I knew Iceland was a beautiful country with looking at so many photographs, but they simply do not do a justice. The landscape I saw today was nothing like I have seen before, paired with weather I have never dealt with and I cannot wait to experience more of it.
When we first arrived in Iceland, we drove through flat land, a lot of farms and nothing to see for miles at a time. But today, as we explored around the Snæfellness Peninsula, we saw giant mountains covered in snow in sharp contrast to the black rock peeking under, pebbled shores with green/blue ocean that stretched out for miles as the sun shone, and giant natural arches by jagged cliffs formed by the strong will of the ocean waves.
This was breathtaking, and I’m not just saying that because of the wind whipping around us. I chose to spend my Spring Break in some cold environment, bundled up head to toe, which may seem daunting to so many people but with seeing nature’s power in all its glory, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else . It truly is something you haven’t seen before nor see anywhere else.
I have traveled within the US many times, my family loves the outdoors, especially when it comes to the mountains. I’ve been to Acadia National Park in Maine, the Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee, the Swiss Alps (outside of the US), and so many other mountain ranges. This is like none other that I have experienced. The waterfalls spewing from these mountains defied gravity – literally half of one was moving upward. No where else have I looked one way to see a snowy mountain and then the opposite to see a moss covered cliff with an grand arch framing the sea. It felt like every Hoizer, Mount Joy, Noah Kahan, and Lumineers song rolled into one scene.
I am forever in awe of nature’s beauty and today was no different. I wish there was some way I could better capture what I saw because like I said before, a picture does not capture it all. Experiences like this make me crave a paint brush and water color.
Swanson School of Engineering 