OUT TO SEE: FINDING THE MUSIC SCENE IN ICELAND (PART I of III)

As you may be familiar from some of his past columns about his travels (Sevilla, Spain, Prague, New Zealand, Lisbon, etc.), Notes from Vivace always makes a point to try to locate the local music scene in each of the places he is exploring at one point or another during his trip.  This time around his adventures take him to Iceland.

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It was off to Reykjavik, Iceland. Why did I decide to go to Iceland for vacation? There are a number of reasons that nudged me to visit a country with a population of just 320,000. If you’ve read my various travel posts, you know I can be one penny pinching traveler. I actually wanted to spend my “summer” vacation in Denmark. That vacation was supposed to happen in late May, but other life events prevented me from doing so. It could just be my imagination, but it felt like a trip to Denmark in August was going to cost me more than a May vacation. So I started to think about other options. I considered Budapest, but then I read that Budapest is extremely hot in August. I decided to head somewhere in the northern part of our hemisphere as I figured it wouldn’t be as hot. Since Iceland had an economic meltdown a few years back and this country has a volcano that messed with my UK vacation, the country name got stuck in my head and so I randomly started doing some research on that country. I started to come away with the idea that this would be an ecology driven adventure, similar to my trip to New Zealand. I also read that it had a good music scene. After doing my number crunching, it looked like I could bring my vacation in at a reasonable price. The vacation was booked and off I went during the last week of August.

Saturday

It was off to LAX on my normal route: the 90/91 bus.

I sat near two women in the back who were discussing Los Angeles. One was proclaiming her love for Los Angeles “even though there are prostitutes and gangbangers all over the city.” She also couldn’t understand “the tendency of folks who toss their garbage on the sidewalk even when an actual trashcan is right there for them to use.”

I caught an interesting innovation for this bus line. As we entered Downtown LA and came to various stops near the Red and Purple lines, I heard a deep computer voice boom out: “this is a stop for the Red/Purple Metro lines.”

I got off at my normal Hill/7th Street stop and walked over to the 7th Street Metro stop. I got onto the Blue Line train a few minutes before it pulled away from the station. In the past, I’ve gotten to the metro stop only to watch the train pull away as I was heading towards it. I preferred this outcome better.

There is an important note to self here: the new Aqua Line also stops here so I need to be careful in the future about boarding the correct line.

As the Blue Line made its stops, a guy got onto the train. The guy looked to be in some stage of drug withdrawals. He took a seat behind me. His constant groaning got my suburban radars going. I got incredibly nervous. Was it possible that this guy could go nuts due to his withdrawal pains? Since I was the closest individual to him, would he end up attacking me? I started to lean forward in my seat. Finally, I just couldn’t take it anymore and with a stop to go I just got up and stood.

My comparison of airlines: Delta vs. American. I mostly fly either Delta or American (or their partner airlines). This is driven by the fact that I am enrolled their frequent flier programs. Comparing the two airlines, I’ve read that it is far easier to exchange your frequent flier miles for free flights via American vs. Delta (I may soon put that theory into practice as I just recently reached the necessary frequent flier miles for a free flight to Europe or South America via American). On the other hand, I have to say I enjoy flying Delta better than American (both airlines have had issues with my luggage so both are neutral there). Delta just seems to care more for their coach passengers. I think Delta has a better set-up at their airport terminals and it has much more variety when it comes to flight entertainment, which is seriously important to me when I’m on a flight for 6+ hours.

For this vacation, I was flying with Delta. As our LAX plane was getting ready to head off to New York, I couldn’t help but muse that our lead flight attendant was the most cheerful flight attendant I’d run across as she gave the standard pre-flight instructions. Of course, after six hours in the air, her announcements in New York were just a tad less cheerful, but still ranked high.

As happens way too frequently, I was asked if I would change seats. This time the requester was a mother, wanting to sit by her son. The tradeoff was getting stuck in a middle seat versus my aisle seat. If there is one thing that stinks, it is getting stuck in the middle seat. If the exchange request is an aisle seat for an aisle seat, fine; otherwise it is an awful deal. I so wanted to say no, but said yes. In my new seat, the guy in the aisle seat was amazed that I made the deal – I suspect the woman asked him first. “You deserve some good karma,” he said. I replied, “She really should have just offered to pay me some cash.” I guess that sentence ended any possibility of good karma coming my way. (I did some online research on this topic of parents asking folks to switch seats. Comments were made that parents should offer compensation when asking an aisle seat passenger to move to a middle seat. So yes, apparently I’m not the only one who thinks this is an important topic.)

At JFK, I didn’t even need to leave the gate. The plane just stopped to re-fuel (I suppose) and pick up additional passengers in New York. After a couple hours, we re-boarded and it was off to Iceland.

Sunday

At the Reykjavik Airport, I was surprised at how easy it was to enter the country.

I got to passport control and handed over my passport. There wasn’t a single question asked. He just stamped my passport, and then it was off to customs.

I felt I’d get drilled at customs considering that I’m sure they want to keep the island’s natural beauty pristine. I was waiting to get questioned about rather or not I was bringing in any fruits or vegetables, etc. etc. There was no one at customs and in fact I didn’t even have to fill out a customs report. There was an arrow that pointed to another part of customs if you had anything to declare, but I took a peek and I swear there wasn’t anyone there. Maybe this was driven by the fact that it was 8:30 a.m.? It seemed strange.

When I got to the area of the airport where you book your bus into Reykjavik, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a long line at the Foreign Exchange Kiosk. I was thinking, why not just use the ATM, aren’t these exchange kiosks just ripping you off?

On my return back to the airport, I took a glance at the exchange rates provided. The rates seemed much fairer than the rates provided at LAX. This is one country where it might be a neutral proposition to exchange US Currency at a Foreign Exchange Kiosk versus using an ATM (though I’m not sure if there was a large upfront fee at the Kiosk).

I immediately ended up losing out on saving around $10 (proof that I penny pinch). I bought a round trip airport to city ticket, which included a drop off at my hotel. I figured I didn’t want to be stuck trying to find my hotel on my own as sometimes that can result in some unnecessary stress (I’m thinking of my Sevilla trip). So we drove into the bus terminal to drop off some passengers and then it was off on a 2 minute ride to my hotel. I could clearly see the bus terminal from the front of the hotel. I could have saved $10 by just walking 200 yards or so in a clear shot between the bus terminal and my hotel.

I hung around my hotel for a while. (more…)

Dec 19, 2012 | Categories: Music, Notes From Vivace, Out to See | Tags: Iceland, Music, Notes from Vivace, Out to See | Leave A Comment »