I’m sharing the 8 digital photos that I took while in Iceland recently. I brought my digital camera this time, because I wanted a photo of the northern lights. I ended up taking a few more than that, but not many. This is it. I’ve sent my film off and will be sharing those images once I get them back! I haven’t used my professional camera for personal work in years! If you follow me on Instagram, you will see more [iPhone] photos of this magical place.

Back in March we won free tickets to Iceland though a contest that Iceland Air was having in Boston. It was a scavenger hunt style contest with clues and lots of running around the city. Once we won, we threw the voucher aside because the blackout dates were laughable and there was no way we were going to be able to go. The prize was actually for airfare to any of their European destinations with an optional stopover in Iceland. Because of my wedding season I am busy every weekend from April to November so I don’t have time for that sort of vacation. As I was rearranging my office a couple months ago I found the voucher, and noticed 1 weekend that there was not a blackout, it happened to coincide with a weekend that I had a wedding cancellation and I was was off. Too good to be true I thought. So we called, and asked if we could only go to Iceland and not have Iceland be a stopover. They said of course and we booked our free tickets!

This time we decided to camp. I’ll save the wacky stories and how we had to get rescued from stormy mountain roads by a power plant operator for the next post. Iceland is magical. Every time I go back things become more and more familiar, I become more comfortable and and it feels like a place I could live.

As a city dweller, living in the middle of a beautiful nowhere is so appealing and so very easy to romanticize. But the gap between the romanticized version and reality of such a life is enormous. It’s a life of isolation and toil. Coming to a place like Iceland, and seeing what living “in the middle of nowhere” really means, is a humbling experience and gives you an intense appreciation for the actual people who live in this challenging, unforgiving environment. It’s a lifestyle not suited for everyone, but for hearty, hard working and brave people.

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