Iceland, Pt. 8

We felt a bit glum because we awoke knowing this was our last full day in Iceland. We opted for an unstructured day, starting at the old turf houses at Keldur. The wind was blowing something ferocious as we peered inside the houses and tried to imagine living in them.

Afterward, we just drove around, creating our own loop through the countryside, and listening to Icelandic radio. I was glad to have the SUV for the rougher tracks. We pulled over a few times to enjoy great views of Hekla and other sights. This was completely unplanned, and I have to say I rather enjoyed it after the activity of the past couple days.

We went hunting for a hot dog stand of repute near Seljalandsfoss, but we couldn’t find it, settling instead for a jelly donut. It was nice to see the falls one last time.

At a service center near the hotel, we savored our last hot dogs of the trip, and watched the wind whip through the parking area. We capped off the day with some drinks during Hotel Ranga’s happy hour. Despite not wanting to leave Iceland, our spirits were high. I think we both felt very satisfied with our honeymoon and that we were going to keep Iceland in our hearts for a long time.

The voyage home

Yes, that is a Star Trek reference.

We were nostalgic for our amazing trip before we even left. We endured a 2-hour drive in the rain to get to Keflavik, at which point I had to hunt around for a gas station and got lost trying to find the main road to the airport. We dropped off the car without incident but had to walk to the terminal, buffeted by winds as we hauled our bags.

Fortunately we made it in time to visit the Duty Free; we picked up small bottles of Bjork and Brennivin to share with friends back home. Our flight to JFK was 5 hours, plus a 4 hour layover, and then another 7 hours to get to San Francisco due to bad weather in the central U.S.

It was all good, though, as we had plenty of time to review all our photos and videos and read social media comments from friends and family (many of whom had supported our trip via our honeymoon fund).

8 days in Iceland was definitely not enough. It’s pretty short as far as overseas vacations go. The nice thing about our trip, though, was that we gave ourselves time to relax and not be overscheduled. We had such an amazing time that I couldn’t help but start hatching plans to return in a year or two!