Day 3 Iceland:

Dinner with Sister Troop

Dinner with the Icelandic Troop started off a bit rocky since we had been running late from horse back riding. We had decided to prepare chili, macaroni salad, and deviled eggs, which I guess is pretty American. When the Icelandic troop came, they brought multiple Icelandic dishes like beef/lamb liver, dried fish, licorice, fermented shark, and yogurt. It seemed that when dinner stated conversation flowed and everyone was laughing and having an awesome time just talking and eating together. It felt nice to finally be able to sit down with everyone for a dinner. -- Coumbah

 

 

Caving Attempt

After sharing dinner with the sister we had planned to go caving up in the mountains. On our way up, we could already see a storm starting; the wind was so strong it whipped our 9 passenger van around on the road. It was hard to see anything around us because the part of the mountain we were on was completely covered by clouds. We hiked for a long time out there on the mountain over rocks and moss, still in harsh weather. The weather seemed extreme to us, but when we asked the sister troop they said it was just regular bad weather for Iceland. The wind and rain were so strong that we could feel the storm even through all of our many layers of clothing. Finally, Elvar said that the weather was too harsh to go caving; we could get lost coming out of the cave because the storm made it hard to see. The hike was still worth it, though; it was so different from any other hike I’ve taken before. --Katie 

 

 

Golden Circle Tour

Yesterday, we had made plans for touring one of Iceland’s famous attractions, the Golden Circle. This included a fault line, geysers, and a huge waterfall. We started at the fault line. To get there, you started at the top of a hill like cliff and walked down to the bottom surrounded by beautiful moss covered rocks. After taking multiple pictures and exploring the area a bit, we left for the geysers. 

 

 

 

The geysers were lightly roped back and were all along a gentle walk leading up to a large mountain that overlooked the area. We were pretty high up already and you could see the farms and green fields that were toward the bottom of the mountain. Some of the girls stayed down toward the bottom to continue to look at the geysers, and Coumbah and I continued the walk up toward the mountain. However, we made sure not to go all the way up, in the hopes of avoiding a good lecture when we came down. All I can say is it looked beautiful, and you would need to look at the pictures to really get an idea of what it was like; I don’t even think the pictures can really show it. 

 

 

Well, we had to get down at some point and then we headed out for a picnic. At first we wanted to stop by the road, but to avoid the small flies that seemed to be everywhere we just headed toward Gullfoss (the waterfall) and set up at the picnic tables, BUT it earlier had been raining and everything was wet. It was still drizzling, but we decided it would be worth it. Little did we know that in not even 5 minutes it would start pouring. It was pretty crazy, well we were kinda dumb, but we just ate lunch in the van. After the rain let up, we went to look at the waterfall. We walked down a long flight of stairs, and at the bottom was the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen. It cut through the high ground we had walked down from, and misted the air. 

 

 

After taking dozens of pictures, we left and that was the end of our Golden Circle tour! 

 

Afterwards, we went to one of the Icelandic pools. Personally, I was really nervous because I don’t really like frequenting the pool at home, so in another country???? Man I was a little anxious. But we went in and changed, showered beforehand, and we went out. We walked in and well obviously we weren’t Icelandic, and I felt some stares. But it turned out wonderfully! The water was so warm and there were hot tubs and a big jacuzzi. 

 

We hung out there for a while, and funny story, while we were there we saw some girls from our sister troop outside and talked to them about meeting up later. So we left at 10 and met up with them at 10:30 to eat ice cream. We went with the girls to an ice cream shop where we ate this really cool Iceland style soft serve. They let you choose three topping like candies and fruits and blended everything together, so it tasted like candy in every single spoonful. Afterwards, we took a short walk near the coastline, and then headed back to hang out a bit. They left at about 1ish and we headed off for bed, to rest for the next day! --Lizzy