Welcome to Niceland

Iceland. Oh Iceland, what did you do…

Before traveling to (N)Iceland, I wrote a blog post about “the land of ice, geyshirs and Vikings”. This is what I wrote:

“What on Earth am I going to do in Iceland?! I bought tickets very spontaneously. So basically I have no idea what to do or where to go. But then again, it’s Iceland. I can probably go anywhere and still feel amazed by the breathtaking scenery of one of the world’s most beautiful islands. I know it’s winter and relatively cold but I just won’t let the weather stop me. So Iceland! It’s going to be marvelous! I really want to go into the wild and so I’ll try my best to get to the rough nature of Iceland. Only the sky is limit when it comes to my travels…”

And so it was.

Here’s how it all started.

I was on a plane (EasyJet, sooo cheap from Edinburgh to Reykjavik!) (okay.., enough of commercializing. That’s not what my blog’s about.) with my “little” 20 liter backpack in my legroom. Couldn’t really sit with my feet straight / in a comfortable position, but oh well, I survived. My focus was not on my feet but the good company I had. There was this old couple sitting next to me, somewhere maybe at their 70ies. They had a wee Scottish accent and they were sooo cute! Loving life etc. Mainly they were wondering how a girl at my age had the guts first to live abroad alone and then to travel all alone to Iceland. But they knew what I meant when I told them that this is the life I want to live, this is what I’ve born to do. He told me he loves traveling, too. He used to feel the same as I do now, that the world is open and you just want to travel everywhere and explore as much as you can! He told me he used to work as a sailor on a big ship for many, many years. So basically, his job was to travel all around the world. He used to sail from Edinburgh to Cape Town, from South Africa to Hong Kong and all the way from China to Sydney and so on, just to mention few of them. He had been to every continent, even Antarctica. He had literally been everywhere and he had seen so much. You could see it from his eyes when I asked him questions about his travels, his eyes just… It was amazing. Like he traveled in time, back to the past. He had such a depth in his eyes, he had a sparkle in his eyes. You could see he had lived a lot and seen even more.

So I enjoyed that plane flight very much. No matter how uncomfortable my feet’s position was.

Oh, human connections. People, you rock!

So, after arriving to beautiful Iceland (later on known as Niceland because everything and everyone there are just simply so nice) I, somehow, managed to get a bus to Reykjavik and – I SWEAR, not intentionally – got a free bus ride from Reykjavik to my hostel, even though I hadn’t booked nor paid it beforehand. The driver didn’t really care because they were in hurry and it was a hectic situation so I got the ride for free. And! He took me to my hostel which wasn’t even on their drop off-list. 😀 Hehehe. Worth of trying!

The hostel was really nice and I would recommend to everyone. It’s called Hlemmur Square hostel and they have both, a luxury hotel and an upscale hostel up there. 🙂 I had a view to the sea and big white mountains from my room. So much better than the “another brick on the wall” view that I had at my home hostel in Edinburgh. (So basically there was about ten meters and a huge grey-brown-ish wall that blocked all the sunlight coming to the room. I mean, okay why am I lying, it’s Edinburgh. There’s no sunlight in Edinburgh. 😀 I think they, Scotland and the whole UK have some issues with the Sun, I don’t think Sun really likes UK that much… But rain does! And clouds. And wind. And storms… The list is endless.)

Anyways, Iceland. Wow. Nice, Iceland, you really are a nice land Iceland. Niceland.

It’s been now exactly four weeks that I left Edinburgh and flew to Iceland. Like I said, I had no idea what to expect. And it was good, I managed to let go and just go with the flow. Every day was a new day and I was open to all the adventures it led me to. I managed to let life happen at its own pace and not push it any specific direction. What ever problem or difficulty appeared, you dealt with it at its time. And because of all that, I was feeling very positive and confident about my time in Iceland. Everything was going to be alright, whatever happened. But I had no idea that it was going to be one of the best weeks of my entire life.

I was poorly prepared. And I kinda knew it, but I did it anyway. My winter coat was a bit so-so. It worked just fine only if and when I wore a massive jumper under it. But I manages just fine, the biggest issue were my shoes, they were tremendously bad. First of all, I had only one pair of shoes with me, so, when that one pair got wet I had nothing else to wear than the wet ones. And it was more wet in Iceland (in December) that I thought it would be. Whoops. Oh well, at least I learned something… It can rain in Iceland, too. And even though it didn’t rain, the snow that falls down might melt on the ground and become a horrible mess of slush. Ugh. So two pairs of shoes, everyone! Two pairs! Or if you have only one pair, please, do yourself a favor and check that your footwear is (A) waterproof, (B) slip resistant and (C) warm enough. I had none of those. So you can only imagine.

SO, WHAT HAPPENED IN ICELAND?

I’ve been telling you how awesome (and not awesome) it was, but I haven’t told you how it all happened. In a nutshell… this is what happened:

Even though I didn’t get to go to the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa because I didn’t have a swim suit nor I met any actual vikings, I still had a pretty good time in Iceland. I met the coolest people at the hostel and we were too hipster to take a tour so we rented a car, set our GPS and went on the road. (Just kidding ’bout the hipster part.) We just wanted something different, we wanted to go away from the touristic track and schedules. We wanted to go into the wild and so we figured that the best possible option was to rent our own car with a group of four and just… Go. If you’re thinking about traveling in Iceland, please, another favor to do to yourself, rent a car with a GPS and just… drive. There’s plenty of car rental places you can choose from. Or try your luck and find a person who has the international drivers license and possibly even a car already. Haha. That’s what I did and it worked out just well. Here’s some evidence.

Places we got to see during my week in Niceland:

Reykjavík

Reykjavík was beautiful – both day and night.

Even though I did got lost a bit one night and I kinda had to search my way home on my own back to the city center since my phone didn’t work in the freezing cold weather and there was no cars nor taxis driving by. When there finally was a car, it was already morning and those friendly locals with a warm car were – nope, not willing to give me a ride but – willing to help me to get back home. 🙂 Apparently I wasn’t too far away, approximately 45 minute walk or so only. Oh well, that happens. And after that little adventure (which includes having a cup of coffee in a local bakery with a local old grandpa who’s number I have if I ever return to Iceland, and other stuff) I survived and managed to get back home safely. Hooraayy! Long live the life!!!

On the road to wherever…

…look how beautiful it is everywhere. And so quiet, so peaceful…

 

Chasing Northern Lights…

…the famous Aurora Borealis and photo shooting sessions…

 

the sky lights literally danced upon us

 “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity for human spirit.” -Edward Abbey

First road trip…

…from Reykjavik all the way to Vík, the southernmost village in Iceland, and back…

Waterfalls, such as

Seljalandsfoss

Skogafoss

and then, Vík and the Black Sanded Beach…

Vík í Mýrdal

 

 

…where my crazy Australian friend swam and almost got hypodermic… Aussies! 😀

So he swam in a freezing cold ocean. We had to get him warm, so we decided to go swimming in a hot spring, the People’s Pool,  we had read about. It was supposed to be somewhere there on our way back and I had the instructions on my phone. It was supposed to be easy to find the place but oh-noh, not even close. The site said that there was a path beside on a mountainside you first had to take before getting to the pool. Well, we got to the place the path was supposed to start but there was no path! Only snow everywhere. Couple of cottages and mountains. We got off from the car but after a while looking and a wee snowball fight we got back to the car. It was too cold and windy, “It’s not here, we can’t find it.” we thought. But then suddenly out of nowhere a car drove next to us. There was some Norwegian people who asked us if we’re going to the pool. They had been there before and they were ready to show us the way. 🙂

After a approximately 30 minute hike through rivers (I’m not kidding, this time not only mine but all of our feet were completely wet) and frozen pathways on the mountainside, we finally got to our destination. And oh boy, the views from up there…

There we were. Swimming in a pool on a mountainside in the middle of nowhere. The water was warm and it was snowing. It was amazing. One of the best moments of the week. After swimming a while a local man told us we should get back soon because the sun was about to set and soon it was going to pitch black. We had no torches nor nothing else, so we took our stuff, put our clothes back in the freezing cold weather and started walking back to the car. 🙂 Then we got on the road again and a snow storm hit us. We couldn’t see anything and we were just driving with our little car in the middle of nowhere, hoping for the best. Hoping that we will survive, get back to Reykjavík alive. Haha. It was a good day. And awesome company! I was so lucky with the guys I met. We got along so well and we basically spend the whole week together. 🙂 It was goood.

Second road trip – the Golden Circle

Couple of days after the first road trip we hit the road (Jack!) again. This time we wanted to go for the famous golden circle -route, which all the tourists knew and where all the tours went, too. Here you can see the golden circle route on the map and also the route all the way to Vík:

During the winter season the day is so short (about from 10.30-11am to 3.30-4pm, or even less) that if you want to see all those places during the sunlight and not in the darkness, you should be prepared to spend the whole day (from 9am to 6pm or so) on the road. If you want to return back to Reykjavík for the night, I mean. We did that and it was alright. Both of them – driving around the circle and to Vík – were day trips. So be sure to have time if you want to visit places!

Here’s how our day around the Golden Circle was.

First there was the Þingvellir National park…

…The place where the North America’s and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. So we actually were able to walk above the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; in a place two continents meet. It was amazing. And the landscapes were just incredibly beautiful.

…after that the famous Geyshir…

…and the last but not least Gullfoss, “the Golden falls”

It was massive! It’s the largest waterfall in Iceland. The sun was just setting when we got there and it looked amazing. Iceland just stole my heart, right there just then. It was… unbelievable.

 

Those two road trips were really amazing and they only made me feel like I didn’t want to return home, not yet. But I am sure, one day I will go back and this time during the summer when the sun never sets.

What a great week. And once again, the people I got to meet! Wow. Thank you guys! For making my stay unforgettable. 🙂 Until the next time! Here’s the last photos, very random ones. From jumping around snowy Reykjavík without socks on and having a surprise birthday cake in the hostel to looking stupid on the top of a waterfall and taking a photo of a guy and a bird. All those moments. All those people. Such a good vacation, such a good time and adventures. Can’t wait for the next ones to come! 😉 (Asia, here I coomeeeee!!!)

Cheers! Or tack tack as they say in Iceland.

Thank you guys.

Until the next journey!

– Jenna

Always counting

Always counting.

I confess, I belong to the group of wanderlust ones. Wikipedia puts it well:

“Wanderlust is a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world. —

The term originates from the German words wandern (to hike) and Lust (desire). The term wandern, frequently misused as a false friend, does in fact not mean “to wander”, but “to hike.” Placing the two words together, translated: “enjoyment of hiking”, although it is commonly described as an enjoyment of strolling, roaming about or wandering. —

In modern German, the use of the word Wanderlust to mean “desire to travel” is less common, having been replaced by Fernweh (lit. “farsickness”), coined as an antonym to Heimweh (“homesickness”).—“

That’s me. Wanderlust. Enjoyment of hiking, desire to travel – and that’s how we get to the ‘counting’ part.

Always counting. There will always be some kind of a countdown going on; Whether it was days left until the plane gets off or the days when an ongoing trip will end. We all know the feeling in stomach when the travel fever raises and we get butterflies in our bellies. “Two more days and London is calling!”  – that’s the exciting waiting part. You count the days to the becoming trip, you mark everything in your calender and imagine yourself there, lying on a white sanded beach or so. You start smiling when you know what’s coming. Then there’s the other part when you’re on the road. First you count the days and weeks and months you’ve already traveled, then the coin turns around and you start feeling kinda sad and anxious after realizing that your holiday is soon to be over. You start counting the final days before going back home. “One last week starts tomorrow… Ugh.”

It’s nice to go back home after a long journey but it’s still always a bit sad to leave, especially if you’ve been in that one place for a longer period of time. Like me; It’s been almost eight moths for me now here in Scotland. Six weeks left. Six weeks is nothing! Four weeks work, then one week in Iceland and after that one more week here in Edinburgh. After that it’s over. It’s time for me to move on and go back home.

So in six weeks I’ll be in Finland again. I’ll have my own room, my privacy (finally…). No more sleeping in a six-bed-dorm in a hostel. I’ll also be spending my time with the people I already know. No new acquaintances, no fellow travel mates around. No shared fridges nor queues for showers. No “CLOSED FOR CLEANING” signs on the bathroom and kitchen doors, and haha, no difficulties about understanding what someone with a strong accent is trying to say to you. Everything is going to be so easy. Even a bit too easy. How am I supposed to get used to that kind of a life style again? The same way as I got used to this one here, I suppose. But soon everything will go back to normal again. All the reasons why I left at the first place are still there. No excitement after the beginning, just routines. The questions about school, work and other life plans will start chasing you. The pressure about making permanent decisions. “What are you going to do know? Settle down, right? No need to go anywhere anymore now that you’ve just been away for almost a year.” Ha! You wish!

After being on the road you get used to the feeling of being free – and that’s what gets you in the hook. It’s almost impossible to go back home and act normal after traveling a while. All the routines creep you out, nothing feels the same again. Everything’s so normal that it starts to feel abnormal to you. You don’t feel free anymore. You’re expectations and the level of living has somehow gone up during your travels. You simply live differently. You’ve used to live in the moment. You know that the life is short. You’ve used to have a limited period of time in one place at a time so you’ve used to take everything out of it. You’re much relaxed now. Why would you be unhappy and live a steady life in your little comfort zone when you know that the life begins when you step out of the zone. You’ve turned out to be a yes person instead of a no person. You now refuse to live inside your comfort zone, a steady life is not enough anymore. You know better.

So when you come back home, nothing will be the same again. After all your experiences and things you’ve learned, after all those places you’ve seen you suddenly start seeing everything from a different point of you. You’ve grown so much during the past weeks that going back home feels like time traveling. Nothing’s changed there, it’s all the same. But you feel different. You feel very much separate and unconnected with everything and everyone that surrounds you at home. You don’t feel comfortable anymore. It doesn’t really feel like home anymore. Home should make you happy and feeling good. But you’ve seen too much. You’ve changed and it’s just not simply you anymore.

So you start thinking about new places to conquer. All those places people you met during your travels told you about. “The little village in the middle of a jungle in Laos… The hot air balloon flight in Morocco. Riding a bicycle around Jamaica. Hitchhiking the route 66. Eating street food in a Mexican city…” All those things. All those places. You’r at home browsing all the photos from your last journey over and over again. Oh, all those memories, all those places that you visited and people you met. Good times. So just like any other candy, you start wanting it more. Where to go next? When to go? And before you even notice, you’re already surfing on Skyscanner, searching desperately for cheap flights to Everywhere (All countries). “Just… please. Take me away.”

First it’s just a little itch in the back of your head and then it starts to spread all over your body. You’re hands can feel it and your feet want to lead you forward, somewhere away. You’ve lost the control. Every day, you start thinking about it more and more. You wish to be somewhere else, you want to go again, move on. The world is out there and it’s calling your name. You’re walking on a street and you look up and see a plane crossing the sky. I wonder where that plane is traveling to… I wish I was there too. Checking the new travel themed boards on Pinterest becomes your daily task. It is an impulse you just can’t control – especially after the first big trip. (For me it was my trip last winter to Australia and New Zealand. I’ve always known that I want to travel the world but after being there it just… I lost the control. It’s too late to stop now. It really is like a drug you get addicted to.)

It is always itching, it is always on your mind. The travel bug. No matter if you were on the road or not, it’s always there.. Next trip, last trip. When can I go again? You have your own travel savings and probably 90 % of your Bucket List has something to do with all the incredible places you want to visit someday. You start to feel anxious. The circle is closing, you want to be somewhere else. The itching just grows and grows, it really starts bothering. You find yourself dreaming about all those other places and new winds every day more and more, and then you reach the point when you just can’t handle it anymore.

And then you book the tickets.

Huh, the feeling. Finally you’ll be able to continue your life again. The wheel starts spinning and you’re able to breath again. The anxiousness is gone. Then you start planning the next trip and basically you’re mind will be with it all the time. You’re excited. The road is there and you’ll be hitting it soon. (For me it’s not the wee trip to Iceland I’ll be having in the beginning in December, but the almost four months trip to Southeast Asia starting on next February. I can’t wait to get there and explore all those undiscovered roads and pathways. It’s going to be magnificent.)

Into the Wild (my ultimate favorite movie and book) is such an inspiration. Jon Krakauer puts it well:

It  is all in the feeling when the airplane lands on another continent, the first bump when it hits the ground or when you see the land for the first time after hours of wondering above the clouds. It is in the feeling when you wake up in a train and you’ve reached a new city in a new country. Everything is so beautiful, so new and interesting. There’s so many adventures out there waiting for you. It is in the feeling of pure joy and happiness that’s spread all over you when after hours of hiking you finally reach the top of a mountain. And it’s visible, people can actually see it when they look at you. You have a sparkle in your eyes. You shine.

But when you’re at home, there’s no one to talk to about those things. All of the adventures, the stories about people you’ve met and outstanding places you’ve been to. They don’t know what you’re talking about, and it’s very possible they don’t even care. You feel that they don’t know you anymore and that’s the truth, you’re not the person you used to be. So what to do now? You start counting.

It’s because of the desire that forces you to move on and go someplace else, explore. The world is out there, why would you stop now? After the first journey it doesn’t feel a big issue anymore. It’s in fact very easy just to take your belongings and go. For the first time in your life you’re now aware of the things and places the world has to offer and it’s like candy you just can’t say no to.

Traveling gives you the feeling of freedom. C’mon, who doesn’t like to feel free? For the first time in your life you’re actually free to do whatever and go wherever. You can be whoever you want to be, you can do whatever you feel like. It’s like a superpower.

It’s the feeling. Almost like a new beginning, when you get to hit the road, you start feeling different. You feel new. You’re like another person, full of joy again. You’re not bored, as you used to be. All those old things in the past, nothing matters anymore. “It’s a new day, a new life, for me… and I’m feeling good.” You find yourself enjoying life again. You feel like you were living, and it’s a good feeling. So some people see it as freedom. There’s no chains anymore to hold you still. You can move and be free. No more obligations nor schedules, no more hectic life, no necessities. No unnecessary stress. Everything’s better now. You feel peaceful. No stress, no worries. Just… don’t worry, be happy.

Of course there’s always ups and downs what it comes to traveling and it can also get very stressful if you’re not for example prepared or laid back enough. But we’ll speak about that some other time. Now the main point is the strong, almost imperative, unconditional desire, an urge to travel and explore. A true wanderlust state of mind. The world is out there, why would I choose to be settled, “stuck” somewhere you don’t want to be – instead of going on the road and letting go. You can go wherever life leads you, go with the flow, they say. There’s so much to see. All the wanders of the Planet Earth. I’m too curious, can’t just stay home and “do nothing”. 😀

So I go.

Back my backpack and get a bus to the airport.

It’s the circle of life.

From head to toes, I am a wanderlust and there’s not much to do about it. No medication, no therapy. You just know that the world is calling your name and you decide to follow your heart and go wherever the intuition leads you. I think it’s beautiful, to be able to let go and see wherever the road might take you. The Earth will always carry you, no matter what happens. No need to be afraid. Go and try, explore. Soon you’ll find out a great deal about yourself, what you want, what you don’t want. Everything’s more clear now. You become you. No wonder people go traveling to find themselves. It is very possible that that’s exactly what will happen.

My beloved travel mates. I believe I can trust you on this one, you will know what I’m talking about when I speak about the desire and counting. It’s in all of us, we’re all the same in a way. We all know how it feels when you get to hit the road again. It’s unspeakable. It’s unforgettable. Nothing beats it. It is the life as we know it.

So don’t stop me now… Cus’ I’m having a good time, having a good time. 

So where will you be going next?