Lava Led Me Here

I have rewritten this several times. Sometimes it’s hard for me to put into words what my travels and experiences do for me. But all I ever keep coming back to is how they make me feel. For me, the essence of travel isn’t to move from place to place, or tick sights off a list — it’s to feel.

And in Iceland I felt alive again.

An Icelandic reporter was sharing the news on the radio about the new volcanic eruption, and how approximately 5,000 people have visited the eruption in just one day. At least that’s what Petur told me as he translated the news for me while he drove us to see it for ourselves.

Petur, a native to Iceland and now friend to me, shared half of his chocolate licorice before we began the hike to watch new earth form before our eyes.

I remember looking back to see the view after pushing through the steeper part of the hike and seeing all of the other people on the trail following behind us. No matter where we were from, what we looked like, or what language we spoke, we all had one thing in common. We were damn excited to see a newly active volcano.

We all hiked 14 km through rugged terrain to get there. Part of the hike there was no trail, just markers the rescue team placed like bread crumbs to follow to the volcano. Then eventually we started to see faint red smoke off in the distance, and I started to get butterflies in my stomach. As we got closer we finally saw all of it in its glory, and I couldn’t, and still can’t believe what I saw. I stopped in my tracks, and was overwhelmed with emotion. Tears began to well up, and I started to feel the purest form of joy I had ever felt.

But it wasn’t just from seeing the volcano. Watching others experiencing it was just as good, if not better. Gasps, cursing, cheers, and tears surrounded me while watching new earth being formed. At one point I looked over and saw a family celebrating a birthday. Seeing them try to light the candles on the cake in the wind, and singing happy birthday while overlooking the volcano was special to watch. Humans just being humans. And to think I almost didn’t go. To think I almost missed the feeling of all of this.

I hope by sharing my experiences to the public I might inspire someone to go out and find that themselves. I hope you find wander, you learn, you discover, and more importantly I hope that you feel.