[bind10-dev] Iceland travel tips

[Tomek Mrugalski]

Hi,

I took a week of vacation before Rejkyavik meeting and spent it in
Iceland. Since most of the team and friends are in Iceland now and
several people asked me about things that I recommend, here are my
recommendations. Sorry for spam for those of you who are not interested.

I took lots of pictures and uploaded some of them here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/112374334363837676268/50Iceland

1. The most interesting things in Iceland are outside of cities. To get
there, you need transportation. I chose rental car. There are multiple
options. I picked Blue car rentals (http://www.bluecarrental.is/),
because they are cheap, include all necessary insurances (theft, CDW)
and have great pickup/return options. I choose 4x4 car, which wasn't
really necessary. I recommend renting a normal car, which is almost half
the price of 4x4. I chose to return the car in my hotel and paid around
20eur for this convenience. Gas price is around 260 kronas. Price vary
very little between locations, so there is no "let's try to find a cheap
gas station" game to be played in Iceland. There is very little traffic
outside of Reyjkyavik. In many cases I saw a single car once every 10-15
minutes. People drive slowly in Iceland, so don't worry if you are not a
good driver.
The only tricky part is that some roads in Iceland are not paved, but
are gravel. Driving on them is slightly different, but still very easy.

2. There are no entrance fees to any landmarks and parks. If you plan
this right, car rental and gas could be the only expenses.

3. Things to see within 1 day (round trip) from Reykjavik:

- Blue Lagoon. That is a kind of spa or shallow swimming pool, with
water rich in silica and other compounds. There are number of things
available in basic ticket: locker for your clothes, showers, you can
stay there for the whole day, spend as long as you like in the water, go
for dry and wet saunas, enjoy walking under/through artificial
waterfall, put the silica mud on your skin or just relax in hot water.
I'm not a spa type guy, but I enjoyed it a lot. It is very pleasant
experience to sit/lie in a hot water and feel rain drops on your face.
Entrance fee: 4900 kronas (30eur). Don't forget your swimwear and a
towel. (you can rent towels, bath robe and other accessories if needed).
There are special buses that take you to the airport, but make a long
stop at Blue Lagoon. You may investigate it if your flight departs in
late afternoon or evening.

If DNS team have some topics for discussion that does not require taking
minutes, perhaps you could have half a day meeting in blue lagoon? It is
perfectly possible to sit in the water for couple of hours and talk,
just taking minutes would be impossible. There's also relax area outside
of water, where you can sit fully clothed and have a resonably normal
meeting.

- Golden Circle. All major attractions (Thingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss
waterfalls) are in a straight line. Someone decided that Golden line
doesn't sound right, so here you have a circle. But the fact remains
that the most distant thing (Gullfoss) is around 80km driving from
Reykyavik.

- Thingvellir - a beautiful park and an important place in Icelandic
history. People met there once a year since 930, created new laws and
abandoned old ones, married, celebrated and had kind of court. There's
prime minister's summer retreat there, which looks like 4 cottages
sticked together.

- Geysir - the original thing that gave the name to all other places
around the world. It is no longer erupting, but there is another one 50m
next to it that still errupts. It's name is Strokkur, if I remember
correctly. It erupts every couple of minutes (0-10). The strenght of
eruption and interval varies greatly, so make sure you stay around for
at least 2 or 3 explosions.

- Gulfoss - a waterfall. That is the biggest waterfall in Europe. Some
say that it is more powerful than Niagara, but that is just a shady
marketing trick. They came up with a metric they call horsepower and
claim that its peak power is bigger than Niagara. On the other hand,
once every couple of years that have kind of flash flood here. High in
the mountains there are valleys that have the only way out blocked with
a glacier. Once the clacier melts, the whole valley keeps accumulating
water until the remaining part of the clacier is no longer able to hold
the pressure and then the whole thing flows down in one rapid event.
Waterfalls are said to be insanely powerful during that time. Once that
happens, that have some new bridges to build. Last time this happened in
1986 and that's why they have new bridges east of Ejyafjallajokull.

- Glaciers. You can see a glacier and actually walk on a glacier. There
are couple options available. The easiest and most expensive one is to
just book a trip. IIRC that is around 20.000 kronas or more. The other
possible way is to drive to base of the glacier and take a tour from
there. I paid for it 6300kronas for 1,5h experience (it was in
south-eastern part of Iceland, but I assume similar price level is in
areas closer to Reykjavik. Those two gets you a guide, cram-ons (the
thing you put on your shoes with sharp tooth-like blades that make
walking even on slippery ice very easy and usually an ice axe. Ice axe
looks awesome, but is mostly useful for photos).

The last and cheapest option is to go on a glacier on your own. Contrary
to some popular concerns, you don't die automatically if you haven't
paid. We (DHCP team) did this and apparently we are still alive and are
well. Glacier is basically an enormously huge chunk of ice. It melts
slowly, so its surface is actually very porous and is not slippery. We
walked for a 100 meters or so. Shawn enjoyed is so much that he booked
an all day trip.

- Dog sledding. You can do dogsledding in Iceland. That is something I
learned from an Australian that I met on a Grimsey island that is
partially beyond Arctic Circle. The website is http://dogsledding.is.
They move from one location to another depending on snow conditions. The
most popular (and the cheapest one) is a dog sledding experience that
gives you around 1 hour of actual riding. They have mix of alaskan and
greenlandic dogs. They used 6 dogs for our sled. During the whole trip,
they explain all the funny details - that smart dogs run in front and
the dumb, strong ones in the end, that it is extra tricky to make a team
of dogs, because some of them don't play along well, that picking a
right name for a dog is actually very important etc. That are all nice
additions, but the simple fact is that riding a sled pulled by screaming
dog pack in Iceland is seriously awesome. On the sadder side of things,
it is not cheap. The cheapest 1 hour dog sledding was 15000 isk (around
90eur) per person.

- If you plan to spend more time in Iceland, I highly recommend staying
in guesthouses. They are family run and each of the ones I stayed in had
some extra suprises. The first one had a golf course and playing was
free of charge (the feeling when you get a golf bag, finally find a
staring point, look at 10 different golf sticks and say "now what?" is
priceless). The second had served breakfasts with everything home made
(I ate the most delicious smoked salmon ever). The third had stables and
offered a horseride for a small fee. All had breathtaking views of
mountains and the ocean. All had working Internet. If fact, that is the
only case I remember that they didn't advertise wifi on their website,
but it was available free of charge and actually working. That was a
pleasant surprise. The website is www.farmholidays.is. Price for
cheapest room is 72EUR. It is currently off-season so in most
guesthouses we stayed alone or only with one other couple. Therefore it
is useful to book the cheapest room as they will put you in a better one
anyway. Every place I stayed in Iceland was very clean.

- If you have even more time, I recommend flying to Grimsey island that
is beyond Arctic Circle. I went the by ferry and returned by airplane.
The whole settlement (that is not the correct word, it more looks like a
polar base) is around 15 buildings. And everyone knows each other there.
They have one restaurant, but it is closed in winter and will be opened
in a month or so. You can reach the island with a ferry (3 times a week)
or a plane (2 times a week). When I asked in the store when should be at
the airport, the lady called the airport and said around 14:30. That was
surprising as the departure was scheduled for 13:40. I soon found out
why. When we walked to "the airport", we found out that is was a size of
a small house. We tried  to check in, but Gagga (people in Grimsey refer
to each other by name and we met Gagga before, as she run a guesthouse,
happens to be a one person bank and the only airport personnel we saw)
said that our passports are not needed, because she knows us. We were
told that we can leave our bags in the corner. She gave us boarding
passes, but said that they are not really needed and we can dispose them
immediately or keep as souvenirs. The flight was delayed, because a
doctor came to the island and did a routine visit, so the plane had to
will wait until he returns. We had around 2 hours and can take a walk if
we want to. She also said that we don't have to be worry about being
late, because the plane will wait for us. Finally, Gagga said that is it
very much ok to walk on my own around the airstrip and take pictures of
the plane or whatever else I want. I kept my 1,5 litre bottle of water
with me during the flight. Before departing, the pilot signed
certificates that we crossed the arctic circle and gave it to all
passangers. To all four of them. The pilot's cockpit stayed open for the
whole flight. I was sitting immediately after the pilot and saw airport
approach and the actual landing, looking over pilot's shoulder. The
Grimsey->Akureyri flight cost 37EUR. That was the most pleasant airport
experience I have ever had (and I've been to over 35 countries on 5
continents). I know that it is somewhat hard to believe it, especially
if you happen to live in US.

I was writing this mail in an airplane and all names/distances are typed
from memory, so forgive me any inaccuriacies.

Greetings from Cophenhagen airport,
Tomek