Reykjavik

beezkneez

Anyone ever been? organizing a trip for late october. any tips, advice?

query

I have there for work last year (March) and was it expensive!!!! The airport is a taxi ride of almost 150 euro from Rejkavik - so be careful. There is a shuttle bus for about 15 euro, but the flights from dublin gneerally land late i.e. midnight and it doesn't run then. Rejkavik itself only comes alive in the early hours - over 15 euro for a glass of vino so is expensive. There is a restaurant and geyser over teh city's water tanks - Perlan I think it's called. Good, but again 25 euro for a slice of pizza and a coke. Good DVD market in the basement though. When I was there we went from freezing snow to boiling heat from day to day - amazing place. Really like being on the moon surface, but probably the most expensive place I have ever been to, and I travel lots.

colincarnate

beezkneez wrote:

Anyone ever been? organizing a trip for late october. any tips, advice?

I was there man, don't bother going, just stay at home, f*ck it sure, have a drink for yourself like

drane2

There's an airline called Iceland Express that fly fairly cheaply from Stansted. Might be worth looking into. And the hostel there isn't outrageously expensive.

beezkneez

colincarnate - the furthest youve been is leixlip and you loved it!

drrnwbb

late october is a good time, might be a little bit cold though. i was there oct 2001 for the airwaves festival (its a small festival sponsored by icelandair) info here: icelandairwaves.com. i was staying with some icelandic friends so free accomadation. the city itself is very small and compact. its really nice though, nice and colourfull with the cathedral as a central point for the city. the main party/shopping area is between it and the harbour to its west.

drinks and stuff are expensive, we brought our own drink with us from duty free, most people in scandinavian/nordic countries tend to get mildly drunk at home before heading out 11pm ish. so consider that.

the saturday nights are pretty crazy apparently, i didnt see too much of it though, but other friends say it is, so i missed out i guess. the lady folk there are unbelievable. holey moley. in one club i was in it was like being in a model convention. precious memories.

oh yeah, that festival. its a sorta musicotype people, lots of americans and english people come to it, line up is pretty okay, some great icelandic artists like trabant and a few others.

if you're only there for a short while try to organise a day trip to the geysers and the gulfoss water falls. tremdous stuff. blue lagoon outdoor water place is really really cool too. all those just standard tourist stuff, but they are popular for a reason. the landscape around the city aswell is so strange, wide open plains then big mountains. but if you're there for a weekend you wont see too much.

that was a good auld ramble.

dw

ArphaRima

Most expensive holiday I ever did.
If you are going make sure it is a three day weekend trip and no more. The locals only seem to go out on weekends, and as mentioned previously, after 11pm. Buying beer in an off licence wont save you much money as they are also government controlled monopolies. Beer has only been legal there for about 15 years or so. You'll notice that everything costs ridiculous amounts of money.

Basically the waitresses are on 40k a year, they get taxed at 80percent, and live on the breadline. Weird setup.

branners69

make sure to stack up on the duty free when you are leaving dublin..

you will also notice the locals knockin back the drink from hipflasks cos no joke a beer is around €12, and it aint even a pint.. was called Giraffe beer as far as I remember.. a basic chinese meal with no wine or desert was around €90!!

But the Blue Lagoon makes its all worth while as does the very very very fit women!!

damien

I went there with Wallace Travel last year. - http://www.wtg.ie/ The guy that owns the company was on the tour with us and what a really sound bloke he was too. Wallace travel do cheap deals to Iceland. Cheap compared to organising it yourself. I can't recommend these people enough.

When I was there a can of coke was €3 and beer was €8. As it's a rock in the middle of the ocean they have to import everything. Sweet f'' all grows there so the cost of living is expensive. Bring lots and lots of money.

I loved the place and would definitely go back there again. I'll probably go for Paddys weekend next year as I've no more work holiday days left (6 hols is enough for one year anyway )

I don't know which restaurant charged $90 for a chinese because the best restaurant in the City mentioned above was the Pearl which is a revolving resturant overlooking the City and you don't get charged that by them.

The people are so cultured and almost hippy like in their mentality and really enjoy getting blind drunk too. As was also mentioned the women are very cute, not so much the men though.

If you have the time and the money then go. You won't regret it.

beezkneez

cheers for the posts lads, ive a weekend booked there with wallace travel about 2 weeks now, got a good deal and looking forward to it.

Manach

Ditto regards bookinh the Wallace trip to Iceland.
I've been reading thru the "Rough Guide to Iceland" travel guide, seems an interesting place to visit. Always wanted to go since reading "Journey to the Center of the Earth" as a child. Just trying to compile a list of essential foodstuffs to bring, ie Tatyos, Barry's tea etc.

beezkneez

thought id bump this thread up again as i am going next week. Anyone else got any experiences of the Reyk?

Gladys

Went there on a day trip from Belfast about 2 years ago. It was at the end of May and on a Sunday. There was an excursion into the countryside to see the geysers. The landscape was awesome. The Guide was good. gave us a great run down on the "Hidden People". They are legendary. There is a lady who can see the "Hidden People" and she runs runs bus tours to where they live. Unfortunately she is the only one who can see them. A new road had to be diverted by some distance so as not to disturb the hidden people as machinery kept breaking down a couple of years earlier. The Legend is that in the Garden of Eden, Eve was in the middle of washing the children when God called to see them. Eve hid the unwashed children in case God would see them. God said He knew that there were children missing and that those children who were hiding would remain hidden forever.
They did a massive DNA on the people of Iceland and the vast majority have roots in Ireland rather than the Scandanavian countries. Apparantly the reason could be that Ireland was under slavery about 1000 years ago and many people took to the boats as a means of escape and wound up in Iceland.
I looked up "hidden people" on the net and found that there was a group of people called the , I think,"Ceolteori" which means "Hidden People". Could it be that the escaped slaves were the real hiding or hidden people?
Gladys