This post features student writing.

Horseback Riding

Exciting, beautiful, cold, and windy. Those are some words that describe our Icelandic horseback riding adventure! We woke up, made our breakfast, then went to the farm. Horseback riding is a considerable part of the culture and economy in Iceland, and it was really quite interesting to ride Icelandic horses for the first time. We mounted our horses and rode on a gravel path toward the seaside. Riding through the Snæfellsnes countryside highlighted the rugged, windswept beauty of this country. The ride was cold and windy, but completely worth it; I’d do it again in a heartbeat! Once we were back from our walk (and trot) on our horses we were greeted to the very welcome warmth of hot chocolate and pasta bolognese. After lunch, we went around the farm seeing all the various animals. The baby sheep were so cute, and we got to hold them! We also saw pigs, horses, cats, dogs, and more sheep. After washing up we boarded the bus to move on to the day’s next adventure.

— Charlie G.

Cod Fishing

In the afternoon, we traveled to the small port town of Grundarfjörður for a fishing excursion, after stopping at a photogenic waterfall along the way. We boarded a boat and headed into the bay, where we first stopped at an island populated with puffins! Our boat was able to get pretty close to the cliffs where we could see the adorable puffins and other seabirds roosting above. After that, we motored to another spot not far away, where the crew showed us how to fish. We had short rods but big reels, and lines baited with large hooks and chum bait. The fishing started out slow, but soon we must have found a huge school of hungry cod, because everyone started getting bites; it was a fish frenzy! Everyone caught at least one, but the record went to Mary with nine fish, and Wes caught the biggest one. We then returned to port and sat down at a seaside restaurant, where we enjoyed our freshly cooked catch for dinner.