Last Iceland blog entry. What Iceland meant to me…

It's hard to put my experiences I had in Iceland in words but I will try my best. Iceland was a soul-searching, geology learning, people loving experience for me. Everyday I saw something new and different. I saw new people. Each day, I learned something new or saw a different side of someone in my group. Each day I was taking in a lot of information and exhausting my mind and body.

One of the things that I was surprised by was how green it was in Iceland, especially in the southern part. I was amazed by it. One of my favorite things about Iceland was how free the landscape made me feel. Similar to the American west, there was grass and agriculture land that went for miles and miles. I love the freedom of the open road and all the scenery that looks untouched by humans (even though it isn't). That definitely made me feel at home.

The diversity of the landscape also blew my mind. We saw glacier lagoons/glaciers, volcanos, green spaces, the black beaches and oceans, many waterfalls with columnar basalt. I don't think I will ever see that much diversity in one country again.

There was always a bit of wonder and unknown everywhere we went. It was like even though we were learning a lot about the geology of the land, there was still that since of the unknown. We didn't know everything that happened at every place. I liked feeling that unknown feeling because it made me want to explore more. It also made me content with not knowing everything.

I felt many emotions everyday while I was there. From happy, to excited, to sad, to irritated. Every emotion I am able to feel, I felt almost everyday. That was a lot to handle while also learning about the geology and getting to know the people on the trip, but I think I did a good job at maintaining control of my emotions while also letting myself feel them.

"Country roads take me home, to the place I belong." That lyric describes how I felt when I was in Iceland. Being on the road and seeing new scenery everyday is what made the trip extra special for me. I would not trade this experience or group for anything and I hope to make it back to the land of fire and ice again…

Day 18. Sunday, May 29th

Today has been one of my favorite days so far. I can't believe we only have one day left, today wis the to a waterfall that we could walk behind. It was pure magic. I heard booming sounds. Rain pants are definitely worth buying.
We drove to the ferry where we rode the boat for 40 minutes to the Vestmannaeyjar islands. We got to the main island Heimaey around 10:30 AM. We walked through the town and up to the mountain. I have never felt so much soreness in my legs. They are legs of steel from four days in a row of hiking. Sadly my stomach could use some work from all the cookies we have eaten. Oh well!
There were steep step ladders going up the mountain. It was extremely scary but after hiking the tall mountain where I banged up my hand, I felt more confident. At one part we had to pull ourselves up with a rope and a chain. The views at the top were more than worth the achy muscle and scared feelings. It was so cool to see the volcano and the town from above. There were so many colorful buildings.
Everyday I think the views can't get any better but they do. The beauty is indescribable and unbelievable. I wish my family were here to see it! I'm sad to be leaving this green, icy country. I wish I could stay longer. I feel like I'm just now catching into the geology terms and being able to notice more geologic sights. I wish I could do more adventuring with this group. We are such a diverse group-lots of personalities-but still upbeat. I'm going to miss seeing the ocean and the mountains on the same landscape. I'm going to miss the calmness and seeing the baby running. I'm going to miss the unique rock formations and the countryside. I'm going to miss it all.

Day 17, Saturday May 28th

Today I'm so exhausted. We said a final goodbye to our 5th hostel around 8:30 AM. We headed to our 6th hostel. We stopped around 12 to look at the Reynisfjar black sand beach. It was beautiful. There were a lot of columnar basalts and very unique rock formations. Some looked like shredded paper. Ranson said they were probably formed by freezing and thawing. It was the most unique looking rock features I have seen.
We drove a little ways and made it to the hostel. We made lunch under the bus. I made a pb&j sandwich of course. That has been my usual lunch. I also smashed paprika chips in my sandwich and it was so delicious. I also went crazy and "leave no trace" minded and kept picking the chips that people were dropping and eating them. Because why not right? Haha I was very satisfied.
After lunch, we walked to the start of the hike behind our hostel. The start was a large, magnificent waterfall. The hike starts by walking up 527 steps to the top of the waterfall. We hiked for around 4 1/2 hours. It was a very difficult hike but I love feeling the pain and pushing myself. I was so tired and sore by the end. The landscape was lush and green. I can't imagine what it looks like later in the summer. I saw columnar basalt formations a little bit as well. I love the different shades of green.
I am very worn out. I'm feeling a lot of emotions but am trying to stay positive and upbeat. I'm excited to take the ferry to the Westman Islands tomorrow. I love the ocean. This trip has proved more to me how much I love the ocean and the beach, as much as the mountains. I feel at home in both places.
I'm so thankful for this opportunity. I feel behind grateful to able to go on this trip. I will never forget the group and all our funny grand adventures.

The steps going up!

Some of the views on our hike:

Day 11-Sunday, May 22nd

Sunday we left our third hostel beneath the u-shaped valley at 9:15 AM. The weather was beautiful and sunny. The sky had the most baby blue I have seen on this trip. Our first and only geologic stop was at Borgarfjordur, where three craters are. We got there at 3:04 PM. I was exhausted from the bus ride and I also had to pee badly, but what's new? The craters are a part of the Ljosufjoll volcanic system. The lava is alkali, olivine, and basalt. They are younger than 3,600 years old. The weather there was chilly from the wind. It was cool to see the meandering streams again and the grooves in the mountain. I am learning a lot of new geology terms and am slowly recognizing the sights we have mentioned. We left the craters at 5:00 pm and I still had to pee but I was holding it well. When we got to our fourth hostel, I was so excited because we are staying in an Eco-village. I was super pumped and giggling as usual. After our yummy cauliflower soup dinner, Emily Anderson and I talked for a while in our room. Yes, there are around 10 rooms in this beautiful modern house and there are two people to each room. Each room has its own bathroom and shower. Very high style! It is amazing. After a while, we went outside and took pictures of people in our group playing soccer in front of our hostel. I stayed behind after everyone went inside and gazed at the pink and orange sunset. One of my favorite things to do is to watch the sunset change colors. I was crying from the gorgeousness and from reflecting on this past semester and from all the valuable friends and lessons I have learned. ALSO the moon was the most beautiful moon I have ever seen. It was a harvest moon! It looked like it was on fire. It was huge and bright. That sight also brought me to tears. Last night was my favorite night so far because it was the first night I have felt the most at home in a hostel. I love this trip and the people and the things I am learning. More blogging to come!

Day 16 Friday May 27th

Right now I am reading an Icelandic magazine. There's the photograph of the year showing a pregnant woman posing motionless in the ocean. The caption says she is 35 weeks pregnant and that "The selection committee for the impression that the woman was like Mother Earth, who was either sinking or rising. The Image makes us aware of how we treat nature-an appropriate and current message." I love that. The photograph immediately caught my eye but the caption really made me think. The way we treat nature isn't consistent. We value some landscapes more than others and devalue the ones we think don't fit us. Humans try so hard to make nature fit to their needs and wants that we are destroyed ourselves too. The food industry is a prime example. The photograph also makes me think of what life will be like for future generations, like her baby. It's easy to think negatively about our current environmental and sustainable problems. I try to keep a positive attitude because I think that's the hardest thing to do. It's easy to get caught up in all the doom and gloom.

Iceland is lucky to have the natural resources it does. All the geothermal energy and the wind power and the local food production is what all countries should strive for. Sadly, it's harder for the U.S. because we have a much larger population and we still rely heavily on the coal and oil industries. But we are slowly moving towards a more sustainable way of life. It's going to take a while though...

Anyways, today was another long and fun day filled with adventure. We left the hostel around 10 and drove 20 minutes and stopped quickly at a glacier (sounds causal right?). We then drove another 20 minutes or so to hike to a glacier. We were supposed to go on the long hike but sadly It was closed off. But we did get to hike to a waterfall. The columnar basalts around the waterfall were the coolest I have seen yet. It was very unique. The hike was beautiful. I really liked the trail. It started to rain hard but slowed down and then completely stopped towards the end of the hike. The landscape was so green! I heard birds chirping and one bird sounded like a frog. The sounds of the streams and the humidity in the air reminded me of the Appalachian Trail. It made me feel home.
Seeing the glacier up close was the coolest thing. It was foggy at first so most of it was covered up but it slowly cleared up. We saw a lot of the glacier and the land below. It was cold and windy but I could have stayed at that ledge all day.

These are pics from our hike. The glacier was so close to us. You can see the fog clearing up.

Day 15, Thursday May 26th

Today we actually alone got up at the planned time. Haha. We left around 9 A.M. And headed to the Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon and the Vatnagokull glacier. I have never felt so much wind in my life. It was so strong and fierce. It made me feel strong walking through it because I had to work harder to walk. It took us around 4 hours to walk close to the glacier and back. The wind blew pounds of dust I my eyes. Thankfully, I had my glasses! It was one of the roughest weather conditions I have ever been in. It wasn't raining thank the lord. The sun was out and shining bright. It was cold only because the wind was so strong. It was beautiful to see all the seals swimming together. I saw two playing together and splashing. There were lots of different colors of rocks. Many were weathered. I could see many went through freezing and thawing. Our group naturally split up as we made our way close to the glacier.
I was in the group that got there first. I can't describe how beautiful the glacier was. The ice floating in the water was stunning. No words can do the landscape here justice. On our long trek back to the bus,the sand was harshly blowing on my wind burned face. I have noticed that when I am walks for hiking back down a mountain or walking back from a long walk, I'm usually super tired. But I somehow muster up enough energy to run back. It's like all I want to do is be done with it. As much as I had fun or as much as I have learned, I just want to be done. I did that today, but it was near impossible because of the wind. I tried though. I was unbelievably happy to get back in the bus. I had sand all over my face and eyes. I was burning up so I yanked my jacket off and went to the bathroom. Speaking of the bathroom, I led near the glacier. It was my new best view yet.
It's currently 11:20 pm. I am exhausted even though I took a 3 hour nap earlier. There is a long hike scheduled for tomorrow so I'm off to my cozy green sleeping bag!

The glacier!

Day 13

Tuesday May 24th.

Today we took a tour of the Eco-village we are staying at. It was so awesome because I think Eco-villages are super interesting. We walked around for about three hours. The architecture of the buildings was neat. The village is for disabled people. There are 45 disabled people in the village, mostly older, and 100 total people. The others being volunteers, staff, and school students who are studying there for a semester or a May-X (Mom and Dad, I think I might be coming back here).

After our tour, we drove to the nearby city and had lunch at this delicious and cute restaurant. It was dark blue and looked like it used to be a house. I had the fish special. It came with sweet potato fries. I was so excited because I love sweet potato fries and I am so sick of eating regular fries. It was the second best dish I have had here. I got a big piece of yummy carrot cake to-go (it was pretty equal to yours, Daddy). It had many cinnamon and other spice flavors. After lunch, we had 3 hours to explore the city. I went to a coffee shop/bookstore the whole time. I hung out there relaxing, reading, and writing. I read many sad love poems. I also ate my carrot cake there. Yum yum!

After wandering the city, we went to this crater that had water in it. So cool. The crater was formed 6,500 years ago. It was probably formed by a small magma chamber.

For dinner, we had pasta and salad! My favorite! I had two full plates. I relaxed the rest of the night and blogged.

Day 11-Sunday, May 22nd

Sunday we left our third hostel beneath the u-shaped valley at 9:15 AM. The weather was beautiful and sunny. The sky had the most baby blue I have seen on this trip. Our first and only geologic stop was at Borgarfjordur, where three craters are. We got there at 3:04 PM. I was exhausted from the bus ride and I also had to pee badly, but what's new? The craters are a part of the Ljosufjoll volcanic system. The lava is alkali, olivine, and basalt. They are younger than 3,600 years old. The weather there was chilly from the wind. It was cool to see the meandering streams again and the grooves in the mountain. I am learning a lot of new geology terms and am slowly recognizing the sights we have mentioned. We left the craters at 5:00 pm and I still had to pee but I was holding it well. When we got to our fourth hostel, I was so excited because we are staying in an Eco-village. I was super pumped and giggling as usual. After our yummy cauliflower soup dinner, Emily Anderson and I talked for a while in our room. Yes, there are around 10 rooms in this beautiful modern house and there are two people to each room. Each room has its own bathroom and shower. Very high style! It is amazing. After a while, we went outside and took pictures of people in our group playing soccer in front of our hostel. I stayed behind after everyone went inside and gazed at the pink and orange sunset. One of my favorite things to do is to watch the sunset change colors. I was crying from the gorgeousness and from reflecting on this past semester and from all the valuable friends and lessons I have learned. ALSO the moon was the most beautiful moon I have ever seen. It was a harvest moon! It looked like it was on fire. It was huge and bright. That sight also brought me to tears. Last night was my favorite night so far because it was the first night I have felt the most at home in a hostel. I love this trip and the people and the things I am learning. More blogging to come!

Day 6

Tuesday, May 17th Day 6

This is a mini blog to tell about my scary, fun, exciting adventure up a tall mountain behind our hostel in Grunderfjour. Yesterday was the craziest day yet for me. When we started our trek to the mountain I would have never guessed what the outcomes would be. I pushed myself further than I was expecting to. I was afraid of going straight up the mossy, rocky slope but tried to tell myself it would be okay. We had to cross over icy snow going up as well and that was very scary. I did not look down. I proved to myself, once again, that I am stronger and braver than I think I am. Also that I need to have more faith in myself. I'm so thankful for everyone that I hiked up to the top with (half of our group went up), especially Sarina, Elly, Brightin, Harmony, and Jessie.They stayed behind and helped me after my slide down on the ice with Elly, which was totally awesome except that my hands were so numb and stinging that I could not feel or move them. I didn't wear gloves when I slid down so my bare hands were in the ice the whole time. My hands have never felt that much pain. I started to see blood coming up from my skin getting torn off by the ice. It hit me once I got off the icy slope (we were still going down the mountain) and I started crying and couldn't think straight. Thankfully Elly was my little mommy and helped me put my gloves on. Also Sarina and I had an awesome convo hiking back to the hostel. Overall, the hike was well worth it!! Here are some pics from that day.

My wounds are slowly healing. :)

Day 5 Monday, May 17th

Today, we all ate breakfast at 9. We left at 10:30 and drove to the town Bourgarnes and parked in a parking lot with a grocery store/convenience store/post office(;)) We were planning on staying there for an hour or so but ended up staying for about 2 1/2 hours because our bus broke down. I bought a bag of trail mix and a banana smoothie in a bottle. Then, most of us went to the gas station convenience store and looked around. We tried to push the bus but sadly it did not move haha.

We decided to eat lunch in the convenience store but i decided to get a vegan sandwich in the grocery store and I called my Mom (Hi Mom!). Our new bus finally came and we drove to the hottest thermal springs in the world (whoa)! A lot more sulphur smells aka egg smell. I was feeling very tired because I'm slowly catching up on my sleep. After that, we drove to this church where one of the first thermal pools is.

There was beautiful greenery everywhere. We hopped back on the bus and and drove to the ice cave information center where we got on their once NATO used bus to drive up to the cave. The bus was huge and obviously military looking. The views up to the cave were indescribable. There was snow everywhere. Packs and packs of snow. There were mountains with packed snow. The sun was shining bright, making the snow glisten like crazy. I had no words. We finally got up to the entrance of the ice camp. It was hard to tell where the snow/ice ended and where the sky started at the horizon. The clouds overlapped/blended in with the snow. We went in the cave and stayed in there for about 2 hours. Our guide was the bomb-an older guy who is an avid climate change believer told us that we (the young people) will be the ones that save the planet, which was pretty awesome. Langjokull, the name of the glacier means long glacial. Into the Glacier project took 6 years in preparation with help from Iceland's top engineers, geologists, glaciologists, artists, and architects. The glacier ice in the cave is about 30-35 years old. The whole cave tunnel is 500 meters long and the largest of its kind in the world. When we left the amazing ice cave/glacier, we got back in our bus and drove to a waterfall nearby and spent at least and an hour there exploring and awing at it. We left there and drive back to our hostel and awed at the beautiful sunset. It was the best and most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. I was amazing and it brought me to tears. We got back at midnight and hadn't eaten dinner yet. We were going to make chili but we decided instead to make sandwiches and head to bed. It was a long and tiring day but one of my favorites so far.

Our guide is in the orange.

Some LED lights in the ice-melting is minimal because the lights eventfully turn off. They don't stay on all the time.

Outside the ice cave

Me at the entrance:

Day 3 May 14th, Iceland

Day 3: Saturday, May 14th 

I got up around 8 today and we left the hostel around 9.  Our first stop today was highway 42. We looked at rocks with lots of layering.The color of the rocks were light brown/dark brown/grey. Their textures were smooth and fine grained. After we studied the rocks, we took pictures of the beautiful scenery. The ocean was gorgeous and shimmered in the sun. I also got the lucky opportunity to pee on a patch of grass behind this big rock that was close to the edge of the rock cliff. That was a funny moment. I've learned to laugh at myself because I do many weird things. Our second stop was Krysuvik-Seltun which belongs to four volcanic systems that lie along the eruptive fault. Then we quickly drove by the Green's Lake. The third stop was a cute small town called Grindavik where we ate at this gas station. I had fish and chips which were good but I wasn't feeling more fries because we have eaten a lot of burgers and fries/bread but I ate them anyway. 

Our fourth stop was the lighthouse where we rock hopped down close to the shore. I learned about pillow basalts that are in between and on parts of the rocks. They form under water through rapid cooling that creates glassy structures. Water pressure causes it to form. The huge rocks were beautiful, especially the ones in the ocean. The ocean was a pretty blue and shinned from the sun. There were sea stacks far out in the ocean where land used to be. The lighthouse was white and had a little of red at the top. We then went to the famous touristy geothermal spa/pool. It was clear blue and foggy. The water was hot and put me in a zen state.

 Our dinner tonight was the best because it was healthy! :) I had a burrito bowl with quinoa and beans and other yummy veggies. On our walk back to our hostel, we walked in this park that was beautiful. It was so green and there were pretty flowers and trees. I kept thinking how I wish I could run on it but there is little time and I didn't bring my tennis shoes. Now, after I write this, I'm going to do some quick exercises and take a hot shower and go to bed. It is currently 11:15. I have learned a lot today about geology and saw the most beautiful mountains and scenery I have ever seen. I'm so grateful to be on this trip and to learn about the land of fire and ice.