Studies in Snæfellsnes

Hello my dears.

I am currently settled in Akureyri, Iceland's second largest city with a whopping 18,000 occupants. My group is living in a hostel for the next month-- a rather strange living situation-- but we make do. Akureyri is beautiful though. It reminds me of Whistler with its mix of village vibe and commerce. Also, it sits on a fjord below snow capped mountains. However, Akureyri is not my focus for this post.

Grundarfjörður is!

This is a wee bit delayed, but a few weeks ago we stayed for a week on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in the town of Grundarfjörður. There we were grouped with some Icelandic students to do some research for a Regional Park that they are implementing. There were five groups researching different aspects of the peninsula-- Food, Sagas & Heritage, Fishing, Preservation and Landscapes. My group was Landscapes. We basically explored the peninsula comparing what the Icelanders saw verses our own insight. We compiled our thoughts in a presentation about how the Regional Park can utilize the Landscape to make the area "funky fresh" in an effort to attract young people back to the region. They currently are having an issue with the youth going to Reykjavik for university and then not returning-- a sort of "youth drain." Hopefully the regional park will remind the youth of the wonder of their landscape enticing them to return to make a life. Only time will tell though.

Our presentations impressed the community so we were asked to present them again for a panel of professionals who work at the firm promoting the regional park. Hopefully we were able to influence something and help out the community. Also we were featured in the newspaper which is always pretty cool.


Other randomness from that week:

//We went to a shipwrecked beach where I hiked along a cliff line with my friend Mo. At the end of the cliff I came incredibly close to being blown off said cliff by a huge gust of wind.

//Grundarfjörður experienced basically a hurricane while we were there resulting in us walking to school in winds reaching 80 mph. (We were advised not to walk, but what is the fun in that?)

//Our group got to go on a cave excursion. Don't worry, we had permission from the trolls.

//I ate the best chocolate cake of my life. No joke. Best. Cake. Ever.

//I cooked and ate pork...

//I ate horse. (If you know me well, eating the pork is actually more surprising)

 Casual.

Just doing head stands at a waterfall.

 Kirkjufell//Church Mountain or as the Danes called it "Sugar Top Mountain"

 Grundarfjörður

 Oldest Church

 Traditional Icelandic houses

 Lava field// troll, I mean basalt stack

 I don't particularly like this photo, but the sky was alluring and ominous. 

Same thoughts for this one.

 See that rusty stuff? That is a ship wreck.

 This is the cliff I was almost blown off of!

 Jackie//rock//ocean

 The sun was kissing the ocean

 Black Church

 Fancy hotel located near the black beach

 We decided to play chicken with the Atlantic

 It won one battle

The ocean won another :)

 I made it out alive though-- this time ;)

 Trail of the Hidden People

 Grundarfjörður

 Lava cave

 Grundarfjörður Harbor

 One of the few white sand beaches

 Another traditional house

A Snæfellsnes view point

Us in the newspaper//Mo's photo

My photos did not turn out as well as I had hoped, but that's okay because I have the images in my head that will last me longer than any snap shot.


Ciao,

Stacie Marie