Iceland Notes and Motes

Of course the real reason for our trip was the Corrie Street tour (see entries below) in Manchester UK.  We bought the tour tickets (cheap) last spring when the tours were announced just on the off chance that we would have enough points for a freebie business class (bad backs) flight over a long weekend.  We didn’t and we were wanting to save the points we did have for our next big trip (looking like Southeast Asia) so I spent a few minutes searching for a cheap flight Toronto-Manchester direct and came up with Icelandair at $711 (all-in).

Photos of the Iceland bit of the trip can be found HERE.

Icelandair also had two interesting features to their flights.  Free stopovers of up to seven nights and an auction system (which we have not seen elsewhere) that allows you to put in a standing bid for any upgrades with the airline then notifying you of whether you have won or lost business class seats a few days before your flight.

I bid $150 each and, hey, presto we got business class seating on every segment and full business class treatment (food the only difference) on the Reykjavik-Manchester-Reykjavik segments.

We truly were accidental tourists so didn’t have any real plans though Geri wanted to get to the seriously active volcano while we were there.  In the end we couldn’t as the amount of sulphur dioxide it was putting out meant airpacks for anyone within a couple of thousand metres.  

Still, the town was fun and the 5 days we were there was about perfect.  We’ll likely be back too as we were/are quite impressed with Icelandair and would almost certainly use them to get to Europe when we’re pointless (so to speak J).

Random thoughts and musings:

1. The drive in from the airport is over a huge lava field about 1000 years old and so pretty desolate.  You can appreciate the beauty of it after a while.
2.   Only native tress a kind of birch that is really not much more than a shrub.
3.   Lot and lots and lots of moss on the rock.
4.   Only native fauna worth mentioning are arctic foxes.  Everything else imported.
5.   I did not have my BlackBerry and missed it greatly.
6. Homes in the lava field have raised boxes full of trucked-in earth as gardens.
7. The stuff very rough.  Must be hell to try and walk it.
8. Dirt roads scrapped into the lava are blacker than asphalt.  And beaches all black sand.   Reminded us of Nicaraguan beaches – also volcanic.
9. The only lineups we saw the whole trip were at the airport and at hot dog stands.  The hot dog culture a little odd.  Real frankfurters though, so worth the wait.
10. The Blue Lagoon very touristy but worth a visit and very pleasant.
11. Heating here by hot geothermal water.  Virtually free.  Electricity also geothermal-=generated and cheap.
12. Home heating is a total-loss system (water goes in at 85 degrees, heats house and then goes off to do something else at around 30 degrees.  So owners use hose and tap into heating system to clear snow and ice from driveways etc.
13. While we couldn’t get to any of the really active volcanoes in person this trip we did go to a couple of film presentations.  One at a funky little place in an attic over an old fish cleaning plant that has been turned into a tourist attraction in the old harbour area.  Fun as much for where we were as what we were seeing, plus I managed a nice nap too.  :-)
14.   The Frederikson Ale House down near the harbour was our local for the trip.  The folks who work there were all really, really nice and they had a reasonable selection (given our short visit) of beers.  Even a decent stout.  Ate there once and very good fresh fish and chips with “socialism sauce”.
15.   Beer only legal here since 1989.   Brewers here do a good job of catching up.  :-) Especially Einstock.
16.   Happy hours very big here.  VERY.
17.   Got to watch a couple of Icelandic films on the flights, plus The Grand Budapest Hotel.  The Icelandic film very Scandinavian – only more so.  And full of fish(ing) metaphors.
18.   Everybody takes credit or debit cards and cash a bit frowned on.  Hot dog stands and street vendors included.
19.   There is not a single McDonald’s in Iceland.  Despite their apparent enthusiasm for their own varieties of fast food.
20.   The Salvation Army runs a backpackers hostel, not a shelter.  Pretty impressive social benefits here.
21.   Look for photos of the corrugated siding on older buildings.
22.   With heating virtually free people leave doors and windows open even on chilly evenings.
23.   Icelanders are water wastrels.  Water bubbles-up everywhere, sometimes hot, sometimes not.  Lots of lakes with large rivers flowing out but nothing visible going in.
24.   Iceland the opposite of California.  Here the tectonic plates are moving apart and then the gaps being filled-in by lava.
25.   At one point on a geotour we drove from the European plate to the American plate.
26.   Lava from a volcano will follow river beds leading to some spectacular sights.
27. The geysers and hot springs we saw lots of fun, very impressive.
28.   Swimming lessons are mandatory by law.  Can you guess this is a fishing culture?
29.   Schooling/daycare starts at 2 years.  Daycare fees but free or dirt cheap by our standards through uni.
30.   All schools, even in tiny villages, have hot pools.  Dig a fencepost and you have a hot spring.
31.   Headstones are decorated with lights for Christmas. 
32.   Hot water-heated greenhouses now provided 50% of their fruits and veg.  Bananas and grapes even.
33.   Hot water lines coming into the city are on the surface (at least partly due to the difficulty of trenching lava).  Are on wheeled trolleys so that in earthquakes they can move and not break.
34.   There are a LOT of earthquakes.
35.   Gullfoss (gold falls) waterfall very pretty.  Explanatory signs compare it to Niagara Falls “in the United States.”  :-)
36.   Huge muni library.
37.   Almost as big as the factory trawlers offloading fish already cleaned and packaged and frozen.
38.   Overall very expensive place since the 2008 meltdown.  Mostly imported items driving inflation, but an island in the middle of the North Atlantic with a population of 325,000 imports a lot.
39.   The hop-on, hop-off buses here the first and only disappointment we’ve with them.  Didn’t help much in figuring things out.  City small enough not needed I think.
40.   Police unarmed.
41.   No trained seal ‘have a nice day’ from servers etc.  But some real conversations, some of them taking a minute or more.  Friendly, small-town feel.
42.   Our photos include some of the southern tip of Greenland on the flight home.  Wow.
43.   Icelandic films not for anyone but the interminable cheery who are looking for a downer.  A danger to all others.  But fab especially when you consider the size of the country.  While most speak English their culture benefits from not having the same first language as Hollywood.
44.   Made the Phalleogical (i.e. penis) Museum almost literally on our way to the airport.  Just popped-in the front door for some photos in the gift shop.  At least I can prove it exists.  :-)
45.   I bought two ab-fab hats as sounvenirs.  Pretty snappy, see photos of.

Check here again in a couple of years and you’ll see another e-postcard as we fully intend to go back.