the fact that we heard that they are actually offering a truly unique ‘hot spring bread’ experience, where visitors assist a chef to boil eggs outside in a hot spring, and dig up rye bread that has been ‘baking’ underground for 24 hours! 

Good thing there isn’t any entrance fee when visiting the Haukadalur geothermal area, so people can probably spend a few dollars to experience such unique travel offering. I sure would like to try this when I go back here, perhaps during summer time, picnic? :-)

Gullfoss Waterfall in Winter

Imagining myself falling of the immense waterfall and freezing like a popsicle stick, I did not move for a few short minutes when we started parking our car near Gullfoss. It was quite difficult not to think of the idea, since everything looks white, and you wouldn’t exactly easily decrypt the difference between an allowed walkway to a dangerous area, not unless you are actually alive and alert – which of course isn’t exactly the case for me.

If you have been sleep deprived three nights in a row, being alive and alert aren’t your big priorities in life. Imagination can run wild, and you can be caught looking like a zombie full of anxieties instead of looking like an ever-ready traveler full of adventure!

But of course, after our long travel from Reykjavik to Gullfoss, which took around 2 hours - 117.8 km via Þjóðvegur 1 and Biskupstungnabraut, I tossed out of my fears, and acted like a cool dude feeling happy to have finally arrived at the Golden Falls, one of the most impressive waterfalls in Iceland.

Known for having a wide curved three-step "staircase", the Gullfoss waterfall’s edge is obscured from view, so that it appears that the river simply vanishes into the earth. What’s more mind boggling though is that it looks way different during the winter season – it looks like a 3D art scene. My numb-from-cold mind was trying to translate and appreciate what I was seeing – the winter waterfall = so impressive and insane! I was walking so slow and watching my step because I don’t want my Go Pro to fall into the snow chasm, especially since the time we visited was a bit windy also!

The waterfall’s crevice shows its calm demeanor, as we followed the trail to reach one side of the waterfall. I couldn’t quite recognize the river connected because everything looks white, my eyes were playing tricks on me. It looks so untouched, it’s beautiful in its most raw form. You’ll like how it does not look so touristy in that sense, because it’s left intact.

Although there were shy ropes, small warnings, and walking trails here and there, the overall vicinity looks overwhelming in winter. As I was seeing the place, I started to understand why, with Þingvellir and the geysers of Haukadalur, Gullfoss is a must do for everyone who visits Iceland.

Fact is, the average temperature in Iceland is around 1 – 2 °C (33 - 35° F) in wintertime and around 12 °C (54 °F) in summer. This means that the Gullfoss freezes in winter and looks way different during summer. Of course, depending on what kind of experience you are looking from, and depending on where you are from, you may want to see the Gullfoss on both seasons.

In summer, I’ve heard that the Gullfoss provides an excellent contrast of colors – if you are lucky, you’ll even see rainbows and thousands of crowds. Also, you can walk around at least 20 - 30 minutes to get the entire view in. Who can say no to that, yes? In winter, during the time we visited, there were no rough water steams and some of the walking trails were closed, so there were only certain areas where we were able to maximize our viewing experience. I didn’t see it as something limited, but it gave us a chance to really just focus on enjoying the waterfall and not doing so much of activities. While I’ve learned that winter time is always great to cuddle up indoors over a nice cup of drink, it’s still a special experience to visit an iced waterfall landmark like Gullfoss in Iceland.

Cafes have become the opposite of quaint and idyllic, most of them have long queues, people snapping photos and are filled with too many people for comfort. Thankfully, we found this gem of a cafe offering us absolute peace and quiet on a weekday afternoon. With one of the largest selection of premium teas I have ever seen in any cafe, you’ll be set for a comfortable afternoon on one of Carry On cafe’s lounge chairs with a good book in your hands.  We recommend the London Fog ($6), an earl grey latte with hints of coconut milk and lavender. The drink had the full bodied flavor of earl grey without it being overpowered by the coconut milk, perfectly balanced and comforting for the soul. Read the full review here: http://thesmartlocal.com/read/katong-cafes