Iceland

Iceland had always been really high on my bucket list, and this was the year I was finally going. I went with my friend Romain, who flew up from the south of France while I came from Berlin. It was a chance not only to discover what has since become my favourite place on earth, but also to catch up with a close friend I haven’t seen nearly enough since I moved to Germany.

We decided to do the whole trip in a camper to avoid being tied to a schedule in a country where the weather dictates everything, and also to keep costs reasonable. When I say camper, I mean a Renault Kangoo with a mattress on the floor, the only thing within our budget. The comfort was pretty basic, but it sparked my passion for van life.

I arrived before Romain, so I picked up the car at the rental and had an afternoon to myself before collecting him at Keflavík airport in the evening. I drove out to the lighthouse at Garður and spent a lovely few hours by the sea. I picked Romain up around 21:30. It was already dark, so I suggested we drive back to the spot I’d been at earlier because there was a big car park by the sea and it seemed like a calm place to sleep. We arrived, stepped out of the car, looked up, and something was off. The sky was moving. It had a faint green tint and those were definitely not clouds. An idea came to mind, so I grabbed my camera, pointed it at the sky for a long exposure, and my suspicion was instantly confirmed. Five minutes after arriving, there were already northern lights in the sky welcoming us. What a start.

The next morning we set off on the ring road. Route 1 loops around the entire island, stretching roughly 1,320 km, and is accessible to all vehicles, unlike the highland roads which require a 4x4. We drove it clockwise, which in hindsight was a bad choice. More on that later. We headed north and covered a lot of ground straight away, so much so that we skipped the Westfjords without even realising it. As always, I’d gone to Iceland with zero planning, so I had no idea whether they were worth visiting. When I saw we’d passed the turn-off, I decided to keep going because I have this weird thing about never doubling back. Another bad decision, as it turned out. The north of the island was spectacular. It felt like nobody was there. We met very few tourists, and the ones we did were the adventurer and backpacker type, always interesting people to talk to.

Driving the ring road is really something. On paper, it’s probably the most uneventful thing you can do in Iceland. But it’s still absolutely, ridiculously amazing. Every few kilometres we were stopped in awe in front of a waterfall, a dramatic stretch of coastline, beautiful fields full of sheep who had absolutely no intention of moving for cars. This place is incredible. We saw volcanoes, crater lakes, geysers, geothermal power plants, lava fields, herds of Icelandic horses. It never stops.

The south of the island felt quite different. We arrived at Jökulsárlón, a glacier lagoon where blocks of ice calve off and drift towards the shore, eventually washing up on a black sand beach. The contrast of white ice against dark sand was something I’d never seen before. In the lagoon, harbour seals were swimming around with their pups, completely unbothered by the world around them.

It was an incredible place, but for the first time we found ourselves surrounded by crowds of tourists, a big contrast with the first ten days of the trip. We kept driving west, stopping at the black sand beach at Vík, before reaching the Golden Circle, famous for Þingvellir, the Strokkur geyser in the Haukadalur valley, and the Gullfoss waterfall. These places were beautiful too, but much harder to enjoy in the same way because of how busy they were. That’s why I would have preferred driving anticlockwise: start with the crowds and slowly drive away from them, ending with more and more calm.

Back at the airport, I felt so grateful for this trip. It came shortly after my trip to the US, and the two together really ignited my desire to travel and discover the world. I know I’ll come back, because I missed a lot. I’d love to see the highlands and I’d love to explore the Westfjords. The highlands require a 4x4, which doesn’t exactly fit a budget trip, but one day I’ll figure it out.