The Most Expensive Country in the World
When looking at flights to Europe, we noticed Iceland Air had the best deals - and you got a free stopover in Iceland to boot. “Who can turn that down?” we thought. Reykjavik seemed like a pretty cool place to spend a weekend, and the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights was too good to resist. Plus, Iceland just has a certain romantic appeal about it. The remote, windswept northern frontier and all of that.
Iceland basically turned out to be Europe at three times the price. When I got off the plane and saw that a cup of coffee cost the equivalent of 6 dollars, I knew we were in for trouble. Instead of seeing the sights and having fun, our goal quickly became trying to spend the least amount of money possible while there.
It was actually still dark when we got into Reykjavik, and the first thing we noticed was a big tower that was lit up in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the Chrysler Building at night. This turned out to be the Hallgrímskirkja, the largest church in Reykjavik. It made for a good daytime vantage point from which to check out the town. For those of you planning on someday trying to visit Iceland without taking out a second mortgage, you can easily avoid the tower admission charge by just heading inside and taking the elevator immediately to your left. Nobody checks tickets. I think God understands.
That was pretty much the only sight we saw the first day - we wanted to go visit the Icelandic Phallological Museum, but it turned out that it had moved to another town in the north of the country.
Reykjavik itself basically resembles a small college town - and we were there on Saturday night. Drunken young Icelanders pretty much swarmed the downtown area. It was almost like Cancun Spring Break, except without the beach, sun or cheap booze (12 dollars for a draft beer was about par). Even the clothing wasn’t that different - we actually spotted more than a few tanktops and skirts.
We hit the bar and chatted with some locals - pretty much everyone in Iceland speaks flawless English, and usually pretty good Danish and German also. I asked about Hakarl, the Putrified Shark Meat that’s a traditional Icelandic dish, and was informed that it’s not really something people eat anymore, except while really drunk. Of course, seeing what I saw of Iceland, that should make it the most popular dish.
Since unfortunately the weather wasn’t right for seeing the Northern Lights while we were there, the next day we decided to splurge on an alternate tourist attraction, the Blue Lagoon. It was pretty interesting. You’re basically in two separate environments at once. Sit down, you’re in a (somewhat slimy) spa. Stand up, you’re naked in the middle of the Icelandic countryside in January. Fun times.
We left the Blue Lagoon at about 6:00 PM for our last night back in Reykjavik. We got lucky a couple of times before we had to leave at about 4:00 AM to catch our early-morniong flight to Paris. The first time was when we found an unsecured construction crane, letting us get a lovely nighttime view of the city (plus neither of us had ever climbed a construction crane before, so that was cool). The second time was when an American woman we met at the Blue Lagoon invited us to hang out at her hotel until we left, saving us both another night of accommodation. Hey, in a country where the Salvation Army hostel costs 35 bucks a night, it was definitely welcome.
Tags: Iceland, Outside
