Iceland! It’s been on the Bucket List for a very long time. In a few weeks, the beloved and I will be travelling to this isolated, under-populated island on top of the world … and I can’t wait!

If you are going to travel, my partner-in-crime is your ‘go to’ guy. He has meticulously planned our days from the time we arrive in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, the world’s northernmost capital city, to the car hire, accommodation, and cash conversion. I do not share his eye for detail or enthusiasm for travel planning. But over the years, and on our many travelling adventures, I can only say how grateful I am to this travel mastermind.

As a devout nature lover, Iceland has always fascinated me. It has a unique landscape, shaped by the forces of nature: geysers, mudpots, ice-covered volcanoes and glaziers. Locals and tourists alike fall in love with its green valleys, fjords and roaring rivers. As I write this, I glance at my hiking boots with great anticipation!

Icelanders are obviously very proud of their beautiful piece of the planet. They have gone to great length to preserving their natural wealth through conservation and responsible fisheries management. According to the Environmental Performance Index, Iceland is the world’s greenest country. Renewable energy is a major focus and nearly every home in the country is heated from renewable energy sources. I do wish the powers-that-be in my own beautiful habitat would pay attention to reasoning and the actions of these Northerners!

Then there are the books! Research shows that more books are written, published and sold per person per year in Iceland than anywhere else in the world. As a young child I was fed a steady diet of bedtime stories from Brothers Grimm, Norse Mythology and Icelandic Sagas. These sagas remain an integral part of Icelander identity. They also contain valuable information and record monumental events, like the discovery of a large island called ‘Vinland’ by Leif Erikson – an island later divided into two and renamed Canada and America! The sagas influence how we tell and read stories to this day … Tolkien would agree.

Ég tala ekki íslensku! But not to worry, there are some great apps to help with that problem. And, yes, my travel-wizard partner has already downloaded them. Icelandic is an insular language and has not been greatly influenced by other languages. It holds similarities to Norwegian and Faroese, but has changed very little from when the country was settled in the ninth and tenth century. Icelandic is astoundingly difficult to speak and even harder to pronounce. Fortunately, most Icelanders speak English, so I won’t even attempt to demonstrate my zero Icelandic competence … and I won’t tell my enthusiastic travelling companion that we probably won’t use his freshly downloaded apps.

Let’s not forget the hot springs. Ingrained in Icelandic culture is the wonderful habit of bathing outdoors in volcanically heated pools – a tradition started by the Vikings. These geo-thermally heated pools, dotted across the country, have valuable health benefits. The most famous of these is the Blue Lagoon – in a lava field on the Reykjanes Peninsula. My bathers are packed! If you hear some rumours about an insane Australian who missed her flight home because she found marinating in these pools more appealing than a gruelling plane flight home … that could be true!

Sjáumst!

I have a deep and ongoing love of Iceland, particular the landscape, and when writing ‘Burial Rites,’ I was constantly trying to see whether I could distill its extraordinary and ineffable qualities into a kind of poetry. 
– Hannah Kent –