Welcome back, peoples! Despite my efforts to stay local and domestic this year, I succumbed to the travel bug and booked a last-minute flight to Iceland.

Why Iceland? Mostly because I spun an e-globe (i.e. Google Maps), closed my eyes, and dropped a finger down on a random country. I don’t know much about the country — until today I didn’t even know what language they spoke (Icelandic) — but it definitely seems like a land where modern civilization meets kingdoms of previous eras, when vikings ruled the world and elves ran around freely. It’s full of natural wonders such as volcanoes, geysers, thermal baths, fjords, and more. It’s also full of interesting and long names such as Reykjavik, Kerlingarfjoll, Eyjafjallajokull, and Aflugennugenblugen. (I may have made up one of those names.)

I will be traveling once again with Rubin — a friend from medical school who I went to South America and also took a bromance trip with — and our itinerary includes flying into Reyjkavik, Iceland and spending a few days there exploring scenery, visiting castles, eating herring, and similar things. We also decided to hop over to Greenland and see what that country has to offer. As of now, all I know is that Iceland is green and Greenland is ice. Let’s see how true that is.

I’m taking a ridiculous amount of technology with me, including my iPhone, iPad, Canon Powershot camera, and GoPro video camera. Also I’ve packed an odd collection of clothes and items, including thermal underwear, scarves, and gloves (for cold weather) and swimsuit and snorkel gear (for warm weather…I hope).

That’s it for now. See you on the other side.