The ongoing joke, “next time we’re in Iceland”, “after that trip to Norway”, “yeah if it works with my flights”. Sometimes being a pester gets you trips. For four months we made the joke that we were going to Norway. For four months every chance I got I would bring up Norway. Such as, getting new clothes that “would look great in Norway”. It got to a point my mom asked for the dates to go. She got so fed up with the Norway talk that the only way to stop it was to get on a plane and go. Then it happened, we realized … there wasn’t shit for us to do there. So while looking at flights to Norway (that we didn’t really want to get on) we looked at the map. Do you know what is right near Norway? Iceland. And that’s how it happened. That’s how we decided to go to Iceland. It wasn’t some big bucket list item, not a dream since childhood, or a matter of business. Just got so annoyed at Norway we chose the next closest piece of land.

Right before our Iceland trip, we found out my mom’s passport was about to expire, cue the chaos. Oh and when I say right before … I mean in the security line. My mom and I say we handle tough situations best out of the family (after some yelling, isolation, and having to reboot our nervous system). But this really got us good. Almost comical. Because lord knows I was going to Iceland. We were way to far into the bit to get back in my Uncle’s car and head home. So, on my mother’s birthday no less, I flew out solo while she spent the next 24 hours running around Boston trying to get an emergency passport, staying at my uncle’s place on the in between.

I spent that first day alone in Reykjavík and walked the entire city. No car, no plan, just wandering.

The wind? Absolutely brutal. Like, liquid nitrogen to the face level brutal. I genuinely lost feeling in a couple of my fingers now when it gets cold, and I fully blame Reykjavík.

Once my mom made it out, we did a bunch of tours since we didn’t rent a car. We saw everything; black sand beaches, waterfalls, geysers but if we could do it over again, we’d definitely get the car. More freedom, more exploring on our own time. Still, it was one of those whirlwind trips that sticks with you (literally… in my frostbitten fingertips).