day 5

I'm completely fine with no class on the weekends. 

Today we did some really touristy stuff and some incredibly non-touristy stuff.  We started off with visits to the "Golden Circle." Though I have been one to scoff at "doing the touristy thing" I think everyone was stunned by these natural beauties.  

Along the Golden Circle we visited THE Geysir.  The Geysir that gave all the other geysers their name: Geysir.  It was comical watching each other pose for minutes on end in front of it hoping for that perfect pic when it decided to shoot over 100m into the air.  (The upward gush of hot water occurred approximately every 5 minutes, but some times it was finicky and would come ealier--hence the posing for prolonged periods of time.)  

The next stop on our tourist route was to Gulfoss "The Golden Waterfall." (If you've ever been to Niagara Falls picture that and then multiply by maybe 5. It's impressive.) Multiple rainbows shimmered around in the mist rising off of the falls, and the shear volume of water pounding down over the 32m drop had a sobering effect on everyone. 

Lunch was rich.  Cream of mushroom soup and home made bread.  If you added butter you were asking for an instant heart attack instead of one a few years down the road.  No complaints though because it was devastatingly tasty. 

Now since we started off the weekend just a little early and since there just happened to be one in the area (surprise!!) we rounded out the day with another visit to a hydro plant.  It was huge. 270MW and some interesting elvish looking writing on the broad face of the building. 

We played a fabulous interactive game that showed (kinda) how a dispatcher's job works when looking at the demand on the grid.  It involved ramping energy output from various dams up and down depending on the reading of energy demand given on the computer screen.  It was much more difficult than any of us thought it would be, and frustration mounted quickly in our exhausted group.  

Finally it was time to call it the real weekend and head for the super "jeeps" so that we could safely make it out to the campsite.  On our way there we were lucky enough to race one of our own wheels down the highway (#onlyontheGREENprogram). 

BUT! That meant I got to realize my trip long dream of wanting to pet an Icelandic pony :) yay! 

After a much longer travel time than anticipated we arrived by super jeep to the campsite (Húsadalur) and settled in for the night after ravenously consuming the dinner we didn't get to eat for an extra few hours.  

This is 11:00 pm ^

We stayed up too late playing frisbee and the Icelandic equivalent of Front of the Boat, Back of the Boat and then finally collapsed into our sleeping bags in various tents and cabins for the less adventurous.