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Next Time: Iceland

Recently, I had the privilege to visit Iceland for 17 whole hours! I did so by being crafty and booking my flight to Paris with an extended layover (making sure those hours were during the day). This was fantastic because I did not have to pay anything additional in terms of flight or hotel which made this experience pretty cheap.

This way of doing things is what I like to think of as one of my most brilliant ideas haha 😉 I also did this on the way to Dubai last year with a 9 hour layover in London. Now, instead of saying I have never been to England, I can say I saw it for about 6 hours haha Better than nothing I think.

For this experience, I booked a bus tour through Trip Advisor that included both a visit to the Blue Lagoon (which was top of my list) as well as a 6 hour Golden Circle tour that included stops at Thingerville where two tectonic plates meet, Gulfoss Waterfall, and part of the Geothermal area there as well. It was fantastic, I met nice people and had a great time!

Anyway, because this trip was so painfully short, I wanted to create a list of some of the great things I missed out and couldn’t do as well as some of the things I want to do again.

🙂

Eat 

-Dill Restaurant (fancy and unique)

-Grillmarkadurinn (The Grillmarket)

-Lava (Sushi at the Blue Lagoon!)

-MAR Restaurant

-Icelandic Fish and Chips

-3 Frakkar (Serves Icelandic classics like horse, whale, puffin, seal and fermented shark)

-The Laundromat Café

(Most excited about this one, great looking cafe with fries and desserts!) The concept for The Laundromat Café originated in Copenhagen in 2006 as an informal space where guests could meet and multitask, eating while doing their laundry. The Reykjavik branch opened in 2011 and was the official caterer of the 2013 Iceland Airwaves music festival. It features an extensive library of around 6000 books, which customers can enjoy in a friendly, laid-back atmosphere.

-Baejarins Beztu Pylsur

A harbor side hot dog stand in downtown Reykjavik. Ever since 1937, the stand has been serving the Icelandic incarnation of the hot dog, made with a combination of pork, beef and lamb. The stand has become a staple feature of runtur, Reykjavik’s weekend revelry. For an authentic Icelandic experience, go for a hot dog with eina med ollu, or ‘the works’, ketchup, sweet mustard, raw and fried onions and remoulade.

-Perlan

The restaurant itself sits on a revolving floor on top of the city’s hot water storage tanks and provides breath taking 360-degree views of Reykjavik. Head chef Stefan Eli Stefansson and his team serve a seasonal four course menu as well as varied, buffet style food featuring local Icelandic delicacies including reindeer meatballs, wild goose breast and Skyr cake.

Drink 

-Reykjavik Roasters

-Slippbarrin at the Marina Hotel (the best cocktails)

Do 

-Blue Lagoon (Do it again!) – Too awesome not to repeat. I also missed out on getting a drink from the lagoon bar and getting mud to do a face mask. Next time I would also spend lot more time there then the 2 hours I had. But also, be sure to bring your own towel!

-Spend more time around the city just wandering. Because I did the bus tours, I never really saw any of the town of Reykjavik. The only glimpse I got was from the bus as people were being dropped off at their hotels at the end of the day. It looked absolutely wonderful and like there were so many amazing places to eat!

-Go Mountain Biking (A friend of mine recently told me about this and how cool it is, now Im sad I missed out!)

See 

-See the Northern Lights (take a tour specifically to go out and see them. Also, make sure I get a window seat to see it from the plane!)

-The Hallgrímskirkja Church (Amazing views from the observation tower)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallgr%C3%ADmskirkja

-See the Dynjandi waterfall

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”

– Anonymous

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