Day 1 (5-30-18)
From the start of landing in Iceland, I could tell that this land was nothing like what I'd ever experienced before. Perhaps it was the 800+ different types of moss that are native to Iceland. Regardless, from the moment we touched down on this wild landscape, I could feel the sense of adventure growing. Much of this place has been untouched for ages, and rightly so: there are laws about walking in many areas, because stepping on the local mosses could take over a hundred years for them to repair the damage. This is a hardy land of constant change and yet; in many ways, it is more fragile than many other places on Earth. Being treated to the lava crags and the wonderful emerald green of the plants among the grey rocks gave me an eerie sense of mortality and perhaps a deeper respect for the land I'd come to stay on and the people that inhabited it.
I've always been aware of my acrophobia (fear of heights), but it's impossible to really know what conditions will scare me until I'm neck deep in them. Today was exactly one of those days. We walked up a narrow path along a mountain in Grindavikurbaer. Unfortunately, the higher I went, the more I felt the icy hands clenching in my gut and chest. Though I only managed to make it half way up, the view was ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. I was proud of myself for the progress I'd made and for facing my fears as long as I could. While a small part of me wishes I was able to make it to the top and see the view from up above, the rest of me is intensely thankful I didn't. The path only got steeper from that point onwards and with my natural clumsiness, I'm fairly certain I'd surely have ended up falling to my demise some way or another.