took a detour from the Ring Road to follow a fjord straight north to the Arctic Sea. The road was mostly paved but involved several one lane tunnels. These tunnels, where lights come at you with no room left or right to go (there are of course many turn offs but they are less frequent than you might expect), are the stuff of nightmares. The bridges here are also mostly one lane which begs a question. Just how much money does Iceland save by keeping bridges and tunnels to one lane? Like is this the necessary cost for universal health coverage?

This detour took us back to the small town of Varmahalo where we camped for one of our last times in Iceland. The campground in Varmahalo is pretty much like every campground except that they have a jumping pillow (no thanks) and a communal fire pit (yeah!). There also is a small woods surrounding the campground which I periodically mined for more fuel. We warmed ourselves there with a nice Icelandic family before a group of twenty something Icelanders chased us out with loud music from a giant speaker dragged into the pit. The music, horrible disco like music in Icelandic, rocked every corner of the campground. We softly complained about it to the campground worker who came by to collect our fee (this was about 10:30). He assured us that the music would be shut off by midnight. Until then he suggested we join the party.

It is not always so easy to join the party. But we do our best. Meanwhile we wish everyone the happiest of Commerce Days which occurs the first weekend of August. It is Iceland’s last grasp at Summer which most kids returning to school on Tuesday. I have about a week longer before I return back to school where it will be nice to see friends and bore them with stories about this trip. But a part of me will still want to be at the party however loud it may be.