Oh goodness. Today was an amazing day.

Woke up around 9, ate some pancakes that I had bought earlier. Left at around 9:40 for Reykjavik City Hostel. I thought it would only take me about thirty minutes to walk there, but I got there at 10:30, and I was supposed to meet Ozan and Alex at 10. It was a ridiculously nice day, probably the best weather I've seen since I've been here, around 14 degrees. I sweated bucketloads walking to the hostel, especially since I was carrying a backpack. As I walked in to the hostel, I heard "All is Full of Love" by Bjork playing. I heard it again later at Geysir. ahaha.

Took me a while to find Alex and Ozan by the computers. Ozan is Turkish but is getting his masters in Sweden and speaks French. Alex is from Canada, and says "eh" a lot. ahaha. And says "about" the Canadian way. Both of them were super super nice, and we all got along really well. Sat around a bit outside and talked to this West Viriginian about where he went. Talked to the guys at the front desk about places to go, basically by picking up postcards and asking about the places they depicted. Went to Bonus to buy some groceries (they were playing that song that Gob always plays in Arrested Development) and left for Thingvellir. Stopped many times on the way to take photos. Ozan liked to drive in the middle of the road, but there weren't that many cars coming the other way, so it was alright. Couldn't really complain because Alex and I don't drive. Thingvellir was cool because the rift between two tectonic plates was there and the site of the Icelandic parliament until a century or two ago. Then we drove on mostly gravel road to get to Geysir. It was very touristy with lots of buses and people. It did not smell good...very sulfury. It was just a ton of people (50-70?) standing around this smelly pool of water with cameras at the ready, waiting for it to erupt, which struck me as hilarious. We ate lunch there (sandwiches, tomatoes, carrots, hummus, dried fish). By this time, it was already 4. We drove over to Gullfoss, which is a gorgeous waterfall. Since it was so sunny, you could see a bunch of rainbows in the mist. It was stunning. I wanted to stay there forever. ahaha. My dried fish sat in the car, uneaten for quite a while, and every time we got back into the car, it smelled like fish. ahahah.

On the road we saw tons of sheep (and lambs!) and horses. We stopped to look at some horses on the way to Hveragerdi, where the hot springs (Reykjadalur) were supposed to be. There are a bunch of greenhouses in Hveragerdi. Alex and I had both heard about these hot springs from different people, although it's not a huge touristy place at all. We struggled to change into our swimsuits in the car. It was supposedly a 3 kilometer (less than 2 miles) walk to these hot springs, but it took us an hour to get there. Ozan kept saying his swimsuit felt like a diaper..ahaha. We came upon this stream and couldn't figure out how to get across. Ozan tried to walk on the rocks but promptly slipped and fell backwards, catching himself so his pants didn't get wet. It was very amusing. We found these three hikers who came our way and asked them. They said to take our shoes off and cross, which made a lot of sense since the water was actually warm. We walked for what seemed like forever when we saw some (nearly naked) people lying in a stream with some tents nearby. This man with a cute baby said the water was really nice there. We almost kept going but were exhausted and ended up just getting in the water there. It was the perfect temperature, and there was steam from the other hot springs blowing upstream. It was so amazing. I'm definitely going to try to go back while I'm here. Ozan said the water was cold (it was actually perfect, for me anyway), and then he said he was sweating? He kept worrying that his swim trunks were falling down because he had borrowed them from someone? We looked at the pictures a day later, and Ozan's face is bright red, and the rest of him is super super pale. It was hilarious. We just sat there, and Alex told us her horror story of getting stuck and lost in the dark on a hike in the Australian bush. Getting out of that hot stream and into the cold, windy, Icelandic weather (at this point, it was probably only 6-8 degrees, not including the wind chill). Changing into normal clothes again was also a struggle. I developed a method in which I would dip my feet in to the water, stand on one leg and dry that foot with a towel, place foot in shoe, and repeat. It was pretty precarious at times, but I got to use my yoga skills. ahaha. There was a little cabin further up from the stream, and we found out later that it was open and people could just stay there. Amazing. It took us about an hour to walk back too, but it felt so much shorter. It was also raining a bit, and I was terrified it'd get a lot bigger, but it didn't. The drive back took about an hour too, longer than expected.

Mmm. Gullfoss and the hot springs were so amazing and my favorite parts of the trip. My legs are so freaking sore, but it was definitely worth it. ahhhhh. I got back around 11:30, and there was a random girl staying in Georg's room? Have to ask about that later...Traveling across the south of Iceland tomorrow. Excited!