Fare thee well Iceland

Look, I'm a viking!

So that’s it.  Iceland done. Three and a half weeks here and all I can think is I can't wait to come back in the Summer!  I definitely had to do this trip in the Winter as I really wanted to see the Northern Lights (and did x 3 #winning), but there is heaps to do that you can't do in the Winter, like a lot of the hiking and the Lofthellier Caves looked like they'd be awesome and horse riding I'm sure would be much more fun if you weren't riding through a snowstorm!  But I did get to do some cool stuff like diving in Silfra fissure and a glacier walk.

 

 

 

 

I booked in to do ice climbing as well, but that got cancelled because of shitty weather.  That was doubly shitty because I met an American guy, EJ, who was hiring a camper with a few people and travelling around for a few days which sounded great fun. So I could have gone, but said no because of the ice climbing and then didn't get to do the ice climbing!

On the bright side though, it meant I was in Reykjavik for the folk festival held at the hostel.  It was great, all this local music from people with fantastic names like Bubbi Morthens, Snorri Helgason and Bjartmar Gudlaugsson.  And the music was fantastic too.

The best though was Bjartmar Gudlaugsson.  It was gold.  He was this older fellow and he was singing in Icelandic.  Everyone in the room except us knew all the words and were singing along. Then for one song everyone in the room were pissing themselves and I was like 'damn, he's singing a dirty song and I don't know what he's saying!'  And he totally was, I know it.  But then at the end of his set this woman ran up onto the stage and gave him a kiss. Then all these women were trying to touch him as he left and were trying to get photos. Hillary, a kiwi girl I met diving, was like 'Wow, he must be like the Rock God of Reykjavik.' 

Hold on to your panties ladies, it's the Rock God of Reykjavik

I quite liked the Café/Bars in Reykjavik, for such a small place there seems to be an awful lot of them.  We went out one night for happy hour but the place was so empty that the bar guy poured himself a drink and sat down with us.  But then this crazy dude showed up.  I asked him about his red nails and he told us the woman in the psych unit did them for him.  He was telling us all kinds of mad things then holding my hand, looking into my eyes and telling me ‘You are the most beautiful woman I have seen… today.’  Gee, thanks bloke.  And funnily enough the other girls were not at all offended by this statement.  So we decided to move on, but our new friend wanted to come, poor EJ got lumped with the job of telling him he couldn’t.  But the crazies are the exceptions, Reykjavik is pretty cool.

So I thought I'd leave you with some random Icelandic facts.

Whatever your budget is – double it!  Everyday things are a bit more expensive.  Touristy things are ridiculous - like $400 for an overnight tour that didn't even include dinner!  But you should just hire a car instead of doing all the tours anyway.  Much more fun.

Majority of homes use thermal hot water.  Great for the environment, you just have to get used to the hot water smelling like egg farts due to all the sulphur.

Icelanders leave their prams outside the shops and cafes – with the babies in them! – when it’s -1!  It's true I checked a couple to make sure.