I’ve taken a good amount of pictures during the past few days, but this one takes the cake when it comes to filling my camera roll with a diabolical amount of photos. We started off the day with a drive through grassy plains with beautiful skies, quite the contrast between the ice and clouds that have been most of our trip so far. After a quick stop at the lava center (where we learned that a nearby volcano, Katla, is overdue for an eruption), we arrived at Seljalandsfoss.
Seljalandsfoss already looked incredible as we approached, only getting better the closer we got. The falls were tall enough that the water almost seemed to turn to mist by the time it hit the pond below, and it was flanked by other, smaller waterfalls along the same cliff face. Walking a bit further down revealed a large crevice in the rock, where Gljúfrabúi was hidden. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves; this was one of my favorite spots on the trip thus far.
Next up was another waterfall, Skógafoss. Thanks to the sunlight, a double rainbow appeared in the falls’ mist, setting up a dazzling scene. There was also an observation platform at the top, so after heading to the top (and thinking I was going to die the entire time – that climb is not for the weak) we got to see the falls from above, as well as another set of falls farther upstream.
After another bus ride, we ended up at Skogar Museum, an Icelandic folk museum. We got to see ships, textiles, animals, houses, cars, telephones, and more, including a type of crab known as the “porcupine crab” I hope I never encounter in the wild. The guide there was pretty helpful, too, explaining things such as the 13 yule lads of Christmas (some troublesome trolls who mess with people during the holiday season) and the lucky ship, a small vessel in use for 90 years that never saw a single casualty at sea.
Our last two stops were Sólheimajökull, the Sun-Home Glacier, and a black sand beach. At the former, we walked from where the glacier used to be a few decades ago to where the edge of the glacier is now, and at the latter, the waves were rather strong and my boots ended up filled with seawater.
Swanson School of Engineering 