Iceland

[su_quote cite=”Stephen Markley” url=”http://talesoficeland.com/”]The problem with driving around Iceland is that you’re basically confronted by a new soul-enriching, breath-taking, life-affirming natural sight every five goddamn minutes. It’s totally exhausting.[/su_quote]

Last year I had the chance visit one of the top destinations on my bucket list with my friend, Eveline. Iceland is a land sculpted by lava and ice, where geysers burst and glaciers gleam and emerald valleys stretch all the way to the ocean. On an exhilarating journey, we encountered this wonderland of geological extremes close up.

One of the spots we were most looking forward to in Iceland was Jökulsárlón. It’s a glacier lagoon in South East Iceland filled with Icebergs. The lagoon was formed by global warming a mere 60 years ago as the Breiðamerkurjökull began to retreat. At one time, the glacier reached the sea, but as the ice began to melt more rapidly, chunks of ice broke off (known as calving) and as they fell, a lagoon was formed. Ice is powerful and it created deep gorges in the earth as it retreated. The lake is 200 metres deep!

Also, I’ve never seen anything like the Northern Lights. They moved much faster than I anticipated, swooshing and swelling, expanding and contracting, in all directions. I remember distinctly feeling like they were more than just charged particles… like they were a living, breathing presence in the sky. Though the cold was something I had never experienced so intense before, the trip for the lone spot in Iceland that wasn’t covered by clouds of two hours one-way was the best invested time ever.