Tag: shopping

View from Hallgrímskirkja

Top 7 Things To Do in Reykjavik

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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.

Reykjavik’s streets

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

Top 7 Things to do in Reykjavik, Iceland
Hallgrímskirkja in all its glory!

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.

Top 7 Things to do in Reykjavik, Iceland
I lit a candle for all my homies who passed away.
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.

View from Hallgrímskirkja
One angle from the view at the top of the church.
View from Hallgrímskirkja
Another angle of the view from the top

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.

Another (less epic) viewpoint.
View from Hallgrímskirkja
With this view, is it worth $8 USD? Yes. Yes, it is.
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Top 5 Most Overrated NYC Attractions

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After years of taking friends and relatives around the City that Never Sleeps, I’ve been forced more than once to endure the tourist traps that define this great concrete jungle, but no real New Yorker ever tries to visit unless absolutely necessary. Here are my Top 5 Most Overrated NYC Attractions, and a few alternatives to get the same or similar experiences, without overpaying and braving the slack-jawed masses.

5.  Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center

Everyone wants to go ice skating at Rockefeller Center. Beneath the famous Christmas tree and the gaze of Prometheus, 150 skaters at a time can skate around in circles while being gawked at by hordes of tourists.

$25-$32 will get you admission to the rink and $12 will get you rental skates. Ouch.

Rock Center is beautiful and a must-see during the holiday season, especially. In the summer there’s a great outdoor bar and cafe that’s erected over the rink – so it’s a great place to be year-round. But, you don’t need to skate there.

Instead: Go ice skating at Bryant Park or The Rink at Brookfield Place – basically anywhere else.

Bryant Park‘s skating rink is free (yes, FREE!) with skate rentals of $20, and the Winter Village is definitely worth a look. You can store your bags for a fee and pay $28 to skip the line. Just allow plenty of time and you won’t need to do that, though. If you’re visiting, plan to visit during working hours, when the poor folks who live here need to be at work. And know that I’m envious of you!

The Rink at Brookfield Place, in the shadow of the World Trade Center, right by the water and surrounded by fabulous shopping and restaurants, is a great deal at $15 per 90 minute session and a $5 skate rental.  You can even pay a bit extra to take a skating lesson from former U.S. Olympic skaters. How cool is that?

4.  Statue of Liberty

Sure, Lady Liberty is a beaut’ and she celebrates her 125th anniversary this year. But, do you really want to get on a boat with a bunch of other tourists and be held captive, then corralled around the queue to get in, then wait some more, go Continue reading →

Top 15 Reasons to Love Dublin, Ireland

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Dublin, Ireland is one of my favorite cities in the world. There are several reasons for this. And, without further ado – here are my…

Top 15 reasons to love Dublin, Ireland

  1. Its Size

    Population-wise, Dublin has about 527,000 inhabitants, and covers an area of about 44.4 square miles. Much of what a tourist wants to see and do is packed into only a few square miles in the city center and this results in a very accessible, walkable town.

    Samuel Beckett Bridge, Dublin, Ireland

    View of the Millennium Spire through the Samuel Beckett Bridge

    I’ve spent a day walking one end to the other – starting around the Grand Canal Dock at Samuel Beckett Bridge and strolling along the Liffey all the way to Phoenix Park and Kilmainham Gaol. It takes a few hours if you stop here and there to see the sights, and it may not be great if you have older folks in your group, but it’s a definite plus that you can see most of the sights on foot if you want.

  2. Ease of public transportation

    You can take public transport all around the city and skip taxi cabs all together if you like. Take the DART from the outer neighborhoods to Tara Street and you’re smack in the middle of Temple Bar, for example. Or, take the DART out of the city to Malahide or Howth and take in the beautiful sea views.

    The Luas, a relatively newer light rail system, hits the city’s shopping streets north of the river, but it doesn’t go many other places that a tourist would want to visit.  Nevertheless, DART and Luas tickets are cheap and are a great option for travelers who are solo or are in small groups (when splitting a taxi doesn’t make sense).

  3. Direct flights to Dublin from many cities

    Dublin’s status as the capitol of Ireland and a tourist destination means that it’s easy to get to from many world cities. There are direct flights daily from the U.S. cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Orlando, for example.  The best airlines to get you there would be Ireland’s own Aer Lingus, or the other major carriers like Delta, American Airlines/US  Air, and even Emirates. I love Aer Lingus personally because you start getting the hospitality and flavor of Ireland the minute you step foot on the airplane.
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Top 6 Things To Do in Long Island City in the Springtime

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Spring is in the air… finally! This morning,  New Yorkers crawled out of their winter dens, stripping themselves of snow boots, misery and wool coats, slapped on a (temporary) smile and ventured outdoors for what seems like the first time in ages to enjoy the balmy 65-degree Fahrenheit, sunny weather we’ve been blessed with on a weekend day. Hallelujiah! Spring is here!
With the better weather comes a responsibility that most weekend warriors will understand. On the two days a week you’re not stuck indoors at your office, if it’s nice outside, you darn well better be outside enjoying it. Let’s be clear, though. You shouldn’t ditch the black boots and long sleeves yet. We’re still in New York and it’s April, and it could very well snow tomorrow … so don’t get too excited.
An old friend we met in Argentina, but just so happens to also live in NYC, came over today and we set out to enjoy the best of what LIC (that’s Long Island City….which, while technically geographically located on Long Island, is very much part of New York City and one Subway stop away from Manhattan on the 7, E or M trains – sorry to blow your mind) has to offer.
So, we took her out to enjoy our favorite weekend rituals for good weather in Long Island City. What are those, you ask? I’m so glad you did!

Here are my Top 6 Favorite Things To Do in LIC in The Springtime:

1.  Visit the LIC Flea & Food

Inaugurating the unofficial delayed start to the season this weekend was the grand reopening of the LIC Flea & Food, a celebrated local food and artisan fair held every Saturday and Sunday during the spring and summer outdoors at the corner of 46th Avenue and 5th Street, just one block from Center Boulevard in Long Island City, Queens.
Tons of food options, tons of artists and craftsmen – making for a few hours of fun at the Flea
Keep your eyes out for a detailed post about the “Flea” in the coming days.
For more on the LIC Flea & Food, visit http://www.licflea.com/ .

2.  Enjoy Gantry State Park

Iconic Pepsi-Cola sign? Check.

Amazing, unobstructed views of the New York City skyline? Check.

Ample room to sit, lounge, stroll and enjoy the waterfront? Check.

Dog park with (what I think is) the best view you can get? Check.

Ferry landing, where you can grab the East River ferry to Manhattan or to various parts of Brooklyn? Check.

 



Trouble finding the park? Walk straight from Center Boulevard towards the skyline. Stop before you fall in the East River. Easy peasy. Continue reading →

Review: Try The World

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Update 10/6/18: Try The World has vastly updated how they do business since my original post below. We had a good run of delightful boxes that arrived in beautiful packaging, on time, and full of quality products. That has changed. How so? Try The World no longer offers country boxes – they give you a random assortment of items that have no cohesive theme, don’t ship on time, sometimes skip months for no reason, and the overall quality of the product and packaging has taken a serious nose-dive. A TRY THE WORLD MEMBERSHIP IS SO NOT WORTH IT. I really wanted this company to make it. I did. I loved getting our box every month. Now, Try The World can try making itself better. But first it should try to avoid bankruptcy, where it is likely headed, judging from its behavior these last few months.

Hubby and I have been subscribers of Try The World since Christmas and recently received our second box – the Venice box – in the mail. So, I thought I’d write a review.

Try the World

Contents of the Try The World Venice Box

“What’s Try The World?” you ask? I have to admit, I was hesitant to sign up for it because I found it via a Facebook ad. Normally, I ignore Facebook ads… and I would say that one out of 2 times I actually clicked on them and ended up buying something, I have been horribly disappointed. Continue reading →

Buenos Aires: Wandering La Boca

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Ok, I promised I’d write a little bit about my second trip to Buenos Aires and wandering La Boca. Here it is. See? I deliver.

Part of why I was excited to go back to BA was that I never got to see the Boca stadium, or La Boca in general.

Boca Juniors play here. They took their colors from the Swedish Flag.

This time I took Kim’s advice (who commented on a prior post) and checked out Caminito in La Boca. I have to say, it was a pretty cool place. And funny. And super obnoxious. Every two feet, someone would approach us and ask us to eat in their cafe, or go to their tango show, or buy something. It got old, real fast.

Ah, Caminito. And Havanna, which is basically the Starbucks of Argentina. And possibly as obnoxious.

However, the highlight was a 20-something dreadlocked rasta who came right up and said, “Hey guys, want to get really f*cking drunk in my awesome restaurant?”  I couldn’t have asked it better myself.

We declined, however. We were on the search for some good knockoff Argentina jerseys and scarves. And trying to take photos of the streets, because, well, they are pretty amazing.

Creepy mannequins are watching you.

 

Other highlights were the fat Argentine man who takes photo ops as Maradona, the famous (?) Maradona graffiti, and the tango dancers in the streets. And the restaurant hustler who kept trying to guess where I was from. When I told him “Texas, USA”, after he guessed Australia, Canada, Russia (?), and then things like Iowa (!) …he replied, “But you are so white!”

Thanks, dude.