For our last few days in Iceland we mostly took it easy. I got a haircut at the Shave Cave (highly recommend), Henna showed us around the University of Iceland, we did some packing, ate at IKEA and visited the Rejkavik Zoo. The zoo is to the periphery of the downtown area and is one of the few city attractions devoid of tourists. The focus of the zoo was animals found throughout the island. Like us, most of the animals there are not native to Iceland. Mink, reindeer, sheep, cow and three tourists from Chicago all had to hitch a ride in order to be seen on the Ring Road. In a few hours we will be hitching a ride back to our native home. Will greatly though miss this temporary home.

The Snaefellsness Penisula is a calming, gentle place where one can watch the waves in-between taking short hikes to a waterfall or volcanic crater. There are also a few trails linking up the tiny traditional fishing villages dotting the coast. The food is good too. Expensive, but delicious with fresh fish readily available. It left us wanting to go back.

We later drove to Rejkavik where we were reunited with our backpacks. The car we chose for our second Icelandic road trip was a bit too cozy for our tastes. So we reached out to our final Airbnb and asked if we could drop off our empty backpacks. For some reason he said yes and they were waiting for us in our room. He also was generous enough to lend us an air pressure gauge and compressor (the check tire pressure warning came on while we were in a tunnel several feet below a fjord- luckily it doesn’t seem to be a big deal). We also had some trouble with the Smart TV. Put it altogether and this makes us incredibly needy Airbnb guests.

So these are the final days of our epic summer adventure. Ain’t over yet but I am planning out what movie to watch on the flight home.

The party continued at a different campsite and again well into the night. Beginning to lose my patience with Commerce Day. The woman camping next to us, a solo traveler from Australia, also lost her patience and together we confronted the party (loud music, crazy screaming and for some reason animal noises like that of a pig being slaughtered) around 1 AM. In no particular order they were 1) young 2) adamant about explaining that this was a three day holiday 3) blind drunk and 4) very loudly apologetic. We left satisfied that moving forward they would be a bit more considerate. And they continued the party for another hour.

It was our last night camping which meant a sad goodbye to some of our favorite, but yet utterly useless things accumulated over the past month. Goodbye two pillows from IKEA. Not the best of pillows but at least there was no assembly required. Goodbye also to the big lentil soup in a box idea. It just never came to be. A fond farewell also to the oversized insulated box thing that did not successfully hold ice. We were better for knowing you but are even better now without your cumbersome bulk.

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.

Nicknamed the “Capital of the North,” Akureyri is the largest town outside the Rejkavik area. Akureyri, like the national forest we visited a few days ago, is something best enjoyed toward the end of a long Icelandic road trip. The multiple grocery stores, fun town center and modest city museums might make for a fun diversion if driving through Iowa. But for us now, in the final days of our epic summer road trip, it is an oasis we would rather not leave.

View from the Nonni House (built in 1850 it is one of the oldest houses in Akyueri)