My friend Josh and I didn't say much as we loaded our bags into the rental car at Keflavik Airport. We had just landed in Iceland and the landscape already silenced us. “It looks even more amazing in person!” Josh said as we took it all in. Ever since we met at a gathering at an old friend's house, Josh and I had dreamed of traveling extensively together across the world, from the canals from Venice and Amsterdam to the mountains of Austria and Italy, but Iceland was our main place of excitement to visit. The surrounding lava field resembled something you'd only see in your wildest dreams, with enormous moss-covered rocks arranged haphazardly on the ground, and funnels of steam rising to meet low-hanging gray clouds in the distance. It was a formidable and alien landscape, without trees, without grass or shrubs. We had heard that Iceland was nothing like the other landscapes God has provided for us, and now we could understand why. With the suspiciously simple verbal directions given by the car rental clerk, “Just follow the road to Reykjavik.” The employee wasn't kidding, there was literally a road outside the parking lot with a sign pointing to Reykjavik. Despite the barren landscape of volcanic rock that welcomed us, we were already approaching Iceland. Iceland has a reputation for being a remote country, but in reality it is North America's closest European neighbor, located relatively halfway between the UK and the US. There are a lot of misconceptions about Iceland, and the name of the country certainly doesn't help. Far from freezing or becoming covered in ice, Iceland has a relatively average climate, averaging 60 degrees in summer and 32 in winter. We were visiting in April and the temperature during our stay was around 40 degrees, requiring winter clothing, but away from scarves and gloves. Jumping on the tourist bandwagon, our first trip was to Iceland's biggest tourist attraction, the Blue Lagoon. The directions we received from our hotel's caretaker seemed vaguely familiar: "Follow the signs to 'The Blue Lagoon'." We were driving through grisly lava fields but were getting closer to the rising wisps of steam we'd seen from the airport. Suddenly the Blue Lagoon appeared, offering a visual thrill of electric sky-blue water in dramatic contrast to the surrounding black, craggy lava hills. If the Moon had lakes, I imagine they would look like the Blue Lagoon.