Lots of mind-blowing places we can't pronounce... and some dancing lights!!!

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Despite getting back to the hotel super late last night and getting basically zero sleep, we were picked up at 8 AM for our Golden Circle Tour! Our tour guide, Baldwin, was AWESOME! It was actually funny.. he totally forgot a pick up so we had to turnaround about 20 minutes in to go pick up some chick who was left behind. The GOOD thing about that though was that we ended up reversing the tour route, which means we were on a different schedule from most of the other tour busses, so we had a lot of places to ourselves!

We drove into Thingvellir National Park to a beautiful overlook, and then hiked down the trail through the Hengill volcanic area. It was very cool because this is the continental drift between the North American & Eurasian tectonic plates... so we were technically walking from one continent to the other. Totally mind-blowing & the landscape was gorgeous! After that, we headed to Geysir, which is exactly what it sounds like... a geyser! Its eruptions are anywhere from 1-5 minutes apart, so we got to see quite a few! Sometimes they're tiny, sometimes they're huge! We were lucky to see a pretty big one... it's such a neat experience! After hanging out there (and making Ian take a million photos of us with our selfie stick which I totally agree is absolutely embarrassing and ridiculous BUT ended up getting us some cool shots!), we headed to the information center, where they have a cute gift shop and a pretty yummy restaurant! I ended up getting a salad & Ian tried traditional Icelandic meat soup (which was really good actually!) and a local beer from a local brewery in Iceland (which was also really good!).

After lunch, we headed to Gullfoss Waterfall which is hands down the prettiest waterfall I've ever seen. The whole area is massive & the amount of water flowing is crazy. The water is an icy blue color which was gorgeous!! We hiked around the waterfall a bit to the top, grabbed some photos, and headed back to the bus to go to ANOTHER waterfall, Faxi. This one was also pretty neat (I mean, what waterfall isn't?!) but it started raining and we opted to hop out for a few photos & then get back on the bus.

We got back to the hotel around 6 PM and had dinner (langoustine pizza and fish and chips) and got ready for another northern lights hunt! At 10 PM we were picked up by a bus to go give the lights another shot. We were skeptical because the sky was a bit cloudy, but luckily the tours decided to run anyway. Unfortunately we were behind some SUPER obnoxious people on the bus who smelled REALLY bad. It was definitely a test for me being pregnant because my morning sickness is definitely still present and that combined with winding roads and bad smelling BO was NOT the most fun experience in the world! I slathered smelly lotion on my upper lip just to survive.

We drove around for HOURS. Saw a few glimpses of green in the sky but nothing amazing. We were just starting to get bummed when our tour guide announced that the lights had been spotted and we were heading to a good vantage point. We parked and were unfortunately surrounded by hundreds of other tourists in the same area but after a few minutes of griping, Ian and I found a spot away from everyone & the sky OPENED UP with DANCING green lights. My tripod had lost a piece a few minutes earlier so I was really sad I couldn't get some awesome photos, but this was seriously a moment to just pause & watch. They were waving and moving in bands across the sky. It only lasted for a minute or two but it made us SO happy. I even got emotional! It made me think of all the amazing things we've gotten to experience together, and this was a magical moment to share with my husband & our little guy in my tummy. It's a night I will never ever forget!

We arrived back at the hotel at 3 AM... with our next tour picking us up at 8 AM we definitely had to push through & rally!!! 100% totally and completely worth it though!!!!!

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