Traveler Stories — page 15

Stanislav Discoverer
Norway · October 3, 2026
Flom and the road among the mountains

Flom and the road among the mountains

The next stop was Flom, and I especially remembered not so much the town itself as the road to it. Here I finally realized that in Norway, a route is not just a way to get from one place to another, but a separate part of the journey that constantly tries to attract attention to itself. Tunnels give way to streamers, water appears around the bend, then mountains, then a small wooden house that looks like it was specially erected in the most beautiful place in the country. Flom Harbor At some point, I stopped rushing and just started stopping where I really wanted to. I could get out of the car, make coffee, stand by the water for a while and drive on again, completely not worrying that I was behind schedule. Moreover, the less I tried to control everything, the more enjoyable the trip became, because sometimes the best moment of the trip is not a planned attraction, but an accidental stop that you did not intend to make at all. In Flom, I allowed myself to slow down a bit. After several hours on the road, it was especially pleasant to just take a walk, look at the water, sit somewhere with a coffee and feel that you were not running through the list of attractions. However, after a while I looked at my watch again and remembered that I still have the next point on the route, which means it's too early to relax completely.

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#Journey#fjords#Norway#trip
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Stanislav Discoverer
Norway · October 3, 2026
Sognefjord – the first real impression

Sognefjord – the first real impression

One of the main points of my route was Sognefjord. I had seen it in photographs many times before the trip, but it turned out to be a completely different feeling in person, because no camera captures this scale. I hope that the emotions I have received will inspire me for more than one year. Sognefjord You stand next to the water, look at the huge rocks and suddenly realize how small you are against the background of all this construction, which nature obviously assembled without any haste. What's the buzz here? I even thought for a moment how much it would cost to move to Norway. How happy the locals are, they can go out into nature at any time. On the way, as I expected, I stopped several times at waterfalls, which in any other country could well become the main local attraction. In Norway, you get used to it quickly: you drive calmly, you notice the sound of water, which, by the way, does not annoy at all, you turn to the side of the road – and there is already a waterfall in front of you. At first, I took pictures of each one in a row, and then I realized that my phone would soon run out of memory altogether, so I had to choose, although it was almost physically painful to delete at least one picture. And I realized that on my next trip I should take a camera or buy a phone with as much memory as possible.

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#Norway#Journey#fjords#Sognefjorden
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Stanislav Discoverer
Norway · October 3, 2026
Bergen – the beginning of a great journey

Bergen – the beginning of a great journey

Norway has long lived in my head in the form of photographs with huge mountains, waterfalls and roads that seemed to have been specially laid between the fjords for the sake of beauty. Everything looked so perfect in the pictures that I even suspected a bit of a catch: well, the country can't really be so beautiful, and even in everyday life, without five filters and a special photographer from a helicopter. In the end, I decided to check everything out myself and went on a road trip, where the main plan was to see the fjords, and the backup plan was at least not to get lost on the way. I decided to start the trip from Bergen. The city greeted me with colorful houses, narrow streets, mountains all around, and rain, which the locals seem to perceive about as calmly as we do with ordinary clouds. I came hoping for beautiful sunny photos, but Norway quickly explained to me the local rules: if the sun is out now, it's better to take pictures right away, because in ten minutes everything can change. Bergen Embankment After Bergen, I picked up the car and drove on, towards the fjords, for which the whole trip was conceived. The further away I got from the city, the fewer houses there were and the more mountains, water, tunnels and waterfalls appeared around, and sometimes all this appeared so unexpectedly that I wanted to stop the car literally after every turn. I realized very quickly that in Norway, even an ordinary road can steal half an hour of your time, simply because there's a view nearby that makes it impossible to just say, "Well, we'll see later."

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#Norway#fjords#Journey#Bergen
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Vlad Discoverer
Iceland · October 2, 2026
Day eight. The last road and farewell to Iceland

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."

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#iceland#trip#road#vacation
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Vlad Discoverer
Iceland · October 2, 2026
Seventh day. Reykjavik without haste

Seventh day. Reykjavik without haste

I decided to spend the seventh day practically without a car. After a few days behind the wheel, I just wanted to walk, go somewhere along the road and not look at the navigator every few minutes. I walked aimlessly around Reykjavik, looked into shops, sat in cafes and just watched the city. After the natural scenery of the previous days, it was nice to return to ordinary urban life, but even here Iceland managed to remind of itself with its unusual architecture, weather and some very special sense of space. In the evening, I started packing and discovered that I had somehow managed to accumulate a whole collection of small things in the car: bottles of water, snack packs, receipts, a card, chargers, and several other items whose purpose I no longer remembered. At that moment, I realized that the car had turned into a small version of my hotel room in a week and decided to put things in order. It wasn't that hard, but it wasn't easy either. It was worth it, as was the whole trip that was coming to an end.

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#trip#road#iceland#Reykjavik
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Vlad Discoverer
Iceland · October 2, 2026
Day six. Return to Reykjavik

Day six. Return to Reykjavik

On the sixth day, I began to gradually return towards the capital. It would seem that the most interesting things are already over, but it was here that I realized that a road trip around Iceland cannot be divided into "sights" and "crossings". The crossing itself becomes part of the route, because the road is constantly changing the picture in front of your eyes. The center of Reykjavik I stopped several times just to drink coffee and look at the surrounding landscape. And at first it seemed to me that I was wasting time, but then I realized that it was for such moments that I took the car, and not just came to one city and went on excursions. Hauifoss Waterfall On the way, I stopped at several more natural spots and saw waterfalls again, which I had already stopped counting. At some point, I even caught myself thinking that I started walking past the waterfall almost as calmly as I walk past an ordinary store at home. However, he stopped after a minute anyway, because the conscience of the tourist did not allow him to just drive past. In the evening, I returned to Reykjavik. After several days of almost constant travel, the city seemed unexpectedly lively to me, although objectively it remained quite calm. I walked around the center, had dinner, and for the first time in several days, I didn't set my alarm too early.

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#iceland#Reykjavik#road#trip
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Vlad Discoverer
Iceland · October 2, 2026
Day five. The road, the wind, and a small setback

Day five. The road, the wind, and a small setback

The fifth day has become the day that at first seems ordinary, and then you remember it with a smile. The weather was normal in the morning, but after a few hours the wind increased noticeably. In Iceland, the wind is not just a weather phenomenon that slightly interferes with the hairstyle, but a full–fledged participant in the journey, which sometimes makes you watch the car door very carefully. Observation deck At some point, I stopped on the observation deck, opened the door and got such a gust of wind that I immediately remembered all the recommendations to treat the car carefully. After that, I opened the door with such attention, as if it cost more than the car itself. But it was on this day that I allowed myself to deviate a little from the route and go to small places that were not the main points of the program. I liked that Iceland doesn't get any less interesting outside of the popular attractions. Small roads, farms, individual houses, sheep near the highway and mountains on the horizon sometimes make no less impression than famous places. In the evening, I stayed in a small guest house. The room was simple, but after several hours of driving, it seemed almost luxurious to me, especially when I realized that I could take off my shoes, put on the kettle and not go anywhere else today. In general, a strange value system appears in travel: an ordinary bed after a long journey suddenly becomes the main object of a tourist program.

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#iceland#road#trip
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Vlad Discoverer
Iceland · October 2, 2026
Day four. Glacier and ocean road

Day four. Glacier and ocean road

The fourth day started calmly, but after a while after leaving, I started stopping every few kilometers again. Iceland knows how to do a very unpleasant thing to a tourist: you think you've already seen the most beautiful scenery of the trip, and ten minutes later the next one appears, and the previous one suddenly becomes just "well, that's not bad either." Yekulsaurloon Lagoon On this day, I headed further along the southern coast towards the Yekulsaurloon glacier lagoon. The road became even more impressive, and the feeling of the real north appeared around – a lot of open space, mountains, glaciers and the ocean. I deliberately drove slower than the road allowed, because I constantly wanted to look around. When I finally saw the glacier lagoon, I just stopped the car and sat inside for a few minutes without getting out. Chunks of ice floated on the water, mountains towered around, and it all looked so unusual that it took a little time for the brain to accept what was happening as reality. Diamond Beach Then I went for a walk along the water, and after that I went to the Diamond Beach, where pieces of ice lie on the black sand. The name seems a bit touristic, but to be honest, it really suits this place in person. It was especially beautiful when the ice reflected the light, and the ocean rolled onto the shore and gradually carried small pieces back into the water. In the evening, I returned to the hotel and realized that I had barely spoken to anyone during the day except for the cafe staff and myself. But talking to myself while driving was enough, especially when I said out loud several times: "So, are we really going there?"

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#iceland#road#trip#vacation
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Vlad Discoverer
Iceland · October 2, 2026
Day three. Waterfalls, black beach and Vic

Day three. Waterfalls, black beach and Vic

On the third day, I continued south. This particular section of the route turned out to be one of the most beautiful, because the road constantly passed through landscapes that I had previously seen only in documentaries. Green fields, mountains, waterfalls, and small houses appeared outside the window, and sometimes the road went so far away from everything familiar that I wanted to stop just to realize where exactly I was. Seljalandsfoss Waterfall The first big impression was the Seljalandsfoss waterfall. You can get pretty close to it, and of course I decided that if I came here, I should walk as close to the water as possible. A few minutes later, I was already standing wet and satisfied, trying to figure out why I didn't listen to the inner voice that quite reasonably suggested staying a little further away. Skaugafoss Skogafoss was next. I've already been more careful here, but I still spent a lot more time than I intended. At some point, I just sat on a bench and looked at the water, because after driving for several hours, such stops become no less important than the sights themselves. The black beach of Reinisfjord After that, I went to the black beach of Reinisfjara near Vic. It was one of those places where photography doesn't convey the atmosphere at all. The black sand, huge waves, basalt columns, and gray sky made me feel like I was in the set of an exciting movie, except instead of the crew, I was standing next to them with a hood that the wind was trying to take off my head. Vic I arrived at the Vic in the late afternoon and realized that I would stay here for the night. At such moments, you understand the advantage of a car especially well: you don't have to return to Reykjavik every time, you can just choose a small city along the route, find accommodation and continue your journey in the morning.

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#iceland#road#trip#vacation
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Vlad Discoverer
Iceland · October 2, 2026
Day two. The Golden Ring and the first waterfalls

Day two. The Golden Ring and the first waterfalls

On the second day, I finally hit the road. The first big part of the route was Iceland's Golden Ring, and after some time after leaving Reykjavik, I realized why it was worth driving here. The city disappeared behind him, and mountains, fields, water, and an endless sense of space appeared around him, when it seemed that there was nothing but the road ahead. Tinguetlir National Park The first major stop was Tinguetlir. I arrived there quite early, so there weren't too many people and I could walk around the area, look at the scenery and get used to the local scale a little. In Iceland, you quickly stop being surprised that a place that looks like a small dot on the map actually turns out to be a huge space where you can walk much longer than you planned. Geyser Then I went to Geyser and Gullfoss Waterfall. Gullfoss is especially memorable because he is beautiful in the photos, but in person there is also the sound of water, wind and small splashes, which instantly explain why you should not pretend to be a man who came to Iceland solely for the perfect shot for too long. Gullfoss Waterfall By the evening, I was already a little tired and realized one important thing: it is better to think of distances in Iceland not as an ordinary trip between two points, but as a separate part of the journey. Here you can drive quite a bit on the map, but stop five times, because every time a new landscape appears outside the window, and it becomes almost impossible to say to yourself, "Okay, one more stop."

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#iceland#trip#road#vacation#Reykjavik
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