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Back when I was an undergrad at the University of Texas-Austin I took a couple of courses that focused on medieval Icelandic sagas which struck a cord with me as in them one’s character is defined not by telling the reader any internal thoughts/desires/motivations but, rather, solely by showing external speeches and actions, and that left me with the lifelong desire to visit it some day. It took a skosh longer than I thought to get there but, happily, over spring break in 2015 I spent nine days visiting the Reykjavik area and driving the Ring Road solo in the middle of winter.

However, despite doing a fair amount of travel research ahead of time, there were a few things still stood out when I got there I had not expected, even though I had probably come across them in my Lonely Planet and Rough Guide travel books without having paid enough requisite attention.

1. The Ring Road is a Road

In Texas we’ve got interstate highways, state highways, farm-to-market roads, and county roads. The Ring Road (Highway 1), is at most points at best a glorified farm-to-market road by these standards. It’s mostly just two lanes and many of the bridges—even one of the two cool suspension bridges pictured above—are only one lane. At a couple of points on the east side of the island it gets down to gravel.

The Icelandic road conditions website is a must bookmark that will make your driving life much easier. Updated every five minutes from seven in the morning until midnight, it gives the best information about the state of the roads throughout the country along with numerous webcams so you can see the roads for yourself.

Please note: When the road is a purple line on the map, that means “difficult driving.” This is an understatement. I and my Nissan sedan hatchback battled through a blinding whiteout snowstorm northeast of Borganes for an hour and a half one afternoon because I was like, “A purple line? How bad can it really be?” It was that bad. So plan accordingly based on current conditions.

2. Green Means Gas, Not Diesel

Once again, in Texas, when you get gas where there is a diesel pump, the diesel fuel pump nozzle will be green and too big in diameter to put in a regular gas tank. In Iceland, the regular gas pumps are green and both types of nozzles—gas and diesel—will easily fit in a regular gas tank. I came perilously close on several occasions to putting diesel in the car by mistake but, thankfully, caught myself just in time each time.

Please note: You’ll be using your credit/debit card to pay for gas—I almost always filled up at the ubiquitous N1 stations—and there are options to put in particular amounts (or rather, to fill up to particular amounts)—and there is also the option to just full up the tank with no set upper limit, much like in the US. However, if you do choose to do this, N1 will put a $184 hold on your account until the exact amount goes through at which point they’ll reverse that $184 charge. I almost had a stroke the first couple of times I saw this on my account during the trip as I had no idea what was going on.

3. There are Two Yellow Lights

Sure, just like in the US the yellow light will come on at the tail end of a green light to indicate it’s about to turn red. However, the yellow light will also come on at the tail end of the red light to indicate it’s about to turn green. One result of this is that nobody runs red lights as people are ready to gun it as soon as the light turns green.

Honorable mention: There are about eight million traffic circles/roundabouts on the city streets and highways scattered throughout the country. This means you can be zipping down the highway at sixty mph and with little warning find yourself leaning hard left as you try to shoot through an unexpected roundabout.

4. No Tipping, Please

There just isn’t any tipping in restaurants or bars whether they are upscale or downscale. It’s kind of nice that the price is actually the price. And, as well, it’s good to know that you don’t need to tack on an extra ten to twenty percent to each meal/drink when going out.

Please note: I’m not sure if this is a direct cause and effect relationship, but I will say that customer service seemed to be much more relaxed/lackadaisical. Most of the restaurants and nightclubs I was in you just had to be patient in waiting for service as there was a pretty laissez-faire approach embraced by all.

5. Know Your Grocery Store Hours

There are several big grocery store chains I came across—Bonus and Netto in particular—but most of them don’t open until at least nine if not ten in the morning and many will close by six in the evening. Perhaps this is because the total population of Iceland is around 320K—in comparison, the population of the Texas county I live in is 240K—so there just aren’t enough people in any one location to justify the overhead of staying open longer.

Be aware: The selection of items in these stores is pretty sparse. Most of them are about one quarter to one half the size of standard grocery stores in Texas and you could probably get half a dozen of them in a Super Walmart.

6. So Where Can I Get a Real Beer?

When I went into my first Bonus store in Iceland, I quickly looked for the beer section as I figured whatever the price was it would be cheaper than at a gas station. I looked and looked and looked and looked and finally found one lonely shelf near the floor with two or three kinds of “light” beer. The “light” designation has nothing to do with calories as we’re used to in the US but, rather, alcohol content (or the lack thereof). Any beer you buy outside of government-owned liquor stores will only be 2.25% alcohol as opposed to the 4.5% (or so) you’ll get in the US. In Texas, we often make fun of Oklahoma because you can only get 3.2% beer there … I never thought I’d miss Oklahoma’s beer in my life!

Please note: The government liquor stores are called Vinbudir and this handy website has  locations and their hours open across the county. However, much like grocery stores, they open late and close early. When I unexpectedly found myself spending the night in Vik, by the time I checked into the guesthouse the liquor store had just closed as, in the winter, it was open for a grand total of two hours each afternoon.

Brace yourself: Alcohol is expensive no matter where you get it. A .75 liter bottle of Bacardi rum which would cost $11-12 dollars in Texas was around $40 a the local Vindbudir store. Tequila? Forget it, I never saw any anywhere. Happily, you can bring up to 1.5 liters of alcohol into the country with you so I brought along a .75 liter bottle of Sauza Blue Agave tequila to drink/share with folks I came across at different guesthouses.

7. Whoa! What’s Up with Those Showers?

It’s the little things that’ll throw you off. I got ready to take my first shower in Iceland and I realized that I had no idea how to adjust the temperature—which was by default freezing cold—to where it was bearable. There were a couple of levers and a mysterious red button that I had no idea what to do with. Finally, several moderately miserable showers later, I figured out the red button would make the water—quickly!—much warmer/hotter.

Be forewarned: Washcloths were not common items most places I stayed. If/when I go back, I’ll certainly take my own shower scrunchy with me.

All in all, despite the mild curves at me along the way, it was a great trip and quite the adventure driving around the island in winter. Even though many of the things Iceland has to offer weren’t possible to take advantage of when I was there—puffins migrate in the winter, the lake at Thingvellir Park looked like a big frozen white field, and many roads/hiking trails were just plain inaccessible—I still saw my fair share of the northern lights, reindeer in the wild, waterfalls, and kinds of offbeat and unexpected things I never would have imagined.

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