I thought I could start reviewing cities or countries I’ve visited in the past. First up is Iceland, which I visited in November of 2007 with my wife. We snagged a great deal from Icelandair.com and we were off just about 3 weeks later (robbing us of one of the best parts of traveling - the anticipation).

First of all, let me say that everything you’ve heard about Iceland is true. The weather is that finicky, the drinks are that expensive, and the people are that beautiful.

We flew direct from JFK to Keflavik, the main airport in Iceland which is about 40 minutes outside of Reykjavik. Our package (yes, okay we did the whole touristy package - but IcelandAir owns basically everything outright or through subsidiaries so I don’t think it really makes a difference) included the airport transfers right to the front door of our accomodations, Hotel Fron. It turned out that our hotel had free wireless. Good thing we brought the Mac (everyone at the coffee shop had a Mac too so we felt pretty hip). At first the hotel said we couldn’t check in because it was only 9am, but they agreed to take our bags. Suddenly the hotel manager told us he found another
room we could get into right away. Its a really cool setup, two rooms. One was
just the bedroom with the double bed, the other was a living room with a sink, washing maching, and mini-fridge (stocked with $6.75 Viking beer 10 ouncers). We had a balcony overlooking the alley. There were a million windows in every building, probably so they can soak up all that sunlight in those summer months.

The first thing we did was grab some coffee and breakfast in a cool little shop called Kaffitar, walked up to (and up into) the Hallgrimskirikja Church, and did a little window shopping, before returning to our room for a nap and change of clothes.

The city (if you can call it that) is really cool, with small streets and virtually no traffic. It reminded us of Brugge a lot in that regard. Its almost hard to believe its the capital. I think if IKEA and Hugo Boss ever had a love child, Reykjavik would be their creation. If that makes any sense.

Since we had arrived there on a Friday night we knew we had to be ready for the Runtur (late-night Icelandic Pub Crawling). First we wandered out to a pub called Dubliners, thinking we’d start the night off easy before heading to some of the clubs. They had live music and good beer and we found a table pretty easily so we were content for awhile. We chatted with some Canadians that were staying in our hotel until we decided to check out another place.

As we were walking to the next spot, a really trendy nightclub called Cafe Oliver, we began to realize how much beer we had drank before heading out (funnily enough all the guidebooks recommend doing this - okay maybe not recommended it but remarked that thats what Icelanders do it) and then at the irish pub. Let’s just say it was a good number, especially for my wife. Once inside Oliver I got myself one more beer and asked for water for my wife. Now usually the tap water in Iceland is delicious. This one was more like the warm shower water - sulfuric. So basically it tasted and smelt of rotten eggs. I do give her credit for not puking after taking the first sip, but we pretty much left soon after that. No big deal, we had an early bus to the Blue Lagoon anyways.

So Saturday morning we did the Blue Lagoon trip. Again because the package was booked through IcelandAir buses always picked us up and dropped us off right at our hotel doorstep, which made everything super easy. Sometimes we were transferred to the bus depot to get on a larger bus with people going to the same place. Thats how it was that morning.

The Blue Lagoon was awesome! Words can barely describe the time there. It was 32 F outside with strong winds and 107 F in the water. Soooooo(ooooo) nice. It was funny to see all the people do this little run across the 15 feet (5 meters) of open space to get into the water. We relaxed in the water for roughly 3 HOURS, alternating between different hotspots, the sauna, swallow end, deeper end, and the silica mud pots, just washing away any lingering affects of a hangover and any thoughts of home, work, or responsibility. Amazingly enough, the simmering silky water isn’t enough for some people; you can actually sign up to be massaged whilst lying on a raft in the water.

Saturday night was another attempt at going out to see Reykjavik’s famed nightlife. We decided to scale back the number of Viking’s we drank in the room and waited until midnight to head out. Another interesting note: we saw 5 times as many people out after midnight as we saw all day. Oh, and they’re all naturally good looking and super stylish (Packing tip: Bring black). We started off looking for a place called “Nelly’s” where there was a rumor of 330Kr beers (roughly half off the normal price - about $4.50US). Well apparently serving beer this cheap doomed poor Nelly’s, as it was closed down when we found it. No big deal, we went to another small placed called Privid, which was cool. All these bars have incredible looking beer gardens, none of which we actually used because it was in the low 30s F during the weekend. But i can only imagine the level of partying that goes on out there in the summer when it is basically light out the whole night. I might have to save up and get back for that. But i digress…

After Privid’s we went to an ultra-modern place called B5 which was nice. Again we somehow scored a table in an otherwise crowded space and just watched all the other young Icelandic people flirt, drink, tease, and dance together. Another good time. This place has incredible graffit-art on the wall. We tried to get the artists name from the waitstaff but never managed. Continuing on our Runtur we went to a little place called Vegamot. This was a really cool place - especially because our luck at scoring tables continued! They had a DJ playing a great mix of American hip-hop from the last 10 years with some other classics in there. Everyone was dancing and moving in beat. Now I usually hate going to nightclubs, I’m a pub/dive-bar kinda guy myself, but my wife enjoys getting a little tipsy and dancing so who was I to take that away from her? Plus its part of the main Reykjavik scene, so we melted into the crowd like locals and danced until the wee hours. Around 3ish (okay so i guess it wasn’t that wee) we went to another place recommended by both Lonely Planet and the locals. Sirkus. Okay, this place was just a little too hipster for me. If this place was in NYC, it would serve $9 PBR cans (alledgedly its Bjorks favorite bar at home). I loved all the Icelandic girls in tight jeans but when the guys in there had them on too, it was too much for me! Actually we were just tired at this point and had to get up really early for our Golden Circle tour, so we called it a night around 3:30. Well I mean, we did stop for late night hot dogs, but then hit the sack (also had the most serendipitous moment of the trip when a girl in her mid-20s started speaking to us in Icelandic! We were assimilating!)

The Golden Circle tour is a perfect way of seeing the incredible landscapes outside of Reykjavik. Again this was booked thru Icelandair/Reykjavik Excursions and it was great. We got picked up at our hotel for transit to the bus terminal, then onward to the tour. Perhaps even better than the scenery was the hysterical tour guide we had. He would speak in English then French (repeating the same corny jokes in both!). I was kinda amazed at how much French I remembered from my school days. The tour took us to Thingvellir National Park, site of Iceland’s first Parliament dating from the days of Viking occupation. Its also the site of the Continental divide, so some of the park (and subsequently some of Iceland) is on the North American tectonic plate and the other other (and rest of Iceland) is on the European tectonic plate. Its actually drifting apart at the rate of 2/cm per year.

We visited three more sites: a volcanic crater that has filled with glacier water; Geysir, the original exploding water spout after which all other geysers are named; and Gulfoss, a roaring waterfall you can hear and feel from about a 1,000 meters away.

The Gulfoss waterfall is amazing. You can get really close to it and feel the mist and really feel the rumble of the falls. There are a lot of good vantage points to look at it from. Its amazing just watching the volume of water that rushes over the rocks every second. You feel like it should run out any minute - its staggering to think that for centuries water has been cascading down at this rate and there’s no end in sight.

All in all the tour took about 8 hours, so obviously I’m leaving some things out. Some of the best parts of the tour were sitting on the bus, gazing out the windows at the countryside, taking little naps, and being surprised how much the scenery could change in the 15 minutes you were in lalaland.

Monday was our last day so we set out to accomplish all the things we hadn’t gotten to yet. We got coffee again at Kaffitar, then walked up and down the main streets. We poked our heads into little stores and bookshops that we missed on the first go around. Finally we had to go back to the hotel to await our bus to the airport. Getting through security was a breeze and the plane took off only about 25 minutes late (not bad these days) and we were on our way back to the States.

I really can’t say enough about visiting Iceland. I didn’t talk about this nearly enough, but the highlight was really the Icelandic people. I don’t know whats in their Scandinavian DNA thats so special but they are truly unique. Anyways, the point is that Iceland is absolutely incredible and if anyone ever has the chance to visit, even if its just for the night on a stopover, I would highly recommend it.

Some people might shy away from Iceland, either because its too expensive or because of the weather but I really think they’d be losing out on a great experience.