Iceland 2025 - Day 8

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2025 // Day 8

And so begins our final full day in Iceland. 

After a tasty hotel breakfast, we left at 9AM for our bus ride back to Reykjavik. We were five minutes gone when John realized he had left his coat so we turned around to go get it. Mikel (our bus driver) made a whole 3 point turn in this big ole bus on that tiny little Icelandic road. He’s amazing.

Twenty minutes down the road were some geothermal hot springs. They were boiling hot! (Literally 212 degrees F!) The town they’re located in uses them to heat the whole town! When we got back on the bus, John asked, “everyone have their coat?”

Back on the road again, I was just about to fall asleep when I feel the bus slowing at an odd pace. Then I felt Mikel really hit the breaks, followed by his horn. Turns out someone in a camper van had pulled out right in front of us, and didn’t even bother to hit the gas. We were certain we would hit it (Mikel included!) Thanks to his amazing driving (and a few polish cuss words!) we didn’t!

We made one more stop before the final leg to Reykjavík - at a gas station we had now been to 3 times. Osk said, “It’s a good thing we stopped here one more time - you will miss it!”

The Icelandic word of today is ‘heimskur,’ (pronounced hame-ish-shkr.” It means “the one that sits at home,” as in they never explore the world, also 'stupid'.

When we got back to Reykjavik, we had 2.5 hours to do whatever we chose before leaving for the lava tunnels. It was under a mile walk to the Icelandic Phallological Museum, so we headed there first. We didn't think it was worth paying to walk through, but we did check out the gift shop!

From there we took the long way back to our hotel to see the rainbow road and find something for lunch.

The first restaurant we stopped at - Kaffi Loki - was solely so Ike could try the fermented shark. He was so brave - I had tried enough new things this trip - fermented sharks was not for me! The waiter told us that typically eating fermented shark came with a shot of vodka (or some other alcohol) to take after eating the shark because the aftertaste was that of ammonia. He said that sharks urinate through their skin so you have to find a way to make it properly. Icelanders put it underground for months to press out the ammonia. Then you have to hang and air dry it for months. Then you can eat it!

Then we went to the hot dog cart for actual lunch before heading back to the hotel. Ike's room was ready, so we took all of our bags, etc. off of the bus to put in his room, then boarded the bus for the hours drive to the lava tunnels.

The Lava Tunnels were amazing! It was so neat to think we were walking through a space that was once filled with lava. The tunnels exist because as lava flowed, the top layer would cool and turned into rock. However it left the underneath still hot and flowing at a temperature of 2000 degrees! There were a few holes in the top at the beginning where the rock had crumbled into the tunnels. Though the rock was 50% silica, within the completed closed in part the rock was a variety of colors due to its composition - yellow from sulfur, red/orange due to the iron content that rusted, purple for the iron pre-oxidation, gray for the volcanic glass/obsidian, copper for the copper! Our guide turned the lights off at one point and it was absolutely pitch black - no light was being let in deep into the tunnels. We only did the one hour tour,  but there was a three hour tour that takes you to the back of the tunnel!

We headed back to Reykjavik and Mikel dropped us off a couple miles from our hotel by request. We said goodbye to him and I told Osk I would need to her come back to the US with me because how was I suppose to get through the day now without her guiding me?? We were dropped off at the FlyOver Iceland building. I LOVE the FlyOver rides at the Mall of America/Soarin' at EPCOT, so when I found out there was an Iceland version I immediately put it on my MUST DO list. When we were exiting the attraction, there was a wall-sized map of Iceland with the points from the video marked. It was wild to me that we had only been to like 2 of the marked places! After all that traveling, there was still so much to see!

We took the long way back to the hotel, looking for some American food. I try really hard to eat the things you should in the places you should eat them, but I had had enough of Icelandic food. It wasn't bad, but even too much of a good thing can be tiresome. We ended up going to the Hard Rock Cafe where I got a Messi chicken sandwich - it was JUST what I needed. I also needed a t-shirt to wear on the plane the next day because I'd run out of clean shirts.

As we meandered back to our sleeping quarters, I took in my surroundings one last time. Its always so interesting to see how people live in different places. This was the smallest 'big city' I had ever experienced, and it was so neat how walkable it was. The nightlife was starting to come to life and there were people dining outside along the stone roads. What a nice evening it was as we spent our last hours in Iceland.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 2025 // Day 8.5

We met downstairs in the hotel lobby at 5:30AM and waited for our driver to come pick us up. I'm not sure what kind of ride share service we used, but he picked all 6 of us up in his Mercedes Benz - the proceeded to tell us we were NOT allowed to eat in there! We laughed as we drove past a speed limit sign and the lights gave us a sad face. Our on this morning was also a Polish man, and he did pass a few signs at the proper speed so we could see the smiley face! 

The airport was PACKED. Luckily, Delta only had one flight out, so they had a bag check line especially for us. We were able to get through quickly, and didn't spend very long in security either. We had more than enough time to shop inside the terminal. I don't know about the rest of the airport, but the concourse we were in had very little seating for people waiting for their flights. I don't just mean by the gates - everywhere in the concourse! We managed to find 4 stools at a counter to hang out at until our plane was boarding.

Once in the air, the pilot made an announcement that we were over Greenland and there weren't any clouds! It looked beautiful! I've done two bucket list trips these part two summers, and am currently planning the third for the upcoming summer, but I may need to add Greenland to the list now!

When I first got to Iceland, I was absolutely tickled pink that the Cokes there had Icelandic names on them. It became my daily ritual to buy a coke and have Osk tell me how to properly pronounce the name. She enjoyed my excitement! Ike found a Coke with his name in Icelandic, and I found one for Aaron! No Gretchens, but this is the first trip abroad in a long time that people knew how to pronounce my name, so that was good enough for me!

We took our trip with EF Tours.  I've always wanted to go to Iceland, and even had pinned places to visit on my maps app, but I'd never prioritized time to plan it. When Brenda said she was hosting an adult trip I said SIGN ME UP! And then I did some recruiting! I wasn't sure how I would feel about my days being scheduled by someone other than me, but it was actually really nice to let go  and just be where I needed to be when I was told to be there. It was so nice having Osk with us for a good chunk of each day, because she was so knowledgable about Icelandic history, etc. and would take any question we gave her and run with it, providing more info that I think even Google would provide! It was also nice not to worry about transportation (and along with that, parking). Those Icelandic roads have even smaller shoulders than Tennessee roads do, and that is saying something because they're nearly non-existent in some places. Yet somehow, Mikel navigated them with our big ole bus like a pro!

Perhaps someday I will return, but until then, there is a whole lot more of the world to explore!

Find all Iceland posts here!