chugg21
Gritty, High IQ, Scrappy, Gym Rat, Lunch Pail Guy
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Just got back from Iceland.
Was my 2nd time, 1st being about 10 years ago before it became swamped with tourists from all of the WOW and Icelandair deals along the east coast. Being in my early 20s and not married created memories that made me always tell everyone that Iceland was the best place that I've ever been. I can confirm after this trip that it is still the most unique and beautiful place in the world landscape wise but it is no longer a place that I would consider my favorite place in the world. Now in my mid-30s and married, my wife and I went since I had been telling her about it since the night we met, but it just wasn't what I remembered, mainly because I'm not looking to be out until 5am at clubs with Icelandic women these days.
We took one of the WOW flights which is basically the same as Spirit or Frontier. Grabbed a couple flights during a big sale they were having and it was ridiculously cheap, something like $600 total for both of us round trip plus a bag each way. You get what you pay for in terms of comfort but I can make due on a red eye for 6 hours. We stayed in Reykivaik for the 1st 3 nights at an Airbnb that was walkable to everything downtown. Somewhere along these years my brain forgot just how expensive the country is, I recalled it being expensive but not that it was the most expensive country in the world which it most definitely is. We went to Mikkeller one night and it was $36 for 2 pints and it wasn't like we picked out any crazy barrel aged imperial stout, that was just for their standard IPAs. Any sit down restaurant is going to run you approx $25 for a basic entree like a cheeseburger or a salad and then $12 for a pint or a glass of wine. The cuisine isn't special in any way either. I would much prefer a taco stand anywhere in Mexico for a dollar over these basic meals that we were paying $80 for. I guess you just have to understand that coming in. The best place to eat in my opinion is at the famous hot dog stand that Bill Clinton ate at. It's $4.50 for a hot dog but paying $9 for 2 seems like the deal of the century while you are there. I would highly recommend not being a moron and buying a beer at the convenience store as I paid $5 for a beer that looked exactly like a regular Carlsberg but it was a 2% version since they can only sell real beers at the govt controlled store. That was stupid. One of the days we did all of the typical tourist stuff in the Golden Circle. It really is worthwhile to just get out and explore the landscape, there is nothing like it in the world.
After those first few days, we drove to a fishing village up in the Westfjords called Ísafjörður. The drive was about 6 hours of stunning landscapes. It started to become boring seeing so many waterfalls flowing over mountains down into the sea. The village itself is really small and walkable. There are only about 9 restaurants in the whole village so the 1st night when we tried to get a table at the nicest restaurant we got laughed at by another customer. It was Tuesday at like 7pm, didn't think reservations would be necessary but I was wrong. Walked over to the beer store one day and the selection is obviously small but they had a craft section of Icelandic beers with maybe a dozen or so selections. I was absolutely stunned to see that one of them was an IPA collaboration between an Icelandic brewery and Cigar City Brewing down here in Tampa. I literally live on the same street as Cigar City and to find a collab that they did while in a small Icelandic village in the middle of nowhere was incredible. Loaded up my backpack with said beers and took a boat tour out to an island one of the days to see the puffin. Pretty sure the puffin are just a marketing ploy in some fashion. They are really small and it was pretty underwhelming. Filling up the tank of the little car was another experience. Gas is apparently $8+ a gallon there so it cost me $92 to fill the tank of our little compact car on the way back. Starting to think that their Gov't is subsidizing these low cost airlines to get people into the country and then they just take all of your money once you get there.
Overall it was a decent trip, wasn't as glorious as I had remembered from my youthful days. My wife was very happy that she got to see how beautiful it was but we don't plan on ever going back. It's just so incredibly expensive that it is shocking at first. Even buying a bottle of Bulleit or any bourbon is at least $75. And it's kind of a reasonable purchase considering that is about the same cost as 4 or 5 drinks out. I would recommend going once just to see it but definitely just pretend that your $500 flight cost $1000 and then when you look at your credit card statement afterwards, you won't feel as bad.
Was my 2nd time, 1st being about 10 years ago before it became swamped with tourists from all of the WOW and Icelandair deals along the east coast. Being in my early 20s and not married created memories that made me always tell everyone that Iceland was the best place that I've ever been. I can confirm after this trip that it is still the most unique and beautiful place in the world landscape wise but it is no longer a place that I would consider my favorite place in the world. Now in my mid-30s and married, my wife and I went since I had been telling her about it since the night we met, but it just wasn't what I remembered, mainly because I'm not looking to be out until 5am at clubs with Icelandic women these days.
We took one of the WOW flights which is basically the same as Spirit or Frontier. Grabbed a couple flights during a big sale they were having and it was ridiculously cheap, something like $600 total for both of us round trip plus a bag each way. You get what you pay for in terms of comfort but I can make due on a red eye for 6 hours. We stayed in Reykivaik for the 1st 3 nights at an Airbnb that was walkable to everything downtown. Somewhere along these years my brain forgot just how expensive the country is, I recalled it being expensive but not that it was the most expensive country in the world which it most definitely is. We went to Mikkeller one night and it was $36 for 2 pints and it wasn't like we picked out any crazy barrel aged imperial stout, that was just for their standard IPAs. Any sit down restaurant is going to run you approx $25 for a basic entree like a cheeseburger or a salad and then $12 for a pint or a glass of wine. The cuisine isn't special in any way either. I would much prefer a taco stand anywhere in Mexico for a dollar over these basic meals that we were paying $80 for. I guess you just have to understand that coming in. The best place to eat in my opinion is at the famous hot dog stand that Bill Clinton ate at. It's $4.50 for a hot dog but paying $9 for 2 seems like the deal of the century while you are there. I would highly recommend not being a moron and buying a beer at the convenience store as I paid $5 for a beer that looked exactly like a regular Carlsberg but it was a 2% version since they can only sell real beers at the govt controlled store. That was stupid. One of the days we did all of the typical tourist stuff in the Golden Circle. It really is worthwhile to just get out and explore the landscape, there is nothing like it in the world.
After those first few days, we drove to a fishing village up in the Westfjords called Ísafjörður. The drive was about 6 hours of stunning landscapes. It started to become boring seeing so many waterfalls flowing over mountains down into the sea. The village itself is really small and walkable. There are only about 9 restaurants in the whole village so the 1st night when we tried to get a table at the nicest restaurant we got laughed at by another customer. It was Tuesday at like 7pm, didn't think reservations would be necessary but I was wrong. Walked over to the beer store one day and the selection is obviously small but they had a craft section of Icelandic beers with maybe a dozen or so selections. I was absolutely stunned to see that one of them was an IPA collaboration between an Icelandic brewery and Cigar City Brewing down here in Tampa. I literally live on the same street as Cigar City and to find a collab that they did while in a small Icelandic village in the middle of nowhere was incredible. Loaded up my backpack with said beers and took a boat tour out to an island one of the days to see the puffin. Pretty sure the puffin are just a marketing ploy in some fashion. They are really small and it was pretty underwhelming. Filling up the tank of the little car was another experience. Gas is apparently $8+ a gallon there so it cost me $92 to fill the tank of our little compact car on the way back. Starting to think that their Gov't is subsidizing these low cost airlines to get people into the country and then they just take all of your money once you get there.
Overall it was a decent trip, wasn't as glorious as I had remembered from my youthful days. My wife was very happy that she got to see how beautiful it was but we don't plan on ever going back. It's just so incredibly expensive that it is shocking at first. Even buying a bottle of Bulleit or any bourbon is at least $75. And it's kind of a reasonable purchase considering that is about the same cost as 4 or 5 drinks out. I would recommend going once just to see it but definitely just pretend that your $500 flight cost $1000 and then when you look at your credit card statement afterwards, you won't feel as bad.