Hit the Ground Running
I arrived in Reykjavik jet lagged and sleep deprived having taken an overnight flight and landing at 6:30 in the morning Iceland time–2:30 AM on my Boston schedule. Even though I was utterly exhausted, I still spent hours that day exploring the beautiful city of Reykjavik. When I first saw the city from a distance, I wasn’t sure if I was really looking at the capital of Iceland–the buildings were low to the ground and it didn’t give off a dominating presence like the skylines of New York or Boston. It’s almost as if it’s an extension of the land itself and has its own charm that I fell in love with immediately. The buildings were painted bright colors and there was street art all around. The city sits right on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean with Mt. Esja on the horizon. Pictures truly can’t do it justice,but I took about a thousand when we walked along the water to get the city on what felt like an Icelandic Esplanade. We passed statues paying tribute to vikings, poets, and other historic figures from Iceland. Every corner overflowed with Icelandic culture and pride.
While the city is a little expensive–Iceland is in general–the shops throughout the city had a charming and peaceful vibe. There were an abundance of camping gear stores, restaurants, and plenty of shops selling Icelandic wool sweaters. Reykjavic is a huge tourist city, so there’s also countless places to get souvenirs. Most people in Iceland speak English fluently as well as Icelandic, so maneuvering throughout the city wasn’t much of a challenge. A fantastic surprise about the city was the sheer number of ice cream shops. I didn’t know this going in, but Iceland is known for their ice cream and they don’t mess around. Feeling that it was my duty to fully immerse myself in Icelandic culture, I ended up visiting four different ice cream shops in two days. The verdict: all incredible and totally worth it even in the 40 degree weather.
The orientation for this trip was done about four months before we left. I sat in on three hour and a half long meetings where Professor Hill went over the basics of geology and Icelandic culture. We practiced drawing a field journal entry and looked at pictures of the different sites and tourist spots we would be visiting. When it came to actually arriving in Iceland, we jumped in head first. We arrived early in the morning, exchanged our money for kronor, picked up groceries, set up camp, then spent the day exploring Reykjavik. Having the freedom to explore the first day was a great way to see the city with the rest of the students on the trip and get a taste of Iceland. We hit the ground running and haven’t stopped since.
