While some families take vacations in a warm state like Florida or a mountainous state like Colorado, one family chose to vacation in a place that wasn’t a state at all. Sophomore Scarlett Brink traveled to Iceland and France during her fall break.

“We took a plane to Iceland, which took five hours, and then it was another six hours to Paris after that,” Brink said. “In Iceland we went from Reykjavik (Iceland’s capital city) up to Akureyri. In France, we started in Paris then went up to the Normandy beaches.”

Brink said she traveled to more remote places in Iceland.

“In Iceland there’s not much to do,” Brink said. “You might have to drive hours to find a grocery store, and there are not many houses around. There are two or three main, big cities, but other than that, it’s all spread out.”

City life in Paris, in comparison, was very different. 

“There are a lot of bakeries in Paris, and lots of people eating out on the streets. It’s just like any big city, with lots of people riding around. Lots of people ride their bikes or motorcycles, and there aren’t many cars.”

Brink and her family also learned a lot from being overseas, and though her family had traveled to the more populated areas of Iceland years ago, this trip took them to the more desolate spots in the country. 

“In Iceland we learned a lot about the volcanic activity and the tectonic plates because that makes a lot of underground heat,” said Brink. “All the water there is heated naturally. They don’t have water heaters; it just comes from volcanic activity. I really enjoyed going to Iceland because it’s different from anywhere else I’ve been before. It doesn’t look like anywhere I’ve seen.” 

While Brink says she enjoyed her vacation, her family also experienced an unexpected difficulty.

“In France, someone broke into our car and stole our money and credit cards,” Brink said. “They also took a phone, so we were pretty shocked when we realized that it had happened.” 

Despite that, Brink recommends that everyone should visit Iceland and France someday.

“We were originally planning to just go to Paris, but since we liked Iceland so much last time, we wanted to go back,” said Brink. “I recommend everyone go to Iceland and Paris if you have the opportunity because you get to see places that are a lot different than what’s around here.”