Iceland: Epilogue part 4

The final chapter in the epic that has turned out to be my Icelandic Epilogue! So far I have covered places and animals encountered in Iceland, but I've decided to finish this story with the most important aspect...

The People

Undoubtedly it is the people that I have found here in Iceland that are the best part of my time here. 

When I was in Húsavík I had the absolute honour of living with some of the most influential and entertaining people I've known.

Tania, Ailie, Naomi. I remember this was Ailie's birthday and we hiked the mountain behind the town. This was just days after my arrival but you can see by the size of my smile I am already at home.

My Húsavík girls! Naomi, Ailie, Tania and Charla! We have the crazy girl from Hong Kong who's volume could only be matched by a certain Kiwi. The Portuguese lady is still my only reference to Portugal and has done a damn fine job representing the country. And lastly myself and a certain Canadian formed the unbeatable duo, Charck Attack!

We were together for just two months but it feels like a lifetime, and even now we keep in contact.
I can't count how many times we laughed like madmen over a G&T.

This was the first time I have spent such an elongated period out of the country, this could have been an uncomfortable and difficult time but I was welcomed into the country fantastically. Thank you guys so much!

Then in Reykjavík I would go on to meet an incredible number of people!

Loes the Dutch and Megan the Kiwi. Megan had an adventurous spirit I've never seen matched, who else would on days off take bus trips to random towns that a tourist would never visit? At stupid hours in the morning too!

Loes you were my only tea buddy in Reykjavík! And though our snowman only lasted one day it's safe to say our friendship will last much longer! One of few people who can say that they love Humpbacks even more than me!

 

The penultimate set of researchers I would meet! Here we have myself, Rowena and Aymeric posing with the northern lights at the Sun Voyager

Aymeric, me and Hanna at the horse theatre show. Yeah horse theatre... it was... special. Some of the horses didn't want to follow stage directions.

This year has just been life changing. In so many ways. Of course getting the job and such will have a huge impact on my life from now, but my experiences with so many people have done so much more. There are people who I will remain friends with for as long as I have a memory, there are so many people who have given me memories that will last even after my memory leaves. And there was even people who I grew to care about, more than was logical.

But no matter what, no matter the pain of being apart. What will always remain are the memories of every new thing experienced, every drink toasted, every whale seen, every hand held and every laugh shared.

These people became my family. They took me in and have given me so much.

I can never give enough thanks to the people in my life, a 20 year old moving to another country on his own with no idea of what or where he will end up could end in disaster. If it weren't for these people then it likely would have. It's been a rollercoaster, but at least the ups have been higher than the downs.

So this is goodbye then. But before I sign off one last time I will leave you with the story of my greatest northern lights experience and a picture which doesn't come close to showing you how it felt to be there.

I will quote what I wrote when I saw this, that's the best way to recapture the moment.
"The sky was alight with a display, you could look in every direction and there would be something new to see! The most common colour to see during an auroral display is green, the rarest is red and you also get blue and purple auroras sometimes. Well tonight we had ourselves a green and RED display!
There was even one moment when a huge beam spread over our heads and then circled above us forming a tight ball.
Then the ball... exploded.

It was like a film showing a flower blooming except it was a green and red ball of angelic delight, it is so hard to describe. It was a perfect thing to see, unfortunately as it was directly above me it was nearly impossible to take a picture of it but that was just one of those times where you need to see it rather than take a picture of it."

 Takk fyrir allt Ísland. I'll be back.

Thanks for reading,
Jack Ball. Signing off.