A Charm, A Puffin and Other Questionable Reasons to Travel to Iceland

I had been wanting to visit Iceland for reasons that weren’t always rational. Honestly, most of the time, my reasons for travelling are dumb—like to take a selfie in front of the big pineapple or to soak in volcanic mud. But with Iceland, I think I reached a new level of nonsense – here are some of the real reasons why I went to Iceland.

Geographical Love

I’m not a romantic. At times, I’m void of emotion that my friends and Fafa joke I could be a sociopath (dw, I am not offended, it’s a joke… kinda.) But I figured, since I went to the bottom-est part of the world (Arrowtown in NZ) with Fafa, it made sense that we should go to the top part together too. I used this “logic” to convince him we should go to Iceland instead of the South of France.

But now that we’ve done this, it also means that when I eventually want to visit Greenland, Fafa has to come with me again. I wonder whether this little “tradition” might be getting a bit tedious for him.

GMT+0

I liked the idea of being in the GMT+0 timezone. There’s something kind of cool about it — at least for me. And if that’s a dumb reason to visit somewhere, so be it—it brought me to Iceland.

Scandinavian Region

Sometimes, on my glorious I’m-on-top-of-the-world-nothing-can-go-wrong days, my brain sends signals as if I ought to conquer the world and urges me to add more things to my bucket list. One of them was Iceland—being the last Scandinavian country I hadn’t visited—making it a region I’ve fully ticked off (well, aside from Australia, I guess).

Puffin

I hadn’t even heard of Puffins until I researched Iceland. This cute bird is an Icelandic icon and delicacy. So yes, I went to Iceland hoping to see puffins and maybe even eat one. Yes, my brain can separate the puffin I wanted to see (though I didn’t see any this time), Captain Lundy – the Puffin plush I brought back to Melbourne, and the puffin meat I would’ve tried if I’d had the chance (refer to the sociopath paragraph above).

Northern Lights Charm

I wanted to see the Northern Lights—partially because it’s a bucket list item and partially so I could add a Northern Lights charm to my El Camino bracelet. One more little piece of magic I could carry around with me.

Blog-fluenced

Years ago, during the golden days of blogging, I read a beautifully nonchalant blog post by a writer whom I religiously followed about visiting the Blue Lagoon during a short layover in Iceland. I felt immense jealousy, and ever since then, I’ve wanted to do it too.

Coin Toss

The trip to Iceland came down to a coin toss between visiting Lisbon or Reykjavik. I’d never been to either and was equally excited about both, but Iceland felt more isolated and unusual. With limited time, we decided to tick off Iceland first, while dreaming of another trip to Southern Europe, where Portugal would fit right in.

Friend’s Friend

My friend Aina’s best friend lives in Reykjavik. Months before the trip, when I told Aina we might visit Iceland, she got super excited and immediately offered to connect us. Meeting a friend of a friend in a foreign place has always been a fun experience for me. Some of those connections have even turned into long-term Instagram-following friendships (Hi Dara!), which I cherished.

Passport Cover

I’ve not-so-secretly been wanting to visit all the places featured on my passport cover. Reykjavik was one of them. So, naturally, it had to happen.

In the end, my reasons might be silly, but Iceland was beckoning, breathtaking, and healing. Would absolutely repeat.

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