Top 7 Things To Do in Reykjavik

October 23, 2019November 13, 20198 Comments

Iceland is one of the most popular tourist destinations as of late, and I’ve been there twice. I’ve been to Reykjavik in the winter (late November) and in the summer (right after the summer solstice). Granted, the magic and beauty of Iceland are mostly found outside of its enchanting capital city. However, I do recommend that any tourists visiting Iceland spend some time in Reykjavik during their visit. There’s a lot to see and do (and eat and drink!) in this town – so here are my top 7 things to do in Reykjavik, Iceland!

Top 7 Things to do in Reykjavik, Iceland — Reykjavik is so full of color!

7. Visit quirky local artisan shops & buy cool stuff

Reykjavik has a great design scene and there are a ton of cool local shops where local artists sell their wares. Supporting local artisans is one of the ways that you can “give back” and fight the specter of overtourism. Iceland has a huge problem with overtourism, so consider offsetting your visit by supporting the local arts with a purchase. Plus, you’ll get a pretty sweet souvenir to bring home with you. It’s a win-win!

At Kirsuberjatred (Vesturgata 4) you’ll find original pieces by 11 local women artisans for purchase. This includes fishskin leather goods, pottery, jewelry and more.

My favorite shop, however, was fóa (formerly located at Laugavegur 2). It had a great balance of trendy and artsy but thoughtful things that you can bring home. Unfortunately, fóa closed in November 2018 due to skyrocketing rents in the city. The space it occupied is still vacant.

But – fret not! Rebekka from fóa actually gave me amazing referrals for you, dear readers, if you would like to buy real Icelandic products from local artisans. They are:

A store I really enjoy is Skúmaskot, they are sort of along the lines of fóa, selling beautiful pieces by Icelandic designers. A few artists still sell their wares at Kolaportið, the only real flea market in Iceland and they could definitely do with some support as well. There are also very many beautiful jewellers (orri finn and aurum for example) that are still running stores downtown.
I would also recommend ceramic shops! There are lots of them dotted around downtown esp. on Skólavörðustígur that are absolutely beautiful…[Jackie’s note: Maybe also get coffee and a pastry at Mokka Kaffi in the morning near here too – a cafe in Reykjavik that’s been open since 1958!]
…Rammagerðin and Epal, larger and more established stores…sell mass-produced trinkets but also have some high-end local art.
Rebekka – assistant store manager at fóa for the 5 years it was open

A more traditional option is buying an authentic knitted Icelandic sweater (known as a lopapeysa) from the Handknitting Association of Iceland (Skolavoerdustigur 19). These are NOT cheap, but the quality of the pieces is undeniable. If you don’t need a sweater but just want some warm gloves or a hat, they have those too (I have 2 pairs of gloves). Plus, you can be assured that it’ll be the warmest sweater, gloves, or hat that you own!

6. Visit Hallgrímskirkja and go to the top

Towering over the statue of Leif Eriksson is the unmissable Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik’s most iconic church. A Lutheran church, Hallgrímskirkja took 41 years to build (from 1945 to 1986). The church is named for the 17th Century famous Icelandic clergyman and poet Hallgrímur Petersson.

German organ at Hallgrimskirkja — That’s a big organ.

The church is home to a pretty epic organ (made by a German organ builder) and it has an elevator that takes you to the top of the tower. Tickets to the elevator are 1000 ISK (about $8 USD) per person. At the top, you can enjoy a 360-degree view of the city and beyond. The view alone is worth a visit. Being a Protestant church, the church is otherwise pretty plain inside (very Scandinavian), but beautiful.

Here are the church and tower hours:
Winter (October – April): 9 am – 5 pm, tower open 9 am – 4:30 pm.
Summer (May – September): 9 am – 9 pm, tower open 9 am – 8:30 pm.

Continue reading →

The Best of Santiago, Chile in 3 Days

October 1, 2016November 13, 20191 Comment

Santiago, Chile may not be the world’s most beautiful city. It’s not the ugliest, either. It’s got its fair share of fun things to do and cool things to see, but Santiago is a city where people live, work and play. It’s not necessarily built for tourism, but there’s a lot of things to do and see there as a tourist, if you know where to look.

Many folks build a trip to Santiago, Chile on their way to Easter Island, other parts of mainland Chile like Valparaiso, or Mendoza, Argentina. It has many direct flights from U.S. and other international cities, and is one of the capitals of South America. I submit that it’s definitely worth seeing, rather than just passing through, after being there a handful of times.

Our most recent trip to Santiago had us there for three days, which is the perfect amount of time to see the sights and enjoy the city.

The Best of Santiago, Chile in 3 days

Tours 4 Tips Free Walking Tour

This time around, we opted to take a tour with Tours 4 Tips, which was awesome! We did the Santiago Offbeat Tour. Our guide was fantastic, and the group was mainly people around our age, but there was definitely a range. We hit some of the top sights of the city that we wanted to see. We also got great background on the tumultuous political past of the country, much of which is not taught in U.S. schools (or is more than a paragraph or two in our history books).

Our guide explains the local produce of Chile at La Vega Central.

Face to face with a conger eel, or congrejo, at the Mercado Central

Our tour highlighted three of the main markets in the city, including the Mercado Central and La Vega Central. We also saw Continue reading →

Friðheimar: An Icelandic Greenhouse Lunch

July 10, 2016November 13, 2019Leave a comment

During our week in Iceland last summer, we stopped off at Friðheimar for an Icelandic greenhouse lunch after driving the Golden Circle for the better part of a morning and early afternoon. I had read about it in several other blogs and thought it sounded awesome – who doesn’t want to have lunch in a working greenhouse in the middle of Iceland? Exactly.

A little hard to find and off the beaten path, we drove the rental car only partway down the road and ended up in a little parking lot way too far from the door but close to the horses, so we piled in again and drove the dirt road up to the rather large greenhouse complex at the end, where we found Fridheimar, or Friðheimar, if you can make your keyboard do that weird Icelandic “d” thing.

A working greenhouse, the farmers here grow amazing tomatoes year-round, taking advantage of the farming practice where you can regulate temperature year-round, which is especially important for a place like Iceland, with its long frosts and colder-than-a-witches’-teet winters. Happy bees buzzed around the tall vines as they were misted.

PRO-TIP #1: Don’t Come Here If You Don’t Like Tomatoes.

Being that you’re in an Icelandic greenhouse that grows mostly tomatoes, it comes as no surprise, then, that the menu consists of tomato soup. Fresh tomato soup.

Friðheimar - Icelandic greenhouse restaurant

Fresh tomato soup!

Perhaps the freshest tomato soup I’ve ever had.

Don’t come here if you’re on the Atkins diet…and don’t want to suffer.

And a table of bread that would make even the biggest carb-lover’s heart skip a beat in delight. Asiago-crusted. Focaccia. Plain. Sourdough. In unlimited quantities.

We might have overdone it on the bread.

The soup was also unlimited.

Butter, sour cream, cucumber

There was fresh cucumber salsa, sour cream, and butter to accompany the main attraction, brought to the table by kind servers.

To drink, there are several types of Iceland’s craft beer – Einstök – on offer. This was before I had ever seen Einstök in the U.S. – but it’s now pretty prevalent, at least in the New York City area in local beer aisles.

Icelandic craft beer

The white ale went nicely with the tomato soup. It made things feel a little bit more summery, considering it was in the 40’s -50’s Fahrenheit outside. Which was easy to forget when we were snug and warm inside the greenhouse!

More Icelandic craft beer

The beers were in addition to wine and several options for Bloody Marys and other Bloody Mary-esque cocktails. The carafes of water at each table also had little cherry tomatoes in the bottom.

The bar.

Pro-Tip #2: Come for Lunch – They are only open from noon to 4pm.

We really loved the lunch here at Fridheimar. Since the soup and bread are unlimited and you serve yourself, you’re able to eat as much or as little as you want but it’s not too heavy. It’s also not fried, which is a nice plus.

We didn’t get dessert, but they all also feature tomatoes – cheesecake with tomato chutney, green tomato and apple pie, etc. On your way out of the greenhouse restaurant, you can stop in the little shop and purchase some of the tomato products that the greenhouse makes, to take home with you. We probably should have!

How to get to Friðheimar – an Icelandic Greenhouse Restaurant:

Friðheimar

Bláskógabyggð

IS-801

Selfoss, Iceland

Phone: +354 486-8894

Friðheimar is best visited if you’re driving yourself around the Golden Circle and plan to stop at Kerið crater or Faxi waterfall. We visited after seeing Gulfoss, stopping quickly at the Faxi waterfall, and before we headed to hike down the Kerið crater. It’s definitely worth a stop if you’re outside of Reykjavik and looking for an alternative lunch spot – eating in an Icelandic greenhouse!

Have you been to Friðheimar? Tell me what you thought about it in the comments? Are you thinking about going? Ask me anything in the comments, too!

Reykjavik Hot Dogs: Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur

May 22, 2016Leave a comment

Before even going to Reykjavik, we knew that we’d definitely be eating hot dogs at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur. These iconic Icelandic-style frankfurters have been featured in No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, Forbes magazine and a slew of other travel shows, guides and reviews. As a self-styled hot dog connoisseur (they’re one of my favorite food groups – yes, one can simultaneously love hot dogs and truffles), I just had to see for myself if these Reykjavik hot dogs were as good as their reputation indicated.

The place whose name,

Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur

translates to “The best hot dogs in town” did not disappoint. Hailing from a city where hot dogs are taken seriously (travelers to NYC always say how they need to get a hot dog from a cart on a street corner – we affectionately call them “dirty water dogs”), I have to say: dang, these Reykjavik hot dogs are legit. Continue reading →

48 Hours on Easter Island

May 15, 2016November 21, 20191 Comment

Easter Island. Rapa Nui. Isla de Pascua. Whatever you call it, it is a mysterious gem in the middle of the south Pacific Ocean. I mean it’s really in the middle of nowhere, with being about 3,756 km (2,340 miles) to Santiago, Chile and 4,231 km (2,646 miles) to Tahiti and 1,922km from Pitcairn Island, the closest inhabited place to it. Fun fact: Pitcairn is trying to recruit new residents since the population has dipped so low – as in, to 45 people – in the past few years – read more on that here: http://www.immigration.gov.pn/

Here’s what I knew about Easter Island before we went there:

1) there’s Moai there (the big stone heads)

2) it’s technically part of Chile, and

3) …Ok…that’s about all I knew.

The Moai at Ahu Tongariki

So why go? Seeing those big, beautiful stone dudes was on my bucket list. And Easter Island is pretty expensive to get to if you’re traveling around South America as a student or a poor, newly-employed attorney. It was more expensive to go there for a weekend than to go to Rio de Janeiro for a week. So, let’s just say it was on the list but wasn’t do-able until my friends and I started seriously talking about a South America trip this year.

First – how does one get to Easter Island?

You fly, obviously. But, not so obvious is the complete lack of variety when it comes to airlines and direct flights. You basically need to fly on LAN and fly from either Santiago, Chile or from Tahiti. There’s one flight a day, in the morning around 11am. And that’s it. You miss it, you wait until the next day. So when our flight departing New York’s JFK was late in leaving (because – get this- the plane was on the other side of the airport and took an hour and a half to DRIVE TO THE GATE), we knew we were going to be cutting it close and our 2.5 hour layover in Santiago was shrinking.

Pro-Tip #1: arrive in Santiago the night before your flight to Easter Island, or leave at least a 4-hour window between your connection’s arrival at the airport and your scheduled departure.

The arrivals gate at the airport

We nearly missed the flight, and after some begging/pleading/nearly crying to the LAN employees at Santiago airport, we made our connection. If you miss your connection, you can consult this post and thank me later.

I don’t recommend starting your vacation nearly missing your connection. I’m typically probably way too nice to airline personnel, but this was a moment where I almost truly lost it. Mainly because we were promised by the flight attendants and the desk staff in New York that we’d make our connection without a problem, even with the delay. So give yourself a good cushion!

So the plane you take to Easter Island is a jumbo jet – a 787- for some reason, I was thinking that there would only be a small plane since it seems like a semi-unpopular destination. Continue reading →

Bierocracy – Queens’ Finest New Beer Joint

December 28, 2015November 13, 2019Leave a comment

Bierocracy opened last month in Long Island City, one of the fastest-growing neighborhoods in Queens, NY – the most diverse county in the United States. It’s no wonder, then, that the community welcomes the newest addition to the budding LIC food and beverage scene – this German/Bohemian-style beer hall has that “IT” factor that others attempt, but never quite attain. I’m a HUGE fan.

Inside Bierocracy.

A stone’s throw from the first stop on the 7 Train outside of Manhattan (as in, one stop from Grand Central Terminal), this cozy but cavernous space channels a different continent. It’s hard to believe, when you look around, that it was just built. As a big fan of the bier halls in Munich and Prague, I have to say – it does a pretty good job of transporting you to the Old World, if not when you first walk in, then at your first sip.

Our table at Bierocracy

Communal seating abounds -the cheerful waitstaff welcome you to sit wherever you like. Pull up a seat at a bench and picnic table in one of the rooms, whether you want to sit on either side of the bar or in the cozier section off to the right. I am not crazy about communal seating generally, but there’s something about a beer hall that just demands it. Ask anyone who’s been to the Hofbrauhaus. Beer is better when shared with strangers.

It’s not all about the beer – or at least, there’s Something for Everyone at Bierocracy.

Before I get too far, I would be remiss to note that Bierocracy has a full bar, as well as a varied wine list. Although the offerings are mainly (appropriately) Old World vines, there’s the ever-present California cabernet sauvignon to please the crowd. Continue reading →

Fish Out of Malbec

Travel Tastefully

Tag: restaurants

Top 7 Things To Do in Reykjavik

7. Visit quirky local artisan shops & buy cool stuff

6. Visit Hallgrímskirkja and go to the top

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The Best of Santiago, Chile in 3 Days

The Best of Santiago, Chile in 3 days

Tours 4 Tips Free Walking Tour

Like this:

Friðheimar: An Icelandic Greenhouse Lunch

PRO-TIP #1: Don’t Come Here If You Don’t Like Tomatoes.

Pro-Tip #2: Come for Lunch – They are only open from noon to 4pm.

How to get to Friðheimar – an Icelandic Greenhouse Restaurant:

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