Day 4 had a lot of walking, glaciers, history, and a special surprise! We left our hotel to head to Skógafoss, a waterfall in southern Iceland. To get to the top, we had to climb over 300 stairs. Talk about a workout! The weather picked up a bit as we were on the mountain, but we got back down safely.
We then went right next door to the Skógar folk museum. This place was brimming with Icelandic history. I saw numerous artifacts from ships and homes. They even have some homes on the property. Some in ground (like a Hobbit Hole), and some standard buildings, such as a home, church, and a schoolhouse. All of these were actually used in the past. Incredible! They also had an entire building of 20th century technology that was absolutely huge.
We next got to see the Sólheimajökull glacier! Its a huge glacier that is slowly moving backwards through a valley it is carving out. It is slightly tinted blue and absolutely huge. I don’t think the picture does justice to how massive this thing is. It was a gentle hike to the glacier, which was much appreciated after all those steps up to the waterfall!
We got to take a break on the bus while we headed to the town of Vik for some dinner where there is a black sand beach. While many of us were expecting black sand beaches to be rockier, it was very fine sand, as promised. The wind picked up once while we were on the beach, so sand got everywhere. Worth it!
After Vik we headed to our hotel for the night. This is normally where I end my blog posts but tonight was different. We got to see the northern lights! The clouds cleared up perfectly and they were so bright you could see them in multicolor with the naked eye. Watching the northern lights ripple like that really reminds you of where you are. We are just below the arctic circle and even then, there was no guarantee, but conditions aligned tonight! I didn’t believe that they actually moved as much as they do in the movies, but boy was I wrong! I even snapped a picture with Dr. Barry, the professor on the trip with us. We stayed up late talking about it and waiting until they were gone to head inside.
This was the perfect ending to a fun, long, and tiring day. I’m glad we got the chance to see nature at its finest. Hopefully more fun to come tomorrow!
Swanson School of Engineering 