Day 2: Solheimar

I had to end my last post rather quickly since dinner was ready. We had a burger and hot dog cookout behind our guest house. I suppose we're easing into the Icelandic food. After dinner we played an Icelandic game. I don't remember the name, but it involves teams throwing sticks at the other team's blocks. It's kind of like bowling I guess. Here's a picture of our tight accomodations at the guest house.





For breakfast this morning we had skyr, a popular Icelandic food that is a lot like yogurt. It's made of cheese curds (I think), and comes in several flavors. No complaints. After packing and loading up the bus we drove to Hellisheidi, a large geothermal plant outside of Reykjavik. Like the plant we visited yesterday, it's binary, and uses geothermal energy to provide hot water and electricity (it also boasts the largest touch-screen in the world). The plant was shut down when we visited today actually for maintenance, but we still toured. We got to see the giant turbines, and drive up the mountain (actually an active volcano) behind it to see a borehole, which is the hole that is drilled 1.5 - 3km below ground to allow hot water and steam to rise to the surface. You can see in the picture that a large amount of steam is behind released, but when the plant is operating, little to no steam is given off.







After leaving Hellisheidi, we drove our bus to Hveragerdi, a nearby town, to eat the sandwiches we had packed for lunch. The town was beautiful, and there was a geothermal park that we walked through with hot springs. You can see one of Iceland's few flowers called Lupin, which was introduced from Alaska.






Our last stop for the day was Solheimar, an eco-village that is largely self sustainable. The town originally was founded around a school that integrated special needs children with the other Icelandic children, which was controversial at the time (1930). Although the school has been closed for decades, the town still operates under the same ideals, as special needs adults work with volunteers in workshops around town. There is an art room, weavery, ceramics room, candle-making and soap-making shop, woodshop, and greenhouse for vegetables and trees. The town itself is quite picturesque and the local crafts are very unique. We are staying here for two nights in a nicer guest house. Tomorrow we are going to take part in a sustainability workshop. Bless bless as they say in Iceland!