Blog 117 – Northern Lights in Summer by Ms Paige Turner
I thought I would see polar bears when I went to Iceland but I think I thought I was going to Alaska. Polar bears can be sighted in Northern Iceland as some of them can drift on ice floats from Greenland. What a thought. What a journey.
What a journey we had aboard Cruise and Maritime’s Azores which left from Liverpool. We drifted down the Mersey completely unsurprised by the port’s efficiency and friendliness. I first visited Liverpool a few years ago but had not forgotten Liverpudlian warmth. I do believe they swallow happy pills like the people who work at Waitrose.
Iceland was cold. I didn’t expect it to be so cold as, during my research, I discovered there would only be snow on the top of mountains in August. The Northern Lights suffuse the Arctic nights in winter but I truly discovered different kinds of northern lights on that Azores cruise. Ten nights and it’s a microcosm for the human lifespan: some people pack a lifetime in. One writer attended all my classes and then swept off to do ballroom dancing in between swimming in hot springs and dodging geysers. Another Liverpudlian was passionate about scripts and comedy. He said his play hadn’t been published but it had been performed at a Liverpool theatre. What more could you ask from your script than to have it performed in the city of the Beat, the city that collected the best of London’s young actors in the 60s and 70s and produced raw, exciting theatre and the city that is home of Gormley’s life size cast iron figures?
I should be writing about Iceland and it was a place like no other where cod and volcanoes and light and the Gulf Stream is of the utmost importance. It’s a population of 300, 000 with 200, 000 centred on the capital Reykjavik. I worked out that if everyone in Iceland donated £1 the population couldn’t buy a decent London flat.
There were 500 passengers on Azores and they mostly came from the North. I didn’t hear a word of complaint when we had to sail back to Iceland so that a sick passenger could be air lifted by helicopter to hospital. Or a word of whinge when we battled through a force gale seven.
I think harsher weather makes you hardy. Here’s to the Northern Lights I met on the Azores.
Thanks, gang for meeting for Creative Writing sessions almost every day, and holding my tonic water when the waves crashed around us and I was lecturing on Stomach Churning Plots.
PS Worra place to be born, Cilla.
Creative Ink for Writers’ autumn courses begin September 17th for 5 weeks – Get that Book out of You – some places left. Email me for a syllabus.
Tuesday ‘Get Inspired’ course is full.
What an adventure. I was with you all the way on that sea of prose. I may have to put a cruise to Iceland on my bucket list on the strength of that blog.