Day eight. The last road and farewell to Iceland

The last day turned out to be a bit strange. I was kind of tired of the road, but at the same time I didn't want to return the car and end the trip. In eight days, I've gotten used to the fact that in the morning I need to check the weather, check the route, pour coffee into a thermocup and drive to where something unexpected will appear again.

I purposely left some time before the flight, so as not to turn the last day into a nervous race. On the way to the airport, I stopped a few more times, looked at the scenery and caught myself thinking that now I perceive Iceland completely differently than on the first day.

When I handed over the car, it was a bit of a pity to part. During this week, it became almost a part of the trip: I listened to music, argued with the navigator, ate snacks I bought on the way, waited out the rain, and several times said out loud the phrase "well, we'll definitely stop here."

What I realized after this trip

Iceland by car is a journey where it is impossible to fully control the route. You can book hotels in advance, make a list of waterfalls, mark beautiful places on the map, and even roughly calculate the travel time, but then there is wind, rain, a closed road, an unexpectedly beautiful turn, or just a desire to stop and look at the mountains.

I liked that feeling of freedom. I didn't try to put a check mark in front of each place, but gradually learned to leave room for accidents. Sometimes the best moment of the day didn't happen at a famous landmark, but somewhere on an ordinary road, when I stopped, got out of the car and just looked around for a few minutes.

I also realized that Iceland is a country where a car really changes the travel experience. You are not tied to one city, you can change the place of your overnight stay, stay wherever you want, and build a route around the weather and your own mood. However, with freedom comes responsibility: it is especially important to be attentive to road conditions, wind and weather changes, because nature quickly explains who is in charge here.

And most importantly, after this trip, I realized one simple thing: it is impossible to see Iceland properly, constantly in a hurry. You can create an ideal route and try to complete it minute by minute, but then there is a risk of passing by the most interesting. Sometimes it's better to turn onto a small road, stop at another waterfall, drink coffee from a thermocup and just stand in the wind, thinking about how it happened that I ended up in the middle of this incredible country.

This is exactly how I remember my trip to Iceland: not as a list of attractions and kilometers, but as a long road with waterfalls, glaciers, black beaches, rain, wind, coffee in parking lots, a little fatigue and a lot of moments when I looked through the windshield and thought: "That's why I came here."