Last Day In Iceland...

My flight out of Iceland is in less than 11 hours. It's been fun, but I think I am ready to go. Reykjavik is a very small city. In fact, the entire country (300K) has just half the number of people of Austin. However, the city has quite a diverse population given how small and geographically isolated it is. The vast majority of tourists are Europeans, but I also saw quite a few Americans, Asians, and Blacks as well.

• Food is very expensive here. A good meal is US$20-$35 per person. A bacon cheeseburger is around US$7 or US$8 at the current exchange rate. A footlong sub is $8 or $9. Even at the supermarket it is quite pricey. A dozen eggs is around $4 or $5. The most popular food here is the hotdog at 260 Krona. There is an endless line of people getting hot dogs all day long. If there is one reason I want to leave it's because I'm tired of eating hotdogs, hamburgers, sandwiches, or paying $35 for a decent meal. Given that food is so expensive here, you might be surprised to see that there are quite a number of obese people here. Despite what you hear from the media, obesity has very little to do with how much someone eats or how much exercise someone does. It's more to do with what they eat as a result of how much money they make. Fresh meats and vegetables are very expensive in Iceland. People eat pastas, potatoes, processed foods, sugars, and other insulin raising foods. Hence you see quite a number of fat people.
• I stayed 4 nights at the Domus Guesthouse Hostel. It cost 3,500 Krona per night (US $31) for a shared room. Its reasonably clean with good facilities, and a friendly staff. I recommend it if you are looking for a budget place to stay.
• The water here is very good. Iceland has virtually unlimited amounts of fresh water and geothermal energy. The only reason to buy bottled water is for the bottle. The water is very good straight out of the tap. All of the homes are heated with geothermal hot water. They drill for hot water pretty much the same way as drilling for oil. They use the hot water to generate electricity, heat homes, and create heated swimming pools like the Blue Lagoon.
• Despite gasoline costing US$5.60 per gallon, there are plenty of SUV, trucks, and 4x4's. Icelandic people love camping and off roading. The countryside is very beautiful and green. There are waterfalls, geysers, mountains, and glaciers that are just outside of Reykjavik. The terrain is very rugged. You will find sheep and horses in the country.
• The tour guide said Icelandic people are a mix of Norwegian and Irish decent. Most of the men came from Norway and the women from Ireland. People here don't seem to be as warm as in Texas or Australia. Perhaps its the culture or the language. Most of the native Icelandic women here are very pretty if they are not overweight from eating all the hot dogs, pastas, pizza, and fries.
• It never gets dark in July. It's basically daytime all day long. The sun never really goes below the horizon and it is very easy to lose track of time. The darkest it gets is around what would be our sunset, then it starts getting bright again. It's pretty strange experience and definitely not a place to be if you don't like long stretches of daylight or night. It doesn't get very hot in the summer. 50 or 60 F is the high for the day and 50-55 at night.
• For a bankrupt country, they seem to be very well off. There are no homeless people, no beggars, no food shortages, no riots, and crime is almost non existent. The tour guide said that they have 1 murder every other year. The country has never been at war and they don't even have a military. It's one of the most conflict free areas of the world. They just have drunk people breaking glass bottles and men urinating on the streets.

Next stop is Paris...