It’s official: I am obsessed with Iceland. It’s my new travel dream.
It started when my friend, Elisha, mentioned that she was thinking about going. I asked her why she’d want to go to a place covered in ice and she said because it wasn’t. Turns out they’ve named everything backward. Greenland has all the ice. And Iceland? It’s green. (Who knew?)
And man is it ever all that. I went home and Googled and couldn’t get enough. Try an image search. I dare you. You’ll be packing your bags before you hit the scroll button.
Because Iceland is completely lit. Sometimes literally. It’s got 35 active volcanoes, over 100 fjords, 27 major waterfalls, 800 hot springs, 13 major glaciers and at least 40 active geysers not to mention mud pots, fumaroles, lava fields, and black sand beaches. All in a place the size of Ohio.
It’s the least populated country in Europe so there’s lots of room to wander. It’s in the 70s all summer long, and did I mention there are 21 hours of daylight at mid-season? I know… bummer—those three hours of night hardly give you any time at all to enjoy the northern lights.
I’ll aim my wheels for the Ring Road, an 800-mile stretch of highway that completely circles the country and (mostly) hugs the edge of the island. It takes you past a serious cross-section of all there is to see. I read that you can rent a camper van in Reykjavik and just go. Park anywhere, eat, sleep, get up, and do it all over again.
Sign me up already.
I can’t believe I missed it for so long. Because Iceland looks like a fever dream, a real-life fantasy adventure of fire and ice and deep green between. It’s one of those places you would never imagine could ever exist, an actual Middle Earth with everything but hobbits and dragons, and who knows, maybe it’s even got those, too. The only thing that’s for sure is that I’ll let you know when I get there.