Chapter 34: The Dawn of the Calm Mind

Chapter 34: The Dawn of the Calm Mind

That night we went to rest, and for the first time in many months, I not only closed my eyes to spend the hours awake; I slept soundly. Rest my tired body and my mind saturated with memories. I felt so peaceful, with such deep serenity permeated in the clean sheets of Akureyri, that the ghosts of my past simply found no room to enter my dreams.

The next day we woke up very early, driven by renewed energy. We prepared our typical mountain backpacks, put away the inevitable thermoses with hot coffee, packed something small and light to snack on the way, and walked out the door ready to take on the world.

Ethan became my personal guide in this new land. We went on a hike to the most impressive tourist and natural landscapes that guard the north of Iceland. First we went to the city's botanical garden, the Lystigarðurinn, a corner of peace where Arctic flowers defy the cold. Then, we get in the car and drive around to contemplate the majesty of the waterfall of the gods, Goðafoss, where the water roars with a mystical force falling in a perfect semicircle. We ended the day touring the volcanic fields and pseudo-craters of Skútustaðagígar, on the shores of Lake Mývatn, a landscape so unreal and prehistoric that it seemed to be taken from another planet.