The land of difficult maps, horrible street signs and illegible, 16 letter words!
No one says hi to you unless you are Icelandic or willing to spend a lot of money.
Who ever said Iceland was really cool and pretty was probably from there!
The good news? Well, we've managed to learn a few words.. Banki=Bank Kaffi=Coffee, and hállo means..hello! :D
Once again, trying to pretend to be "locals" we have rented a car instead of paying for ridiculously expensive tours. A 2004 Peugeot. Stick shift. The first day we took this little bad boy out, we drove it 4.5 hours each way. We saw 2 different waterfalls (Seljalandsfoss and Skògafoss), one which we got to go under, or behind.
We stopped at a small town called Vik, right by the beach and had some Icelandic food which consisted of pan fried fish, potatoes and some veggies.
But at $35.00 for a lunch dish it was not my idea of value. Everything from the food, to the clothes to the vegetables is over priced. We find ourselves struggling to find a good/cheap meal. So Dominos pizza it is!
Aside from the cold weather and cold people, we really loved venturing out in our little car and doing things on our own time. We met a few people along the way and had one too many pizzas but we had fun.
We also got to go to Jökulsárlón, It's a body of water below Iceland's largest glacier. Pieces of ice break off from the glacier (thank you global warming) and then float into the lagoon. There, they pose for photos and then find their way to the sea.
The town of Reykjavik (where we are staying/stayed) is quite interesting; young people walk around with beer and wine in their hands, not a cop in sight. Ever. You can even urinate on the street at no charge! We watched a (presumably) drunk Icelander scale a 20 foot road sign on the one-and-only main drag. His buddies snapped photos with their iPhone, beers in hand.
On our final day, we followed the masses and went to the Blue Lagoon. One of Iceland's crowning jewels (tourism-wise). The "lagoon" looks like another planet; milky, icy blue water, black lava rocks, steam wafting skyward. It's really something to see. We opted for the "Basic" package, so we didn't get to borrow a towel, or get a pair of promotional flip-flops. And it cost us 12 Euros to store our luggage for 3 hours... All that aside, this excursion was one of the most memorable. Wrinkled fingers and wet bathing suits, we headed to the airport. Paris tomorrow! We arrive early to the City of Light. And we can't wait!
Bon Voyage!
-MK
No comments:
Post a Comment