Desitnation Next: Iceland

If you've been following my blog recently, you'll notice that since I've started riding, I've been journalling each lesson and anything else that relates to riding. That's because I'm hooked and it's one of the things that help get me through the oh-so-exciting corporate world that I otherwise reside. One of the other things that keeps me going is traveling. That's probably not a surprise as many people list traveling as one of their "hobbies". Life is too short to return to the same places that we've already been, or not to explore the rest of the world. In high school, in a class I can't recollect, the teacher polled the class to see who's been where. More than 75% of the class had only been to one or two other countries in their entire lives; and many of those students have never traveled to other areas of Canada, despite being Canadians??!!

That memory has never left me and I will continue to be astonished by the number of people who do not seem remotely interested in visiting the rest of our world; or even their own countries of residence. All-inclusive vacations and Las Vegas or New York seem the norm for young people in their 20s and even 30s. Even the people at work always give me surprised looks when I tell them about my travels to Calgary or Peru. Some understand why I went to Peru but couldn't fathom why anyone would visit Calgary/Banff.

Since Peru was particularly heavy on the wallet, I didn't plan on going anywhere that might be as costly. Afterall, traveling abroad usually costs a considerable amount for a corporate "bottom-of-the-totem-pole" type so I was prepared to head to Las Vegas with ADW when there was a good deal. But, an amazing deal came through a few weeks ago, on TravelZoo and we couldn't pass it up.

In March, we're going to Iceland for a week at the cost of a "really good all-inclusive". The plans include whale watching, glacier walking, visiting the original Gysir, a full day riding Icelandic ponies and some down time at the Blue Lagoon. To get prepared for what to expect, my brother sent us a video featuring Iceland (and the Faroe Islands) with the two guys of Departures, a traveling reality show. If you've got the time and the patience to watch two douchey guys have possibly the best job in the world (jealous yet? I am), then check out their trip to Iceland:

Having endured the video above, I am pretty pumped for Iceland and am going to be working on getting suited up appropriately since the weather will likely be the most challenging thing for us to endure.