We like to write a summary
post for each trip with some overall thoughts, so I’m taking this opportunity
on a rainy day in Newfoundland to look back at
my trip with Carrie to Iceland.
Iceland is an extraordinarily well-kept country. Most all
the houses we saw were
well-maintained and there
was almost no trash along the roads. In the United
States, it's common to see
run-down houses, rusting junk in yards, and litter
along the roads, but I just
didn't see that in Iceland.
I also didn't see much
poverty. Iceland
is a wealthy nation like the United
States, but I didn't see as
much income disparity. OECD data supports this.
Often in the United States, rural areas are struggling, but
in Iceland's
rural
areas, I just saw tidy farms.
Iceland is a land of many waterfalls. We visited many of the
well-known ones,
but would also see
waterfalls just along the road.
The landscape is mostly
arctic tundra, so many areas don't have trees. The
ground cover ranges from
grassy fields to scrub to just moss to bare rock.
Iceland drivers were uniformly courteous. Not sure if that's
cultural or just
the lack of congestion.
We had cloudy skies and some
rain in the south and sunshine in the north. We
didn't have downpours, so we
were able to do everything we planned despite the
rain, but were told that
July and August often had better weather than May. I
was comfortable in a wool
sweater and shell even on the chilliest day.
Iceland has been a popular place to visit and we certainly
saw lots of
tourists, but I wonder if
the trend is waning. Gas, restaurants, and lodging
are expensive. Historically
it's had cheap airline fares, but with the collapse
of WOW airlines, airline
fares have gone up a bit. We spent 3000 USD for two
people for an 8-day rental-car
drive of the ring road including airfare from
Boston, buying groceries and cooking all but 3 of our meals.
I feel embarrassed if I don't
know the native language and don't want to be the
arrogant United States
tourist that expects everyone to speak English. But most
all the locals we met spoke
good English, and not just the ones working in
tourism. In the United States, it's
common to say hello when you meet a hiker
along a lightly-used trail, but
this was less true in Iceland
-- people weren't
unfriendly but just didn't
say anything, perhaps because there are so many
languages represented.
My last thought is that I
have a great daughter. This was our first trip with
just the two of us now that
she is an adult, and I wasn't sure how the personal
interactions or trip
logistics would work out. But she was wonderful, helping
with the trip details and
making the best of things even on rainy days and on
challenging stream crossings.
I am blessed.
