Iceland, late October.
The weather is good and conditions are right for catching the Northern Lights, the celestial lights of mythical proportions! So all day we drive around and explore, and once night falls we wait. Heading back in the evening to the house, hotel or cabin, we split up according to everyone’s priorities: some take a shower, others slip into comfy pyjamas and sprawl on the couch, and others put on hot soup and tea. And just as you’re sinking into the cosy warmth of the living room, into the laughter and conversations, ready to enjoy a sweet nap, suddenly your phone starts ringing!
Through an app, it alerts you when someone relatively nearby has seen the Northern Lights. Ding! Someone saw it. Ding, ding, ding ding, the notifications don’t stop! And then you live some of the most magical seconds of your life, in slow motion.. Everyone starts shouting; chaos breaks out, a frenzy, ‘the Northern Lights, let’s go quick, it’s close!’. The thrill, longing and impatience you feel in that moment compare only to the anticipation of meeting your first love; emotions you never thought you’d feel again surge up inside you! At that moment, whatever you’re doing, however you are, you stop everything, throw on your jacket and head out to hunt. But a hunt unlike any other, a hunt you maybe never thought you’d go on. You set out to chase the unattainable, to capture the magic the very moment it unfolds..
And at that very moment, the Northern Lights begin to appear. At first none of us believes it, it’s small, it’s far, it must be a cloud. But the cloud quickly grows, becomes a wave of light and spreads ethereally across the horizon. With an otherworldly glow, it shifts constantly. It lights a little here, more there, with intense greenish hues standing out across its whole expanse. And we start to shout. We hug and jump for joy: ‘Yes, it’s the Northern Lights, it’s real, look, look!’
What words could describe the moment? What feelings could fit into images of a group of 18 travellers from Greece, sitting and staring spellbound at the celestial wave? With a sense of unprecedented joy and of conquering something that was never ours. Our eyes wide open to take in as many minutes of the magic as we can. Tiny within the vast night, with the green flashes dancing above our heads, telling us something very wise: that anything can happen.
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With love for travel, roadtrips and adventure.
The Altervan team.
