During my last semester of high school, I had an amazing opportunity to go on a short trip to Iceland with some other students. Iceland has always been on the top of my travel list and it truly is a wonderful place. Here are a few things I found pretty interesting during my time there.
1. They have some amazing geysers
Yes, we may have some geyser here in America, but Iceland has some that are way better. They have several active geysers that rush from the ground, which is something tourists love to see. My group and I went on a tour to see some of these active geysers and, let me tell you, they were pretty dang cool. In the picture below, you can see a large group of people surrounding a geyser in the middle of erupting.
2. Daylight never ends
When it is summer in Iceland, the sun hardly sets.
When it reached 8 p.m., their time, I was slightly confused as to why it was still bright out. It looked like it was still 2 in the afternoon. Time rolled by and the sun was still up when it was 11:30 at night. It was pretty strange to see the sun out for more than twelve hours, but it was nice when we wanted to walk around outside without the fear of it being too dark to see. When my group and I were walking around the city, we talked to a woman about how light it is. She told us that it was pretty normal and that on one day, sometime during the summer, the sun doesn't set at all! It still blows my mind to think about it.
3. The mountains are unreal
The mountains here are unlike anything I have seen before. Honestly, it was mind blowing. When we first landed, it didn't seem like there wasn't much to see. There were a lot of dark rocks, flat land, and green moss-covered ground. I was hoping to see more, but it still was pretty cool to see the terrain here. My state is nothing like that. We have trees everywhere and some nice mountains that are pretty. But, dang, I was not expecting to see mountains this beautiful. They were huge and covered several acres of land as we drove along the long, empty roads.
Words can't even describe the beauty of those snow capped mountains. Which was also pretty interesting because there wasn't much snow anywhere else other than on the mountains.
4. There are a lot of miniature ponies
Not even kidding.
When my group and I went on a tour throughout Iceland, there were hundreds of wild mini horses on either side of us. It was like driving through a sea of small horses.
They were so cute and I couldn't help but press my face to the bus window and stare in awe. It was honestly kind of shocking because one thing I didn't expect to see was the mini horses heaven. We also drove by a little park where you can ride the horses!
If you love horses as much as my grandmother does (which is a lot), I highly recommend you check it out!
5. The waterfalls are just as beautiful as everything else
We stopped at one of the tourist attractions which quickly unraveled an amazingly blue waterfall. Just like the mountains, the waterfalls look unreal. I mean, just look at it!
6. The weather is absolutely crazy
Im not making it up when I say the weather changes every five minutes.
One moment it is nice and sunny and then the next it is haling hard. Yes, hale. The weather is one of the most confusing things about Iceland. As a tourist, I definitely wasn't prepared to see such sudden changes. It would rain, hale, and become sunny in less than twenty minutes. Although it was a nuisance, it was pretty funny to see my classmates and I change out of our cold attire on the side of the road so often.
We made sure to keep our hats, gloves and rain coats on us at all times, just in case.
7. Art is everywhere
Walking down the streets of Reykjavik, my eyes were blessed to see some amazing pieces of art. It truly was everywhere: on walls, on the back of street signs, on the sides of buildings. It wasn't anything like street graffiti, but beautiful murals and paintings. You can tell right away that Iceland has a very creative and artful community.
If you are ever looking for an aesthetically eye pleasing place to visit, Iceland should definitely be on your list. There is honestly so much to do there, and a lot of scenic views to see. It is one of the most unique places I have visited and I am definitely going to travel there again to see the rest of what it has to offer.
