Iceland

i'm planning a trip there from the middle of september to middle of october, give or take

right now i'm planning on volunteering to maintain trails on the island the john lennon peace tower is on

maybe biking around or take an atv tour of some volcanos, definetly see some hot springs

then go to iceland airwaves

has anyone been there before? can you reccommend some cool bars, resteraunts, good places for music (live music and where to buy records) cheap places to stay, places to go, things to do, etc.

i've never been there before and it will definetly be the farthest away from home i've ever been

any help will be much appreciated

there was someone on here that posted some of their vacation photos from there. that may have been a few years ago though. what looked awesome to me was his pics of a huge volcanic spring where lots of people were hanging out and swimming. bring watmm some pics when you get back

  On 8/6/2009 at 10:17 AM, Adjective said:

huge volcanic spring where lots of people were hanging out and swimming

Perhaps the Blue Lagoon?

But yes, Iceland is amazing, from what I hear from friends.

Location:Alaska

and you're visiting iceland. lol

shag bjork. ride tobogan. go fishing. chill in hot spring. shag bjork in hot spring. eat pickled fish while shagging bjork. look at stuff. drink expensive beer. get a BJ off BJork. shag bjork.

Iceland was the place I loved the most out of all the places I've been to. For some reason it captured my "dream sense" even more than say, the Scottish highlands. If you want to recharge your creative energy I'd say it's just the place to do that. I was there for two weeks and drove the entire circumference of the island, which I highly recommend. You'll see everything that way, apart from the glaciers, which you can take day trips to. The whole place is just so otherworldly: the blue lagoon is touristy but cool; unbelievable waterfalls, black sand beaches, endless stretches of hillocks covered in strange green moss (now featured in many car commercials)...the whole place is primeval and wondrous, provided the weather cooperates. The only place I felt was a tad overrated was lake Myvatn, towards the middle-north of the country. It's a volcanically active area with some interesting volcanic cones and mineral pools and the like, but it's just a bit bland.

lol iceland

find, if you can, two middle-aged bearded brothers called Ragnar and Jondur Hákursson, they stole two litre-cans of Faxe from my fridge once.

they actually did.

Iceland's economy being almost bankrupt has really helped for tourism there. It would cost you 10$ US to buy a small beer a mere two years ago, now you can get two pints for that price.

  On 8/6/2009 at 4:20 PM, Philip Glass said:

It would cost you 10$ US to buy a small beer a mere two years ago, now you can get two pints for that price.

haha

"what's the capital of iceland?"

"reykjavik?"

"no, about £5"

  On 8/6/2009 at 10:17 AM, Adjective said:

there was someone on here that posted some of their vacation photos from there. that may have been a few years ago though. what looked awesome to me was his pics of a huge volcanic spring where lots of people were hanging out and swimming. bring watmm some pics when you get back

Yeah, that was me.

Iceland is amazing! I was there in october during the Iceland Airwaves Festival and it was worth every single penny.

The only thing that bothered me was that everything was incredibly expensive, but I guess that's not the case anymore now that the country is bankrupt so now would be the time to go there.

I'll post my pictures later when I find them.

yes i am in alaska and going to iceland, i love the north, its great having it daylight out all the time

i was looking at the resteraunt orange - sounds interesting

i'm glad i just got my google voice number, i saw icelands calls are only 3 cents with that

does anyone know if any of the bands playing iceland airwaves are worth checking out?

  On 8/6/2009 at 4:20 PM, Philip Glass said:

Iceland's economy being almost bankrupt has really helped for tourism there. It would cost you 10$ US to buy a small beer a mere two years ago, now you can get two pints for that price.

also, hookers

i hear the fermented shark is quite delicious

go to an ice bar in you're into ironic tacky meta shit

  On 8/7/2009 at 11:58 AM, petr said:

i hear the fermented shark is quite delicious

it's called hákarl i think

you eat it with brennivín, the national spirit (equally disgusting)

I am currently thinking about some Iceland trip next August or sometime later. Squee could you show me the pictures from back then?

the pictures that can be found on google maps look so incredible close to surreal

somebody else been there who could share some experiences? Is it possible to travel around in a normal car or are the streets very hard to travel?

I went there for a classtrip this year in March. When it was decided that Iceland was our destination the whole lot was just outraged about us going to an even colder country than Denmark for our 2nd year class trip (since many choose warmer countries), but since the two teachers we had along were our social studies teacher and the other nature geographics, Iceland was a perfect fit. I for one looked forward to it because of the outstanding nature and the culture.

Long story short: The trip itself was horrible. Just horrible. Horribly set up, horribly planned, just horrible. But man, the setting. Wow, just wow. No matter where we were it was pretty much beautiful, even if it was March and raining 7 out of 8 days. I would LOVE to go there in the summer to experience it properly.

Here's a few shots I shot on the trip:

The industrial area

The beach. I was in awe. Simply the most beautiful place we went if I may so say.

More beach

The landscape from within a bus

My mate on a glacier

Panorama of some stone structure

Huge shit. Take a look at the bottom left. Yep, that's a person.

Photo by a friend - the person is me.

Go there if you can.

wow awesome. How were the prices and the road conditions? was it expensive to travel around and to buy stuff? Can you drive around with normal cars? Did you use the bus system? Is it good?

I was there in August. Its a fucking excellent place.

Theres plenty of places to drink, best to just ask some trendy looking types in Reykjavik. The city is so small you are better off just stumbling around it and you'll probably find everything by accident. I could direct you to the swimming baths where I saw Bjork if you like.

I didn't have enough money to rent a car but I think that would be ideal to see some of the uninhabited scenery. Also if you can scuba dive there is some pretty amazing stuff to do. Climbing Mt Esja was one of the best things I did, you can get a bus there from Reykjavik and it only takes a couple of hours.

Bands to see: Nora, Seabear, Rokkurro

like the rest of scandinavia, iceland has contributed absolutely nothing to western culture except pickled fish and suicide.

i am bjork.

that's why mums go to iceland.

i am a milf.

think that's a haiku.

me on esja

me when I saw bjork

  On 12/13/2010 at 10:41 PM, o00o said:

wow awesome. How were the prices and the road conditions? was it expensive to travel around and to buy stuff? Can you drive around with normal cars? Did you use the bus system? Is it good?

We didn't know what to believe about the prices before going there, since we first were told everything was incredibly cheap because of their shit currency, but then we were told everything was super expensive. Truth be told, it was a bit expensive at times, but not as bad as we were told. Their currency is horribly devalued, yes, but the change from the Danish currency to theirs weren't too bad. No idea how it is for dollars, pounds and such though. I guess it's bad?

We traveled by private bus most of the time, only used public transportation a few times, which was pretty decent I guess. It got there on time (or well, 10 minutes+ off at times). We were to visit a town on the other side of the fucking Island pretty much, so we drove for hours straight to get there, and most of the time the road conditions were suitable for normal cars. Only when we had to get to deserted glacier places and alike we had to go on 'dangerous' routes. You should be okay with normal cars for most of the time. Be sure to have proper tires on though. (Whatever 'proper' is)

Fun story:

The city we arrived at was, and I'm not kidding, a fucking ghost town. It had one supermarket in which only the cashier and two electricians fixing some lamps could be seen. Outside on the street we didn't meet a single person. We walked around, tried to find people to interview to collect sociological data, but we couldn't. We tried to visit the police station, we went in, not a single soul was in there. The door was just open, but no-one were in there. We were about to walk out when we heard singing. Children singing. I swear I got the chills. With the fog and all the place could just as well have been fucking Silent Hill: Icelandic version. As it turned out it was a children's choir group practicing in the back rooms of the police station. The choir teacher just looked at us and proceeded to coach the children. Then we just left. Frightened and mindfucked.

We then tried the local doctor. A note was left on the door saying he couldn't come in because of illness. Wait what? So if people needed medical help or anything alike, they were screwed. The school seemed deserted, not a single sound could be heard from in there until a bell suddenly rang and children came out in the yard to play. Still, not a single person on the streets.

It was interesting to experience such a tiny community and how their interaction is (or lack of same).

Reykjavik is nothing like that though, it is, as mentioned, a fairly hip place. You can find a lot of hipsters in there, and there's plenty to experience. We went to a bar one night and we were pretty much the only ones there, and a guy with a semi acoustic guitar jumped on 'stage' and just took requests. He could play anything we threw at him, impressive stuff. I was the first to shout for Sigur Rós. Entertaining as hell.

And oh, if you want to get Sigur Rós on vinyl, go get it there. A whole lot cheaper than here in Denmark for one. I got the vinyl version of "( )" for a fair price. And it's pretty much only independent stores there, so they're keen on giving some discount if they like you. At least that's my experience.

Their coffee is fucking amazing.

  On 12/13/2010 at 11:57 PM, Squee said:

Their coffee is fucking amazing.

So is their snus.

I swear, not a single one of my mates who took some didn't sneeze at least 5 times afterwards.