Iceland Trip Report - Part 4 of 12

SATURDAY AUGUST 25th - Pub Crawl & Blue Lagoon

The night started around midnight when we hit the town to join the locals in their pub crawl. We'd hit about 7 different bars before the night was over sampling several Icelandic beers and couple of Icelandic liquors (Brennevin & Opal). The locals were pretty intoxicated upon their arrival at the bars at that's understandable as drinking ain't cheap. Beers set us back $9-$12 with drinks $10-$15. One bar found the locals singing along with a 80s cover band. Another location had a local band playing original music and was filled with gorgeous women. This band must not have much material as they played one song twice during a five song set! Fortunately, the set was short because the band was simply awful. I guess that explains why the lead singer's primary job was street sweeping (we saw him the next AM). Many of the bars we went in felt more like house parties. Working your way up the narrow stairs of these two story buildings was a challenge when they are packed to the rafters. The people were great though and had amazing amounts of energy. Considering how hard they party/drink, it was surprising to see so much harmony outside on the streets. When it reached 5AM and we'd been without sleep for 42 hours we decided to call it a night. Amazingly enough the locals were still filing into the bars at that hour.

Some good sleep now behind us, we got up around mid-day to catch a ride to the Blue Lagoon with Reykjavík Excursions. Their hotel pickup arrived late and ticket purchasing was a little understaffed but the bus ride was pleasant. Bus, entrance to the Blue Lagoon and some cafeteria food ran close to $120. However, we didn't feel we could pass up this unique site. I actually enjoyed walking the grounds as much as getting in the water. Very nice concrete, glass and steel structure set in the geothermal area and lava landscape. The facility was very nice and it never felt overcrowded. The water itself was nice and warm/hot. Just don't grab a handful of stuff off the bottom of the Lagoon unless you want a hairy surprise! About 2 1/2 hours later we headed back.

Compared to the previous night, we scaled back quite a bit. We needed to rest up for our long journey ahead. We found a nice moderately priced meal at one of the restaurants we visited when it was a bar the night before. Afterwards we visited only a couple of bars before calling it a night around 2AM.

Iceland Trip Report - Part 3 of 12

FRIDAY AUGUST 24th - ARRIVAL

Our flight arrived on time at the Keflavík airport. There was a lot of confusion as the signage was not too good and international passages are not routed directly to immigration and customs like so many other airports. Instead, you can mingle right in with the departing customers in the general shopping area. We went ahead and purchased some alcohol (one litre each) and exchanged some money. In retrospect, the alcohol was a very good move. Much cheaper and more convenient than trying to find drinks at the farm houses. I exchanged $400 but easily could have gotten by with less as I don't think we went a single place that didn't accept credit cards! Like many had noted, Icelanders use the plastic like crazy. They even buy single drinks with credit at bars that don't require signatures.


We finally found the route to immigration, baggage claim and customs and sped our way through; with barely a glance from the agents. Outside customs we meet up with the representatives from Farm Holidays who would drive us to our hotel. The weather was cold and wet with temperature around 40F. The landscape and the road from the airport to Reykjavík is pretty boring with the exception of a few moss covered lava fields. I even joke for a minute saying, "what in the hell are we doing HERE?".


We arrive at our hotel at around 8:30AM. It's pretty obvious we aren't going to be able to check-in. We are told we'll have to wait until 2PM. This is when sleeping on the plane was supposed to benefit us, but we carried on regardless. We left our bags and headed out to find something to eat while we decided what to do until 2PM. We found a nice bakery around the corner from the hotel. I grab a juice and bagel for around 450ISK ($7), getting our first taste of Iceland's high prices. Taking our time discussing our options, we make a plan to head out and check out the city's architecture and shopping.


Using Lonely Planet's architectural tour as a guide, we walk around Reyjkavík seeing such sites as the Börg Hotel, Austorvöllur, some of the historic wooden houses, Ráðhús and some other sites before winding up at Hallgrímskirkja, the modern church that towers over Reyjkavík along with its statue of Leifur Eiríksson. The church is quite an impressive building from the outside but rather ordinary from the inside. My personal highlight from the inside is huge pipe organ which we get to hear since someone is playing. After the church, we head down towards the water and the impressive "Sun Craft" sculpture. The large silver ship looks great against the still harbor water.

Still a few hours away from our check-in, it is time to check out some stores. Although neither of us plans on purchasing much at this point (we'll save that for our return in a week), we don't mind browsing to get a feel for what is unique. One thing we quickly discover is Icelanders love to read. Bookstores are everywhere and all quite busy. Many of these are quite large but there are also smaller, more intimate bookstores. Music stores are also numerous as are arts and crafts stores. Music CDs go for close to $25, even for local bands. I would have loved to sample some music prior to buying but opportunities for this weren't readily available. My brother, who is more hip to the Iceland music scene picks up a CD.

We make our way back to our hotel but not before picking up hot dog at the famous Bæjarins Bestu. There was a decent line of people there just about all hours during our stay in Rekjavík. The dogs didn't disappoint and were one of the better food values in Iceland at around $4.50. Dogs are served with fried onions, onions and three different sauces. The sauces were a little too heavy for me, especially the honey mustard, which was just too sweet.

It was great to finally get checked into the hotel after such a long time as we'd been up about 27 hours at that point. The hotel and room were very nice and at a great location. Room was very roomy and clean and all amenities were very nice. Took us a while to figure out a hotel key card was needed to turn on all the electricity. Time to relax a bit and gather some energy for what was planned to be a long night. Dinner consisted of a burger, fries and Coke for almost $20 at a nearby restaurant. No point in heading out on the town early as the real activity doesn't get going until midnight.

Iceland Trip Report - Part 2 of 12

THURSDAY AUGUST 23rd - DEPARTURE

I arrived at the Atlanta airport roughly 2 1/2 hours before my departure. I was travelling by Delta to Boston for my connecting flight to Iceland. I'd contacted Delta earlier about possibly checking in my bag all the way to Iceland and they had indicated it might be possible as long as I had my Icelandair ticket receipt. However, once I got to the airport, I found out that wasn't going to be possible. I'd have to check my bag, retrieve it in Boston and recheck it in Boston. Good thing I had a 2:45 layover in Boston. My 55 pound bag also cost me an additional $25 with Delta but I had little option. Breezing through security and taking the slow walk to the gate, I still had almost 2 hours to kill before my flight (better safe than sorry). While at the gate in Atlanta, I received a call from my brother in New York, he was ready to leave for the airport for his flight to Boston.

The flight to Boston was non-descript and I arrived in Boston just a couple minutes late. Signage in the Boston airport was terrible but with the help of an information desk I found my way to IcelandAir check in. I took the longer walking route instead of the shuttle bus which caused a little confusion as one walks through a parking structure, but I got there. At about this time, I received a distressing phone call from my brother. Apparently his plane was delayed into Boston and had no signs of getting off the ground any time soon. I checked in and asked how close he could cut it. They indicated about 45 minutes before flight. My brother called a second time to inform me he wasn't waiting anymore and would switch airlines. However, it was going to be a real close call. I gave him the best rundown of what to expect in Boston as I headed to the gate. I waited at the gate fully expecting to have to make the journey to Iceland without my brother. My only concern was that he had all the vouchers for use in Iceland and that might make my first day a little difficult. I kept checking my watch waiting for a call. Finally about 70 minutes before the flight I get a call that his flight had landed. It was going to be REAL close. Finally at 8:55 my brother arrived at the gate, 35 minutes before our flight departure. Boarding had just started.

The flight to Iceland was very pleasant. We had really nice seats with plenty of legroom. The flight attendants were very nice and very pleasant on the eyes. We both hoped to sleep most of the flight but ended up with less than a hour a piece. It was also a little odd to be served a dinner at what was around 11:00PM EDT or 3:00 AM Iceland time. The food, lamb meatballs, was relatively good. However, the fish slaw was a little disturbing to my palette, tasting a little too much like sour fish. It is especially surprising if you are expecting it to be cole slaw!

Iceland Trip Report - Part 1 of 12

PRELUDE

What will follow is synopsis of the trip to Iceland my brother and I took between August 23rd and September 2nd of 2007. We opted for an itinerary that would allow us to spend two nights in downtown Reykjavik at the start of our trip, 7 days circling the country via Route 1 (aka "Ring Route") staying at farm houses for the night and one night in downtown Reykjavík at the end of our trip. We wanted to experience both extremes of Iceland. The crazy party scene of weekend Reykjavík combined with quiet natural beauty of the countryside. We knew this itinerary wouldn't leave us time for extended hikes, long tours or a journey to the Westfjords but we were comfortable with that.

PRE-DEPARTURE

We got our international airline tickets, hotel rooms, farm houses and rental car as part of a package from Icelandair. Icelandair worked in cooperation with Icelandic Farm Holidays and Hertz in handling this trip. We opted for a hotel upgrade in Reykjavík, choosing to stay at the Radisson SAS 1919 right in the heart of downtown. We chose a Toyota Avensis for transportation giving us plenty of room but no 4WD capability (and thus no F road driving). Total cost was $2414 each and also included transfer from the international airport in Keflavík to our hotel in Reykjavík as well as morning breakfasts at the farm houses.

Prior to the trip I did extensive research using Lonely Planet's Iceland guidebook, the Thorn Tree Travel Forum and numerous other Iceland information web sites. I charted a course on International Travel Maps Iceland coming up with multiple things to do each and every day above and beyond the Farm Holiday recommendations. Included were numerous diversions from the main route which we could decide whether or not to do based on energy level, time and interest.

I packed a single large suitcase for check-in and a backpack for carrying on the plane. Forewarned about cool and often wet weather, I came prepared with numerous long sleeve shirts, long pants, a fleece jacket, light gloves, light hat, full rain gear and plastic bags. To save a few bucks on food, I brought along some peanut butter, granola bars and some pouches of tuna. I brought $600 in cash. Since we were going to be spending so much time in the car, I burned copies of 24 CDs I owned. Two separate voltage receptacle converters were also purchased so I would be able to charge my camera and my PSP. I also purchased an international cell phone primarily for emergency purposes from OneSIMCard. Finally, my most important item, short of my money and passport, was my Nikon D-70 camera. Looking back on the items I packed only an extra pair of shorts and the cell phone could have stayed home. The cell phone was primarily a disaster because I simply couldn't get a good signal during 90% of our trip. I believe it was more the phone than the network as my brother got decent signal, most of the time, from his Blackberry.

Iceland Preview

The single event that forced me to finally start my blog was my trip to Iceland. Upon my return I originally intended to post a trip report to the Lonely Planet Travel Forum as a way of giving back to the forum that had provided a great deal of help planning the trip to Iceland.

However, when I started writing the trip report, it became huge rather fast. I also really wanted to include some pictures and share it with even more people. Thus, the blog was born.

So, over the next few days, I'll be posting my full Iceland trip report. Read all of it, read part of it, read none of it or just look at the pictures. It's your choice! Feel free to leave a comment, hate mail or your latest stock tip. Once again it's your choice! Either way, I feel like I've fulfilled my end of the bargain.

Remember, with this blog, you get what you paid for.

Bionic Woman Review

I've got to say that Bionic Woman was exactly what I expected and I don't know if I'll keep watching. It has that strong super hero / comic book feel to it that I don't really care for and the science fiction aspect gets relegated to the background. I am a bit miffed as to why they would use the same name for this Bionic Woman. Why call her Jamie Summers if the rest of the characters and storyline are different? The one thing it does have going for it is the darker tone. I won't give up yet, but it is on a short leash.

It reminded me more than a bit of Battlestar Galactica. In fact, so much that I thought maybe there is some overlap beyond a couple of cast members (Starbuck = Bionic nemesis Sara Corvis). Sure enough, Battlestar was done by the same production team. Battlestar was very good at first but has taken such a turn for the worse that I really don't care if another season ever shows up. It went from being a decent science fiction drama into show more about personal relationships more than else. Now titled "Ross & Rachel in Space" because of the on again off again relationship between Starbuck and Apollo.

Battlestar's biggest problem was that even though a huge majority of their fan base is male, they kept going further and further into BORING personal relationships instead of focusing on the main plot (finding Earth) and more interesting side plots. There were always about six different mini-romances going on with liberal sprinklings of children and family drama. Hello, this is the SCI-FI channel, not Lifetime. I can't back it up with hard facts but I'm guessing their ratings went way down during the last season.

The Bionic Woman could easily follow the same path. First and foremost, the lead character is female. I'm not saying female lead characters can't be interesting, it's just that I don't think this creative team can make them interesting. On top of that she has this younger sister she has to care for and look out for. Then there is the boyfriend, although I wouldn't be surprised to see him dispatched fairly early and eventually replaced by a new love. Finally, you have the original bionic chick (Starbuck) and her ex-boyfriend / executioner. There isn't even a strong sci-fi character to bring things back to the roots side like the Cylons, Baltar or Zarek from Battlestar.

OK, I know this all comes off a bit jaded. You can partially blame Battlestar for that attitude. Originally a show I avoided based on the remake premise, I came to like for the high production values and decent stories lines of the first season. Then, I was majorly letdown in Seasons 2 & 3 to the point of disgust.

Beyond tone, I think the Bionic Woman has a couple other things going for it. Relatively fresh faces are best for a series of this magnitude. In fact, I would have preferred they didn't go with Ferrara. Given ample opportunity they CAN make these characters more interesting. The time slot should give it ample viewership to keep in running long enough to develop possible storylines.

One last note. Although I was among those skeptical of recasting Starbuck as a female character, I don't think it did the show too much harm INITIALLY. Of course, over time, she was a key cog in turning the show into the mush it has become.