Permission to be yourself

.. and imagine some people wait all their lives for one.

Iceland

It's my friends that wanted to go. Bare rocks never appealed to me, and things like ice, snow and lack of people I have already experienced in Finland. But I said I'd join. In the end it's a place that everyone should visit at least once in a lifetime, I thought. But it was worth it, I already know :)

We have planned a nine days road trip around the island. Well, one could say eight days, as last two night we plan to spend in Reykjavik. Today is the 5th day of the trip.

What surprised me is that Iceland can be green in some times of the year and in certain locations. There are actually quite a lot of flowers growing in the summer in the Skaftafel national park, which we could see in the movie watched at the Visitor's Centre. As we came here a bit too early, the grass is just  starting to change colour from beige to greenish. But I imagine that with the green spots next to black rocks it must look striking.

Actually, for a person who has never been in Scandinavia such trip could be a pretty good overview of how the nature can thrive, how contrasting places there can be, how beautiful our Earth can be. Iceland seems to be a combination of black rocks, black sand, blue sea water, gray lakes with white and blue sparkling ice, spots of green and reddish moss, green trees and colorful flowers. And many times you see almost all of those things mixed right next to each other. That's unique, indeed.

Car rental 

What was the new thing I learned was that they explicitly asked us to watch out for the doors, not to be destroyed by strong wind when opened. So we should always hold the door while getting on and off and not leave them open. Also we should try to park against the direction of the wind, so that it does not open the door but closes it.

The woman at the car rental place also told us that the weather in Iceland tends to change rapidly, from a sunny day to a snowstorm. For that reason, every day in the morning, before setting off, we should check a special website for the road conditions and weather (it's also possible to call a special number, in case we don't have access to the Internet).

We asked whether the woman was Icelandic and she said she's Swedish and lives here since 1,5 years, because of a relationship. But she does not like the weather. "It's too windy", she said.

First impressions

We landed in Reykjavik, and our trip started there, we were going to the south and next to the east.

During first two days we could not get rid of the impression that we are on a different planet, something like Mars, but less reddish perhaps. The ground and the sand here are always black. Around us we could see gray and brown hills, with rocks and stones of different sizes scattered around. Also light conditions are very typical for Scandinavia, which means that the colours appear very vivid and they are of high contrast. Also the sun is shining at a lower angle, so everything casts a shadow, even the single small stones. All that gives the impression of being on another planet, indeed.

Lava fields

That's the Mars in the full version :D 

We found it surprising that there was absolutely no place to pull the car over. For a few kilometers all we had in front of us was a narrow elevated road with black fields of rough stones on both sides. We were not sure how risky it would be to simply stop at the side of the road, letting the car stand half on the road and half on the stones. Finally, almost at the end of the lava field, we found a short segment of a side road, filled with the very same stones. Very carefully we drove in there. But as soon as we got off the car it became clear that the stones are very stable. They are really rough, and have very irregular shapes, so when they lie on each other they hold together really well. They were so rough that they quickly made the skin on my hands rough too, just because I was touching them.

The spaces between the rocks were filled with the black sand.

But the nature is already taking over. You could see bunches of moss and other unidentified plant like organisms, trying to  grow in the rocks.

The thing in the middle is just rubbish though :P Probably blown over from some farmer's field.

Seljalandsfoss and other waterfalls

The Seljalandsfoss was a waterfall that was.. well, like a waterfall. A big one. A lot of tourists walking around, taking uncountable number of pictures, selfies, photos of each other, photos of the waterfall, photos of the fields surrounding the waterfall from behind the waterfall.. Oh, as it was possible to walk behind the waterfall, and even though the way there was covered in thin, perfectly slippery layer of ice, all the people, in all kind of shoes were slowly walking there and back. I was really surprised that no one fell into the water, including myself.

That was not the interesting part though. When I took the path leading from the big waterfall along the mountain, I ended up at the front of something that looked like a cave. And inside the cave was another waterfall, maybe a bit smaller than Seljalandsfoss, but still looking impressive, and it was possible to come very close to it. And the ground was not slippery, only wet. And, most importantly, there was no crowds of people around.

Besides that, there's a lot of waterfalls in Iceland..

Recently I understood that I do not need to wait for anyone to start living the life I want to have. Just like I do not need to wait until I retire until I start travelling and enjoy my life. It's just an illusion that at some point in life I would meet some special person who would allow me to be myself and do what I want to do. First of all, almost no one ever meets such fitting person, second of all, I do not need such person to start living. Maybe now, soon at the age of 30, is the right time to actually start?

Another thing is, why have I been stopping myself from being myself until now? In many things most of the people I find so different from me and at the same time so alike (similar to reach other), that in some strange way I assumed that everyone is forcing themselves to be who they are - and I  tried to do the same. But, the heck, why? I still don't know how many people are actually forcing themselves and how many just are who they are, but that's not relevant, what is relevant is that I don't have to be like the most of the people. Understanding the meaning of these trivial words gives me so much power, so much inner motivation, and so much of the feeling of happiness.