Honestly, I could have thought of a better way to ring in my 30th year than going to Iceland.

I returned to Seattle around 9:00 on March 29th. The flight was delayed because the entire Keflavik International Airport had to evacuate because of a “security breach.” Good times!

The above photo is the living room of the AirBNB I stayed at. It’s called The Old Bicycle Shop, or “Gamla Hjolabuðin” in Icelandic. It apparently used to be a bicycle shop. It was such a cozy place.

Probably Seattle could learn a thing or two about having colorful buildings against the grey skies. It was mostly dark and cloudy over at Reykjavik, but the colorful contrast of these buildings made them stand out.

I don’t drink anymore, and I used to go out dancing. On the night before my 30th birthday, I was like, “oh why not.” So, I danced for a little bit at Reykjavik’s only queer bar, Kiki Queer Bar. My drink of choice these days is soda water with grenadine with a cherry on top. Sip, sip.

Reykjavik had no shortage of murals and art installations.

This one was my favorite, and it was on the side of a building for an LGBT organization. Running is how I get to know a city, and this was one of the first murals I spotted.

I took a ferry out to Videy Island. The sun was finally starting to come out a little.

I had made a new friend in Reykjavik, and we went off on an adventure.

We drove to the fuselage plane crash site at Solheimasandur black sand beach for my 30th birthday. This was the best birthday adventure ever! The story behind it was that the plane had to make an emergency landing back in 1973, and miraculously, nobody died. The crash site is actually about 4 km off the road, and folks have to brave the strong winds to get there. It sits on the shore of the North Atlantic ocean. The waves were so violent.

On my last morning there, my friend and I had coffee together at the Laundromat Cafe. Basically, you can do your laundry there while you eat. We didn’t try it, though it’s a pretty neat set up.

Thank you for the good times, Iceland! Now I’m back and have hit the ground running. There’s so much to do and catch up around here, because I’m taking an enormous leap of faith pretty soon. You’ll see what I mean.

Let’s just say that I haven’t felt this terrified in a long time.

• iceland
• travel