Throughout the night, the wind haunted me by pushing the skylight up and down, and it still haunts me when writing this post, with me feeling like I am constantly being blown by wind. I deem this phenomenon, ‘phantom wind’ and fear it may follow me to Pittsburgh as well.
In other news, after I woke up, I enjoyed a lovely assortment of bread and oatmeal and was surprised by the fact that some yogurt in Iceland is served in a carton, but thankfully I planned on eating granola with milk, (some of my friends called me a mad man for my original plan, but hey, yogurt and granola is also pretty good. After breakfast, we set sail on a journey around the Snæfellness Peninsula and started at Hraunfossar, which is a bunch of waterfalls in the lava field. By now, the wind was pretty calm and the views of the waterfall were magnificent with the only thing to worry about being ice. From there we ventured to Ytri tunga, “Outer outcrop of land” where we saw seals on the black sand and rock beaches, and took many pictures posing on the rocks. We were warned about the quick changing climate, and this, this is when the battle against the Icelandic wind began. Feeling like a million needles thrown at your face we walked against 47 mph winds with constant snow/hail coming into our faces. Having to shimmy ourselves sideways to avoid getting hit by the fast pelting snow, we made it back to the bus, just for it to be sunny and less windy.
After facing the first round of the long-fought war against wind (which I assume will continue), we headed to a local hydroponics greenhouse to have lunch! The soup was to die for, and learning about the hydroponics systems was also really neat, especially considering I have previous background knowledge on hydroponics, so it was cool to see it in action and eat something produced by the farming technique.
We then departed for Amarstapi and Hellnar, which was my favorite part of today’s adventures. The cliffs while extremely windy, held breathtaking views that I don’t think my phone does justice. While walking along these cliffs we faced very extreme winds, like nothing I have experienced before, but it was also so fun to experience. I could not stop laughing, when the wind would pick up, humored by the fact that I couldn’t walk in a straight line, and tested running and fully ran at a 20 degree angle, and still couldn’t go straight. These cliffs were the border between the ocean and a large mountain behind, so the 360 view was great no matter where you looked.
Comparing the cliffs of Amarstapi and Hellnar to the cliffs and coast of Dublin was shocking. They have a very similar structure in the way cut off, but the basalt structure of Iceland’s coast is truly the defining factor, and I understand why it’s a staple in Icelandic architecture. Having visited another Atlantic European coast, it is interesting to compare and contrast the cliff shapes, and how nature has formed them. Ireland’s are more carved out by water, while Iceland’s are a mixture of volcanic rock and the ocean.
Swanson School of Engineering 