Finding Moksha: Iceland

I have always been curious with Iceland, I mean seriously, it must be called ICEland for a reason. Coming from sub-tropical Brisbane, where it's not uncommon for temperatures to hit over 40C (105F) in summer with 90% humidity it was always going to be an interesting time.

Convincing Daniel, a guy I met a mere 2 weeks earlier in Europe, was easier than I thought it would be and before we knew it we were in Iceland, leaving Keflavik Airport in a Kia Picanto with the world of crazy Iceland in front of us.

Highlights of the trip include:
Akureyri - Iceland's second biggest "city" at 17,000 pop. 400km north of the capital Reykjavik, a drive that took close to 8 hours due to blizzards, ice roads and visibility that was limited to mostly less than 75m and at times around the 5m mark.

Pingvellir National Park - we went there the first night looking for Aurora Borealis, it is full of amazing lakes and landscapes that also includes the Gulfoss Waterfall (Europe's biggest waterfall, and frozen whe we saw it) and Strokkur Geysir (hot water geysers that you can almost set your watch by).

Runtur - a staple to the Reykjavik community, basically on a Friday night everybody gets on the drink at home until after midnight and goes out to bars until the wee hours of the morning. Being at a backpackers, our night consisted of drinks whilst watching an incredible magic show at the backpackers, before heading out and dominating the karaoke stage with our new friends. The night ended, with heads hitting the pillow at 7am and Dan's face covered in make-up pen after falling asleep on the couch at a random house.

Blue Lagoon - back home we have recovery sessions at the beach, relaxing in water is an amazing way to get over the night before. Recapping the night like this is one of the last things you would expect to do in iceland, however thanks to the volcanic nature of this island, this is possible! Enter Blue Lagoon, a massive outdoor lagoon heated to 38C, whilst the air-temp was below freezing point the day we were there. Hangovers have never felt so good!

Aurora Borealis - this was the main reason why Iceland has been on my bucket list. One of the most amazing things I have ever seen and it basically made every cent I spent over there worthwhile. We saw it quite dimly and in the distance on night one, good enough to say that we saw it but not in a satisfying way. The reason we went to Akureyri, was because it is in the middle of the Aurora zone, however due to overcast conditions it was impossible to see it whilst in the north. We timed our trip to coincide with the next predicted peak in activity (the sun pulses like a heartbeat on a roughl 26-30 day cycle) each pulse brings a higher level of Aurora activity. This coinciding with the fact that we were entering the peak of the longer term 11-year aurora cycle meant that there was no way we could miss out, did it?

We decided to make the 90min drive Pingvellir once more, on the way out with some obscure Icelandic radio providing the cadence to our adventures we didn't see anything of note. That was until we turned off the main highway, and drove about 500m down the secondary road towards Pingvellir. All of a sudden the sky started to light up with wave after wave of streaks and curves. I know I will probably sound like some tree-hugging, crack-smoking space cadet but it was seriously one of the most amazing and bizarre things I have ever witnessed. Having a talk amongst ourselves, we decided that we had better stop and observe it - we were going to ignore it and drive straight to the lake which was meant to be a better place. Lucky we didn't as that 30minute show was the one and only show of note that night.

Iceland - you rank as one of the coolest (no pun intended) places I have ever been to. Sure you have had a lot of bad publicity lately, with Eyjafjallajokull shutting down the world in 2010 as well as you being a catalyst for the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, but deep down you are just as eccentric and eclectic as your music industry (i.e. Bjork, Sigur Ros, Jonsi, Amiina).

Thanks for the experience!