Sometimes all it takes is a click of a button…
Dozens of places still linger on my bucket list, yet dozens more get added each year. And though I score a country or city with each passing season, the empty spaces on my virtual pushpin map leave me unsatisfied. I am Napolean, and the unconquered empires in the horizon are unsettling and tempting at the same time.
Iceland is one of those places that had sat idly in the bucket for years. Fives years ago, I advertised “Iceland July 2006″ on my travel blog… much like a 4pm dentist appointment so casually penciled in on my calendar. Being drunk with ambition makes it easy to draw up grand itineraries – but itineraries only people with inordinate amounts of time and money can afford.
It was early April 2010, and “mud season” in Colorado had begun. Ski conditions were sub-prime, but it was still too cold and dark to hike a mountain. By then Iceland among other countries had fallen by the wayside. “Nepal November 2010″ was a complete fail (though it was redeemed by “Patagonia October 2010″). Don’t get me wrong – I had food, shelter, a job, friends, and family – and very thankful for them all. But I was still suffering from a “bougie depression”. Blame it on the lack of sun.
My housemate Rachel typed away on her laptop across the table from me. “Where should I go on vacation?” She was planning a well-deserved trip to somewhere in June. I yammered off a few dozen places I’ve been to or have always wanted to go. After 45 minutes of reckoning, she had Travelocity.com and the GAP Adventures website up. It was for a 10-day adventure trip to the Galapagos Islands. She had a nicely fared roundtrip ticket ready to go on her screen with her name on it. “Should I do it?” she asked me. I gave nodded, “What the hell – go for it!”
Within milliseconds, her name, credit card number, and travel information were digitally transmitted to the websites, and an electronic ticket was issued to her name. A nod became a key stroke. A keystroke became an airline ticket. And an airline ticket became Rachel’s destiny awaiting for the day to arrive. What’s done was done, and only an egregious cancellation fee would set destiny off course.
But there I was – the 3rd weekend just lazing about at home, yet no destiny to call my own. My Napolean began to stir. Within a 15 minute window, I looked up average climate for Iceland in June, found a cheap flight, and looked at my work calendar. “Am I really going to do this?” The empty spaces on my pushpin map hauntingly stared back at me. A little island near the arctic circle, still bare – still virgin.
<click!>
Two weeks beforehand, Patty from Iceland Air sent me a friendly email reminder about my flight to Reykjavik. “We wish you a pleasant flight!”
Now I’m sitting in JFK airport and I’ll close my laptop down, walk over to Terminal 7-Gate 2, and take my window seat. Four hours after 8 pm Eastern Time, I’ll open the window shade and it will be 5 am and the midnight sun will have long been arisen. I’ll stare down at a massive lava rock called Iceland, squint through the space between my index finger and my thumb, and envision yet another pushpin on the map.
I saw the sun set and rise in nearly the same direction, and within 4 hours of each other. The birds are singing at all times of “night”, but then again, it never gets dark. My circadian rhythm is off beat, and I’m really too lazy to post anything substantial on my blog.
