You were all blue, Iceland
Dec, 27-Jan. 1, 2016–17 — You were raw. You were the unpredictable nature. You were relentless. You only granted us four hours a day of sight. You were a challenge and I loved you for that. I still do.
You weren’t at all kind the first two days. You rained. You hailed. You blew us away. You were cold. Me and my team of five shivered and screamed like we were giving birth.
Luckily, on the second day, I was able to see your capital of Reykjavik. There were moments when particles of hail would slap my face and the wind would make it impossible for me to stay upright. But your hot dog was one of a kind and the view from up there was breathtaking.
For hours, I just looked at you. Your heart was big and blue.
Day three: You were still the ice princess. You made it hard for me to see the road. We drove inch by inch forward. Were it not for those small pillars lined up in the road side, we would have been dead by now. Squashed and frozen under the flipped car, perhaps.
Sometimes, you would show thin sheets of misty, wavy ice that would slide off the road with the wind. It was like floating on the long train of your wedding dress.
Most of the time your torpedo of snow would explode in front of us. It was scary. Has the end of the world come upon us? we would think.
But, there were brief moments when you showed tiny glimpse of the beautiful sky. It was just enough for us to not lose hope that we will see the northern lights at least once during our five-day stay.
Your wind was brutal and the cold was barely bearable. It was difficult to stand up, but we fought our way to Skogafoss and it was worth it.
You were really pretty even in bad weather. Everything was gigantic and powerful. I love nature. Nature transcends us all.
The wind was so strong that we all lost our fuel and when we got to the black sand beach in Vik, I was the only one who dared to go outside the car to touch the sand. The sand would hit my face too hard. I could not walk against your wind. You pushed me away too hard. Taking photos was impossible.
But there was no need to be disheartened because your view was endless with long stretches of mounted beauty. Every view was like a shot on a good postcard. Little houses roofed with different colors were scattered here and there. I noticed you have many red-roofed churches. I was told you believe in trolls. So you believe in trolls and Jesus? That’s an interesting pair.
Extremely tired, we drived to our lodge of the day. We passed by this cabin in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t have the slightest clue that would be it.
“It can’t be that cabin, right?” one of us said.
It was. Like the ones in horror movies where we die one by one.
There it was, a cabin with gigantic mountains behind it. It was like you had your eyes watching over it. I looked left and right. Not even a tree blocked my view until the horizon.
Welcome to Iceland.
The moment we stepped in our lovely, cozy rooms the weather started to get angry again. You banged at our doors and windows. You whooshed and smashed your hulky fists against the wooden walls. Thank goodness, we were inside. The gush of wind tried to pierce its way in. The windows whistled all night long.
I felt safe inside. It was cozy inside. It was quite dark. Everyone was asleep. I was curled up alone with a cup of tea in my hands. Lavender, the best kind. It was warm. I spent hours just like that. Just me and my thoughts. I loved every moment of it. It was a night where the goosebumps wouldn’t leave my skin. Hours felt like minutes. I had no signal on my phone. I didn’t mind. The sound of silence and wind were the best tune.
Deep into the night, a forest grew. A forest of thoughts. Thoughts that told me never to forget this night. Thoughts that told me next year will be better.
The next day, the more we moved to the eastern part of Iceland, the world became whiter. The sky cleared, and the chances of seeing the northern lights that day was pretty high. The score was 4 out of 5.
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Look, how clear the sky was. Imagine how fast my heart was beating, especially after two days of gory weather.
But the night can wait. I wanted to embrace the daylight while it lasted. The sun was up for only four hours during my time there.
You may wonder if the long drives were a drag. Uh. Not even for a second. With views like this, I can be on the road as long as it takes.
Finally, we arrived to Skaftafell. From what I hear, Nolan’s “Interstellar” was shot nearby. As we got closer, we couldn’t help but notice a blue glisten that twinkled from far away. The sky was blue all day, but this blue was different. It had green in it. Like emerald.
We walked to take a closer look: glaciers.
The walk from the parking lot was quite long, I must say. I befriended two friendly guys on the way. One was from Montreal and his partner was from Chicago. We talked and we were pretty impressed at what we were seeing. I mean, GLACIERS for heaven’s sake. Too bad we couldn’t get closer because of the frozen lake.
I was lost in the beauty for a moment. I turned my head to my two new friends, “Hey! Let’s go that wa-” They were giving each other a gentle kiss. It must be such a wonderful feeling to see something so magical with someone you love. Everything was so sweet that moment.
We headed for Jokulsarlon to take a closer look at the glaciers. The boat tour wasn’t in business during this time so chipping ice and having whiskey on the rock wasn’t an option. True bummer.
The sun start to set but everything was still visible. Lucky us.
We waited at our lodge until the night came. We had to wait until midnight when the northern lights were expected to come.
We had spaghetti and watched “Deadly Women” on a crime channel. Yes, it was delightful. Beautiful women killing for money. Who doesn’t like that?
Travelling in a group of girls was the kind that is full of giggling and laughing. Even bad TV show was fun to laugh at together. We were sitting at the sofa just chatting and laughing for hours. The perfectly good night wasn’t wasted.
Then the deep night came. We drove miles away from the lights to where the stars would talk to us.
We called the northern lights, but it didn’t answer.
We waited and waited. We would point at random things in the sky and yell, “Aurora?!” But it would always answer, “No!”
But good things happen to those who wait. We did get to see the northern lights that night. There were a lot of screams of excitement, but too bad the photos aren’t that great to share.
Luckily, the next day the score was 5 out of 5. The alert was red! Plus, the sky was clear as day.
It was December 31, New Year’s Eve, and I was out hunting northern lights that night. What a great way to start a new year, ey? I don’t even remember what I was doing last year.
It’s not a great photo, but it’s the best I’ve got.
What a fruitful way to end the year and this trip. The lights were so strong we could see rivers of it while standing at the center of Reykjavik. It’s a bright city but the green was so vivid.
Looking at the sky painted with strokes of green, I knew this year would be good. We were far away and we could see smugs of cities scattered. The fireworks above them were also a blast. After the northern lights faded away, sky flowered that night to welcome 2017.
Thank you, Iceland. You are my lucky charm. I am away now here in Korea but my heart is always on the road with you.
So long, dear friend.
