Eternal Daylight Of My True Paradise

Iceland Summer Pics

Under ordinary circumstances, I’d never go to the same country twice in the same year. But there’s nothing ordinary about Iceland. I knew I’d be back one day…I just didn’t know it’d be so soon. All I can say is this - Iceland is full of surprises, and just like it sneaked into my travel plans earlier this year, it created perfect conditions for a summer trip.

When I left Iceland on March 28th, a small eruption on Fimmvörđuháls was sending cute white plumes up to the skies. It stopped on April 12th, and two days later on April 14th, Eyjafjallajökull decided to show the world what fire and ice can do. Many of my friends told me how lucky I was to have gotten out of Iceland before that, but it’s all a question of perspective: I actually felt very unlucky. And with every blast of ash it blew up in the air, I could picture little Eyjafjallajökull sneering at me with a “See what you’re missing?” Oh, how I wanted to strangle that unspeakable volcano!

Eyjafjallajökull did more than bring air travel to a halt and leave millions stranded; it made some people think that the whole country was blanketed in ash, causing a drop in the number of visitors. Lower demand equal lower prices, and if on one hand my little friend denied me its grand spectacle, it opened the door for my summer return.

Summer in Iceland is relative, though: with temperatures below 60˚F (15˚C), it is colder than winter in my hometown of Rio de Janeiro. When I still lived in Rio, I caught a headline once that named Iceland the country with the highest quality of life in the world, and I remember laughing because I found it unfathomable that a place that would feel like a refrigerator to me could offer any quality of life. But that is the beauty of travel: you learn to see things differently, and Iceland turned out to be like nothing I had envisioned.

Iceland has been called the “land that defies imagining” (National Geographic), the “land where nature always gets the last word” (The Geography of Bliss), a “magical epic land” (Lonely Planet). Iceland is all this, but no matter how much you read about it or how many photos you see, Iceland cannot really be described or depicted, it can only be experienced. No words or pictures will ever be able to capture a place that is fierce yet delicate, compact but seemingly vast, grand in a subtle way.

To me, Iceland is simply the most awe-inspiring country I have ever seen. Iceland is a work in progress, a place that breathes, heaves, gets transformed before your eyes (for instance, the country gained a new mountain in between my visits). Iceland is an experiment of nature, and all this changing and reshaping is contagious: Icelanders have a “let’s try it” attitude, and experiment with sounds, design, art, and can sometimes create truly unique and intriguing things.

And now that I’m back to my “normal” life, I miss Iceland a lot. I miss the endless daylight, the choir of countless birds at sunny midnights, the clean air, the sun that doesn’t burn, the clear streams that reflect the color of the sky. I miss the red traffic lights in Akureyri, almost all of them heart-shaped to remind people to “smile with your heart”. I miss being able to see for miles wherever I look. I miss getting sprayed by waterfalls, watching the weather change numerous times a day, getting awestruck by the scenery at almost every turn. But most of all, I miss a place that gives me the feeling that there are several open roads, both physical and metaphorical, ahead of me to be explored, a place that lifts the spirit, and makes me feel simply extraordinary.