I’ve got to be honest, going on day five here in Iceland- I am tired! It feels as though we’ve been going non-stop and today has been no different. I’m grateful to be doing so much in such a short amount of time, even if it’s a struggle to keep up with Ólöf sometimes!
We started today’s adventures with a trip to a glacier lagoon- Jökulsárlón. I could have sat and watched the ice melt pass by for hours. Some of us were also lucky enough to see seals, mallards, and songbirds. Nearby was the famous Diamond Beach, where small, shining shards of ice lay in the black sand like little treasures.
Then we trekked up to see Skaftafell. The climb was quick (Ólöf really wanted to get to the top!) and a bit difficult for me, but the views were definitely worth it.
We also stopped to see a piece of a bridge that was wrecked in 1996 by massive glacial flooding. It was an interesting bit of history- Ólöf has been visiting this wreckage since she was a kid!
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped to see some basalt formations called Dverghamrar (“Dwarf Cliffs”). These hexagon shapes form from a very particular set of circumstances, when lava interacts with cool water (in a lake, for example). They were HUGE and unlike anything I’d ever seen. It’s interesting how the fractures form such complete hexagons- see the photo below with Ólöf as a size reference.
Swanson School of Engineering 