We were told to save room for after breakfast today, as our guide, Ólöf, had brought us some Icelandic food to try: fermented shark fin, sheep head, skyr, chocolate-covered licorice, and more. Despite her seemingly best efforts to dissuade us from liking the food (though it is cool to know Greenland sharks are usually toxic due to the antifreeze in their blood, I did not need to be informed of this directly before taking a bite), it was all somewhat better than expected. If you ever end up in Iceland, though, the one food that I would definitely recommend would be the skyr – mixed with sugar and cream, it’s like a sweet yogurt.
Our next stop took us to Friðheimar, a farm that grows produce, mainly tomatoes, year-round in their greenhouses. There, we met the owner, who showed us around the many greenhouses they had, each filled with tomato vines that grew up to 25 centimeters each day. Iceland really does seem like a great place to grow plants like this, with cheap electricity for the lighting and heating as well as the harsh winters outside that farmers try to avoid, and we got to taste the results for ourselves. They had what was probably the best tomato soup I have had in my life at their restaurant, alongside some scrumptious bed flavored with the herbs they grow there. A nice little bonus was seeing Icelandic horses on the way out, who were rather fluffy.
The third point of interest today would be Gulfoss, the Golden Falls. Credits must be given where credits are due – the falls’ survival to this day is thanks to Sigríður Tómasdóttir, a local 20th-century woman who saw the waterfall as a friendly character she didn’t want to part with. After taking the case to court and stalling the construction of a dam there until the builders ran out of money, she became known as Iceland’s first environmentalist, letting us see the beautiful falls today.
Our final stop was the Haukadalur Geothermal Area, where bubbling water stayed warm amidst the snow. My favorite sight to see there was Strokkur, a large geyser that erupts every seven to twelve minutes, though the views from the surrounding hills were just as gorgeous.
Swanson School of Engineering 