| Location: Reykjavik, Iceland - "The land of fire and | | | | why I was more than relieved when I found out |
| ice" | | | | everyone spoke English. |
| Lodging: Couch Surfing Internet: DSL (landline) | | | | Iceland is huge and not densely populated which |
| Backup: Siminn Mobile Broadband (3g) | | | | makes it hard to do things on your own. Two |
| Airfare: Jetblue: Tampa - Chicago Icelandic Air: | | | | thirds of the population lives in the capital and |
| Chicago - Iceland (check out Icelandic Express) | | | | there aren't very many places to stay outside of |
| Do you remember that volcano that exploded in | | | | the capital. For a travel company, I would |
| Iceland that stranded millions of travelers because | | | | recommend Gotraveliceland and make sure your |
| of the volcanic ash? Well, I just happened to be | | | | driver is "Gummi". Part owner of the company, he |
| standing on that volcano (actually a glacier) in | | | | goes out of his way to make sure your stay is |
| December. I know what you're thinking, why | | | | more than pleasant and even takes you to |
| would I travel to Iceland in December? IT'S | | | | locations that the other travel companies don't. |
| FREEZING, but there are less tourists and cheaper | | | | Quick side note: The battery on my camera died |
| airfare. And why would I stand on a volcanic | | | | (I now carry 3 on every trip) and I started taking |
| glacier? I have a bad habit on climbing on things | | | | pictures with my cell phone. Gummi noticed the |
| I'm not supposed to. My excuse is habits are hard | | | | situation and took my battery, did a MacGyver |
| to break. | | | | trick with tape and a car charger, and returned |
| I never considered traveling to Iceland in my | | | | my battery at the location (fully charged) where I |
| lifetime. Not because of the cold weather, simply | | | | was staying later that night. |
| because I didn't think there was anything to see | | | | This was my first experience couch surfing and I |
| (boy was I wrong). They call it the land of fire | | | | really lucked out. I had my own bedroom (and |
| and ice because it sits right on the convergence | | | | bed) with my own cable DSL internet connection. |
| of the North American and European tectonic | | | | You don't have to worry about the internet in |
| plates (which I actually was able to stand with one | | | | Iceland. They have reliable high broadband cable |
| leg on each plate). This causes an immense | | | | internet connections as well as 3g mobile |
| amount geothermal activity. There are gorgeous | | | | broadband provided by "Siminn". This is exactly |
| mountains, glaciers, volcanoes, and waterfalls as | | | | what you need to work and travel or day trade |
| well as plenty of nightlife. The people are | | | | abroad. Ásgeir, my couch surfing host, was |
| extremely friendly and everyone speaks English. I | | | | extremely gracious and even took us out to |
| am pretty good with languages, if you search on | | | | party and showed us around the city. |
| YouTube someone speaking Icelandic you will see | | | | |