September 2 - Goðafoss, Tröllaskagi, and (very nearly) the afterlife.

(Warning: This post contains some salty language. Reader discretion is advised.)

We hit the road early today for our longest day of driving, with nearly six hours to cover. In the rush to get out I forgot to even check our itinerary for what we could expect to see along the way, so it was lucky that Goðafoss ("Waterfall of the Gods") was right next to Rte 1 or else we would have forgotten about it entirely.

Late in the morning we stopped in a quaint seaside village for a coffee. Enjoying our coffee and cake in the sun on the patio, I noticed the sign on the front of the coffeehouse/bakery reading "Kaffihús Bakkabrædra" and joked that the Icelandic bakery reference reminded me of the "Italian in America" joke: "What do you do in a bakery? We bake-a the bread-a." Right as I was doing my most insulting stereotypical Italian accent, we heard a loud "Oh, hello! Good to see you again!" and turned to see a couple from Milan who had been on our ice cave tour the previous day. Just my luck: the only Italians I know in the entire country show up right as I'm being a racist jerk against Italians. (Doubly-funny since the husband spoke with exactly the accent I was mimicking.)

We left the Ring Road for a long-cut around Tröllaskagi peninsula, described in the Lonely Planet as a very scenic drive worth a diversion. It was pleasant enough, but nothing compared to the rugged geography of the East Fjords several days before. Unfortunately, right at the tip of the peninsula we found the road closed and had to back-track to find a dirt road through the highlands to cut across the other side.

After lunch we met back up with the main ring road, Rte 1, as it meandered into calmer inland geography. With no winding switchbacks like we dealt with along the coast, the final couple of hours wiled slowly away across gentle fields with very little traffic. I listened to podcasts while Jessica dozed off when HOLY FUCKING SHIT AN ONCOMING CAR JUST VEERED INTO OUR LANE FOR NO REASON!!! He was not overtaking anyone (no other cars around for miles), there were no sheep on the road to avoid, and the weather was clear and dry; he just merrily switched from his side of the two-lane highway to our side as we were about 200 meters apart, each travelling at 90 km/hr. Quite happy to lose my first-ever game of vehicular "chicken", I braked, flashed, and honked, but the driver of the other car appeared to be quite happy to continue to break Rule 2 from the previous day ("Don't be stupid"), promising to soon very violently break Rule 1b ("Don't break your equipment") and ultimately Rule 1b ("Don't break yourselves"). There are no shoulders on Icelandic roads (even Rte 1) and often there are lava rocks or precipitous drops right at the road's edge. Fortunately here there was a bit of a ditch with a moderate incline and I was able to get the car two-thirds of the way off the road as the oncoming car whistled by inches a way, still fully in our lane. I got a brief glimpse of him as he passed and he seemed completely nonplussed, and continued merrily on without so much as slowing down as we sat at the side of the road, catching our breath, checking our underwear for accidents, and feeling grateful to still be alive.

(Ironically, earlier in the drive we had been discussing whether we should spend a couple hundred bucks on a dashboard camera for our car when we get home. If we happened to have one in our rental car today, this blog entry would have had some very exciting video footage, complete with stereo audio of me swearing on the driver side and Jessica screaming on the right.)

In the unlikely chance that the driver of that car happens across this blog, I have a brief message for you. (Everyone else need not read any further.) I have no clue if you were suicidal, homicidal, drunk, or (most likely) distracted by your smart phone, but I'd just like to say, from the bottom of my heart and with all earnestness:

FUUUUUUUUUCK YOU