Iceland is home to the most dastardly, underhanded, evil villians in the entire Disney canon. You remember the Icelandic hockey team that Gordon Bombay and the mighty ducks were humiliated by but ultimately defeated) in the Mighty Ducks 2? God, those guys were mean. Although, the female coach who almost seduces Gordon Bombay was gorgeous and she taught me that Iceland was more beautiful than Greenland, in spite of the names. I thought of her when I arrived at my golden circle tour Iceland
because she was right about how beautiful Iceland was, and also because the women here are beautiful enough to make you betray your youth hockey team.
Reykjavik is the capital and largest city in Iceland. It’s a small city, however, only about 120,000 people. But it’s immaculately clean and well organized with little traffic congestion. It’s a rich city for sure, and nothing is very cheap. But it’s incredibly easy to walk the city and see all the sights. There’s lots of hiking around the city (this was one place that I think renting a car might be required, driving through the Icelandic country side is amazing.) There are a series of geothermal swimming pools which are actually great places to hang out and grab a beer. English is spoken widely here, and although the city has it’s tourist elements they feel more naturally integrated then other cities I’ve been to. As a result the “touristy” versus “local” dichotomy exists less here than in other places. Reykjavik restaurants
can be fairly expensive, but I recommend getting some seafood here, it’s worth the price. I had whale meat, and although I felt a little guilty about eating whale, it has a flavor that has to be experienced.
Make no mistake, people come to Reykjavik for the nightlife. It goes till 6 am and doesn’t get started till after midnight, much like the nightlife in Argentina
. Drinks at bars and clubs are expensive (and beer wasn’t even legal here till 1989) so people mostly drink at home and then go out good and smashed after midnight.
There are clubs that are awesome, then there are movie clubs, where it feels like you must be in a movie because a place is so ridiculous. One such club from Colombia
reminds me of this. Then there are clubs that are beyond movie clubs, because no director would dare shoot in such an environment and besides, no audience would believe such places exist. Reykjavik clubs fall into the third category. They can only be seen to be believed. There is a place where everything is made of ice, the walls, the furniture, everything. It’s expensive and kind of a gimmick, but still. Iceland is awesome, and I wasn’t menaced by a single hockey player the entire time I was there.