I didn’t know wind or cold until Iceland. It might seem like the most obvious statement, but no matter how many layers I wore, the cold wind managed to cut through them all. Still, the otherworldly landscapes, divine baked goods, and licorice (if you are into that sort of thing) make Iceland a must-visit.

I make no apologies for the 30 million photos I have shared of the Northern Lights. They really are as magical and spectacular as you might imagine. We had to visit three sites that night before spotting them and to be honest, I had lost hope. Then all of a sudden, we saw the tiniest green wisps in the sky which gradually became broader and stretched across the blackness. It felt like a gas leak in the sky, and someone kept opening the valve a little more and a little more. To top off the experience, we enjoyed hot cocoa and cinnamon buns. One of the nice things about the tour company I used was their policy that if you didn’t see the lights, you would get rebooked as many times as you could during your trip for no additional fee to maximize the opportunity of catching them. The odds for visibility weren’t great for the whole of my trip and luckily, I got to see them on the night I had scheduled.