Iceland...

There are places in the world that speak to me.  I am sure I am not alone in this.  Specific places I already have a relationship with even though I have never been there and to be honest, I have not really done all that much research on either.  It isn’t that I want to go there because it looks cool on Instagram.  I am not interested in going to the places that are touted in travel blogs.  It is more of an intuitive thing.  It is something inside me that calls for me to go as soon as possible to this place and bathe in what I find there.

And bathing is the operative word...I need to be naked there, which requires a removal of my outer being and a willingness to bare myself.  And no, this does not mean that I go streaking in other countries.  But I do spend some part of my time in other places, naked, in all the ways.  I can’t explain it.  I just need it.

And Iceland is one of those places for me...

My trip idea is simple.  Land.  Hire a car.  Sleep.  Then drive aimlessly around the country going from one out of the way hot springs to the next.  Stopping whenever there are Icelandic ponies close by.  Photograph the whole event.  And, and, witness the Northern Lights.  

I should have seen them in Ireland last year.  But I didn’t listen to my son, and so I slept through them like a dumbass.  The fact that I missed them almost ruined my trip.  I didn’t go to Ireland to see the Northern Lights but the fact that they are something I feel like my life has to see to be complete, made me so very sad when I slept under them.  It was a regret that I almost could not get over.

I did but only because I knew that Iceland was on the travel itinerary and that if I were very lucky, I could remedy this situation later on.

I don’t care about seeing cities as I much prefer tiny hamlets or towns.  I don’t care about meeting people, I usually travel in a way that ensures I avoid most people.  I care about the wandering.  I need it.  To get in my car and just go.  No destination booked.  No arrival times or lodging secured until mid day, the day of the need.  Traveling this way is the best way I know to more fully occupy the moment.

Iceland has been put off because there were other places that I felt I needed to go first.  Also because I really wanted Iceland to be a couple trip.  But since my efforts at couplehood continue to fail quite epically, I guess I am rethinking the whole Icelandic adventure...

For me, there are places in the world that speak to me, over the miles and distance.  They have things I know I need to know and the only way I am ever going to learn that thing, is to go.  So I must.

I was thinking that I wanted to go to Iceland this Christmas but I am not sure I am going to be able to pull it off.  But I am going to try...when I say there is a compulsion to be there, I do mean that quite literally...

There are so many places in this world that remain unspoiled by humans.  So many places where the natural beauty dazzles your spirit.  So many places that are out of the way and reward your effort with stunning vistas, sun rises, or sets and if you are really lucky, the Northern Lights.

I need to bathe in those lights.  To lay down on the earth and gaze upwards.  To be washed in the light that seems so ethereal it seems almost wrong to even think about it.  Like the lights are reserved for after life, not during.  But there is something about witnessing them that gives you access to parts of yourself that you can’t gain access to any other way.

Again..still, but this time in Iceland.