Saturday, May 7, 2011

Geysir is an Icelandic Word

The word 'geyser' came from Iceland - that, in fact, is the name of the Iceland's biggest geyser - Geysir.

There is a hot springs valley with pools of simmering or actively boiling water.



Among them is Geysir that shoots up about a dozen times an hour to a few stories' height. Quite an amazing sight. Too bad it was so overcast - it is harder to grasp the enormity of it.



This is the Geysir's pool. The darker area in the middle is the opening, that's where the water spits out from. The surrounding water is where it falls after shooting up. Just like in a fountain.


The weather was... well, Icelandic. It rained pretty much non-stop all day long. We were both soaking wet through and through, but who cares when you're surrounded by beauty such as this?

The land is smoking...


...green grass is growing everywhere in the warmed-up soil...


...red sands of iron...


...blue water of minerals...



However nice and blue the water seems, don't touch it: it's 80-100 degrees Celsius (near boiling).