Iceland Part 4: Silfra snorkeling, Aurora Borealis, & Reykjavik

Be sure to check out the rest of our trip to Iceland
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Finally, part four of our Iceland trip! This post will cover our last 3 days in Iceland up until the time we left. Our fourth day in Iceland, started out early again. We left our hotel around 9:30 and I was really hoping to see it in daylight. It never got bright enough and we ended up being late to our snorkeling tour, oops.

When looking for activities to do in Iceland, I wanted to do something we couldn’t do anywhere else in the world. Where else can you swim between two tectonic plates – the Eurasian plate and the North American plate? So, I knew this was going to make the list. I did have to talk Colin into it at first, because the water is only 34f degrees. We scheduled the tour on the perfect day, cloudy and gloomy, so spending it in the water was great. We were in the water for about 35 minutes total and could stay longer if we wanted but we all headed to the exit. By the end of the tour, my face was completely numb and I knew for sure my hands were detached from my body. Colin said my lips were completely blue and swollen when I got out. I actually have an image to prove it, but to save both our eyes I’m keeping it deeply hidden in a folder.

A little about

Silfra

“The visibility in Silfra exceeds 100m, making it some of the clearest water in the world, and divers and snorkellers dive and float between the American and Eurasian continental plates. There are even places where they can actually touch both continents at the same time.”

Can you tell I was freezing after I got out? The water was so cold our GoPro went into shock. We didn’t know at the time and took so many photos. When we opened them on the computer almost all were black or very random shots of nothing. I was able to save a few and thankfully our tour guide gave us the images he took for free! If looking at the group images, Colin and I are the two at the back. Overall, it was incredible experience. Colin and I both agree we would do it again in a heartbeat!

After leaving Silfra, we only had an hour of daylight left. We decided to spend it seeing two more spots on the Golden Circle. We first headed to Geysir, which is the first geyser known to modern Europeans. It was also the first geyser I have seen in person. You can hardly see the geyser, but it is going off in the background of the photos below. I’ve seen photos of it on a clear day and it looks amazing! Next we headed to Gullfoss (the waterfall below). We spent a few hours here, they had a huge store and great selection of gifts we didn’t see anywhere else. I got my favorite gift to myself here and wish I got a few more.

We had a two to three hour drive ahead of us, so we stocked up on coffee and hit the road. While Colin was driving, I was looking out the window and thought I saw the Aurora Borealis. I yelled at Colin to pull over and we came to stop as fast as we could and jumped out. Unlike want you see in photos, they appear white to the naked eye. Colin almost didn’t believe me because they look like moving clouds. To make sure we were looking at the Northern Lights and not just odd clouds, we took a quick photo and they showed up green! They were very faint, so we got back in the car and started back on our way to the hotel.

Not even five minutes later, we were on the side of the road watching again. The Aurora forecast was really high at a 7 out of 9. However, the whole day was cloudy and we didn’t think we would catch the Northern Lights at all. I continued watching them all the way to the hotel. When we finally reached the hotel, the restaurant closed early and there was no where to eat for 40 miles. The cons of traveling to Iceland in the Winter. We headed 40 minutes back the way we came and ate dinner at a place looked like applebees mixed with waffle house. I cannot complain because they did have some good burgers and ranch, haha. On the way back to our hotel we passed mega buses full of tourists looking for the lights. Seriously, like 400 people on the side of the road jumping on and off buses to follow the lights.

The start of our last full day in Iceland 🙁 . Even though Hraunfossar was in the opposite direction we were going, we did not want to skip it. This whole trip, we only had to cut two places from our schedule because of daylight. This was our favorite waterfall and the least popular with tourists. We were the only people in the park the whole hour we spent there. That’s part of why we loved it so much and because the unique way the water reaches the falls. The blue water gushes our from under the stark black lava.

A little about

Hraunfossar

“Located at the edge of the Hallmundarhraun Lava Field, cold springs of subterranean water seep through the lava and run as tiny waterfalls and rapids into the Hvítá River. The falls and the surrounding takes on a different shape in different seasons.”

Next, we headed west to see the coast. We hardly saw any cars this part of the trip and witnessed the most amazing sunrise. On our way to Snæfellsnes, we stopped a few times for hot springs and horses. I wanted to experience a natural hot spring before I left Iceland and I found the GPS coordinates to one off our route. It was pretty hard to find off the main road, but once we found a side road we looked for the steam in the air. We finally thought we found it when we came across a really gross hole in the ground littered with old clothing. It was seriously nasty. I real instagram vs reality moment. I was so disappointed, but thought this couldn’t be it. We spent a few minutes looking around and was about to give up, when we spotted another spring across the river. We jumped in and had an amazing experience.

We added Snæfellsnes to our road trip because of the amazing coastal landscapes. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. I also had the most amazing mushroom soup from a cafe here. The only bad thing is, it cost $16 :).

Our last day we spent exploring the city of Reykjavik before our flight at 5pm. We booked our hotel here two days before and got a huge apartment for really cheap! Plus, it was right in the middle of town and we could walk everywhere. It also started to snow and really came down on our way to the airport. I did wish it snowed more on our trip but I think we got lucky with pretty good weather. We never had to change our plans because of the weather.

Colin and I are already trying to fit another trip to Iceland in our schedules to return. Iceland was one of the most beautiful and friendly countries we have every visited. We cannot wait to come back and explore the northern part.