Aurora borealis, waterfalls, glaciers, fairies & more in Iceland

The flight to Reykjavik from Amsterdam jumpstarted all the excitement when the pilot asked passengers to look out the window and watch out for the possible sighting of the Aurora borealis.

- BUM D. TENORIO, JR.

The flight to Reykjavik from Amsterdam jumpstarted all the excitement when the pilot asked passengers to look out the window and watch out for the possible sighting of the Aurora borealis. His announcement, the plane captain explained, was based on a NASA report as the space agency tracks the appearances of the Northern Lights. A whiff of anticipation was felt when the lights in the cabin were dimmed. Passengers turned their gaze toward the windows from time to time throughout the three-hour journey. We touched down at the wintry Keflavic airport of Iceland at 9 p.m. without seeing the dancing lights in the sky.

"We still have six days in Iceland. That means we still have six days of chasing the Aurora," my best friend Christine Dayrit told me as we waited by the carousel for our luggage. My body was tired from the 32-hour flight from Manila. But my spirit was excited. Outside the airport, it was pitch black. I craned my neck in search of the Aurora but the cold only gave heaviness to my eyelashes.

"They say you don't find the Aurora; it finds you," Christine, who first saw the Northern Lights in Tromso, Norway years back, said. The Aurora can be elusive. I kept a prayer in my heart before I slept that night.

The following morning, Reykjavik, the capital city of Iceland, was festive because of the Tivoli lights that swirled around Laugavegur, the area where our hotel was located. Ghouls and giant spiders, freezing at -5 degree Celsius, adorned the neighboring shops because we were there a few days before Halloween.

"There's a lot to see in Iceland. The Aurora is just one—if we are lucky. There's the Golden Circle, which we will hit today, just outside the city," said Sno, our tour guide.