Travel & Reviews

In the belly of a volcano

August 1, 2012

Earlier this summer I was invited to take a most unusual tour – into the magma chamber of the [extinct!] Þríhnúkagígur volcano. I’d heard a bit about this tour before I went and read numerous gushing reviews – mostly from foreign journos. Consequently I was more than a little curious, although to be honest I [...]

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Restaurant review: Kjöt og kúnst in Hveragerði

July 16, 2012

Two evenings ago, EPI headed east to the town of Hveragerði [known to some as "Hurdygurdy"] to check out a restaurant that has been called “Iceland’s best-kept secret” – a place called Kjöt og kúnst. It was so secret, in fact, that I did not know about it until just recently [and I delude myself [...]

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My super-adventurous Katla excursion!

April 20, 2012

I have been doing some work for Reykjavík Excursions, which as some of you may recall was once the primary sponsor of this site. After I stopped updating [regularly] they got in touch and asked if I would be willing to help them rework the text on their website, with part of the deal being [...]

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Lögberg Heimskringla reviews our book!

March 14, 2011

Dear everyone: just checking in briefly to post a link to a glowing review of The Little Book of the Icelanders in the Icelandic-Canadian paper Lögberg-Heimskringla. There aren’t many books I’d recommend reading over morning coffee but The Little Book of the Iceanders is one of them. [...] I laughed at the essays in this [...]

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Best of Reykjavík: Festivals!

September 20, 2010

It feels like ages since we’ve had a Best of Reykjavík day here on the blog. This time I thought we’d feature festivals, since we’re on the subject of them, an’ all. Personally I have a really hard time choosing my favourite festivals because each has its own unique flavour and obviously attracts different people [...]

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Best of Reykjavík: Bakeries

August 27, 2010

Iceland does not have a long tradition of cake or bread-making … unsurprising, perhaps, since flour, sugar and other such commodities were a rarity in this country up until just a few decades ago. That said, there are a few “traditionally Icelandic” pastries, cakes, breads etc. such as pönnukökur [literally "pancakes" -- though not in [...]

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Best of Reykjavík: Coffee!

August 17, 2010

OK, this is a really hard one, because Reykjavík has so many excellent cafés, and almost all of them serve great coffee. That said, and bearing in mind that these are totally subjective, here are my favorite places to get a good cup of coffee. Or at least those that pop into my mind first. [...]

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West Fjords rising

August 2, 2010

One of the most pleasant surprises I had during our hiking excursion was the level of vibrancy and energy among the people of the West Fjords. Literally every place we came to there were people doing innovative, creative things that are bringing life to the area — it was incredibly inspiring! Not too many years [...]

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On our superexcellent hiking excursion

August 1, 2010

As some of you may know, EPI and I belong to a hiking group that meets on the last weekend in July every year to do some, um, hiking. We are fortunate to have a member on board who knows Iceland pretty much like the back of his hand, and tend to choose locations that [...]

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Restaurant review! – Tapas barinn’s fast food debacle

July 30, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, EPI and I decided to go out for dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary. After brief deliberation we decided on Tapas barinn, since we’d heard good things about it lately. I mention that because, well, we tried it when it first opened around 2002 or thereabouts, and were decidedly underwhelmed. [...]

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