Tag: reykjavik

By eevenden

Hello everyone!

As promised, here is a continuation of my blog form last week about my trip to Germany. On Monday, I took the train from Frankfurt to Munich as I progressed through Bavaria. Upon arrival, I was immediately impressed by bustle and diversity of the city and its inhabitants. After checking into my hostel, I immediately went to explore the old, picturesque city-center.

Monday (April 23^rd)

For the rest of Monday, my primary goal was to walk-around and see some of the popular sights of Munich. What really impressed me was the architecture of the city. It seemed like around every corner there was a new grand cathedral or theater. What I really enjoyed, which I guess is not available in Reykjavik, was the energy of the crowds walking around. Over 70 degrees F, it was like a warm summer’s night in the city. I ended the evening with a pretzel, happy to be in Munich.

Tuesday (April 24^th)

Before coming here, I had consulted one of my friends in Iceland (who is from Munich) about what I should do while in the area. I asked him for some hiking recommendations since I wanted to take advantage of warmth and nature. He gave me several recommendations for some closer and further away hikes. Since I had three days in Munich, I decided to do two of them.

On Tuesday I did a shorter hike since I was going to meet Dagmar’s brother for dinner in the city. This hike (I believe its called the Five Lakes Trail) was just outside of Munich, in a town called Herrsching, and climbed a forested hill to a monastery called Kloster Andechs. The monastery is both old and beautiful and today is famous for brewing beer. Honestly, it was a bit confusing trying to find the trail initially since it starts in a town. But eventually the streets thinned and forest took over. Over the course of three hours, I walked from town to woods to monastery to lake (luckily able to follow signs instead of checking my phone every 10 minutes). Overall it was a very good day with excellent weather.

I returned to Munich with the commuter train, and after washing up, met Dagmar’s brother for dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant near his neighborhood in Munich. It was an excellent meal with interesting conversation.

Wednesday (April 25^th)

Wednesday was my big hiking day. Since I was in Bavaria, I couldn’t resist doing a trip south to the Alps region. At the recommendation of my friend, I decided to do a long hike in the ‘Pre-Alps” (the “foothills of the Alps”) near a lake called Walchensee. To get there, I took the earliest regional train I could from the Munich Central Station at 6am Kochel. From there, I took the bus to the trail-head. I made sure to pack lots of food and 5 liters of water for the journey since online it had said the trail would take at least 7 hours. The loop started from the base of mountain ridge that consists of several peaks including Heimgarten and Herzongstand, which reach over 1790 m in altitude (about 5,900 feet). This was both the first hike I have done by myself and the hardest hike I’ve ever done, so it was certainly going to be a challenge. However, I was never really alone. There were tons of very athletic retirees there too. You can follow my progress in the photos below.

I was very, very happy I decided to do this hike. The mountains were absolutely stunning and I really felt accomplished when I got back down. (The first thing I did was buy an ice cream and some French fries at the bottom). Afterwards, I took the bus and train back to Munich and was pleasantly surprised that everything went smoothly. Then I basically went to bed right afterwards.

Thursday (April 26^th)

On my final day in Munich, I obviously planned to take it a bit easy after the hike. I started the day by going to a vegan café that my friend suggested. I’m not vegan, but at least if I can’t figure out the menu, I know it’s all vegetarian. I had some really nice scrambled tofu and cherry tomatoes. For my main activity, however, I decided to go to the Deutsche Museum, a museum of science and technology, at Dagmar’s suggestion. It was quite unlike any museum I have been to in the US because it focused on engineering history. I only made it to 6 exhibits (of perhaps 20 or 30), in the 3 hours I was there. I learned about metallurgy and different casting methods, power machines, alternative energy, and last but not least cartography! They had a whole exhibit dedicated to geography which was cool for me. Since I didn’t get to go through the entire museum, I bought a really big book about its different exhibits at the end, as well as a book about nanotechnology. Afterwards, it was time to head to the airport and fly back to Reykjavik!

In the end, my trip to Munich was very busy and fun! I am really happy I decided to take Dagmar’s advice and go!

I believe next week will be my final blog post, as my time here in Iceland wraps up. I will probably ask to push it back another week or two because then I am going on my glacial geology fieldwork trip and will have something more interesting than final exams to talk about.

-Emily

By eevenden

Hello from Germany, everyone!

This past week I officially finished all my classes at the University of Iceland 😀 However, I have two weeks before my first final exam. So, in the meantime, I am spending a week in Germany travelling around. One of my goals while being abroad was to visit another country I have never been to before (considering that in Europe, it is fairly easy). Additionally, I have not seen my godmother, Dagmar (who lives in Germany), in a very long time. So here I am!

On Thursday morning I flew from Reykjavik to Frankfurt where I met my Dagmar, and her husband, Thomas. I have been spending the first few days here, and tomorrow I will take the train from Frankfurt to Munich. Over the last three days, Dagmar and I have done a lot of hiking (without Thomas unfortunately since he broke his arm a few weeks ago) and some exploration of Frankfurt city (with Thomas). Here are some photos and explanations of the sites we’ve seen!

Friday (April, 20^th)

On Friday, Dagmar; her friend, Anke; and I hiked in the southern portion of the Rhein Valley. As many people know, the Rhein Valley is famous for its vineyards and its white wine in particular. Because of this, Dagmar chose a three-hour hike through one of the many vineyards in the area. Situated on rolling hills, the Rhein Valley hosts farmland and some forests. All together it is completely the opposite of Iceland - which has nearly no trees and definitely no grapes. This is the first time I have been without a winter jacket for the last four months (even in England it was fairly chilly and rainy while I was there). It has felt really nice to get some sun and wear some sleeveless shirts since the temperature has been about 80 degrees F! Of course, my internal thermometer has been a bit out of sync – I feel like I am a walking furnace after several extra months of winter.

Saturday (April 21^st)

On Saturday, Dagmar and I continued our tour of the Rhein Valley further north by visiting several churches and monasteries (primarily from the Medieval era). Since Dagmar is religious and I am not, we had some interesting discussions about the role of religion in people’s lives. We also did another hike to the Middle Rhine Valley, which is UNESCO World Heritage Site. During this, we saw the statue of Germania which was built in the 1870s. The statue was erected to commemorate the unification of Germany following the Franco-Prussian War. We also saw several fake medieval ruins which were placed in the German countryside during the early 20^th century as romanticism swept the country. Following our hike, Dagmar and I went to a restaurant nearby which had a lovely orchard. Fun fact: It is white asparagus season here so I have been eating significant amounts of asparagus.

Sunday (April 22^nd)

Today, Dagmar, Thomas, and I toured the city of Frankfurt. We started by doing a guided boat-tour of the city, and continued by walking through the historic district. Over the course of the day, I learned several interesting facts. Frankfurt was originally established by Charlemagne in the 700s, and literally means “Fort of the Francs”. Later during the Holy Roman Empire, the kings of Germany were crowned in the Catholic cathedral which stands in the city’s historic-district. Traditionally, Frankfurt has been an important trade post and still is today. Home to the European Central Bank, the city has achieved one of the highest densities of job opportunities in the world. Currently, it is experiencing a large population influx due to the high number of jobs as well as a large influx of refugees.

Besides walking and boating around the city, Dagmar and I also visited the Museum of Applied Art where they were hosting an exhibition on Jil Sander, a famous German designer who revolutionized women’s fashion starting in the 1960s by focusing on the cut of clothing – making its more modern and sleek rather than feminine and frilly.

As I said before, tomorrow I will be travelling to Munich. So, I will update you all about that next week. Thanks Dagmar and Thomas for hosting me for the last few days!

Until next time!
-Emily

By eevenden

One of the biggest questions I had before coming to Iceland was “what is the food like?”

From books, the only native Icelandic fruits and vegetables I’d heard of were moss and “scurveywart” (a shrubby plant with lots of vitamin C). Otherwise, the Icelandic diet has revolved a lot around goats and sheep. As a vegetarian, this was not a very promising sign.

It may surprise many to learn that Icelandic life depended heavily on farming up until 100 years ago. Many Icelandic people I have met here still have roots to farms today - perhaps their grandparent still live on their family farm or now they use it as a summer house. Today, Iceland imports a lot of food - especially produce - from continental Europe and the South America, but not all of it. So, it still begs the questions how and what are farmers growing here?

When Norse settlers arrived in Iceland in the year 1000, they immediately set up a farming community. There were very few towns in Medieval Iceland, and much the societal structure was based around individual homesteads and the family and employees who worked there.

Norse farmers originally brought a lot of livestock to Iceland, including sheep, cattle, horses, and goats. Many of the livestock breeds which arrived with the settlers can still be found on Icelandic farms today. Back then, sheep were especially valued because they could graze outside during the winter and provide wool and sustenance. Farmers at this time also grew different grains, mostly as fodder for their animals. Since farming primarily took place during the summer months in Iceland, farmers had little to do during the winter except survive. Often during January and February, men would leave their families and farms for an annual “hunt” to catch fish. For centuries, this lifestyle of Icelanders remained unchanged.

...continue reading "Agriculture in Iceland – from Farms to Greenhouses"

By eevenden

Halló!

Sorry my blog post is a bit late, but I promise it is for a good reason again! This past weekend, my friends and I were exploring the Westman Islands, an archipelago off the southern coast of Iceland. We left on Friday morning and took the ferry from Landeyjahofn to Heimaey (translates to “home island”), the primary island of the Westman Islands.

Known in Icelandic as “Vestmannaeyjar”, this archipelago is famous now for two primary things – volcanoes and puffins. Vestmannaeyjar has experienced two eruptions in its recent geological history. The first occurred from 1963-1967 when an underwater eruption caused the newest island, Surtsey, to appear from the sea. Surtsey is now an important research area for evolutionary biologists studying how life colonizes new land. The second occurred in 1973 when the volcano, Eldfell, spewed lava onto 400 homes and caused the many of the island residents to be evacuated (but later return).

For tourists, perhaps the islands are most well-known as the summer home for mating puffins and their chicks. However for Islanders, Vestmannaeyjar is famous for its annual summer music festival, Þjóðhátíð (“The National Festival”), which takes place in August. During the festival, the islands’ population explodes from 4,200 to nearly 18,000.

...continue reading "The Westman Islands!"

By eevenden

Gleðilegan laugardag! (Happy Saturday!)

Many people think of Iceland as a haven for environmentalism. Known for its geothermal power, the country has become a leader in sustainable energy. The commitment to sustainability here, in many respects, is greater than what I have experienced in the U.S. (though I suppose that bar is pretty low). In this week’s blog post, I’ll discuss Iceland’s geothermal energy production. In a week or two, I’ll write a follow up post about other facets of sustainability in Iceland. Much of the information below comes from the lectures in my Sustainable Energy course, as well as the links at the very end of the post.

How does geothermal energy work?

Before delving into geothermal energy in Iceland, let me first summarize what geothermal energy is and how it is harnessed. Geothermal energy, or heat released by the Earth, is a product of radioactive decay in the Earth’s core. As atoms within the Earth become more stable, they release energy in the form of heat. This heat travels to the Earth’s surface where we experience it in several forms, including volcanoes: steam vents, geothermal springs, etc.

In Iceland specifically, there are over 200 volcanoes, 34 high-temperature areas (steam fields where the ground temperature is greater than 150 degrees Celsius), and 250 low- temperature areas (where the ground temperature is less than 150 degrees Celsius).

...continue reading "Geothermal Energy in Iceland"

By eevenden

Halló allir!

It’s Sunday again, almost time for Easter break! I have one more full week before I head to the U.K. to visit my Grandma. Before that though, I have a final project and two exams to get through!

This week, I spent a lot of time copying lectures I missed while Evan was here… but I was saved on Thursday night when my friend from GW, Katie, arrived for the weekend! Katie was visiting London this week for spring break and spent the last two days with me here in Reykjavik! Since Katie had such a short time here in Iceland, it was a bit difficult to decide what to do, but we managed! I’ll give a brief description and some photos of what we did over the last two days.

Friday (March 16^th)

Katie arrived on Thursday night/Friday morning at 1 a.m. Though I am sure she was hoping for some rest, I would not allow that. The same morning, we got up at 6:30am to go on a field trip for my Volcanology class around the Reykjanes Peninsula. The field trip itself was a free, optional guided-tour by my professor to look at different lava formations outside of Reykjavik. Since it was optional, I figured there would be some extra seats on the bus. And since the trip was for a lecture of 60 people, I wasn’t worried about the professor recognizing a new face. We left the university around 9 a.m. (no attendance taken, so Katie just got on the bus no problem). The primary purpose of the trip was to learn to identify A’a and Pahoehoe formations. A’a and Pahoehoe are two types of non-explosive lava flows. A’a refers to faster moving lava which, when cooled, leaves lots of rubble. Pahoehoe on the other hand are slower lava flows which have very smooth surfaces when they cool.

One of our first stops was the “Bridge Between Two Continents”, a bridge built across an inactive section of the tectonic rift, seen below. While here, we were examining the layering of the cooled rock and discussing how you can distinguish different types of eruptions and their chronology based on the leftover geology.

...continue reading "Exploring Some Rocks"

By eevenden

Halló allir! (Hello, all!)

This week has been very exciting since my boyfriend, Evan, was here for his spring break! It wasn’t my spring break this week, but (unfortunately for my professors) I was mostly not in attendance. This blog is primarily aimed for our parents to read since Evan and I have done a lot this week, and I am sure they are wondering why we haven’t been very responsive to their texts. To make it easier, I will simply do a rundown of the week by day with where we went, pictures, etc.

Saturday (March 3^rd)

Evan arrived in Reykjavik at around 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, having flown here directly from Pittsburgh. After a couple hours of sleep, he was already to adventure for the day. Saturday was primarily spent wandering around downtown Reykjavik. First we walked along the shore and explored Harpa, the opera house. Then we continued to the University where there was actually a prospective students’ day going on, so there were tons of people as well as sample projects and weird machines to mess with. Our walk culminated with going to the top of Hallgrímskirkja and looking out over the city, something I have been waiting to do until I had a tourist visitor. That night we had dinner at Vinyl, the vegan café near my house which I have also been waiting to try, and hung out at a bar downtown.

Sunday (March 4^th)

On Sunday, Evan and I started off on a three-day road trip along the south coast of Iceland with our rental car. Day 1 was our longest driving day (6 hours total) since we had to reach Höfn, a town on the east coast of Iceland, for the night’s accommodations. Our primary stops that day were Reynisfjara beach (the Black Sand Beach) and Fjallsárlón and Jökulsárlón (both glacial lagoons). Overall, the weather was very sunny, but also extremely windy – some of the windiest wind I have felt here in Iceland.

...continue reading "Spring Break? Kind of."

By eevenden

Hamingjusamur föstudagur, allir! (Happy Friday, everyone!)
Beautiful weather has finally come to Reykjavik! (Even though Europe is freezing and a Nor’easter is brewing in the U.S.). Good things come to those who wait, I suppose! Since I have already posted about exploring the Icelandic countryside, I thought I would follow up by writing a blog post about some of the arts and culture in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital city!

Often times, Reykjavik is neglected in articles and travel blogs about Iceland. Many people use it as a home base during their vacations, but do not spend much time exploring the city. Like in most situations, Reykjavik has a lot more to offer than meets the eye, (or that appears in your Google searches). Here is a brief list of some of the museums and events I have visited over the past two months

Þrettándinn (January 6^th)

Þrettándinn (which translates to “the thirteenth”) on January 6^th marks the end of the Christmas holidays in Iceland. On this day, many towns in Iceland host bonfires for residents to burn their Christmas trees and set off leftover fireworks from the New Year. Knows as the Twelfth night to English-speaking Christians, in Iceland, this day is rooted in folklore and is associated with the twelve Yulelads. Traditionally, the Icelandic Yulelads are depicted as descendants from trolls, who wreak havoc and scare children, but today they are equated to Santa Claus. Þrettándinn marks the end of the Yulelads’ mischief until the following year. The photo below shows the Þrettándinn bonfire that my friends and I went to at the beach in Reykjavik, near the University. Hundreds of people showed up to burn their Christmas tree, and the bonfire was accompanied by an impressive fireworks display. This was the first cultural event I experienced – just a week into my exchange. It was certainly a tremendous thing to be a part of.

...continue reading "Arts & Culture in Reykjavik"