Spring Break: Iceland

While Iceland is a strange place, what you may find stranger is that my friends chose this place for our Spring Break destination this year. Despite the weather being very unpredictable and everything being extremely expensive, it was a great experience. After all, when would the opportunity arise again for us to visit this amazing place. The beautiful women certainly made up for the miserable weather, as well as the friendly local population, and while everything was very expensive, I somehow managed to return to Boston without having exhausted all my bank accounts, even though one of them turned out to be in the red digits.

The best adjective to describe Iceland is "bizarre." Much of Iceland is composed of a lunar landscape with no vegetation. Indeed, we were introduced to this fascinating and intriguing landscape when we first got off the plane and on a bus to Reykjavik (the capital). It was than that I understood why NASA had used this terrain to test their vehicles, that were to help Neil Armstrong and his team when he first landed on the moon. Another interesting fact about Iceland is that it has a population of 300,000 and that 2/3 of that population live in the capital. It is therefore not surprising that Reykjavik is more animated than all of the other populated areas of the island combined. As Icelandic is a very peculiar language, which bears no resemblance with any other language we had heard before, we were relieved to discover that everyone spoke English very well.

The famous geothermal bath, the Blue Lagoon, was a very relaxing experience; especially after an Icelandic Air flight that was delayed for over 24 hours, due to a random snow storm in Boston. The memorable Golden Circle Tour we did during our trip, included a stop at Þingvellir, the site where one of the oldest parliaments in the world was founded. Our excursion also included a stop at the famous geysers (one of which was active and exploded every so often), as well as a stop at the impressive Gullfoss waterfalls.

Many of you are probably wondering about the nightlife in Reykjavik, which is certainly up and coming. The city itself is quite small and all the action takes place in one area on weekends; one street to be precise. Most of the well-known clubs, bars, and cafes are located directly on or in the immediate vicinity of Laugavegur street. NASA is one of the more famous clubs, but the live music that was playing when my friends and I went was not very exciting. Another club we went to and that we had a lot more fun at was Pravda. While there was no cover charge, the drinks were very expensive. I loved the music though, as they played a lot of techno and house, including some David Guetta at my request. There is one amusing anecdote that I have to share from that night out. When my friend, Rachel, went to the womens' bathroom, a hot blonde Icelandic girl went up to her and asked: "Are those your curls?" (she was referring to her hair) When she replied: "Yes, is your hair straight?" the Icelandic girl looked at her suspicously and was fast to answer: "No, I like boys." - lol

(to be continued...)