June 2-3, 2016
Day 6 consisted of touring the Diamond Circle in Northern Iceland. Similar to the Golden Circle, the Diamond Circle contained quick sites for visitors. Here, we saw a diverse landscape that highlighted Iceland Fire. First stop included 2 waterfalls: Selfoss and Dettifoss surrounded by lava rocks. We arrived at Dettifoss at a wonderful time as a waterfall formed over part of the waterfall. We then drove to Krafla Power Plant, a geothermal plant that reeked of sulfur. Cool fact about Iceland: all energy is renewable. The many volcanos generate most if not all of the energy that Iceland uses. Behind the power plant, we visited the Krafla crater lakes. We then drove to Hverir to see geothermal vents bubbling out onto the surface. The next stops were various locations along Mývatn lake. First, we walked up Hverfjall, a large volcano crater, with a wonderful view of Lake Mývatn. Second, we found Grjótagjá, a hot spring grotto that was also featured in Game of Thrones. It used to be an active hot spring bath, but is no longer in use due to unstable temperatures. Next we strolled through Dimmborgir, a field of lava rocks. Since we were getting tired and still had a drive to the next town of Akureyri, we quickly visited Höfði, lava craters surrounded by Lake Mývatn. My partner was determined to try fermented shark (hákarl) with Brennivin (a local liquor also known as ‘Black Death’), so that is what we ate for dinner. We received 5 little white cubes. My partner first tried it and said he struggled more with Brennivin than the shark. Having a weak stomach, however, I was not able to finish my piece of hákarl before spitting it out. Initially, hákarl had no taste, but after awhile, I tasted something really strong that I can no longer describe, causing me to gag and not finish it. Eh, at least I tried.
We woke up really early to drive to Húsavík and go whale watching. One thing to note, if you want to do any tour, you MUST reserve in advance. We had to reserve our tickets to the Blue Lagoon a week in advance and reserve our tickets for whale watching 2-3 days in advance. On the way there, we quickly stopped at Goðafoss, a waterfall between Akureyri and Mývatn Lake. In Húsavík, we chose to go with the North Sailing tour. I am really glad that we chose them because the company promotes sustainablity and responsible whale watching. All of their boats are refurbished Icelandic oak fishing boats with technology that is carbon-neutral and noise-minimizers. Húsavík was a cute little port town (but I liked Seyðisfjörður and Akureyri more). We were quite lucky on our tour. We saw multiple humpback whales, minke whales, puffins, other local birds, and one harbour porpoise. Our tour also gave us hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls. Whale watching marked the end of a wonderful trip. We returned to Reykjavík for our final night of club dancing and final morning at Blue Lagoon.
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