Tourist Season Part 8: Iceland

I have recently watched a haunting Icelandic film "Jar City" and thought, hey I have been to Iceland before some years back, I should totally include Iceland as part of my tourist season. I did enjoy my trip to Iceland some years ago and would totally recommend it.

First impressions: For a country with a very small population (just 320,000), it is extremely well known for a number of reasons. Firstly, everyone remembers when the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010 and disrupted air travel throughout the world.  Secondly, many might remember the total financial meltdown Iceland experienced when their banks collapsed in 2008 - with repercussions rippling across the world financial markets far beyond Iceland.

At Gulfoss waterfall in Iceland - I was standing on a very icy path!

Thirdly, the quirky and popular Icelandic pop singer Björk has been a great musical ambassador for Iceland since her rise to international fame in the 1990s. Other Icelandic musicians which have found international fame include Sigur Rós, Silvía Nótt and Singapore Sling (yup, they're a band from Reykjavik). For myself, Iceland was always a feature in physical geography textbooks and I remember my geography teacher talking about the volcanic activity in Iceland as I was an A-level student back in VJC.

I remember the day (or night) I arrived in Keflavik airport in Iceland - I decided to go to Iceland in December for two reasons. Firstly, there was a super cheap deal available as it was December and secondly, I had always wanted to see the Northern Lights. The plane landed in mid afternoon but it was already as dark as night. I remember thinking, ooh boy, what were you expecting? Coming to Iceland in December, the days are going to be so short. I was hoping to get a first glimpse of Iceland's famous, majestic volcanic landscape as the plane approached Iceland, but frankly, as it was night, I could see little.

Getting there: Iceland is one of the most isolated countries in the world, being an island in the north Atlantic ocean. There are scheduled flights from Reykjavik-Keflavik Airport to 9 cities in North America and 30 cities in Europe. If you are travelling to Iceland from outside North America or Europe, you will need to transit somewhere like New York, Toronto, London or Paris. The flight to Keflavik is about 2 hours 50 minutes from London and 5 hours 30 minutes from New York. It is a very long journey - but it is definitely worth the trip.

On the Icelandair flight from London

Mind you, if you're already in Iceland, you're not far from Greenland. It is possible to extend your trip to Greenland as you can fly from Reykjavik to Nuuk in Greenland. Just think about it. :)

Transport: It is a fairly large island, north to south it measures about 300 km and from east to west, it measures about 500 km. There are no rail networks in Iceland, there simply isn't a large enough local population to justify building a rail network. You have a choice of two kinds of buses - firstly, the public bus which is used by the locals. These are easy enough to use and I had no problems with them - the schedules and route maps are clearly displayed in the bus stops, but do always check the schedules in advance so you do not risk missing the last bus back to your hotel. Ironically, the public transport system is the only place where I encountered Icelanders who did not speak English - yup they exist. More on the issue of languages later.

The very empty, desolate Icelandic landscape.

The other form of transport which is very popular with tourists are the tour buses operated by companies like Reykjavik Excursions, Iceland Excursions and Sterna. These are day trips which will pick you up from your hotel in the morning (sometimes painfully early), take you to a beautiful location or two, then drop you back at your hotel (or in the town centre) after the excursion. These trips usually come with a guide who will speak English and one or two other languages (usually French, German, Spanish, Swedish etc). Given the vast distances between the attractions, these tours are a very efficient way to see as much as Iceland as possible as they are very well run and efficient.

It is possible to rent a car as well - but it is not cheap, but it does mean that you are not at the mercy of bus schedules. If there are say 4 or 5 of you travelling together, then by all means, yes do rent a car. Otherwise, if you're in a group of 3 or less, renting a car would work out to be quite expensive. There are also some ferries - but these tend to be for whale watching and other tourist excursions rather than for commuting.

By a bubbling hot spring, a Mars like landscape

Attractions: I'm going to be blunt - Reykjavik is a grey, drab, boring one-horse town. It has only a population of about 200,000 in the Greater Reykjavik area - by any standards, it is a small town. Yet it is the biggest and capital city in Iceland. You could probably do all the main sights in a two or three hours - the rumour that Reykjavik is some kind of party capital is a complete myth. The bars are expensive (yes, even after the collapse of the Icelandic Kroner) and clubs are small compared to what you may find in New York, London or Berlin.

There is only one main shopping street Laugavegur and the range of goods there are shockingly limited. After all, very little is made locally - everything from clothes to household appliances to furniture to the tourist souvenirs are made somewhere else (like China) and imported all the way to Iceland. So take a clothing store for example - the range and choices are very limited (not enough locals to sustain a big store) and the prices are very high, because of the extra costs of shipping to Iceland.

A Christmas tree in downtown Reykjavik

No, you would go to Iceland for the physical geography lesson of your life. You are there to look at volcanoes, geysers, hot springs, waterfalls, glaciers and that hauntingly bare volcanic landscape which is either covered in snow in the winter, or just bare rock of various unusual colours in the summer. Yes we're talking mother nature at her best - where Europe meets America in the mid-Atlantic rift, giving birth to the island of Iceland. There are so many excursions you can take when you're in Iceland from catching the Northern Lights to snow mobile excursions on glaciers to whale watching cruises - take your pick. You're only limited by your time (and money - it's not cheap), there's too much to see and do in Iceland and you'll need to prioritize and decide what you'll most like to do.

One of the most famous attractions is the Blue Lagoon. Oh yes, you'll wanna do the Blue Lagoon - it is the most famous spa of the world and practically all tourists who visit Iceland make it their first or last stop as it is so close to the International Airport at Keflavik. The water is kept very warm (38 degrees) and even if it is -18 degrees and snowing outside, you can still swim in the warm, blue waters as the snow falls on you. The water is rich in mineral salts like silica and sulphur and is supposedly very good for your skin. I didn't experience any great transformation, but I did enjoy my time there. Apart from the time I slipped and fell down - silly me, more haste less speed.

Having brunch at the Blue Lagoon with a very sore foot. 

There is an outdoor sauna where you have to get out of the warm water, walk a few metres across the wooden platform and enter the sauna. It was about -3 degrees when I was there and very windy - can you imagine what it was like to get out of that water even for a few seconds, wearing nothing but my swimming trunks? So I did what most people would've done, I got up and ran to the sauna... and I tripped. Like I said, more haste less speed. Ouch. Nothing broken but boy did it hurt! I would've frozen to death had I just sat there, feeling sorry for myself. I somehow managed to get up and staggered into the sauna where I got a lot of sympathy from everyone else in the sauna - yup, they all saw me fall over!

Do bring a plastic container with you when you visit the Blue Lagoon, you can help yourself to the miracle mud there and take it away with you. Make sure it is a container that you can seal tightly so you can pack it away into your luggage. They don't care - there's that miracle mud everywhere, it's just oozing out of the ground (even by the edge of the car park). It's terribly messy though, that's why many people don't try to take it with them. Then you get to the gift shop and they try to sell you a small tube of it for like 80 Euros and you think whaaat? I was just in there and could help myself to all the miracle mud I wanted...

Quick take a picture, so I can get back into the hot water!

Weather: Despite the name 'Iceland', it is actually remarkably mild given how far north Iceland is. In the summer, the weather can reach 20 degrees and the sun practically doesn't set. In the winters, if you're lucky, you'll get cold and crisp days with temperatures below zero but you may end up with very wet and miserable weather of about 5 degrees and heavy rain. Yes it may not be below zero even in the middle of winter and cities like Copenhagen, Berlin and Stockholm can be much colder than Reykjavik. The further north you go, the colder it will get and up in the mountains, it will always be a lot cooler than in the lowlands.

However, the weather can change from day to day, so always check the weather forecast. Even in spring or autumn, you can get a cold snap, sending the temperatures plunging below zero - all it takes is a blast of northerly wind from the Arctic. One feature of the weather is the wind - so even if it is just around freezing, it can feel decidedly colder if there is a brisk wind. For more on preparing for winter weather and combating wind chill, have a read on my piece on winter clothing. In the photo below, the boiling hot water shot out from the geysir instantly froze into streams of ice on the rocks the moment it landed on the ground. That's how cold it was!

Sliding on a big sheet of ice 

Do bear in mind that you are likely to spend a lot of time on those tour buses travelling across Iceland, so do not wear any thermal underwear. I warn you, do not wear any thermal underwear. Those tour buses are kept very warm, especially in the winter and you will itch like crazy in your thermal underwear in the warm bus. You can take off everything but your underwear ... I remember wearing just my T-shirt and trousers in the bus as it was so incredibly warm. I swear the air-con buses in Singapore are a lot colder than these Icelandic tour buses in mid-winter! I had to get dressed each time the tour guide said, "we shall be arriving at our destination in a few minutes, please get ready."

Food: Well, your meals can be very interesting in Iceland but be prepared to pay for it. You can get very usual, boring American style fast food (which seems to be what the locals ate) - but if you were to push the boat out and go to a restaurant, then you're in for a treat if you have a sense of adventure. There is something you can get in Iceland which is only found in two other countries in the world (Norway and Japan): whale meat. It is up to you to decide if you want to eat whale meat - some of you may have ethics which are strongly against eating whale. If that is the case, you need to check if you are say in a buffet situation.

Whale steak anyone?

That's how I had my first taste of whale - it was my first night in Reykjavik, it was very cold and dark and we really didn't fancy walking around town. We've not had anything since we were on the plane so we decided on an Icelandic buffet in a nice restaurant in town. There was a gorgeous spread of wonderful looking dishes and I did the usual buffet thing, I tried a little bit of everything. Now the dishes were not labelled, so I just followed my sight and smell with a sense of adventure. I identified a few dishes which I particularly liked so when I went back for my second round at the buffet, I asked the waiter, "what is this dish?" And he replied, "Whale meat." Oops. So much for my ethical dilemma about eating whale, I had already consumed a huge pile of it without knowing.

So yes if you find yourself in a buffet situation, you will need to check what the dishes are if you do not want to eat whale meat for ethical reasons. Whale meat is everywhere - you can walk into an Icelandic supermarket and look into the meat section. "Ooh look, chicken, beef, whale, lamb, fish..." It is not cheap, but it is not something so prohibitively expensive that it is only reserved for special occasions. In many restaurants, whale meat is on the menu - but because it is not cheap, it tends to be in the nicer restaurants.

Whale meat in a creamy herbal sauce

Now how can I describe the taste of whale meat? It is not like fish at all, it is a red meat. It looks like beef when it is raw, that kind very dark red you would associate with a steak. Texture wise, you do feel like you're chewing on a piece of beef, sometimes it can be tender, sometimes tough. I have learnt to recognize the taste - the word used is 'gamey'. Now 'gamey' (or 'wild game') refers to wild meat that hunters shoot/catch for food, as opposed to animals bred on farm specifically for that purpose - like chickens. Fine grade chicken are often fed a very refined diet of grain with vitamin and mineral supplements - so that their meat tastes very 'clean' - it is a taste that we have grown accustomed to. We expect all our meat to taste like that, that's why some of us are put off by the taste of wild game. A wild animal has a far more varied diet - especially if the animal eats other animals, then this can result in their meat tasting rather 'gamey', it will come with a certain flavour and smell that may put some diners off. Wild game is popular in China, where it is known as 野味 ('Wild Taste') - and whales fall into that category.

Whale meat is cooked in a variety of ways - you can get whale sashimi, a whale steak, it can be sliced into strips and cooked in a variety of sauces or it can be chopped up and put into stews or soups. It can be smoked and the result is a cross between smoked salmon and ham - smoked whale meat can end up in everything from salads to sandwiches.

Puffins - too cute to eat? Not in Iceland!

The cuisine of Iceland is heavily influenced by the fact that this is a very isolated island. In the past, when they have had very severe winters, they have had to make sure nothing went to waste. The journey by sea to Scotland or Norway took several days and there were winters which were so cold that the sea in the harbour would completely freeze up. This meant the locals would eat things that most people on mainland Europe would turn their noses up - such as sheep's head, which has turned into a local delicacy. Yup, complete with the brains and eyeballs, the sheep's head would be braised, split in two and the diner can then dig in and scrape every last bit of edible flesh off the skull. No, I didn't try that whilst I was in Iceland.

There's also the famous 'head cheese' a terrine made of odds and ends (brains, skin, eyes, ears, tongue cheeks etc) from the head and it is usually fairly heavily flavoured to mask the taste. Puffins are cute little birds with very little meat on them, but when the going gets tough, they end up in the kitchens as well in Iceland - the meat is similar to other kinds of poultry (chicken, duck, goose, guinea fowl, etc) but otherwise it has that typical 'wild game' taste. There are restaurants which specialize in all kinds of Icelandic wild game - I had a black guillemot whilst I was there. It was okay I suppose, but not that spectacular.

Icelandic head cheese anyone?

And then there's Hákarl - which is so disgusting many tourists want to try it, out of morbid curiosity I guess. I got as close as smelling it and couldn't bring myself to eat it - I had to step away quickly to stop my gag reflex. Hákarl is fermented shark meat which is so rotten it smells really bad. Why do the locals go to such great lengths to create and eat something so horrifically foul, I hear you ask?

Basically, the local shark is poisonous when fresh due to a high content of urea and trimethylamine oxide and not fit for human consumption - it is this fermentation (or rotting) process which removes the toxins. When you're faced with a famine and all you have to eat is a poisonous shark, you have to find a way to feed your family or starve to death. This method of curing shark meat has been developed over centuries in Iceland and has since become an acquired taste. In fact, many Nordic countries have developed a taste for various kinds of fermented fish - not my thing, no thanks!

Prices: Expensive. Oh yes Iceland is an expensive destination - it used to be ludicrously expensive before the financial crisis, it is now just expensive. Very little is made locally, so everything has got to be imported - so prices are naturally higher in Iceland. The excursions are not cheap either - but since you are already there, most tourists are prepared to push the boat out, spend a bit more money to have a good time.

Languages: Icelandic - a language spoken by 320,000 people. By that token, the vast majority of Icelanders speak very good English, since English is a compulsory language at school. Given Iceland's mid-Atlantic position, it is also subject to a lot of North American cultural influences as many Icelanders who get bored with their country end up heading west to North America rather than east to Europe. There's plenty of American programmes on Icelandic TV channels - nonetheless, I fond that whilst younger people often spoke English flawlessly, the older folk have a limited grasp of English. I even met a bus driver who spoke no English at all - and I had to resort to a mish-mash of Icelandic and Swedish (long story, I speak a little Swedish) to communicate with him. Yes, being me, I actually studied Icelandic before I went to Iceland.  It would be nice if you could learn a few simple words in Icelandic like Góðan daginn (good day), Gott kvöld (good evening), takk fyrir (thank you) and bless bless (bye bye). 

Walking on a frozen lake in Reykjavik!

What you may also find are various people from all over Europe who have come to work in the tourist industry in Iceland, so for example, I met a Hungarian lady who is there to serve Hungarian tourists. She doesn't speak Icelandic and she uses English to communicate with them - since virtually all her local colleagues speak English very well. You will find that many foreigners who live and work in Iceland barely speak any Icelandic at all - it is a very difficult language to learn and not a particularly useful one at that, given that so few people speak it.  So yeah, it is one of those places where you can get by without knowing the local language. If you do speak German, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish and/or Swedish, you may find that you can read some of it given that it is ultimately a Germanic language - but understanding Icelandic is nearly impossible without months of intensive study.

English rating: 4.5 out of 5. I am only deducting 0.5 because some older Icelanders do not speak English or are not confident with the language; otherwise, virtually anyone under the age of 50 will speak English flawlessly (albeit often with a Nordic accent). If we were to ignore those over the age of 50, then this score would be 5 out of 5.

Iceland's landscape is rugged, wild and often devoid of vegetation.

Beware: The weather is something you need to look out for - even if you go to Iceland in the summer, the wind and the rain can make you feel miserable if you are caught in a storm. Always check the weather in advance and if you are expecting miserable weather, make the most of your day either in Reykjavik - there are some museums and galleries, nothing great but something to do when the weather is foul or visit the Blue Lagoon, where you can enjoy the spa regardless of the weather. What you need is quality wind-proof clothing, rather than thermal underwear.

Bus services are limited, since the vast majority of locals drive. The demand for the bus services is low - hence they are infrequent. If you are planning to travel around Iceland by bus, always check and double check the schedule so you don't miss the last bus!

Kaboom! Don't stand too close to the geysir!

Also, if you wish to do an excursion, always shop around. Competition is fierce for the tourists and you should always know what the going rate is. I have managed to get myself a bargain when I said, "well Reykjavik Excursions are offering the same thing for 12,000 ISK so if that's the price you're charging I may as well go book with them now, they're just across the road you know." The lady behind the counter replied, "Fine, just for you, 11,500 ISK if you book with me now. Do we have a deal?" I said, "11,000 ISK and I will pay you in cash right now." Yeah you'll be surprised, you can haggle for prices in Iceland! Such excursions are perishable goods - their tour bus or cruise ship will leave on schedule whether it is half full or completely full, so they may as well get you onto that excursion even if it means giving you a discount. By all means, haggle away - but this applies only for excursions, not for other kinds of shopping or dining.

Safety: Iceland is very safe - the crime rate is much lower than in Europe or North America! It is very tourist friendly - if you ever need help, feel free to approach the police. They are always very helpful and will always speak very good English. I would caution you to walk very carefully when there is snow and/or ice on the ground - ref: my fall at the Blue Lagoon. Ouch. Do be careful please - more haste less speed.

Oooh it's a fascinating language. 

Comparisons: The kind of volcanic landscape on Iceland has reminded travellers of other destinations with similar volcanic features like New Zealand, Alaksa and Japan. The Nordic language and culture of Iceland will remind travellers of the rest of Scandinavia - whilst the landscape may remind you of Greenland and parts of Northern Canada.

Do I need a guide?: Yes and no. Iceland is so very tourist friendly! There are tourist information offices everywhere and they are all friendly and they all speak very good English. Nonetheless, the excursions are just so convenient and easy to book. What you should do is simply sort your flights and accommodation in Iceland and then once you get there, you can book your excursions in person. You do not need to get a packaged tour for Iceland. Icelandair have good offers of flights + hotel packages - have a look at their website to get a ballpark figure of how much it should cost. Remember, the price shoots up in the summer when the days are long and warm and the price will come right down in the winter when the days are cold and short.

Looking upstream at Gulfoss

So there you go - that's Iceland in a nutshell for you. I truly recommend it - I only regret that my trip to Iceland was too short as it's probably not the kind of place I would go back soon. There's a sense of "been there, done that, got the T-shirt" feel to it, so if you are going to go, just bite the bullet, spend the money and stay a few more days and do a few more expensive excursions. If you have any questions, please let me know, leave a comment below: takk fyrir!

PS. I felt cold just writing this article - the next destination in our tourist season will be somewhere a lot hotter I promise!