Hello everybody, we finally made it!! It took a very long day of travel to get to Iceland. I started out separately because I stopped at my parent’s house and flew out of the Cleveland airport. So I got an extra 5 hours of layover in Boston, lucky me!! After some flight anxiety, limited plane sleep, and some bumpy landings, we made it onto the tarmac at the Keflavík International Airport. We were led through the usual immigration and customs, and, immediately, I really enjoyed the style and architecture of their airport. When I am traveling, I love to see how a country tries to market itself to tourists and you can get a sense of an aesthetic that Iceland is aiming for in their airport. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the bus and was taken by surprise by the wind outside. I was warned, of course, but didn’t realize how bad the wind can really be here.
Not so bright but early this morning, we headed to Reykjavik. I really enjoyed walking around the city. I think it looks really cute and has a lot of interesting shops that I would love to stop at later this week. Ólöf was given us a great explanation of the city’s history and quirks. I really liked the rainbow road because pride but also because it is really cute and colorful as it runs downhill. I was most taken aback by the design of their music hall, Harpa. That truly is such a gorgeous building and was an amazing sight to see. Also love hearing about the small design elements that have been snuck into most things in the city and country like the basalt columns.
For lunch, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some food and snacks. When I am in a different country, I also love looking at the foreign grocery stores because I think it is so interesting to look at the different produce and snacks they have available. I had to find my way to the yogurt aisle (I love yogurt) and I found their collection of skyr. Skyr is traditional Icelandic yogurt and it is very thick and creamy. This was my first time trying it and I LOVED the texture. The skyr I tried was a coffee vanilla flavor which was quite scrumptious:
Then, we were finally going to the power plant. The rumors were true: it was an incredibly clean plant. I don’t think I have ever realized how large geothermal plants have to me in regard to the land use. The number of bores span a large area so a lot more piping is involved than what I originally assumed. I think it was really good for me to see in person. I can think about, read, and understand the concepts and theory behind geothermal power, but seeing it in real life is totally different and helped me make much better sense of it in my head.
After the plant, we had a decently long car ride to see some hot springs. I have never seen a hot spring in my life before so that was really cool to see. I did not expect it to smell so sulfur-y but it was nice to feel warm steam float towards you. Then we were finally on route to our hotel for a well-deserved shower. Got a chance to settle in and then had an amazing welcome dinner. I don’t eat meat too often but the lamb was really yummy. I am really excited to finally be in Iceland and I know it will only get better after a very good night of sleep. So, sweet dreams everybody and rest up for tomorrow!
Swanson School of Engineering 