I woke this morning with the memory of this image in my head:

[Source: The Chive]

It’s so beautiful, so haunting, so … isolated.
Who lives there?
What do they do there?
Do they go mad?
What do they see from their window?
How do they exist in such an isolated environment?
It’s all just fascinating.

The first time I saw the photo was a few months ago. It was mentioned that the singer Björk lived there, and I guess that made sense to me, knowing the strange and interesting music she makes…

So I did some investigating.

The island is called ‘Elliðaey’ and is near Vestmannaeyjar, a small archipelago off the south coast of Iceland.

From what I could find out, exclusive use of the uninhabited island it was ‘given’ to Björk back in 2000 as a thank you from the Government of Iceland for putting the small nation on the map.

[Source: Daily Galaxy]

Initially, she had requested to build a small house on the island and live there part of the year, and then they offered her the whole island.  Eventually, the singer declined the offer of the ‘royalty payment’, citing privacy concerns.

There’s certainly no anonymity in being alone on a rocky, deserted island that every one knows about and having tourists boats camped just offshore, their long lenses capturing your every move. But it could be heaven on earth, if very few knew about it and left her to her own devices.

[Source: Kristin Sig on Flikr]

Nevertheless, I adore this place and would love to see it in the flesh. It’s so majestic and so beautiful when you look at them whilst listening to this:

I hope to get there one day. And maybe stay long enough to cross one of my Life List goals:

• Be the only person on a [desert] island (for a few hours)

What’s one place in the world you’ve always wanted to visit?