Day three in Iceland was beautiful. The past few days we’ve driven and hiked through heavy snow, which has turned Iceland into a winter wonderland and made some of the natural sites we visited today all the more spectacular.
Second Breakfast
After starting the day with breakfast in the hotel, our guide, Olaf, presented us with a traditional Icelandic food tasting. There were some common snacks such as Skýr, a sour dairy product that tastes like plain Greek yogurt or sour cream, smoked lamb on top of a piece of flat rye bread, and dried fish, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Then there were some foods unfamiliar to us Americans, such as gelatinous sheep’s head, ground and cubed sheep organs, and, of course, fermented shark. The sheep’s head was a little too fatty for my liking, but the fermented shark, once I got past the taste of chemicals, was definitely not as bad as social media says it is. Olaf told us the meat comes from the Greenland shark, one of the oldest shark species in the world, and the most tolerant of cold water. Because of this, the Greenland shark processes waste through its meat, making it toxic to humans. But because Icelanders were already exporting the Greenland shark’s liver oil and they wanted to be able to use the entire animal, they came up with a way of fermenting the meat to make it edible. Nowadays, fermented shark is sold in Icelandic grocery stores and, Olaf tells us, is good for our digestive systems.
There were also some desserts and candies. We tried chocolate covered licorice and a chocolate candy with rice crispies called “lava” because it looks a little like a lava rock. Olaf also recommended mixing a traditional Christmas drink, dark malt mixed with Appelsín, or orange soda.
Touring the Greenhouse
After breakfast we piled onto the bus and began our day trip with a stop at Fridheimar’s Stud Farm and Greenhouse Cultivation Center, where we heard a presentation from Knutur, the owner and founder of the company. The greenhouses run entirely on sustainable energy to produce tomatoes year-round in Iceland, using heat-generating and LED lights to combat the dark winter nights. They also release bumble bees, imported from the Netherlands, to pollenate the tomato flowers. But, Knutur said, the tourism arm of his business has grown just as large as his tomato sales. They have converted a couple of their greenhouses into restaurants for foreign tourists to sample some of their products.
And, of course, we did, too! We ate lunch in the greenhouse surrounded by tomato vines. The entire building smelled like summer on a farm, and the tomato soup and bread were the best I’ve ever had. If I ever come back to Iceland, I need to make sure to visit the greenhouses again!
We finished off our visit to the greenhouses with petting the Icelandic horses (don’t call them ponies – they are not ponies, and the Icelanders don’t like that). The horses were introduced with the first settlers of the country and have adapted over the past thousand years to grow thick winter coats and eat digest Icelandic food.
The Natural Wonders of the World
You know that feeling you have when every new sight is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen? That was how I felt today. At first I thought eating tomato soup and cheesy bread under the greenhouse lights surrounded by tomato plants and the smell of herbs was the best life could get, but I was wrong. Our next stop was the Gullfoss waterfalls.
Getting there was an adventure in itself. The wind from the canyon was so strong it nearly blew us over, and it was whistling extremely loudly on the observation deck. But the view was so beautiful it didn’t feel real. Niagara Falls, which I visit often since my grandparents live nearby, can’t hold a candle to the beauty of Gullfoss.
Afterwards we went to the geysir hot springs. Olaf warned us not to try dipping our fingers in the water, since it was near boiling temperature. The geyser itself, which erupted every seven minutes or so, was surrounded by other bubbling hot springs. A few of us were standing in the wrong spot and were doused with sulfur-smelling mist when the geyser went off, but it was a great experience nonetheless.
After a quick dip in the hot tub and heated pool at the hotel, it’s off to Day Four!
Swanson School of Engineering 