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Iceland
Drive south from Reykjavík and take the short ferry — or the tiny plane — to the Westman Islands.
A guesthouse in Heimaey town, between the harbor and the volcano that nearly closed it.
A town that dug itself out of a 1973 eruption (and stopped the lava with seawater pumps), the world's largest puffin colony, houses half-buried in tephra, and island golf between sea cliffs.
Climb Eldfell — the volcano born in 1973 — where the ground is still warm, then walk the 'Pompeii of the North' excavations.
May to August for puffins
Takk fyrir — thank you, in Icelandic.
Independent People by Halldór Laxness — the Icelandic soul, in one stubborn shepherd.
In August, Þjóðhátíð — the islands' legendary festival — or puffin-chick rescue season, when children patrol the streets at night releasing lost pufflings to sea.
Mainland Iceland's crowds have not made it here, but summer weekends fill the ferry — book it like a flight.