People & Iceland

Andrea Vale
Jan 6, 2020
2 min read

The aurora borealis unfurls across the horizon moving slowly like a green ribbon waving in a pool of water. Stars are scattered across the sky and I’m surrounded by a moment of silence, new friends gathered at my sides. The calm breaks as we get ready to leave and I grab onto the people nearest me and envelop them in a group hug. We jump around, positively elated to have seen the fickle northern lights after failing to hunt them down before. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and celebrating with my fellow travelers made it even more memorable. Everyone’s giant smiles, glowing eyes, and dumbfounded laughs are ingrained in my mind.

In my experience, the people you travel with are just as important as the places you decide to explore. Solo travel can be empowering and freeing, but it’s also an incredible feeling to pick out constellations in a clear Icelandic sky with a new friend or share a giant cinnamon roll with someone you’ve known for years in a tiny Reykjavík bakery. Life is meant to be shared with other people because they can make even the simplest things memorable.

It’s also fascinating to interact with locals who have lived and breathed a culture for years that you’ve only experienced for a matter of days. In Iceland particularly, most of my interactions centered around the tourism industry, which is made up of both native Icelanders and foreigners from all over the world. As of April 2019, 32% of people working in the tourism industry were immigrants and, at the beginning of this year, immigrants made up 14.1% of the total population. In 2018, this population of people had originated from twenty different countries with Poland being the most prominent. This diversity has strengthened the Icelandic tourism industry by filling jobs in an expanding sector that natives can’t fill by themselves. This mix of nationalities makes for incredibly interesting conversations and perspectives. For a tourist like me, it’s really cool to talk to a glacier hike enthusiast from Hungary as well as a WestFjords native who is an Icelandic history whiz and passionate about acting and singing. I often find that the people I meet on my travels bring me closer to the heart of a country. Sometimes, in a roundabout way, observing how they are living their lives makes me consider alternate ways to get what I want from my own life. If nothing else, there’s usually a funny anecdote to be garnered, such as watching an Icelandic tour guide gracefully slide down a sheet of ice surrounding an active geyser while a handful of tourists dramatically flail and wipe out around him (a fairly common experience when most walking surfaces are frozen over during the winter here).