My past year has been one great adventure. As you may have heard or seen, I lived abroad twice for five months at a time. First I lived in Curacao, one of the Caribbean Islands, and later on I lived in Iceland. Two islands, twice five months, but besides that nothing was comparable. If you want to read more about my first adventure in Curacao, please look at my previous post. Right now I’ll tell you about the latest experiences in Iceland.
Before I went to Iceland, I had no clue what to expect. I had never been there, and besides that it was beautiful (according to pretty much the entire internet), I didn’t know much about the culture or daily lives of Icelanders. I imagined I would end up in a little town, surrounded by nothing but nature and being mostly by myself. Going out for hikes in the weekend to photograph sceneries and animals, and watching Netflix and reading books during the evenings. I couldn’t have been more wrong at that time.
It already started with my arrival. After having been in two planes and a multiple buses, I was dropped off at a gas station in this little town called Húsavík. During my domestic flight and bus ride the only things I had seen were white. Iceland was covered in snow. As Húsavík was a town far north in Iceland, this place was also covered in this white dust and ice during my arrival in February this year. I had been in contact with a girl I didn’t know yet, but she would pick me up from that gas station and so she did. The walk towards the house was not long, barely a kilometre, but with my heavy luggage, multiple layers of clothing and icy roads this walk seemed eternally.
The girl was named Alice, and together with two other girls she had already been living in this house for a couple of weeks. That meant I wasn’t going to be alone. Surprise! From that moment on I knew it wasn’t going to be the way I had expected. I was soon introduced to many more people, of which at the time I couldn’t remember their names. I met a bunch of people even in the first 24 hours of my stay, and it changed the world for me. During the five months that I lived in Iceland, we had plenty of bonfires in the forest, parties and dinners, so I was never bored.
Besides having fun with friends, I of course had to write a paper for my internship. Therefore I sat a lot at the office and at home to read and write. It was a necessity, but very unfortunate that I couldn’t spend my time outside hiking, or at the boat whale watching and researching. If I look back at it, I’m very happy with the results that I booked. I passed my internship and therefore my third year of college, with only one more year left. However, I should have also given myself the time to be on the boat more often during the first few months. I did go during weekends, but I also had days not accomplishing anything in my paper because of a lack of motivation. At those days, I should have gone on the boat. Nevertheless, I was able to finish my paper on time, which left my last 3 to 4 weeks rather empty in which I worked on the boat as often as possible. Mostly going on the boat twice or trice a day, with tours consisting of 3 to 3,5 hours.
Those tours and this last months were the absolute best. I know, the first time going was also very special, but June and July will be my favourite memory of Iceland. Besides working as a researcher, doing for example photo-identification, I was happy to help on the boats as much as I could. Helping with handing out the overalls, preparing the hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls and providing information to tourists where and when needed. I hope to work as a guide on day on one of these boats. Skjálfandi Bay (the bay next to Húsavík), the people and the whales have stolen my heart and I need to return to get it back. One way or another, I will visit this town again!
