On December 26th I set off on a 11 day excursion through Western Europe. Icelandic Air allows free stopovers in Iceland, so I landed in Reyjkavik with only 48 hours to see and learn about Iceland. The four things very visitor must do: 1) See the Northern Lights 2) swim in the geothermal pools 3) tour the Golden Circle and 4) experience the Runtur. I did it all.
Iceland Travel Tips:
1) Be Prepared: Iceland is *expensive* by backpacker standards. A slice of pizza? $8.00. A beer? $15.00. Dorm bed: $40. The airport shuttle? $25. Gallon of gas? $8.There are no cheap-eats, no place cheaper to sleep. Just prepared yourself, mentally and financially.
2) The hostel is on the outskirts of town, a far distance from the active downtown area. There are few things nearby.
3) This is Iceland's Friday-night version of Mardi Gras. The Icelandic youth head to friends' houses for a pre-party drinking celebration, then totter down to the locals bars around midnight. The party continues well into the morning, possibly 6 or 7am or so, when the drunken youth head home. The streets are packed as hundreds of individuals drunkenly stumbled from the bars. Then runtur was in full force as I stood, bleery-eyed, in front of my hotel at 5AM Saturday, awaiting my airport shuttle. And this goes on every single Friday, making Iceland one of the hottest party spots in Europe.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
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