The Transition Artist

This post has been a long time coming, but it’s from my second day in Iceland, and needs to be published exactly as it was written; from me to you with love.

I don’t quite have the words to explain how full of joy, pleasure, contentment, and happiness I am. I have had the most incredible past week, and will need ten thousand posts to even begin to explain in detail all of the things that I’ve done.

This time last Friday I was in London celebrating Halloween at a 90s dance party with a friend living in the city. I proceeded to spend the weekend sight seeing (Big Ben, Westminster, Buckingham, the works) and then finished off with some killer shopping scores (I found an amazing Indian store in Camden and bought way too many things at a store called Primark – which I recommend every girl ever to check out because it’s like H&M and Forever 21s cheap love child). I took tea in a vintage tea room, ate the most magical dumplings (they literally exploded soup from the inside), and laughed myself into tears with one of my dearest friends.

As if that wasn’t good enough, I went home to Paris and spent the next three days with some of the people who love me better than I could’ve asked for (and who, clearly, I like a whole lot) before leaving early Thursday morning for ICELAND.

Yes, you did, in fact, read that correctly, and I can’t believe it either.

The past 36 hours have been an absolute dream. I arrived here yesterday afternoon to clear beautiful skies, cool, crisp weather, and the most exciting, stunning views of volcanic mountains towering above inlets carved by the ocean. We spent the afternoon and evening wandering around Reykjavik and passed every second in awe. The people, tall, with long blonde or red hair, bearded (in the men’s case), and dressed incredibly stylishly (think city cool meets lumberjack in the middle of winter; if you’re picturing every Nashville hipster, you’re getting warmer), are some of the most interesting I’ve seen. There’s art and music pouring out of just about every little shop, from pubs to clothing stores, and a silhouette of mountains casually stretching out behind the buildings. The people are friendly and inviting (I think they’re used to tourists..) and the effortlessly cool city gave us a laid back vibe that made us comfortable almost immediately. In short: it’s my dream destination.

We walked around, gazing longingly at the most lovely wool sweaters, fur coats and wraps, and fish leather bags, until we decided to pop into a hip little bar. We found a place called the Barber Bar, which is exactly what it sounds like, made up of a barber shop on one side and a bar full of comfy couches, arm chairs, and hanging lamps, complete with servers in barber coats. We grabbed a couple beers, leisurely enjoying the warmth of the comfy joint, and then walked down to a restaurant where we got lobster soup (with huge hunks of lobster tail, YES, WOW) and reindeer pâté. We finished off with some carrot cake and felt like rolling home.

However, our first day of walking around Reykjavik was just a toe in the water when it comes to the vast ocean of awe I now have for this place. Today we hopped back into our rental car and took off on our first day of road tripping around the western coast of Iceland. We drove up from the city to the Snaellsfaless Peninsula and there are no appropriate adjectives to describe what we saw.

The scenery took us on a steady climb from wowed into shrieks to awed into silence. As we left Reykjavik we had no idea what lie before us. We drove around fjords, through a submarine tunnel (which was actually pretty surreal because the wind coming from behind us was so strong I didn’t have to use the gas at all), up and across lava fields, past a massive volcanic crater, to basalt columns, and then up to the top of a mountain. It was quite literally the most blustery day in the history of my life (easily 50 mph winds, if not stronger), and snow blew off the mountains and right into my eyeballs, so walking around was literally a battle with the forces each time we got out of the car, but you better believe we did it. My fingers froze any time I didn’t have gloves on, my toes were so numb I was almost positive I would lose one, and my hair whipped around wildly as I struggled to keep the hood of my jacket on.

We saw so many incredible things today, but I think we absolutely peaked when we found ourselves among some of the most majestic snow-covered mountains I’ve ever seen in my life. On either side stretched a lava field, the sun glowed pink from behind two peaks to our left. On the right, another tall mountain whipped wind and snow left and right, reflecting back the lovely pinks and oranges of the sun in the snow crystals. Before us was the road winding down into a valley. We could see the end of the peninsula, shrouded in mountains, with the ocean stretching out endlessly after it. I looked around, freezing, but forgetting my cold for the pure beauty and joy of the moment, and saw the wonder of God. I pictured the force strong enough to create such a rugged landscape, both delicate and perfect while rough and dangerous. It looked like heaven to me, and I’m still savoring it to this moment.

This beautiful moment ended abruptly, though, after the most hilarious turn of events. After almost getting blown off the mountain, Mamie quite literally peed in her pants and screamed, “I just peed!!! Oh wow, hot pee is RUNNING down my leggings.” And I laughed so hard I was in tears. But then my tears started freezing on my face and my spit froze onto my lips, and everything was all of a sudden not going as planned so we sprinted back towards the safety of the car.

And then the battery light came on. And we made it about 100 meters. And then the car stopped. On its own. In the middle of the mountains.

So I did what any rational adult would do and started frantically waving at any and all cars that passed, but the only two were over 100 meters away and driving the opposite direction.. So I walked back towards the car, mentally preparing myself to sleep in it (and die?). Until another car started driving towards us. I flagged them down, and, luck of all luck, it was actually a police car. They pulled over and asked questions as I helplessly explained that we quite literally had no idea what had happened, besides that the battery died. Then yet another miracle of miracles happened, and Mamie tried the engine again, and the car hummed to life. She drove forward and everything seemed okay, so we thanked the cops and were on our way again.

We hit the tip of the peninsula and were met with expanses of beautiful ocean and black sand beaches where the mountains ran into the water, as if by accident. There were tears and silence and gasps and exclamations of awe, followed by a lot of reflection.

We don’t have any idea how we were crazy enough or fortunate enough or wildly blessed enough to end up here, but we are most certainly grateful. Endlessly so.

We finished off the day checking into our guesthouse, eating at the only restaurant in the tiny village we’re staying in, which, luckily is also incredibly good (we had fresh baked bread, lightly fried cod with pesto, sundries tomatoes, feta, and creamy risotto, and a seafood soup), and then, as per the recommendation of our guesthouse host, went to the local pool and sat in a hot tub with water from the blue lagoon in it.

Everything about this day has been heavenly, and we absolutely can’t wait to see what the next few will bring. I can’t promise these posts will get any shorter or more grammatically correct, but I want to get this down before I forget it. I’ll keep writing on the run, and hope you’ll keep reading.

For now, xx.