Day 1:
We finally arrive in Iceland and meet with our guide to Reykjavik, Dr. Thorleifur Fridriksson. We get acquainted with our weapon of choice for exploring Iceland's harsh terrain, the Golden Gopher (or Golden Egg, depending on who you ask). We had brunch (with coffee ☕️❤️) at Thorleifur's house and I got the opportunity to take a brief nap on his couch. We then took a trip to the local pool, which was my first experience with Icelandic daily life. They are certainly less shy than Americans. After a couple hours at the pool we checked into our first hostel, which was much nicer than I anticipated. We went to dinner at Furman grad Inga's beautiful home in Reykavik and enjoyed a already of Icelandic dishes and watched Eurovision which is now my favorite show. We returned to the hostel that night and took much needed showers before getting much needed sleep.
Day 2:
We traveled into the mountains surrounding Reykavik to visit the ON Geothermal plant, the largest of its type in Iceland and the second largest in the world. Besides being architecturally gorgeous and being surrounded by equally gorgeous mountains, the plant is extremely efficient. Situated on an active central volcano, it uses steam from geothermal fluids to power enormous turbines while simultaneously condensing the steam to pump back into the groun for continued use. This plant alone can power all of Reykjavik when running at full capacity. It also draws water from underground wells to be warmed through heat exchange and pumped towards the city for water and heating. Later that day, we got a guided tour of the Iceland History Museum to learn more about the country's sometimes enigmatic past and get a better person understanding of where the Icelandic people draw their cutlural inspiration.
Day 3:
We took a scenic drive down Highway 42 out of Reykjavik and into mountainous terrain to see some of the unique geological features Iceland has to offer. We first made note of some of the characteristic remnants of past volcanic eruptions, identifying our first basalts and drawing a distinction between scoria (coarse) and ash (fine) layers from a past series of eruptions. We then took a look at the nearby hot vents, where geothermal fluids rich in sulfur (and smell like rotten eggs) effuse from the ground at around 200 degrees Celsius. I was careful not to fall in. We also saw a green bowl shaped lake created by a fairly recent explosive steam eruption that must have been quite the shock for locals. We then aimed the golden egg at the coast, stopping along the way at the popular tourist attraction, the "bridge between continents," where a bridge straddles a rift separating the North American and Eurasian plates (although the divide between the continents is actually a series of rifts). After reaching the rocky shoreline, where we got to do some bird spotting, we got out and analyzed the unique formations that occur where lava and ocean meet, namely bizarre pillow basalts whose formation history had been a mystery until fairly recently. We also saw some beautiful columnar basalts, which are nearly perfect hexagonal columns formed when basalt quickly cools and contracts in an almost honeycomb pattern. Lastly we went to the infamous Blue Lagoon, the largest tourist trap in Iceland. There we swam in what essentially is a glorified hot tub, except heated by geothermal activity, which makes it a little more exciting. The pool itself is blue, true to its name, and absolutely full of people, mostly tourists carrying alcohol. After stewing ourselves in the lagoon for a couple of hours, we made the long drive back, fed ourselves with hearty salads, and spent our last night in Reykavik with our expectations high for the rest of the trip.
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