Free-ish Day in Akureyri

Hello everyone! I’m Jahnvi and today I will be writing the blog. Today was designed to be a free day where students can travel at their own pace and visit places in Akureyri with small groups. This allowed us to be independent and grow closer as we found others with similar interests. Ms. Romero gave us a checklist of about 9 places to visit and activities to do. Some examples of places included the art museum, the botanical gardens, the vertical farm, the bakery, etc. Some activities included finding a cat, counting the number of electric vehicles in a four block radius, and meeting a shopkeeper. We found people that were interested in the same activities as us and we set off to explore the town! My group and I first headed to the bakery near our hostel. Our job was to order items that we weren’t familiar with. I happened to meet a very friendly cat there too!

After that, we took a short walk and headed to the vertical farms. We ended up meeting a kind shopkeeper that taught us a lot about the production of sustainably grown vegetables like lettuce, bean sprouts, and cabbage. The shopkeeper told us about the awareness people have in Iceland about climate change. She says that especially in the West, that people aren’t as open minded to making small changes to their lives to improve the climate change situation. For example, the trash cans in America aren’t specific to different types of trash whereas people here are very careful about where they dispose of different materials.

After the vertical farms, my group and I headed to the botanical garden and briefly stopped by a cafe there as well. My group took a short trip to a convenience store to grab a couple of snacks.

We made our way back to the hostel to get lunch and regroup with the teachers and other students. Some groups decided to continue exploring Akureyri while others relaxed in the hostel. My group and I decided to visit one of the art museums. We looked at many different mediums of art and also drew a bit as well. We returned to the hostel to play cards for a bit before heading off to dinner.

After, most of us went out for a quick swim at the community pool. Today was full of adventure, and I really enjoyed getting to know my group better. I can’t wait for more action-packed days like this!