Ég hef ekki hugmynd um hvað er skrifað á þessu bloggi

Just a few weeks before I was due to arrive in Iceland the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano erupted in precisely the right direction to shut down all air traffic in mainland Europe. It was about half way to Reykjavik when a grinning local informed me that every plane in Iceland Air’s Fleet is named after a different unpronounceable volcano and offered a high five that I knew i’d come to the right country.

Iceland had been at the top of my travel wishlist for quite a while. I was sold on the promise of spectacular scenery and fantastically friendly locals but didn’t know what else to expect. I later discovered that they have an obsession with hot-dogs (the national food), an openly lesbian Prime Minister, a comedian for a Mayor and a special government task-force to investigate Elves and Pixies. They joined the allies in the recent Iraq war committing exactly one troop (she was withdrawn only a few weeks later) and although beer was banned in the country until 1989, since then they've been making up for lost time. They even have an annual "Beer Day" (March 1st as opposed to 'Friday') celebrating the legalisation.

I started with a few days in Reykjavik sharing an amazing hostel with a fittingly fun collection of other travellers from England, Canada and even Greenland! I usually slept well into the afternoon, before heading out to watch the World Cup at a sports bar with more giant TVs than patrons. At midnight I would head out to watch the sun fail to set before rounding up the troops for a pubcrawl down the main street.

A vast majority of the 150,000 locals wait until about 2am before cramming themselves into the multitude of pubs, clubs and bars to dance, sing, chat and drink the morning away. The atmosphere is unbelievably friendly and they play a disturbingly large amout of WesMusic. One pub strung together tracks by Muse, The Beatles, Radiohead, Weezer and Tina Turner! By 6am the bars start to close so the party-goers spill outside to wrestle and eat hot-dogs.

I met up with a cool French Canadian poker player (imagine a younger, better looking version of me) and we agreed it was time for a road-trip. After stumbling into a local tourist office with absolutely no plan we re-emerged an hour later with a complete interary, organised and booked for free by the amazing staff - only in Iceland!

Over the next 5 days we drove past hundreds of waterfalls, hiked around on a glacier, bathed in a hot-spring-fueled stream flowing through a grassy meadow and stayed overnight in a tiny cottage just a few kilometers from Eyjafjallajokull.

Photo stops included a mirror lake full of floating icebergs, a glacier covered in ash, barren 'moonscapes' and - just for something different - a church.

The food was also great. Some of the more memorable dishes were a whale burger (DELICIOUS - imagine the flavour of beef, the texture of tuna), special Icelandic style fish and chips and a huge plate of the best lobster tails I've ever had. We picked up hitchhikers from 3 different countries, suffered severe tyre damage and almost saw Tom Waits.

The only fault I can find with Iceland is that its too far away. If we dug a hole straight through the middle of the earth from Adelaide we'd end up pretty close. Lets start digging! (If you need more inspiration check out this)