Iceland nearly broke me (in the best way)

I'll be honest, I nearly didn't book Iceland. Everyone kept saying it was expensive and cold and "not really a beach holiday" which, fair enough. But I'm so glad I ignored them. We landed in Reykjavik at about midnight and the sky was still kind of light? Like a weird pink grey colour that made everything look like a film set. I didn't really sleep that night. Partly the light and partly because I was too excited. The next day we drove the Ring Road and I genuinely lost count of how many waterfalls we stopped at. Seljalandsfoss you can walk behind, which sounds gimmicky but is actually absolutely stunning. I got soaked. My boots took three days to dry out. Worth it. The highlight for me was Landmannalaugar. We hiked for about five hours through this surreal landscape — red and green and black mountains, steam rising from the ground, little hot spring rivers you could just sit in. I sat in one for too long and nearly fell asleep. My friend had to poke me. Northern lights. I have to talk about the northern lights. We saw them on night four. I'm not going to pretend I didn't cry a little bit because I definitely did. Standing in a snowy field at 1am watching green lights dance across the sky is just... there's no words really. Food was pricey (everything is pricey) but the lamb soup in a little cafe in Vik was one of the best things I've ever eaten. I'm still thinking about it. Iceland is one of those places that feels like another planet but also completely real and raw. It's not relaxing. It's tiring and cold and sometimes the weather is just miserable. But it gets under your skin and I think about it all the time.