Eurasian Hobos: The Golden Circle

The Golden Circle is a circuit that takes tourists to many of Iceland's most famous sites that conveniently lay just inland of Reykjavik. (The 'Circle' is not at all circular but more like a mutant figure eight.) First up is Þingvellir National Park, situated on the edge of Iceland's largest lake. The waters are crystal clear and so deep that scuba-diving is popular within its trenches.

Iceland sits atop a point where tectonic plates are pulling away from each other, and in the park you can see the land being slowly torn asunder.

This spectacular landscape was the setting for many of the pivotal events in Iceland's early history. It was the location of the location of Iceland's parliament, the Alþing, from 930 CE to 1799 CE. After being dissolved for 45 years the Alþing was reinstated in Reykjavik and continues to this day, making it the earliest founded extant parliamentary system in the world. (Note: Iceland's political makeup is enviably liberal: right now the ruling coalition is made up of the Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Movement, while the opposition is composed of the Independence Party [a center-right leaning party that was the result of a merger between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party], the Progressive Party, three members of The Movement, and one independent who is a former movement member.) The Lawspeaker and others addressing the parliament stood on the Law Rock, where their voice was amplified by the rock outcropping from the higher side of the fissure behind him. The exact location is no longer known, but a flagpole was put up at the best guess. The Law speaker would read forth all of the laws from memory and then the laws would be debated and added to or amended. The decision for Iceland to become a Christian country was made here during a meeting of the assembly.

A short walk away a powerful waterfall rumbles as it falls between the sides of the fault lines.

Downstream is the Drekkingarhylur, a pool used to drown women found guilty of infanticide, witchcraft, adultery, and other serious crimes. Men were also executed at the assembly meetings, but by beheading or hanging.

The area is full of fissures and the lake itself is there due to the North America and Europe being rent apart. Rarely do natural beauty and historical significance coincide to such an extent. I was hesitant to move on, but I had a great deal to see that day.

The next stop on the circuit was Kerið, a lake within the steep confines of a deep crater. Björk gave a concert here once from a raft in the lake. I bet it was a hell of a show.

The area along the rift is of course highly volcanic, and actively so, as can be seen at the Geysir Geothermal Fields.

The star of the area is Geysir, the geyser for which all others are named. It used to erupt fairly regularly, but then some idiot tourists tried to set it off early by dropping rocks in it, which clogged the workings so that now it only erupts during earthquakes.

The smaller geyser of Strokkur, on the other hand, erupts every six minutes. I watched it three times. I especially liked seeing the water level suddenly drop, suctioned down into the earth before shooting skyward.