I typically don’t create bucket lists for myself. I feel like every place I visit has something special to offer and I end up leaving a piece of my heart in everywhere I go. Sappy I know, but I always come back to the fact that each and every place has something that makes it unique – just waiting to be discovered. But having said that, there is one thing that I want to see more than anything else – the Northern Lights. Being in Chicago, there is almost a non-existing change of every catching a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis here so I constantly track the activity levels to see if they appear in places like Minnesota and Montana. Not that I can make it out there in a jiffy – Minnesota is almost 7 hours away and Montana is more than 20 hours away. The one and only entry on my bucket list is to see the Northern Lights in Iceland.So it should come as no surprise that my guest today is Iris Bergmann, a native Icelander born and raised and the first question I asked her was whether she had a chance to see the Aurora Borealis for the season. Iris was an absolute delight to speak with. She not only shared some amazing places to explore in Reykjavik where she lives but also gave us incredible insight into Icelandic culture. Iceland is a relatively small island and Reykjavik has only around 150K residents so the community and culture of Iceland is very close knit and cozy. Like Iris says, when she goes into downtown Reykjavik, she always bumps into people she knows. For her this brings forth such a strong sense of camaraderie and safety.

For a country that has so many dramatic landscapes, geysers, geothermal pools, black sand beaches and incredible waterfalls, it is easy to get overwhelmed with all the things you might want to see. Iris suggests having a completely different approach. She said, “Ditch the plan, scrap the agenda, just go with the flow. Often times I will just load up the car and drive. If I see a road that is not familiar or a scenery that I haven’t seen. I will pull over and go explore. Those lead to the best kind of adventures.” And as a fellow Roadtrippers and travel agenda hater, I could not agree more.

{Photos by Iris Bergamann; Instagram: @irisbergmann}

 

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