| From: Michel Fougeres <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: rec.travel.europe,soc.culture.nordic,rec.travel.air
Subject: Youth Hostel in Iceland
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 1995 22:14:37 -0500
Organization: Modern Languages Department, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
When I bought my plane ticket from a place in Europe to the US through
Iceland, I complained to the woman at the desk that it was VERY
EXPENSIVE & she agreed. But, she added, I was buying a one-way ticket
at the peak of the tourist season & it was bound to be expensive. The
next day, when I arrived at the Icelandic Airlines's office to deliver
the money for my ticket, the woman -- now I may be more precise & say:
"the very beautiful Icelandic young woman who spoke flawless French" --
greeted me with these words: "Ah... I have a somewhat different deal
for you... It's really all the same arrangements, but the price is
cheaper..." I was both stupefied & delighted, & after some hesitation,
I decided that I might as well not ask too many questions. Amazingly
enough, without my doing anything, she had gotten me a ticket for
almost one third less than what I had reluctantly agreed to pay the day
before. (I will not say for how much, or in what country I bought the
ticket.) In any case, my flight included 3 nights at the Reikjavik
Youth Hostel, which cost me the equivalent of twenty dollars a night.
The advantage of booking the Youth Hostel nights through the airline
was that I would have a room reserved when I arrived.
I arrived at the Reikjavik airport somewhat unprepared, in that I had
omitted to buy Icelandic currency before, & I had even passed an
exchange office inside the airport by the time I found myself near the
exit. There was still a very small bank office inside the airport, but
because we just hit 3 or 4 p.m., it closed in front of my nose. How
could I send my big piece of luggage direct to the US ? I inquired.
The airport lady I asked from called a male colleague, & between them,
in two minutes they had arranged for me to zoom through the official
barriers & leave that big piece of luggage with the male attendant, who
promised me I would find it at Baltimore. (He was right, everything
worked without a hitch & without any official papers.) I found those
people (Icelandics ?) very practical & glad to help.
Then I worried about paying the bus ticket to Reikjavik. "The ticket
collector will make you change" I was told. ("Everybody here speaks
English," I was starting to tell myself.) I had not asked carefully
about the exchange rate before, so that the bus ticket to Reikjavik
seemed to me to cost a lot (10 to 12 $ if I remember correctly) but
then I was reminded that the distance to cover was about 50 miles.
Those +/- 50 miles are enough to surprise the first timer: a barren
land of lava... No vegetation. Iceland would appear to be very poor,
desolate, miserable. And yet it is a rich country.
But I am not through with the buses. (By the way, since I forgot the
name of the Icelandic currency ["Kronur" - TT], I will call it here ICU
for "Icelandic Currency Unit".) On the airport bus (I think it was
called the FLYBUS, or the SKYBUS) we were told that once in town we
would have to be careful to ask for a CITY TRANSFER (but obviously they
did not know the appellation TRANSFER, so they used a different word)
because if we didn't, the city bus drivers would ask us to pay for each
ride (so that, for instance, with two buses, one would have to pay 200
ICU's to get to the Youth Hostel, instead of just 100.) As the FLYBUS
arrives in Reikjavik, you can finally see lots of generally smallish
but white & cheerful & modern houses. The Icelanders live well & heat
their houses with the plentiful & practically free geothermal heat.
All the greenery you see has been planted by the natives themselves or
by friendly volunteers, it seems, & obviously, oftentimes with a lot of
pain & dedication & love. Nowadays, the Icelanders live well.
Here, I must say that the city bus numbers mentioned in LET'S GO EUROPE
(to reach the Youth Hostel) were not quite accurate (or not the best
possibility). When your FLYBUS arrives at the first hotel stop in
Reikjavik, everybody will be happy to show you where to wait for city
bus #1, which goes downtown; once on that #1 city bus with your
transfer-called-something-else, wait until the guy (or the gal) at the
wheel tells you that you should now change to bus #5. Bus #5 drives
right past the Youth Hostel. Ask the bus driver (they all know English
well) to be let down there. (If ever I am wrong with the bus numbers,
though, I don't claim responsibility for anything.)
At the YH desk, the girl said yes, she had received my reservation (& I
saw my name on her big book). But as she looked at the papers I was
bringing me, she said: "There is not reservation in your papers. So
you must pay for your stay." "But I already paid for 3 days with my
plane ticket, I insisted." "No, it's not there. No, you must pay."
Finally I asked for my papers back (I practically GRABBED them from her
hand) -- I searched frantically, & lo! "Here it says '3 night's stay',
you see ?" The paper was not THAT clear but obviously it was a proof.
She looked at it again: "Yes... it's not breakfast included." "What
?" I was quite sure I had paid for breakfast included. "No, no, there
is nothing there." But this time, she kept the papers away from my
hand & I did not feel like making a scene. So I gave up, only thinking
that next time I would read all the papers by myself first. "How much
is breakfast ?" "500 ICU's" (whatever the name). "You have to reserve
it the day before." So I prepaid the breakfast, 500 ICU's.
After I was installed in the eight men room (bunk beds) on the evening
of my arrival, I came back down to the desk & asked for some brochure
on Iceland & things to see & do. "Maybe you want to go to the swimming
pool ?" the girl asked. "You mean the baths ?" "Yes, very good...
very good..." "I'd love to but I still don't know my way around..."
"No, you walk. Here in the street, down." "Still open ?" "Open till
9 or 10." I rushed to gather my swim stuff (yes, NO nude swimming) &
soon I was hurrying down the street in the cold rain [the fact is that
the sky is very often covered in Iceland; there, LET'S GO EUROPE was
right, if you don't wear the proper gear & it rains, you just get wet;
you often catch cold rain even in Summer] & there it was, at less than
500 yards distance, an olympic swimming pool with lots of happy
Icelanders rushing in, coming on foot & on bicycles, on motorcycles &
on whatever with their rosy/blondy children, to frolic. The natural
warm water is great, you often swim with cold mist or cold rain falling
ON you but still you feel nice. There are also hot tubs with different
temperatures, some very hot. (I had no chance to sample the "fantastic
mud massages".)
The Reikjavik Youth Hostel is small but clean. They DO have a
magnificent wooden "parquet" on the top floor, as mentioned in LET'S
GO, but I found the bathrooms to be much too small & cumbersome. In
one of them (there are VERY FEW) if you are a man & you want to shave,
you practically have to incline your nose right on top of a commode.
For the morning, forget about those fabulous Nordic or Dutch breakfasts
you've heard about; breakfast at the Reikjavik YH reminded me weirdly
of the breakfast at the Helsinki STADION YH -- same dry nondescript
no-taste bread, same skimpy anemic lunchmeat, same no-taste
white/or/Anerican sliced cheese, same general skimpiness, same bad
coffee [coffee or chocolate or "drinks" come out of an
electric/automatic machine at the Reikjavik YH & they all taste like an
electric/automatic machine ] -- & same VERY HIGH prices. (25 Finnmarks
for breakfast at the STADION, I think I recall, but at least, there,
you could also eat one very small egg or two [they would have frowned
upon three]). I was the only one eating breakfast both at the Helsinki
& at the Reikjavik Youth Hostels. After the first morning (in
Reikjavik) I made sure I ate & drank my own stuff -- like the other
international WANDRARS did (OK, this word may not be Icelandic.)
One thing I regretted at the Reikjavik YH is that they close the rooms
every day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. That's a very long time. What if you
have to do things during the day, like getting into your gear or...
just rest ? One afternoon when I was especially tired, I tried to lie
down on the hostel ground outside; I was lucky, it was not raining, but
after a while I got cold. So I found a place inside the building. I
lay down on the floor of some corridor & no one saw me. Finally at
15:30 hrs I marched into my room, ready for a fight. Not a soul in
sight.
The Reikjavik YH has posters warning campers from the camping ground
adjacent to it that they are not allowed to use the facilities.
Ironically, it is the camping ground that has all the facilities,
spacious & sturdy toilets, spacious & sturdy showers, big & modern
washing machines & dryers, one or two ministores where you can buy food
& other basic supplies & even postcards, stamps AND... TELECARDS !
From the campground telephone booth, with the telecard, I was able to
call Pittsburgh, Boston & Paris directly & speak with my wife, my
chidren, my brother, my nephews... When my telecard hit rock bottom
with "empty", I had spent the equivalent of $10. At that point I said
good bye for the day.
LET'S GO says that if people will just use the Reikjavik buses, they
will see as much as they do on chartered tours. Possibly, but it's not
that easy for foreign visitors to know where the city buses run
exactly. I know, there are maps... I think the tourist buses do a
good job of showing people some natural wonders, like very impressive
waterfalls, geysers, etc... [I did not try the tourist planes; maybe
next time.]
About the city buses, what surprised me was that the bus drivers very
often collect the regular fare of 100 ICU's and then APPEAR TO KEEP it
for themselves instead of putting it in the official turnstile. (At
least they do it to foreigners.) During one ride, I noticed one
foreigner who argued to get his fare stub. The driver just put him
off. Once, while using a transfer (& I had my stub to prove it) the
driver of the second bus, even after I showed it to him, told me after
a while: "You have to pay." "But I DID pay, I showed you my stub.
There it is." Three minutes later: "You have to pay...." "I DID pay,
I showed you my transfer!" I was not going to shell out another 100
ICU's. After 3 tries he stopped asking.
The above lines are a snapshot, nothing more. I hope I have not been
too negative. Icelanders appear to me, at times disconcerting, but
generally very appealing. Some will talk very familiarly with a total
stranger. I'd love to go back & learn much more about that fairyland &
its people. Beyond 1/3 of the air fare off because of my nice
personality, beyond salmon galore, beyond the generally handsome
natives, the country has unimaginable wonders in store.
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