Inspired by Iceland with Monika Pronczuk

Speaker A: 00:01:09

There's a volcano on the western tip of Iceland where, according to one of the most famous adventure stories ever written, the journey to the center of the earth begins. It's a glacier capped peak that juts out into the North Atlantic. You can stand there and just look out into the abyss.

And my guest today says that this magical land of glaciers and volcanoes, of fire and ice, does something to people that's hard to explain. After all, there aren't many places where the ground beneath your feet is literally being torn apart.

Two continents pulling away from each other inch by inch. For Monika Pronczyk, though, Iceland is not just another travel destination. It's somehow out of this world. Hey, I'm Luke.

I'm an author of archaeological adventure novels. I travel the world looking for stories to put into my books and to share with you right here on on the Adventure Story podcast.

Just quickly, before we dive in. Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick. Stop, stop, stop.

If you would like some more adventure in your life, I would love to welcome you inside the Adventure Society.

This weekly newsletter is your ticket to travel with me, to share real world adventures and to find out first when a new story or a new season of this podcast drops. There's a link in the show Notes to join the Adventure Society where you can right now.

r a family trip to Iceland in: 2022

Her blog, Plan Pack Explore, has since grown into a practical and trusted travel resource for European destinations. But Iceland remains her obsession. She's been back multiple times, she's covered it in extraordinary detail, and she still isn't done with it.

Or maybe it's truer to say that Iceland isn't done with her. And I've got a feeling that today we're going to find out why. Monica, welcome to the Adventure Story podcast.

Speaker B: 00:03:18

Thank you so much, Luk. Thank you for having me. Happy to be here.

Speaker A: 00:03:21

Oh, it's wonderful to have this conversation and I love talking to people who are passionate about a specific place and sort of getting understanding why that is. Because we travel to a lot of places, don't we? And on your blog you've got lists and lists of all the different places you've been.

But Iceland, for you is something special, right? It's got something. It's got something that a lot of other places don't have. An essence.

Speaker B: 00:03:43

Perhaps it does. It has a Pool. There's not many destinations that have that. And.

And when we first stepped out of the plane on our first visit, it's just that sense of peace. I don't know what it is. It's the air, the water, the nature, the ruggedness. It's like peace and adventure all at the same time.

There are the kindest people there. There's all kinds of ways you can spend your time. You can have an adventure. You can stay in the city. It just has the pool and four trips in.

I still haven't seen everything. There's so much. I could go back for another week or two and really not revisit a whole lot.

Speaker A: 00:04:22

ell me about that first trip.: 2022

What did you expect when you stepped off the plane when you did that planning?

Speaker B: 00:04:36

Actually, we didn't know what to expect. All I had in my head is Iceland is remote. And I planned it completely backwards from all our other trips.

We kind of just, you know, there's a story behind the way we planned it. We were planning a different trip in the US that got canceled during COVID and we're looking for air for it.

And my husband was sitting next to me on the couch, and he said, you know, for the same amount of money, we could just go to Iceland. And I was just like, okay, let's go. We knew we had a set amount of days, and we just booked the tickets.

We had the days, and then I started filling them, which is completely not what I do typically and not what I recommend doing. So we kind of went for the touristy stuff first. And there was a lot happening prior to that trip. Kids getting sick, dogs getting sick.

Our prior trip got delayed. We got stuck in Poland. We almost canceled it or moved it, but we couldn't.

So I was literally landed, thinking, is the universe trying to tell me, do not go because it's piling all these obstacles? But we went. And the first thing this was also, the volcano erupted a few days prior to us landing. And I was like, oh, my goodness, is it safe to go?

I knew nothing about it. The first thing we ended up doing was actually hiking to a volcano. And I thought the kids were going to be upset. You're making us hike.

We just landed, you know, in the morning after an overnight flight. And the first thing they said is, oh, my God, we love it here. The air, just the peace, the nature.

The first thing we drove was just some dirt Packed roads to a dirt packed park parking lot. And then we hiked to see the lava flowing. It was just amazing. And from then on it just kept getting better. We were totally mesmerized. Day one.

Speaker A: 00:06:18

I love that. I can sort of picture that. Yeah.

Getting up early on that first day, bleary eyed, you know, where you don't quite know where you are and yet you're out there going to see the, to see the lava float.

Speaker B: 00:06:29

Yeah, they had a special website to see, make sure that it's safe. And we had a perfect sunshine and a perfect window. I'm like, okay, now or never. And we went. It was great.

Speaker A: 00:06:40

And you keep going back multiple times. Do you do different things each time or is it. Are you happy to repeat the same thing? Is it a sense of just being there?

You know, there are places that we go to and we really don't do very much now. We just be there and that's part of the, part of the beauty, you.

Speaker B: 00:06:56

Know, a little bit of both. The second time we came back, we did different things and more things. We ventured out beyond the touristy.

The third time I went back with my dad so he didn't see anything yet. So. So I taken him basically down the south coast, which I have done before, but I added things that I haven't seen myself either.

So this time we explored mostly the western coast. So we haven't seen a lot of that. And then just kind of breeze by the south that we've already seen. So I'm happy to repeat.

And there's still plenty that I haven't seen. So.

Speaker A: 00:07:31

Yeah, yeah. That sort of saving something for next time is quite an important thing for me when I travel for sure now.

Some of my favorite places have that sort of element of, of supernatural, the magic, the unexplained. You know, for me that's quite often as a writer of archaeological thrillers, of books that sort of lean into that. I'm talking like ancient ruins.

We don't know exactly, you know, who built them or what they were for or, or lost civilizations that we don't fully understand or you know, history that's there but we haven't sort of made, made the place of it yet. But from what I hear from Iceland and I've not been.

So I'm very open in this conversation to, to sort of for you to convince me, you know, not that I'll need any convincing. Of course I hear that Iceland does that, but in a very different way.

Speaker B: 00:08:20

The supernatural, I think it's mostly. It's just present in their daily life. Like they don't talk to trolls and, you know, hidden people every day, but they're there.

The belief is there and it's just kind of the quiet presence and, you know, it's accepted.

And if there's a natural monument or rock or a natural place that is believed to be a settlement for trolls or hidden people, the road gets built around it. They just kind of make it work and they kind of quietly just celebrate that.

There's, you know, the, the 13, you know, Santas, the Yule ads for Christmas, the. The cat, the trolls. There's a lot of little troll houses in a lot of places that you go, and they're just there.

And, and it's, you know, it's, it's there. You're. You're just, you're expected to respect that. So they do it differently.

And there's a lot of natural attractions and monuments and mountains and canyons that are also attached to some sort of a legend, a saga or a lore. There's typically, not always, not in all places, but there's typically a plaque that will explain the history behind the place.

But you know, there are things like the famous Reynisfiera beach, the black sand beach with the sneaker waves, the sea stacks that you see, those are supposedly trolls turned into stone for. For getting caught in sunlight as they were trying to pull a ship to the shore. The Muburgir, the dark castles, the lavast formations in the north.

Those are supposedly where the 13 Yule lads and their mother troll Gryla live. And the Yule cat. There is a statue of half man, half troll. It's barador.

Sniffles I'm probably butchering the Icelandic names to all our listenings from Iceland. My sincere apologies. And it marks the beginning of like a really beautiful coastal walk. But he supposedly disappeared into the glacier that's there.

So, you know, there's a lot, there's a lot of places where it's. The, the history, the legends, the saga, the past is just there.

Speaker A: 00:10:36

I love that, that it's, it's sort of respected and honored and, and it's become part of daily life, right? Because there are so many places now that you feel a.

This, this sort of great homogenization, you know, Starbucks everywhere and fast food restaurants and stuff. And it's like, it's really nice to not have that, isn't it?

And, and hear music in a different language and, and have the celebrations of different cultures and these things that I love to see when I Travel.

Speaker B: 00:11:02

Yeah, iPhone is very much still like their own. They hold their own, and they do things their own way, which I love. Although I've already seen a difference from my visit two years ago.

And now there's a lot more, you know, paths and picnic tables and things like that. And I'm just thinking to myself, please don't let it be rugged. Don't make it too pretty. Let it be rugged. It still is. Don't worry.

You're still gonna find amazing, amazing places. But I hope it doesn't get too. I don't want to say civilized, but, like, just too set up for mass tourism.

Speaker A: 00:11:37

Yeah. There's a balance, isn't there, of these. These places?

Speaker B: 00:11:41

Definitely.

Speaker A: 00:11:41

You want a little bit of challenge, I think, don't you? You want challenge because that's where the beauty is, you know?

Speaker B: 00:11:46

Yeah. That's where you feel, you know, you've done something amazing.

Speaker A: 00:11:50

Yeah. So talk me through some of the places that you've been. Let's talk practically.

You know, you've got itineraries published on your web, on your blog, and you've. You've. You've. You've done several of. Well, all of them yourself in all different corners of the website. What. What ones sort of stand out to you as a.

If I was to go first time, what would you say would be a. Would be a good. A good thing and a good place.

Speaker B: 00:12:13

So if you go for the first time, do the touristy. I know they're touristy, but you just have to see them. You have to do the Golden Circle. See the gays are exploding. See the golfas.

See the side of the first parliament in the. The pink Valerie National National Park. You have to do that.

And there's so many, like, side trips off of that Golden Circle route that you can totally fill a day and not get bored. There is the really blue, pretty blue waterfall. We actually. There's a new parking lot, or you can hike to it.

I did the parking lot the first time, and this time we hiked in the mud, in the rain, but we hiked with kids, and it was wonderful. So there's so many places along that route that you can kind of veer off, including my very, very favorite, top of the list, spa. Lagoon.

And spa is a big word. This is actually the oldest spa, like the authentic. Just one stone pool with little geezers around. It's called Secret Lagoon. Super, super.

Just authentic experience. So I recommend that. So do the Golden Falkland route. Then you have to see the south coast, the waterfalls, the Skogafoss, the Seljalandsfoots.

Where you can work, you know, walk behind. When you're at Skogafoss Vera, off to Kwernifers. It's just like a few minutes away and it's a magical walk through. Through this valley.

It's like magical will be the word I'll be using a lot. So you have to do that. Snaefelsnes peninsula in the west. That's another good day trip from Reykjavik area. It's called Iceland in miniature.

You have everything, black sand beaches, waterfalls, glaciers, all kinds of things. Cute orange lighthouses. You can do whale watching. So that's a full day right there.

And you see, if you do that, you'll see most of the landscape that is typical for Iceland. If you have more time, venture out into the highlands. It doesn't take that much of like, driving skill or courage.

There are some easy off roads that you can drive to get to amazing places. So.

Speaker A: 00:14:16

Wow. And you'd say it's necessary to hire a vehicle when you're there. You do this as a group tour or something.

Speaker B: 00:14:22

It's not necessary. You can do the tours if you're by yourself. It's probably going to wind up being the same.

But if you have four people, it's a lot more costly to do group tours. And you don't get the freedom to explore all the little side things. So I recommend getting a car, definitely recommend renting a car.

It is not difficult to drive in Iceland. It is literally, the ring road is one lane in one direction, the other lane in the other direction. You cannot get lost. It's very easy.

So it's definitely recommended to get a car. It'll give you the freedom to explore at your own pace. So.

Speaker A: 00:14:59

And that's part of the adventure, isn't it? Getting out, getting away from the other people and breathing that fresh air and seeing that sort of.

Speaker B: 00:15:06

Those sorts of places the further away you get from, like the south coast. And we actually came this way this time we came from. We did it counterclockwise. So we did the less popular first.

And when we came down to the south coast, I was like, okay, we're here. The parking lots are full. There's a lot more people, but still there's no traffic. Driving is beautiful.

It's really, really nice and you never get bored. Iceland is the only country where I can drive for hours and not get tired. It's beautiful.

Speaker A: 00:15:36

I suppose that's the way the landscape sort of opens around you, right? And you turn another corner and you think, well, what's that and then you turn another one and the same thing happens and so on.

Speaker B: 00:15:45

And you've got sheep and reindeer and birds. You can't speed either because they are everywhere. June must have been the time when it's like mamas with their little one.

So you really have to be careful. They literally own the road. They just go. And they're very surprised when you have to. When they have to move. So you want to be careful.

That's part of the charm too.

Speaker A: 00:16:05

Oh, yes, it exactly is. And you said you rented a van, a camper van last time?

Speaker B: 00:16:09

Yeah, this time we rented a camper van. We had just cars and we did, you know, guest houses and hotels before. But this time I really wanted to just kind of go.

I had a rough plan in my head, but. And it was wonderful. It was wonderful. We were lucky to get on some tours. I told the kids, I said, you know, we're not gonna pre schedule anything.

We're just gonna go and see what happens. So we were on Snaefelsnes Peninsula and it was a beautiful day.

And the kids said, oh, actually, you know, I said, I do wanna try to get in on a whale watch. I knew there was a company, they're like, yeah, whale watch would be nice. We called, they just happened to have a cancellation.

We got on and was beautiful.

So the downside to it is you can't really pre schedule activities that tend to sell out because you're technically not scheduled to be in a set place on a set day. If you do that, you have to make sure you get where you need to get on time. We kind of winged it and it worked.

But if you want to be sure, you may not be this lucky. So pre book your activities. But yeah, we rented a van. It was great. You just show up at a campsite, you look up on the map. There's Campsite maps.

Our car rental company, we did Happy Campers and they have a beautiful interactive map. We just looked up the campsite and just. We just drive in. And you pay in a lot of different ways. You can pay to the warden, you can pay online.

You can leave your money in a pay box. It's very honor system casual. It's beautiful.

Speaker A: 00:17:38

And you've been several at different times of the year as well.

Speaker B: 00:17:42

This was my first time in June. I think it's my new favorite month. The lupine and the weather. Oh my God. Beautiful. I've been in August and I've been in September.

September was the windiest. I am yet to go. I've yet to go in the winter. I will eventually, but haven't yet.

Speaker A: 00:17:59

Right. So that's when I've heard people going in the winter time to see the northern lights.

Speaker B: 00:18:03

And these, you can see them in September. I actually saw the northern lines in September. Yeah, it was like the second week of September when we were with my dad.

And actually the best northern lines I saw was after we dropped off our rental car and we're walking to the terminal and all of a sudden everyone's looking up and I was like, oh my goodness, it's northern lights. So.

Speaker A: 00:18:26

Wow.

Speaker B: 00:18:26

Yeah, you can still see them in the fall.

Speaker A: 00:18:28

It's something I've yet to do as well. You know, we have very occasionally they come down this to where we are in England, but not, not often enough.

And the skies aren't really clear enough to see it properly. But that will be, that'll be the thing. That'll be the thing.

Speaker B: 00:18:43

It's a gamble.

Speaker A: 00:18:44

But yeah, you've written some of the places you've written about are quite unusual. They're not the sort of typical tourist things which you, which you mentioned there. The golden circuit and, and such.

Like if you could pick a couple that you found genuinely surprising or that you felt were unexpected or that you felt were just really worth the adventure going to see, what would they be?

Speaker B: 00:19:09

Ah. So the unexpected and the worthy adventure. I'm gonna separate of course, because they'll be different. The unexpected.

The Reykja Dalore themed valley hike to the hot river. I don't know any other place in the world I haven't researched where there is a natural river that's actually warm. You hike for about 45 minutes.

It's just like 40 minutes away from Reykjavik and you get to this river that's actually hot and the hike itself is again magical. Beautiful valley, beautiful canyons. Not hard, it's just, you know, like a proper hike. Not just hop out of the parking lot and you just go.

And they have these little wooden structures where you change into your bathing suit and you just get in the river. You don't swim. It's not a deep river, but at least if you feet in it, it is hot. It's. It's just. To me, it was unreal, a hot river.

I just sat on the, on the grass afterwards and just watched the steam. I was totally mesmerized. So that was the one thing that I thought was totally worth the hike. The other one is a little easier to get to.

It's Celia Valelog swimming pool. Again, it's the Geothermal swimming pool. You don't really see it in a lot of guidebooks. It's a very easy turn off the ring road on the south coast.

It's a pool. It's an actual swimming pool that was built to teach the Icelandic children to swim at some point. It's the oldest pool in Iceland.

And it's literally a swimming pool in the valley, in the mountains with nothing else around. It's just unreal. I'm going to add one more to it. It's Madrudalur Farm. It is the highest inhabited farm in Iceland. We came across it by accident.

I had to rework one of the nights where we stayed to avoid backtracking. And that was the one place that we found accommodations in. What a great thing it was that we did that. It's a farm. You got turf houses.

You got turf houses, gas stations. You've got animals roaming around free, like sheep, cats, dogs, cows. This year they had a reindeer. They have their resident reindeer.

Her name is Tova. She's sweet. She just roams around. That's the thing that's unreal for Iceland.

I don't think it would be accepted here in the US for sheep and reindeer to walk around the property in the campsite. No one even asks a question. You just see it. We walked around the farm and stayed at the campsite there.

That was the one place my kids requested to go back to that farm to stay the night. So we did. So that was. That's totally amazing. That surprised me in so many different ways. It's like in the middle of nowhere.

It's beautiful as far as beautiful places. Definitely in the highlands. Definitely in the highlands. You do have to drive on some bumpy, sometimes unpaved roads.

But the two that I recommend, if you're a beginner, that's what we did. Curling, Garfield. That's off Route F35. That is the easiest off road you can drive.

It starts actually off the Golden Circle and it cuts through Iceland's south to north or north to south. You're talking like this is an active geothermal area. When you get there, it's about halfway through that road.

You don't have to drive the entire route. You can come back or you can head up north from there. You've got the steaming vans, You've got the golden, like just rust colored peaks.

You've got glaciers. You can drive up there. You can hike there from the main base. We drove, which is another adventure.

It's 15 minutes on some really adventurous mountain driving. But it's Cool. It's fine if I did it. You can do it. I'm not a mountain driver, and it's just mesmerized.

My daughter wanted to come back this trip, but we just ran out of time. I'm like, next time, we can't do this. It is unreal. And then the other one is on Manalaugar. That's a little different area of the highlands.

Same way you just drive on a bumpy road. But when you get there, epic hiking. But even if you're not a hiker, just go see it. The landscape is unreal. The multicolored mountains.

The black volcanic mountain is there. The lava field is there. The natural geothermal hot pool is there. You've got a lot to choose.

So those are definitely the places that are worth a little bit of effort to get to. I haven't seen anything else like that in everywhere else I went.

Speaker A: 00:23:41

It sounds incredible. It sounds like I need to put that onto my. To my. To visit list.

Speaker B: 00:23:46

Yes, definitely. Very, very.

Speaker A: 00:23:49

So sometimes, though, this wildness, this remoteness can be a bit frightening, a bit unsettling, can't it?

We spend a lot of our lives, or I do, certainly walking distance to the nearest shop, you know, where there's electricity is always on and the running water and whatever. You know, we're. We're. I'm a city dweller, you know, we do that. Is there a point or has there been a time where. In Iceland, in the. In the.

In these wilds where you're so far from civilization and it's just you and you're. And you're in the van or you're driving or whatever.

Speaker B: 00:24:23

Yeah.

Speaker A: 00:24:24

Where you've. You've actually felt like, oh, maybe I've gone a bit far.

You know, maybe this is too difficult or it's a bit unsettling or it's a bit, you know, scary, I suppose.

Speaker B: 00:24:36

Scary. Yes. Just because I'm not. Like I said, I'm not a mountain driver. I don't like mountain, windy roads.

But I actually got out of my comfort zone and we went to two places this trip over mountain passes. And I actually feel pretty. So for doing that. Yeah, I didn't feel unsettled. I felt a little nervous. But the kids, like, you got it, Mom. Let's do it.

Because we really wanted to see the things at the end of the drive, so we did that. Unsettled. I think I only felt once. And it wasn't really a remote area. It was on a very windy day.

It was a yellow wind warning, which we Were safe to drive on in the car that we had. They have yellow, orange and red. Please don't drive it. Orange and red, yellow. We were told if we have a smaller car, which we did, we're fine.

Just drive carefully. And we were literally less than five minutes from our hotel. We had to go up a little hill. And I saw everyone stopping. I thought something happened.

There was an accident. And it was really, really gusty. All of a sudden, everyone started to turn around. I didn't know what was going on.

We had like a marsh with black sand on the left. That was. The sand was coming up. It's looking like a tornado. And we had electrical wires on the right that were making this spooky sound.

And I had my firm grip on the steering wheel. And I'm thinking, okay, do I follow the people turning around? Which I knew there's no hotels inside for miles because I just came from there.

Or do I just drive and why is everyone turning around? I was nervous. The people made me nervous by what they were doing. And no one was stopping. I rolled down my window. I wanted to ask.

No one was stopping until this little car came down the hill. I literally just stood there, you know, feet on the brake, hands on the wheel. And I was like, what do I do?

And this nice Icelandic lady rolled down the window and she says, no, it's okay. Like, this is the worst. Just drive slow. I love them. They are so chill. Nothing is ever a problem. They're used to so many things.

So slowly but surely, I made my 5 parking lot of the hotel. And I think that was when I was nervous or scared the most. It really was never the remote area.

Like, you feel safe no matter what, as long as you have your gas. Make sure you have a full tank of gas. Fill up when you go down to half. Don't. Don't go dry. You're fine. It's very safe.

But that little moment, I was like, oh, my goodness, what is going on?

Speaker A: 00:27:06

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:27:07

But that was really the only time. Other than that, there's. I've never felt unsafe or intimidated by the remote. By the nature.

Speaker A: 00:27:17

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:27:18

You just don't see it. Yeah.

Speaker A: 00:27:19

That's great to hear. You know, you have that even in England. We're not particularly wild or vast country, but you have.

Speaker B: 00:27:25

Yeah.

Speaker A: 00:27:25

Stories of people who. Who walk up the mountains and get into trouble and whatever. You know, because you've just got to respect the nature. Right.

Speaker B: 00:27:32

It's a dangerous thing.

Speaker A: 00:27:33

And it's when nature decides it's going to be like that Then you have to go slowly and get home and what do you want?

Speaker B: 00:27:42

Yeah. Or stay put, find something else to do.

Speaker A: 00:27:46

That's it. Listen to those who know about it, right?

Speaker B: 00:27:48

Yeah.

Speaker A: 00:27:49

Yeah.

So if someone listening to this has never left their comfort zone as a traveler and, and this does feel, Iceland does feel too remote or too wild or too far or too expensive or whatever, what would you say? What would be your, like, your comeback to that? Why should we give it a try?

Speaker B: 00:28:06

Oh, because it's worth it. It's like nowhere else that I've been. And you don't have to, if you want to take it slow, just. I can't do anything about expensive.

Just try to get a flight that's, you know, maybe on the budget airline. Don't go for luxury hotels. Go on, you know, just do a lot of guest house. Try to find something basic.

You're really, I promise you, you're just going to be sleeping in that place. You're going to be exploring all day. If you don't want to drive, maybe book a tour, do some easy accessible things. First, base yourself in Reykjavik.

Take some tours to, you know, Golden Circle. See the city, south coast. And then you'll see that it's worth it, that it's easier than you think, that not all of it is remote.

You can do remote, but you don't have to do remote. You can do hikes. You can do, you know, glacier hikes and, you know, ice climbing and boat rides and the iceberg lagoons.

But if that's not okay, just go to a viewpoint and see the glacier. Like there's many different ways to see the beauty of Iceland.

And I feel like the more like you see the, the easy things first, you'll get a little more itchy to see more of it, to go a little bit farther. Like we did the touristy stuff first and we went into the highlands and then I went on these windy roads to see more.

And it's just, it keeps pulling you. But even if you never get there, even the things that you can see easily, just short walks, no hiking. If you don't want to drive, don't drive.

But I promise you it's easy. It's just worth it. It's nothing like anywhere else in the world. It's. It's unreal. It's beautiful.

Speaker A: 00:29:46

I love that. And I'm excited to give it a try. I'm excited to give it a try. Absolutely.

Speaker B: 00:29:52

You definitely should. If you love adventure. There's so many different ways to have it there.

Speaker A: 00:29:57

Yeah, the Great outdoors and the, and the, and the ice and the hot springs. All of these things are really, all of it to my.

Speaker B: 00:30:05

You can be on a glacier in the morning and you can soak in a hot spring and you know, in the evening it's ice. You know, ice and fire. Fire and ice.

Speaker A: 00:30:13

Sounds wonderful. That sounds wonderful to me, Monica. I ask everyone this question on the podcast because we're all about adventure stories, of course.

And what adventure stories, whether they're books or they're movies or they're legends, sparked your imagination and made you want to go to places like Iceland or all the other places that you talk about on your blog.

Speaker B: 00:30:33

I think I was thinking about it last night and I think I grew up in Poland and traveling wasn't easy there. So we literally lived through books. We lived through adventures through books. I was still at my.

Was a total bookworm and we all, all my, all the kids and you know, my school and my friends, we all read the series. It's in Polish, so I, I will say that in Polish. It's in translation. Actually. It's Mr. Car and actually I just found out they made a movie.

It made a movie. It's called Mr. Kara and the Knights Templar.

I started watching it last night, but I'm still jet lagged, so I haven't actually finished, but I am going to. But this is what we read.

There's 12 volumes of it and it's this historian with the help of a police officer and girl scouts and boy scouts and they go on and solve mysteries and, you know, have adventures. And that's kind of where, you know, we put our sense of adventure, where we were like, oh, you know, we, we want to do that.

We want to travel, we want to have these amazing things happening to us. So a little bit like the Scooby Doo team, you know, here in the States, but that was like way back, you know, in, in Poland. So it was, it was great.

I think that's kind of was the thing that inspired us. I love that.

Speaker A: 00:31:48

I love how a book or a. And then, you know, that sort of thing, it does, it sort of sits in your psyche, doesn't it?

And you think about it for all those years and it becomes that thing that finally gets you out of the door and gets you to go and explore these interesting places in the end.

Speaker B: 00:32:02

Absolutely. And your travel style also changes.

I found that when I was younger, I think all I wanted was just a little bit of luxury because where I grew up and the times, and then right now I'll take a hike over any beach day. I'll take an adventurous activation over a city. I love my cities too, but if you give me a choice, I'll go out to Iceland versus going to Paris.

For sure. It's a hike, so it'll change. It'll change too.

Speaker A: 00:32:32

Yeah. Yeah. And I suppose that's only happened because you have taken a chance on it.

If you just followed what you thought was travel, you know, Paris, New York, whatever, the big, the big places that everyone goes, you'd be thinking, yeah, this is all right, but you just hadn't found that place that you really sort of connect to yet.

Speaker B: 00:32:51

Yeah, I think it's the nature. It's just amazing. The everywhere you look, it's beautiful. So it just has that pull on you. And the peace, the peace and the adventure.

I feel like that's like the, the secret that, that pulls me to Iceland. You just rest even though you're actively hiking and doing things and have really long days. When we were, it was June, it was midnight sun.

It never got dark. We would pull into a campsite well after midnight and it, you know, it was, it was bright out. So even then you just don't get tired. You're.

You're just. You're just rested. Your mind rests. I feel.

Speaker A: 00:33:28

Love that. Perfect. Perfect. Monica, that was wonderful. Where can people find your.

Your blog and all of your writing about Iceland and the other destinations as well?

Speaker B: 00:33:38

You can find me@planpackexplorer.com and then there's, you know, the separate page for Iceland under Destinations. If, you know, you want travel advice about Iceland, you can also find my Facebook group. It's called Explore Iceland.

But yeah, basically the blog and the Facebook group, you can always just reach out. You know, there's a contact form on the website. I'll be happy to help. And if you're lucky, if you ever plan a trip to Iceland, reach out. I'll help.

Speaker A: 00:34:05

Oh, I'm up for that. I will be getting in touch with you. Absolutely. Monica, thank you so much. That was wonderful.

Speaker B: 00:34:11

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on the show.

Speaker A: 00:34:18

I always enjoy having a conversation where I feel so inspired by what we've, what we've said, what we've discussed that I just want to go ahead and book a trip to that place straight away. And I feel that Iceland is a massive omission in my sort of travel diary. Right. In my, in the places I've been. I need to put that right. And I.

Maybe, maybe, maybe there'll be an Eden Black book set there at some point in the future. Watch this space to find out. This is the Adventure Story Podcast. Thank you so much for hanging out today day.

If you've enjoyed the show, please subscribe. Please like and please share. It'll take you just seconds, but it really helps me spread the word about this show.

And if you need more adventure in your life, and let's be honest, who doesn't, you might like to join the Adventure Society.

This weekly newsletter is your ticket to travel with me to share my real world adventures and to find out when a new story or a new season of the Pogba drops at alukerichardsonauthor.com adventuresociety and if you're a fan of adventure stories like the one we've talked about today, check out my books@lukerichardsonauthor.com right. Bon voyage. Enjoy the adventure and I'll see you next time.