There’s a Pragmatism that seems to come with living on an island at the north end of the world. Have already mentioned the “know your limits,” “travel at your own risk and accept the consequences” mentality.
And having sheep graze the roads makes perfect sense. They could quadruple the sheep herd and still not damage the vegetation.
But also, traffic-wise, there’s few stop signs in the countryside - Yield covers the vast majority of traffic situations, because there’s just not much. Major intersections are either round-abouts, where the inside lane has the ROW, or simply yield signs…be polite…no one’s in a real hurry anyways!
One-lane bridges just make perfect sense on the hundreds, if not thousands, of stream crossings - costs half as much to construct! As you approach, if you see another vehicle across the bridge but closer than you, you wait until they pass, then cross. Sometimes you even have to wait for 3 cars! But, you can just look at the stream and imagine where you’d run your fly, if’n you had access…
No traffic cops, just the occasional speed cameras that have warning signs posted. In the vast emptiness, it’s pretty easy to wander slightly above 90kph (55.9 mph) however, so we’ll see how many times I got tagged absentmindedly…
And yes, everything’s expensive in Iceland, but it’s a frikkin island! Electricity is cheap because they harness hydro- and geothermal power so pragmatically. Hot water is free!
Friendly service is everywhere and they tend to cringe when you try to tip them for their efficiency and kindness, but it’s hard to break southern habits!
Wouldn’t suggest trying to out drink or party a native however. They have about seven months a year of cold darkness, so they get a lot more practice than most and when the weather brightens their lights shine brightest.
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