Here To Geneva

I’m going to do it. Finally! I’m planning a Round the World trip for early 2011. I’ll be going from London to Doha, and then to Hong Kong, Macau, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Vancouver, New York and then back home.

What do you reckon? Does this seems like a good itinerary? Would you skip or add anywhere? Where should I stay and what should I do? Do you have any family or friends I can stay with? Please help me out with your knowledge and recommendations, no matter how small. It’d be very much appreciated.

Eyjafjallajökull causes travel disruption across Europe.

So, I guess since I’ve been posting a lot about my Iceland trip lately, it would be fitting to post something about the volcanic eruption that’s causing so much travel disruption in northern and mainland Europe.

According to news sources, right now, as I type this message, the sky above me is laced with volcanic ash being blown nearly 1500 miles from the eruption site in Eyjafjallajökull (ay-yah-fe-aht-la-yo-kuhl). As a result, for the first time in British aviation history, the skies have been empty. It’s absolutely unprecedented.

I live directly underneath a busy flight path. Planes taking off from nearby London airports fly directly over my house. Luckily, the planes are very high up by the time they reach us, but not so high that we can’t hear them. Those that follow my Flickr stream will attest I often upload photos of the contrails the planes leave behind. They are almost a landmark of the area.

Right now though, there’s nothing. It’s peaceful and the skies are completely clear.

There are some great expat sites I subscribe to that have been posting volcano updates from the source. I recommend you drop on by. Also, check out these other great posts.

The last time this particular volcano erupted was around 200 years ago. Back then, it erupted for two years straight, so there could be prolonged disruption. That’s without the added complication that history has shown that when this volcano blows, neighbouring, much larger volcanoes are stirred into action. Eeep!

You’ve heard of the saying, “When in Rome,” right? Well, when I was in Rome recently, I decided to eat like the Romans. When I say Rome of course, I mean Reykjavík and when I say Romans, I mean Icelandic people. It sounds odd I know, but it’s a metaphor, so you have to… ahhh, I can’t be bothered to explain it.

On my first night in Reykjavík, I decided to splash out on some fine-dining Icelandic cuisine. I couldn’t decide whether to go for the lamb, or the puffin, or the seafood, so I went for the whole lot, Tapas-style. My “Icelandic Feast” consisted of the following;

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Reykjavík is a great place to eat. Gone are the days when absolutely everything was ludicrously expensive. Now, you can sample Icelandic cuisine and world cuisine with an Icelandic twist without a second mortgage. Here’s where I chose to eat.

Saegreifinn - The Sea Baron

A great little place that’s full of character. To be found on the dock of the Old Harbour, Saegreifinn sells reasonably priced, fresh seafood. They’re best known for their Lobster Soup served with bread (around Kr1000 / £5.00) and their fish skewers (around Kr 1800 / £9.00) which you can select from the open fridges. Once you’ve ordered, take a seat on a barrel at one of the long communal tables, eavesdrop on the conversation and gaze around at the clutter of nautical decorations. Within a few minutes, your food will be brought to you. Saegreifinn is not only popular with tourists, but popular with locals who come in and buy large packs of dried fish fillets. This isn’t the best cuisine in town, but it’s fresh, tasty, reasonably priced and served in a very unique atmosphere. Its well worth a visit.

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I’m back from Iceland. Boooooo! It’s never fun coming back to normality after you’ve had an amazing time in a foreign land. Iceland is a truly unique place that I’m glad to have visited and that I hope to go back to sometime. Its uniqueness is shown in the photo above which you dear reader get to see before it gets released for public view on my Flickr stream. What you’re seeing is a natural occurrence. Hard to believe, right?

I’ve uploaded all 250 photos to Flickr already, but as usual, I’ll be releasing them in batches of 10 or so over the courses of the next couple of weeks. Tagging and describing them all takes time. Coming up here on the blog, there’ll be my hotel review and reviews of all the restaurants and attractions I visited, so follow and subscribe to find out what I got up to.

In the meantime, I’d like to revisit the uneducated assumptions of Iceland that I made before I went to see how right or wrong I was. The first assumption I made was that Iceland is expensive. Well, it is and it isn’t. One of my meals cost £30.00 all in, about £15.00 more than I like to spend. The food was amazing though, so I decided it was just about worth it. So, in that respect, Iceland was expensive. But then, I had no trouble finding things that were about the same price as they are in the UK or even cheaper. Supermarket prices were almost identical to prices in Britain. Clothes seemed to be about the same too. At the other end of the scale, hot dogs are an absolute bargain. In the four days I spent in Iceland, I had four of the best hot dogs I’ve ever had. They were £1.00 each! One night, I had an amazingly authentic and delicious 16” pizza for £7.50. There are bargains to be had in Iceland, but you have to do the research before you go. So, is Iceland expensive? Sort of.

My next assumption was that all Icelandic people are nuts. Wrong. Some of them are. Bjork for example is nuts. The street sweeper who declared his love of Liverpool FC and then sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” at me in the street was nuts. But on the whole, Icelandic people are quiet, polite and reserved. I actually found them to be quite ‘British’ in their general mannerisms. I felt comfortable in their presence.

They eat Whale in Iceland. This is an assumption I made that proved to be spot on. I had the option to try some, but I substituted it for Saltfish (a wise choice for it was delicious). The closest I got to Whale meat was seeing it on a skewer in a fish restaurant. It was a very dark red-brown colour. It looked worryingly appetising.

Upon arrival at the airport, I immediately realised my assumption about the Icelandic language as also spot on. There is barely any correlation between the English language and Icelandic. Their word for ‘Police’ is ‘Lögreglan’. See? No correlation. At least in Denmark, their ‘Police’ were called ‘Politi’. I had no problems though, as everyone spoke English. Everything was written in English too. In fact, such was the prominence of the English language that 90% of the magazines and books on sale were in English. The magazines in particular were almost entirely British magazines. I could only find gossip mags and Vogue in Icelandic.

Iceland is an island of amazing natural wonder, so said I. I was correct. The photo above is one example. I have a couple of hundred more for you to see. As I said, keep an eye on Flickr to see them. In short though, Iceland is an arrestingly beautiful place.

There there. There there.

That’s me consoling my bank account, for it has just been taken by surprise by a rather hefty withdrawal. Yes, I’m off again to somewhere new. This time, it’s Iceland, the land of… Well, I’m not too sure actually. I haven’t really had time to read about it. The period of time from having the idea of going, to booking it, to actually going is 11 days. This is certainly one of the most impulsive things I’ve ever done. Normally, I like to book several months in advance and plan to meticulous detail. This time though, there’s really not much time for that. All I can do is continue to batter my bank balance by booking excursions and transfers, pack my bag and go.

So really, what am I expecting? Bear in mind, I really haven’t done any research yet, so I’m basing my assumptions on tittle-tattle, here-say and national stereotypes.

It’s so expensive

Yep. It’s true. Iceland is an expensive place. It’s what happens when you’re stuck in the middle of the ocean, miles from anywhere, with no natural resources and having to import everything, even lettuce and cucumber. Due to the recent collapse of their economy, it’s not nearly as expensive as it used to be, so now’s a great time to go. That said, give or take the odd bargain hot-dog or entrance fee, most things are on the pricey side. I’m braced for that though. Money’s for spending and life’s for living as far as I’m concerned.

They’re all nuts

Living in a remote place like Iceland surely must affect the brain. Look at Bjork. Nuts! I’m expecting to sense an aura of kookiness from the general public.

Whales

Yep, Whales. Chopped up and served with chips and a side-salad. Iceland has to make do with what they have (unless they import it) and what they have a lot of are Whales, Puffin, Guillemot and Sheep. They eat all of these in a variety of ways. I’ll be steering clear of the Whale, but I’ll probably give the others a go.

Pardon?

The Icelandic language seems a world away from what I’m used to. Most words seem festooned with accents and syllables. Luckily, much like the rest of Europe, English is widely understood and spoken.

Amazing Natural Wonder

Iceland is the result of the Eurasian and North Atlantic plates pulling apart. It is home to a lot of tectonic activity and the result is not only Iceland itself, but a land of eerily beautiful scenery, geysers and hot thermal pools. In short, there’s lots to gawp at.

That’s all that springs to mind right now. Subscribe, follow and revisit over the course of the next week for live updates, photos, audio and video from the land of… well, stick around and we’ll find out together.