The Last Weekend

i won three beeers!

Friday night after hiking Mt. Esja, Jeremy, Melissa and I decided to find some Reykjavik nightlife. We began the night with our usual, The English Pub. We get into town early because the bus stops running at 11 and the english pub has music and nice outdoor seating. I was feeling lucky and decided to spin the famous wheel. It's 1500 krona to spin and you can win up to a meter beer or no beer. I won 3 beers yayyy! After that, we mostly just bar hoped from place to place finding some fun. We got home around 4ish (I think) and found a man dressed in a princess dress in our hostel kitchen. Turns out it was the stag party from England and he was the groom. Jeremy and I decided it was a good night/morning to go for a swim in the ocean and convinced them to join us. Those guys were a riot and it got me looking forward to going to England in July!!
Anyways, we eventually woke up Saturday and were in desperate need of some greasy American breakfast and found Prikid. Turns out we went there the night before; most places downtown seem to be cute cafes by day and grungy bars/clubs by night. Prikid thankfully had the all-american hangover curing breakfast we were looking for. After that I hung around town looking into the tourist shops and reading on the green by the parliament.

Glymur

 We decided that Sunday would be our last full day to be free in Iceland and decided to rent a car and go on another adventure. Agust reccomended Snaefellsnes, the peninsula between Reykjavik and the Westfjords. There is a glacier, Snæfellsjökull, at the end of it which you can see from Reykjavik on a clear day. This glacier is famous for being the starting point in the book/movie Journey to the Center of the Earth. We set off around noon (late start because Hertz messed up our hostel pick up) and headed to Glymur, Iceland's tallest waterfall. Glymur is at the end of the Hvalfjodur bay so instead of taking the new tunnel under the bay we detoured around it. It was a beautiful drive all along the sea overlooking cliffs and beaches. We were expecting it to be a big touristy attraction like Gulfoss, but instead found a small hiking trail leading towards the falls off a dirt road. It turned out to be much more of a hike than we were expecting and hiked for about an hour, making it about two thirds of the way up before turning back. The waterfall is in a huge gulley so it was hard to see, and the trail was more like a mountain climb than a walk.

the 'trail'

river crossing

We found a completely different trail on the way back down which went up through a cave rather than around the cliff face. It was pretty cool. Back to the car and onwards towards Snaefellsnesjokull towering over us.

Snaefellsnesjokull getting closer!

After about 1.5 hours we made it to the peninsula, and we were the only car on the road. It was a barren flat land; just us and the sheep. I was getting tired of driving and Jeremy decided he could try to learn how to drive shift. He actually caught on pretty quick and realized that so long as he doesn’t stop, he’ll be fine! That was until we convinced him to turn onto a gravel road that appeared to lead up to the glacier. The slow driving caused some issue and after a lot of jolting around we swapped positions and it was my job to drive us up a mountain to the glacier.

Our little but mighty car

We were all terrified winding up the mountain in our little Toyota and eventually decided to park the car and continue on foot. The glacier is much less intimidating up close, but we had fun playing in the snow in June! By now it was pretty late, so we continued driving around the glacier/peninsula, stopping at a few view points and finally in Olafsvik for a delicious meal complete with an amazing desert! After a long and eventful day, we were actually looking forward to our hostel and our beds. Another great Sunday to complete our last weekend in Iceland. 

Blue Lagoon and Mt. Esja

the steam on the right is a geysir in the lagoon

covered in silica

Lecture on Thursday we had a little exercise by creating our own country and brainstorming on ways to make it sustainable and how extensive it would be for a community to rely on renewable energy. It was interesting and helped to put real numbers into the equations. That afternoon we took a trip to Carbon Recycling International, which is a small methane plant next to a geothermal power plant (it isn’t really international and is the only one so far). I found the process confusing but basically geothermal plants release carbon dioxide so CRI takes the CO2 and through a chemical process transforms it into methanol and water. The water is pumped back into the ground and the methanol can be used as an additive with gasoline to be more renewable. It is very experimental and is still quite small, but it sounds like if it works out, it is a good thing to have at all geothermal plants. After that, we headed to the infamous Blue Lagoon! We have been hearing about the Blue Lagoon from everyone since we arrived in Iceland and have been anticipating it for the past three weeks, so my expectations were pretty high. It is a geothermal spa and probably the biggest tourist attraction in Iceland. It is just one big geothermal pool that is this milky blue color due to the natural minerals. There is an abundance of silica which is a white clay that is supposedly really good to rub on your skin. Agust informed us on the ride over that the Blue Lagoon actually uses the discharged water from the Svartsengi power plant. I doubt most tourists know that! Surprisingly, it exceeded my high expectations and it was amazing. I’ve never seen water that color before and it was so huge with not too many tourists. We spent about an hour in the water. Depending on where you swam it went from warm to extremely hot. Of course we had to rub the silica on our faces, although the only results I noticed was my hair becoming extremely dry and frizzy after. Needless to say, it was a great day!

Friday morning was a wrap up on the topic of renewable energy and Agust let us out early. Jeremy and I decided today was the day to hike Mt. Esja, one of the mountains surrounding Reykjavik. It was quite the bus journey to get there; we attempted to hike it our first week in Iceland, but got stranded half way there between bus routes. After three different buses, we made it to the base and headed up! Hiking is so different here because there are no trees and it is on lava rocks and dust. There were six marked points along the way, each with a sign written in Icelandic (of course). It took us about an hour to troop up to point 5 which had a big rock along with a guest book to sign.

where's the trail?

There were two groups of people taking a long rest but, aside from pondering the image of a stick figure falling, we didn’t think twice about continuing up to the top. From point 5 to 6 there was hardly a trail and pretty much straight up piles of small rocks and dusty soil. Jeremy went first and was scrambling and sliding down the mountain and it wasn’t until we noticed a man trekking down about 10 meters to our left that we realized we weren’t even on the trail…oops. I took over the lead and found the trail again and finally spotted the 6^th sign. It still wasn’t the top though. Looking up was a scrambling cliff and we figured we made it this far, why not go for it.

view from the top

The trail was not marked at all so I gave it my best shot and climbed up, finding chain ropes to hang out while we climbed along the treacherous summit. We eventually made it to the top and it was well worth it! We stared down at the tiny city that was Reykjavik, managing to spot the Pearl, near where our hostel is. Esja isn’t so much of a mountain as it is a plateau shelf-like ridge. The other side was a rock field that looked like it went on forever. You could see cairns marking the way into the horizon. We knew the last bus from the parking lot left at 6:08 and it was about 5:30, but the view was so great we didn’t bother rushing. After taking it all in, we climbed down. Halfway down the trail we actually saw the bus drive right by the driveway, so we weren’t to sure how we would get home. Luckily, my parents trained me well and we asked a woman who had just come down for a ride into the city and she agreed. We came back to the hostel to find a group of loud, drunk British guys staying in our hostel for the weekend for a stag party. Should be an interesting weekend…

Week 3

humpback whale tale!

Whale..yumm

Week three: We had classes each morning with Agust all week. On Monday we went over geothermal energy. It is much more complex than hydropower, so I am glad we learnt about that one first. Geothermal energy has many more parts rather than simply water being pushed through a turbine, spinning a generator. In this case, one needs to first find a location with high geothermal activity (usually near a volcano). A Borehole is drilled and hot liquid is pumped out of the ground. The liquid is usually a combination of steam and fluid, so it goes through a separating tank to separate out the steam and recycle the fluid/water. Then the steam goes through the turbine (causing the generator to spin). Depending on the complexity of the system there are more parts such as condensers (creating cold air below the turbine, creating a vacuum and making the turbine more efficient), heat exchangers and storage tanks. Sometime the excess steam can be used for space heating. Also, some areas of geothermal activity are only used for district heating, not electricity.

After lecture on Monday we went whale watching off the reykjavik harbor! It was fun, such a beautiful and sunny day made being out on the water very enjoyable. The first stop was by an island filled with birds, especially puffins, but we saw them up close and personal on our trip south last week so it wasn’t as cool. Then we headed out into the waters to find some whales. We saw minke whales maybe 3 or 4 times, and a humpback whale. The tour guide was very excited about the humpback because it was the first one he’s seen this season. After enjoying the beauty of the creature out in the ocean, we worked up an appetite for trying some minke. Iceland is one of three countries that can still legally hunt whale (Norway and Japan are the other two) and it is still a huge discussion whether or not it should be legal. We went to a cute little fish shack called Sea Baron and ordered a skewer of minke whale to split. It was very rare, which made it unenjoyable for me, but the outer grilled bit was actually quite tasty. It was like a fishy tasting steak.

The Boreholes were covered in funky looking shells

After another lecture on renewable energy on Tuesday we visited Hellisheidi geothermal powerplant. With all the boreholes it is a huge area covered with pipes and different tanks and steam separators. Apparently there are beautiful mountains all around the plant (we couldn’t see them because it was so foggy) and the plant was a bit of a controversy because it disturbed the natural beauty of the hiking. I find this a bit silly because Iceland is covered in naturally pure beauty and there are plenty of other places to hike around the area, and the energy produced is a very good profit for the country. But that’s just me.

Relaxing on the green

Agust gave us Wednesday afternoon off, so we decided to go down to the beach and have lunch there. It was filled with kids because it was the last week of school, but the weather was amazing so we all just laid out and relaxed. After a while of that, Jeremy and I decided to head downtown for a drink or two. We started off at a café with a little outdoor patio and couldn’t figure out where all the people were hanging out on such a beautiful day. After that beer, we walked over to the parliament to find the green filled with 20-something year olds drinking beers, who knew? So we decided to follow suit, headed to the liquor store to buy some singles and hung out on the green all afternoon.

Hveragerði Hot Springs

so many hot springs!

After a wild night out on Saturday, we all managed to get out of bed, rent a car and head out on a Sunday adventure! Apparently I am the only one who can drive shift stick (thanks mom and dad!) so I was the driver. I was a bit nervous navigating around Reykjavik, but we seemed to have a good sense of direction after walking all over it the past two weeks and it is definitely no Boston. We decided to head to a little town called Hveragerði which is known for all of it's geothermal activity. We headed into town and once again down a gravel road to the end. Even from the parking lot we could see steam pouring out of the ground.

too hot!

We followed the trail up and around a mountain quickly gaining elevation, and then down into a valley. We came to a river crossing with no apparent way to cross it and decided to take off our shoes and walk. I was pleasantly surprised to find the river wasn't cold, but lukewarm. The trail skirted along what looked like an old inactive volcano to a land filled with hot springs! It still amazes me that boiling water can bubble out of the ground here. We walked up to a few and though about jumping in....but they were so hot and decided that

was a bad idea. After walking a little further we came around a corner to find that same river we crossed filled with people. There is a hot spring fed river coming down from the mountain on the left and a cold spring river coming down from the right and at the bottom of the valley they meet and create the perfect river for swimming! It was amazing, the highlight of my Icelandic trip so far. It was so cool because, like the old pool it wasn't a tourist attraction.

where hot (left) meets cold (right)

The people next to us were all from Iceland, and we saw a few Icelandic families hiking along, but not too many tourists. We did our best to change (there are no trees and Icelandic people have no problem whipping their clothes off) and hopped in! Spent the rest of the afternoon bathing and relaxing in the hot water. Eventually it was time to head back so we dried off and trekked back to the car and back to Reykjavik.

fish 'n chips

 

Once we got back to the hostel we figured we had the car all night, and might as well use it, so we decided to head out for a nice dinner in a little fishing town on the Reykjanes peninsula called Grindavik. After a bit of driving around and asking a poor 13 year old who hardly spoke English for directions, we found Salthúsið (salt house). We all had delicious meals of fish, lamb and meat soup! After dinner, we drove around the town a little, found a gravel road to wander down and saw our first real sunset of the trip (at around 10:30)! All around it was a great Sunday. I am definitely going to miss the wide open spaces of Iceland when I go back to Boston. 

South Iceland day 2: waterfalls, hot springs and a farm

Day 2 of our wild adventure. After the best night's sleep I had in Iceland, Jeremy and I woke up early to check out the waterfall, Skogafoss, before starting our day. It was overcast and spitting mist out of the sky, but it didn’t matter once we got to the falls because it was so incredible and powerful. We tried to get as close as we could to it and ended up getting soaked from all the mist it created. There was a staircase leading up the side to the top that we decided to climb, taking a little detour half way up to a breathtaking overlook. Then we headed back to the hotel, had some breakfast and played cards until the museum we were going to opened. The museum was pretty cool, they had so many archaeological findings from excavations around the area as well as a few row boats that were used for fishing.  Outside, there was an old turf farmhouse village that we could go inside and see the stable, bedrooms, and pantry as well as a school, house and a church from I believe the early 1900s. After walking around there for a bit, we moved on to our next destination: Eyjafjallajökull Glacier.

Apparently we should have been able to see the glacier towering over the mountains for a good part of the drive, but it was so foggy, we had no idea it was there. That may be why it was so cool to finally see once we walked up to it. Of course Kristjan, the adventure seeker, led us up and on it. It wasn't as pretty and icy blue as I expected, because a) it is not winter/covered in snow and b) it was sprinkled with black ash. Still, it was cool to stand on and check out. Apparently this is just the tongue to the actual glacier. I would love to go on a glacier hike to the top of it, but you have to go with a guide and it is quite pricey. After testing some more of the fresh Icelandic water, we climbed off the glacier and headed onward on our journey.

            Remember in 2010 when a volcano erupted and all flights were grounded in Europe and everyone was fussing about not being able to travel? That volcano caused life altering disasters in Iceland. This one farm we visited lived at the base of the glacier/volcano, Eyjafjallajökull. The 2010 eruption covered their land in a thick layer of black ash and after much debate they decided they couldn’t abandon their farm and had to clean up the mess. About a year after the eruption, to help with some revenue they created a film documentary called Iceland Erupts and opened a little visitor’s center on the other side of the road. We watched the short film about how the eruption turned their life upside down. Because the volcano is covered by a glacier, the eruption caused serious flooding of not only water, but a volcanic ash sludge, spreading all over the land. The air was filled with ash dust and you couldn’t even see your hand out in front of you. The family returned to the farm after evacuating and started the clean up efforts. Two year later we still saw backhoes digging up and excavating the volcanic ash. Now, the farm is completely sustainable. The farmer built his own hydropower station on a small cliff behind the farm and they produce their own rapeseed oil for fueling farm equipment and cooking. It is quite amazing that after such a devastating thing happened and the most obvious thing to do is pick up and move on, they managed to clean it up and keep going on with their life farming and living off the grid. 

            After talking with some folks at our hotel the night before, we found out about a place called ‘the old pool’. In the 1920s a youth group decided to build a natural hot pool in a valley in the middle of the wilderness. We told Agust and Kristjan about it and they had heard of it and decided we should try to find it. Onto another dirt road we drove and stopped at the end. We followed a small trail and trekked into the valley. After about 15 minutes the pool came into view! It was built along the side of a cliff so half of it was a natural wall while the other half was constructed and on one end was a shack where we could change. It was freezing out and misting with rain so we quickly changed and jumped in. The water wasn’t that warm unless we sat where a small hot spring was pouring down the rock. It was definitely the highlight of the trip. A natural hot pool in the middle of the mountains, what could be better?

That was the last stop on our amazing two day journey and after returning to Reykjavik we were all pretty exhausted and had a quick rest before hitting the town for some more crazy, unexpected nightlife.

South Iceland day 1: hydropower, black sand and puffins

What a country! Thursday and Friday, Agust and Krisjan took us on the most amazing trip to the southern coast of Iceland. It began with a stop at Burfell Hydropower Station, a fully operating plant producing energy for a big chunk of Iceland. We went on a tour of the station, checked out the generators and the room with the turbine, and then looked around a little museum they just opened in the station. It was great to finally see all that we talked about in lecture. After that, it was time for a true Icelandic lunch! We drove down a gravel road (very common in Iceland) to a place called Stong. Back in 1104, a massive eruption of Mount Hekla caused the settlers and farms to be destroyed, so it is a hotspot for archaeology studies. The farm and house was later rebuilt in the mountains based on the excavated findings. We took a short walk through the lava covered hills to the house and ate Skyr (Icelandic greek-like yogurt) and dried cod (fish beef jerky). The skyr was delicious, and I'm still deciding how I feel about the dried fish.
After lunch, we decided to go waterfall hunting even though it was freezing cold and raining. We drove a bit further along the dirt road, traveling deeper into the middle of nowhere until finally we decided to get out and hike around. All of a sudden, we went over a hill and around a corner to find the most amazing picturesque waterfall. It was a whole series of waterfalls snaking around boulders and a big grassy mound with natural caves. I now know why Icelandic people believe in elves, or hidden people, because there are so many caves carved into the hillsides. Of course, we had to go down to see the beauty up close and Kristjan didn't think twice before leading us down the steep banks of the valley. We walked along the grassy island and into the hobbit holes. Kristjan introduced us to the purity and freshness of the springs here. He made us all stick our faces into the water and drink it and wash it over our faces. It is no myth, Iceland has the most pure and fresh water.

4km tunnel connecting the two reservoirs

After that little detour, we headed to the site of a power station under construction. This power station is one of five that will be a 'Run of the River hydroelectricity' on the Thyorsa River. This basically means that the river provides power to all the power stations and there is really no large drop or storage dam before, A reservoir is created artificially and the discharged water goes back into the river to flow down to the next plant. This plant took the water from a reservoir that is 4 km away, so a massive tunnel had to be drilled through the hills so the water can travel and fill up in a basin right before the station. The water will then flow through the station, turning the turbine and creating energy, then be discharged back into the river.

It was very cool seeing the plant under construction. It gave me a real feel for the immense size of the plant. We were able to go down into the empty reservoir and walk through the opening where the water pipe would go into the turbines and man did I feel tiny! The base for the turbine was in place as well as a massive pipe for the discharge water to flow out of. This plant definitely gave me a much better understanding of the power that can be harnessed with water.

  After the plant we ventured farther down the coast. It was a foggy and rainy day and normally we would’ve been able to see the glacier Eyjafjallajökull towering over the farms but it was too foggy out. We kept driving and eventually the paved road turned into a gravel road and then a deserted parking lot. As we got out of the car I was blown away with the scenery. Towering mossy cliffs to my left covered with white birds soaring around and a black sandy beach to my right with the sound of waves crashing in the distance. We walked onto the ash covered beach and along to the basalt cliffs which formed rock pillar cliffs and a scary looking cave along the beach.

Finally it was time for dinner. I wasn't sure what to expect, so when we pulled up to a cute little house in the middle of fields overlooking a cliff on the black beach with a lighthouse atop it, I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out Agust's mother owned this gorgeous summer house and offered to cook us a traditional Icelandic feast of lamb and potatoes with an apple cake for desert! It was delicious! After dinner she gave Agust a special key that took us on a private road up to the top of the cliff where we saw our first group of puffins and once again relished in the beauty of the coast. We then drove to our hotel in the town of Skogar, which is famous for the waterfall Skogafoss. Our hotel was very nice (with real mattresses and bath robes!) and we were very pleased to discover it had an outdoor hot tub and sauna. We dropped our bags, changed into our suits and spent the rest of the night relaxing in the tub, taking in the incredible day we just had and debating what more was to come tomorrow.

Lecture with Agust

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings we had lectures with Agust all about energy, turbines and hydropower. It is just the four of us in class with him lecturing which is good and bad. It is good because we all are forced to be attentive, no dozing off or playing on our phones and if we have questions or don't understand something we can just shout out and ask. The only problem is we are a very quiet bunch, so when he asks a question, we don't say much and our discussions are quite short. In those three days I felt like I learned a lot though. I have always had interest in renewable energy sources, but I never understood how they work, and now I do. We first went into energy concepts (work, power, energy etc.) and then about how a generator works with the magnet and a coil creating electricity. The next day it got more interesting because Agust went into detail about hydropower plants and how water can be used efficiently as an energy source. Basically the water falling is guided into a turbine, causing it to spin. The turbine is attached to a generator, which turns with it and, in short, creates electricity. Location is important because the two factors into the amount of energy that can be produced is flow rate and height of the drop. This causes a lot of discussion in Iceland because some of the best locations for power plants are the most beautiful waterfalls (Gulfoss). The hydropower plant also disrupts the natural ecology and flow of the river. The biggest rivers in Iceland are glacial rivers which carry a lot of silt, so when a reservoir is built above the power plant, a lot of settlement will occur also disrupting the natural environment. In most situations it seems like the issue is not how to design the plant to be most efficient in a location, but it's how to do so without harming the beauty and wildlife in that location. On Thursday we will see a complete hydropower plant as well as a plant that is under construction, which will be interesting.