Iceland Part 14 - Final thought

Spook looking for a toilet in the Icelands' wilderness

So that was my 2 weeks in Iceland. I truly had the time of my life and the best two hours of my life for sure. If I could change anything, it would be having a smart phone, as my old mobile is not the best for looking up weather websites. And as I only found internet in Egilsstaðir, Akureyri, Reykjavik and Skaftafell national park (that were open) this was the biggest hurdle for me. I was as flexible as the weather, but when you don't know the forecast, it's tough to make decision. I will be returning during summer, and I can't wait to do the Interior and visit more of the wild, unspoiled and breath taking landscapes and sights. And do off road driving and crossing rivers. Woop woop!

Stokkur ready to go. All the sights in Iceland are free. You don't even have to pay for parking. Huge plus and huge difference if you live in the UK. Money you save, you will spend elsewhere. Guaranteed.

Any country can have a bad weather, but at least with Iceland you know you're going to get it (and with the UK but we are not covering the UK now). You can come prepared. And do not go reading sci-fi stories of great weather during whole stay in Iceland. You will only end up being disappointed. One thing that will not disappoint will be the sights. I have never seen such long stretches of wilderness and unspoiled nature. I have bought a t-shirt in Reykjavik that says: Iceland the best kept secret. I don't think Iceland is a secret at all. It's just that people get so obsessed about their weather and choose not to go and they are missing out on something much, much better.

And we have a take off! This is Stokkur. The Geysir is dead and has been dead for quite some time. Every warm water that squirts from the ground at regular intervals and looks like this is called geyser. You could say his legacy lives on.  If you're comming here and you are lucky for it to go off, you can see it from way away. Some blasts are smaller than others.

While waiting for Stokkur, you can admire these pools that are full of minerals hence the colour.

And the final thought is:
Be prepared for the worst, hope for better, but most importantly have a great time! Iceland has all the ingredients you need for a trip of a life time.

Iceland Part 13 - Aurora Borealis Northern Lights

Aurora Borealis above Stöðvarfjörður in East Fjords

Northern lights are THE BEST light show on Earth. Once seen never forgotten, and if you are not addicted, consider your self very lucky. Iceland is in the middle of auroral zone, so nearly ever clear night you should see this natures' magical show. Unfortunately, Iceland also seems to be positioned in the middle of low pressure front, so this means clear nights are not as common. I was always fascinated by this phenomena. At one point I just wanted to go for a long weekend to Iceland, just so I can see it. I have been advised (by native Icelanders) that if I only want to see Northern lights, Iceland is not the country for it, due to its cloud cover. Once here, the advice became real and I can only second that. But Iceland has so many great things to do and see, it's easy to come here for 10 days and in that time keep an eye on the night sky, pray for a clear patch and hope the sun will have a temper tantrum.

Stöðvarfjörður

The best times to see them are during autumn and spring solstice, as this is when the sun is most active, but you can come here any-time (apart from summer, when they do not get dark enough nights).

West Fjords, my first sighting. Even if a night starts off cloudy, watch out for a gap in the clouds.

This was the best two hours of my life. In the morning I was in Reykjavik area, when I heard a rumour that there is a 20% change of clear sky happening that night in East fjords. The only clear patch in whole Iceland. Last night CME (Coronal mass ejection) has hit Earths' atmosphere and some of the action could have been seen. I have driven through torrential rain and gale force winds for 10 hours to get there. At Skaftafell I wanted to turn around, as I could not picture anywhere in the world not raining, never mind anywhere on the island. And my determination has paid of. This formation is called Corona

Why only two hours? Because the clouds that were circling around me finally closed in. I'm not sure if anyone is conducting a research into the matter, but I'm sure there is more to it than just a coincidence that every clear night that had Aurora also attracted clouds. You can also see meteor, Jupiter, Pleiades and Milky way in this picture.

Egilsstaðir camp site. Aurora arrives in waves. If Aurora dies down and you think the show is over at 10 or 11pm, stay put. I didn't know this, so after a show I went to camp site. At 2am, I woke up because a "blast" has lit up my car and I couldn't believe my eyes. This is not it, but I jumped out of the car, set up and was photographing the rest of the show. Ideally you want to be out of town, where there is minimal light polution. If you get a strong aurora (like in this picture) you can see it, even through the town lights.

Aurora creates lots of different shapes. Here is Swan. Or whatever you can see. Let me know. What surprised me was how Icelanders do not seem to be excited about Aurora. I only met one guy who was just as smitten as me. Well not quite but it came closer than rest of them. I know they see it a lot, but I can not imagine I would ever tire of it. In all 4 times I got to see it, it was different everytime. I wonder, if there are people in some dry desert, watching British TV and get excited at the sight of constant rain and saying how they would never complain about it.

Another huge plus for Iceland is, that out of towns the light polution is minimal. So you get to see and photograph Milky way as well.

These bands gave as much light as full moon. I have to say though, that no photograph or a film can do justice to when you are there, and this light show is happening above your head. I have missed so many photographs, as I was in awe of the breathtaking phenomena. Sight once seen never forgotten.

Hello, my name is Ren and I'm an Aurora Addict.

Iceland Part 12 - Waterfalls

Godafoss (waterfall of the Gods) It's call like that because when Icelanders decided to take Christianity as their religion (until then they were Pagans) their chieftain threw wooden images of the Pagan gods into these waterfalls.

All that bad weather I have described in previous entry, is not just to annoy tourists. The rain helps to feed one of the most beautiful and powerful natural wonders of Iceland, its waterfalls. Nobody knows how many waterfalls there are in Iceland, but I have read somewhere that they have one waterfall per inhabitant. Not sure when the statement was made, but even 100 000 would seem pretty unbelievable. It would, until you come here. There is falling water (and I'm not referring to rain now) everywhere. Even when I tried to find out what some of them were called, I couldn't. There are just too many to name all of them.

Foss a Sidu. It is in south of Iceland and you can see it straight from the Ring road. It's only 1-2 minute walk from the main road.

When you witness the power of some of them and the amount of water that falls down, you almost want to wait up, for when the water runs out. They are mostly melting glaciers which gives some of them amazing blue colour. I love waterfalls, probably because I have never lived anywhere near them. And I find them fascinating to watch and to photograph.

For me, Godafoss is the most beautiful one. If you get here, make sure you check it out from both sides.

Gullfoss - Golden Falls. Most popular in terms of visitors, as it is part of Golden Circle. This one is huuge. Amazing what mother nature can create with some water in thousands of years.

Hafragilsfoss. Downstream from Dettifoss. Jokulsargljufur National park. It reminded me of Grand Canyon. Great place for some hiking.

The Biggie - Dettifoss. The largest waterfall in Europe based on the volume of water that flows from it. 'Mazing.

Selfoss. If you walk upstream from Dettifoss, about a mile, you will get to see this natural beauty. The walk is very rocky at places, so have sturdy shoes.

Detail of Selfoss with some funky sunflare :-)

Svartifoss (Black Fall) in Skaftafell National park. The most famous sight in the park, thanks to it's beautiful basal lava columns that form a backdrop.

Dynjandi (Fjallfoss) The jewel of West fjords. There is a couple in front of it for scale.

Detail of Dynjandi. The dreamy effect is just lots of spray on the camera glass.

And thats all the waterfalls that are famous I have. There are some famous ones I could not photograph, because the weather was not only very bad rain wise, but at Skogafoss I couldn't even open the car door, the wind was so strong. I have only done Ring road and there are lot more waterfalls to be admired in the Interior. I can't wait.

Iceland Part 11 - Weather

And the pictures Icelandic tourist board does not want you to see:-)

The weather in Iceland is really bad. But this sometimes creates really dramatic light. Did you know that Iceland is the second windiest inhabited place in the world? First place belongs to Falkland Islands.

Weather is a big part of any holiday and I know we all wish for perfect weather when we set off to any destination. While Caribbean goes hand in hand with tropical heat and blue skies, Iceland is not Iceland without gale force winds and torrential down pour. Questions like: “Does it really rain a lot in Iceland” or “Is the weather really bad in Iceland” come up often in Google searches, which tells me, that my experience wasn’t special and many battle with the elements.

Now I'm not trying to put anyone off from visiting this country, (I have another stint in Iceland lined up - I have to do the Interior) but it’s always good to get the real picture, not just the sunny weather shots you get in brochures.

September and October are the wettest months in Iceland. And I can only confirm this.There can not be wetter and windier weather at any other time.

Before going to any country, I know people Google Flickr for shots and out of three options (recent, relevant and interesting) 99.99% click to see the interesting ones. Then, you get to Iceland, and are gutted when you don’t get the golden sunsets/sunrises, and blue skies with sheep like white clouds. That’s because this type of weather is as common as glamour model with a degree. This picture deserves to be at the top of every Iceland search. Before you go look at this set of images and try to get inspired. It's hardly skillful to get a great shot when you have a golden sunset.

Sun and rain have sometimes battles. In this instance, rain was the winner.

If you read up a lot about Iceland you will come across two weather related pow-wows:

1) Weather in Iceland changes every 5 minutes. Wrong. Weather does change very often, but even from good to bad (which is fastest weather change in Iceland) takes a little longer. However I have to point out that while Iceland has two high pressures weather fronts (good and very good) they have circa 17 different low pressure ones and they have a name for every one of them. In England there is just one word for it - crap. Hence not everything can be translated from Icelandic. And the weather doesn’t necessarily changes good-bad-good-bad either.

2) If the weather is bad in south west, it’s good in north east. This is partially true, and if you are there it's worth checking it out (on the internet at least here), but the full truth is if the weather in Iceland is bad, it’s bad everywhere. Also driving distance from Reykjavik to Vopnafjodur is around 490 miles (790 km) and you can’t do it in less than 10 hours. If nothing else, you will be missing attractions along the way. And Jokulsarlon looks amazing in whatever the weather.

Jokulsarlon in the rain and with rainbow. Not too bad, huh? (except I was getting wet)

The first two days I have had a weather that I would compare to arctic monsoon (artic because it was around 8C). At that point I just thought it was exceptional and that I haven’t managed to escape the curse I have been born with of things going terribly wrong for me. To be honest I did consider abandoning the whole trip and heading home. But as the holiday progressed I have realised that I’m not Gods’ chosen  21.century Noah, and I should leave the animals well alone, rather than try to hoard pairs into my car and save every animal species from what seemed like the new age flood of biblical proportions. The rain has rendered my 200 quid waterproof jacket useless, as either my jacket was not waterproof in the first place, or it is not waterproof in Icelandic conditions.

The good news is, if you love rainbows, you will love Iceland in its wettest. By day 3 I was sick of them, and stopped taking pictures. Not because they're not beautiful, but because rain comes with them. There is a reason why giant rainbow sculpture graces the Keflavik Airport.

I have climbed a hill to see how far I can see (as I’m a sucker for mountain views), but this ended up futile, as not only the weather has worsened to a point where I couldn’t see my feet. I have honestly struggled to get down, as the wind was so strong it was preventing me from going downhill. If it wasn’t for the torrential downpour, I would have a lot longer fun trying to get as diagonal and let the wind stopping me from falling flat on my face. In the UK you have to pay a fair bit of money for the use wind tunnels. Here this type of fun it’s free.

Sometimes storms come in very nice and dramatic packages like this. Unlike in US, in Iceland you don't have to go storm chasing. Here storm chases you.

Because I had the luxury of a car, I have come up with a game to see how many times I can get wet and dry in one day. Getting wet was not a problem (superfast), but the drying bit took longer. Once I was dry second time, I have decided to abandon that mission, as I didn’t fancy getting wet again. Then I thought of my second game, called “Spot the blue colour in the sky”.  Sometimes I swear it was just a mirage or wishful thinking that made me see a blue patch. But once, just waiting for a rain to pass so I can go and explore in better conditions, I suddenly spotted a blue colour patch through the front car window. The sky was clearing! I waited and waited, willing it to become bigger and bigger, and then finally taking over the sky. For some reason, the patch wasn’t getting bigger, it was not getting smaller either. It wasn’t even changing its shape, which I though was a bit odd. After what seemed like hours, but in real time terms was probably just 10 minutes, I got fed up and decided to plan my next adventure. Grabbed the map of Iceland and then it happened! The blue patch I could see through the front windscreen has suddenly disappeared. Turned out, the blue patch I was putting all my hopes into, was just a reflection of one of the glaciers on the map.

Skaftafell Natioanl Park, heavy clouds hold the sun back, but it does get through the hole where it rains. 'mazing phenomena

Admittedly sleeping in the car does get somewhat tricky, when you have rain drumming up against the roof. Try to think of it as you are in the rainforest.  I have heard the saying: “There is no such thing as bad weather, only wrong clothes” Well, whoever came up with it, has never been to Iceland J

Light at the end of the tunnel? Actually, no. This was the light I was leaving behind. The road went higher into the thick clouds, and I have witnessed the worst visibility ever recorded. In my diary that is. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't afford to make it worse by having water in my eyes. On this road I have picked up a hitch-hiker mentioned earlier.

When doing my second round of the Ring road, and surfing the information superhighway in Skaftafell National parks' information office (and hiding from torrential conditions that were happening outside) a woman asked one of the guys: "When will we have good weather?" The guy replied: "Next year." The woman laughed because she thought, he was joking. I laughed, because I knew he wasn't. So if you want to avoid bad weather avoid September and October to visit.

Despite the weather, I had really great time, and being thrill seeker, adventurous adrenalin dare devil, I certainly got to have the time of my life. The only thing I would change? I wish I didn’t worry and panic the first two days, thinking if I’m going to see the sun, for at least 5 minutes on my holiday. Everybody gets to see the sun for at least 5 minutes. Obviously in the summer when they have 20 hours of daylight is more probable time to see the sun, than in winter when they get 5 hours of daylight.

Iceland Part 10 - Hitch hiking

In this part I want to tell you about Hitch hiking in Iceland. Don't do it!! The travel guides are quite encouraging about it, saying it's a cheap way to get around and that in Iceland it is safe to do so. In Iceland you will feel safe. However, when you go past Golden Circle, the traffic eases, to some parts where you will not see car for miles/hours. Icelanders do not commute from town to town in hoofs, like it is in Europe. Out of a Ring road it could be days. Also as I already mentioned, the weather changes, and I cannot stress enough the amount and ferocity with which the water falls from heavens.  I have always used the term “horizontal rain”, but have seen the true meaning of it in Iceland. Iceland is so popular because of its unspoiled natural beauty and its wilderness. They do not have shelters/bus stops every couple of miles. Also distances between towns are much greater.

Can you see yourself hitch hiking day in, day out in these conditions? (btw this is primary surfaced road :-) )

Picking hitch hikers is up to you. I picked up one, who was Icelander and it was the longest 40 minutes of my life on the island. Not stopping was not an option, as to avoid him from the track I was driving, would mean steering the car into a massive drop. Plus I had one of my Samaritan moments: this was in the middle of nowhere, with no chance of anyone driving by in the next couple of days, and a very high chance of torrential rain arriving in the next couple of minutes as I have managed to overtake it on my way. You could say, God has listen to his prayers (He's obviously multilingual) and have send me down :-) It was quite funny that when he flagged me down, he had a beaming expression on his face. (This was one of the 5 beaming expressions on any Icelanders’ face I have seen in all my stay. They prefer to match the weather with their face expressions). This very quickly disappeared, when he realised that I wasn’t an Icelander (too pretty) nor could I speak or understand the gobbledy-gook. As great majority of visitors do not bring their vehicles to Iceland, a car having an Icelandic number plate, does not guarantee to carry an Icelander. After impressing him with my fairly extensive Icelanding vocabulary (which took about 30 seconds), he decided to match it with just "my car" and point a finger into infinity. Not impressive, but at least I knew, high jacking and rape wasn’t on his agenda. I have missed taking a truly spectacular shot and I hate myself for ever picking him up. Lesson learned. He should make better arrangements in the future and not rely on hitch hiking, as a regular transport.

Or in these? (Holmavik)

After I learned from this, I have not stopped for the next hitchhiker. Well hitchhikers. It was two of them with massive backpacks, the Icelandic heavens living up to their reputation and fully opened up, and them looking like cats that have just escaped the mass drowning. It was very easy not to stop as A) they would have never got into the car with their "light travel" bags, B) they were totally soaking wet, and I didn’t want my nice hire car all wet and get fined and C) it was two of them. And me lonely female, damsel in distress; and they always say you should stay safe. The funny bit on this experience was that as soon as I passed them, I felt a pang of guilt and I look in a rear view mirror. One of them quite aggressively threw his hand in the air with his middle finger proudly erected. Yes, there really only was one winner in this situation and it was ME! Thanks for pointing it out, mate. I was in a nice dry, warm (27C to be precise), comfortable car, with radio blaring Chris Rea’s’ Road to hell; those two cold, wet with heavy backpacks that were getting heavier and heavier with the rainfall. If it wasn’t for his aggressive approach to the negative outcome to his sorry situation, I would have felt really guilty and stopped the car, given them couple of carrier bags to cover their heads, some light unpalatable Icelandic snacks I have purchased couple of days ago and wasn’t planning on finishing them, and offered rough time frame when they can expect the next car to drive by, to raise their spirits. But as he got excremental with me, I just carried on driving, with my pang of guilt disappearing and very, very warm feeling inside. Sign it was time to turn down the heating :-)

If you go for hitch hiking wear, hi-vis jacket. And get bulletproof waterproofs.

Iceland Part 9 - Driving

Ring road. Roads in Iceland are mostly raised.

Iceland is amazing country and the best way to see it (in my modest opinion) is by car. Car not only gets you around (and your luggage and you entourage) in comfort, but offers much needed shelter when the weather turns.

Here I would like to tell you about the infrastructure of Iceland. No amount of research will prepare you for what to expect. Even after reading my shocking report, I expect you still will be surprised what you will find. Iceland has five types of roads: Ring road, primary roads, secondary roads, off roads and terrain. You are not advised to drive in terrain, as this is heavily penalised and you can end up with a prison sentence. I’m not sure what the exact penalty charge is, but at first it may sound like a lot, but their inflation means that 1000 monopoly money (or whatever the currency is) equals to £6 in real money.

Ring road in North-east. Beautiful surface. Pleasure to drive.

Ring road is the big boy of the roads, and goes round the whole island. All the main attractions are on this route. 95% is nice tarmac like you see on the picture. A small part in the east is gravel road with massive potholes covering the whole width of the road. This was last year though, so it could be that today the whole of Rind road is nice surface.

Primary road. Some parts are surfaced, some unsurfaced. This is unsurfaced.

Primary roads - these are some parts tarmac, some parts gravel. Tarmac I do not have to explain, but will spend some time on what gravel road is. Yes it has gravel on it, but this is least of your problems. It’s quite easy to skid on it, but this is fun. The less fun bit are massive potholes that sometimes go on forever and cover the whole width of the road. To dodge them, is great fun, but only until you have an accident (like I did) and you end up reading the small print on your rental agreement and seeing what you are insured for. Or what you are NOT insured for. Once you realise, that the vehicle you are renting in NOT a dodgem, the fun is over. Your car is not likely to be covered for water damage (this means crossing rivers, not rain), wind damage (if the door gets ripped from its hinges by gale force) or gravel damage (don’t ask). If you get a puncture you have to fix it yourself, then drive to nearest service and get it changed at your expense (good luck in finding service). So basically, you are not covered for anything that is constant threat and danger to you. However you are covered for theft of the car. Island in the middle of nowhere. Like any car is going to end up in Russia by chance.

Secondary road. The better kind. When you are on the drastic kind, you are glad when you get into the rhytm and you carry on driving. Hence no picture.

Secondary roads- very similar to primary, roads except they do not have tarmac. They also have massive stones and rocks protruding from them. To be honest, I do not think I would take off road car on them, let alone 2WD I had, but the map given to me by the rental guys said it was ok to drive them. I forgot to ask the rental guys if the cars are especially adapted for Iceland roads, but we were too busy examining the damage on my car and me shaking and panicking profusely at the possible cost.

Road to Detifoss. The one for the 2WD. I sensed the road for 4WD was better, but wasn't allowed on it.

Off roads: you can only drive here in 4WD vehicles. Now I’m not trying you put you up to no good here, but few times I have seen off roads being in much better and drivable conditions than secondary roads. Unfortunately, if you are caught driving 2WD on these roads same rules as driving in terrain applies.

Terrain: everything around the roads I have just explained. This is not only to prevent erosion, but also that Icelandic flora grows at much slower rate than it does anywhere else. 1 year growth in the UK equals to 10 year growth in Iceland. So please bare this in mind and be respectful to their nature.

Now if you will be driving and want to only see the things around Ring road, 2WD is fine. If you will be venturing beyond its boundaries and can afford it, get the 4WD. You will be glad you did. I have seen better farm tracks in England than I have driven primary and secondary roads in Iceland.

Speed limits: Tarmac 90kmh/56mph, Gravel road 80kmh/50mph (though this is somewhat tricky to go as fast as that. It is ok to go much slower. You are not a chicken. I did it too, so that makes it cool), Towns 50kmh/31mph, Build up area 30kmh/19mph. I would like to stress here, that these speed limits are real, and not as guidance only, like it is in UK.

West Fjords - mostly secondary roads, but beware of the views. And make sure you put the hand breake on properly.

They have a lot of self-service pumps to refuel. Some are in Icelandic only. If you seek a bit of adrenalin, use these. Later wonder if you are getting charged even if you got no fuel out. Then  phone your bank on your UK mobile number, and pay to listen to those annoying songs while you wait for available representative. And then worry about your phone bill that you are definatelly getting charged for. If life is too easy and going well, there are so many way to spice it up, I tell you.

 Also you have to say to the pump how much money you want to spend before it lets you use the pump. My first refueling was quite a conundrum. I thought I was being a big spender putting 2800kr worth of petrol and wondering what will I do if that is like "too much money". Only when starting the car and seeing the gauge barely moved I had to have another go. However they also have pumps where an attendant will come out and fill the car for you. This cost extra (about 5kr a litre). These pumps are usually at the front, which is quite bad. In busy times if people do not want the attendant, they leave the front pump free, while other people are queuing and waiting to refuel at the back. If you are not too posh, or want to save money, watch out for the “self-service” signs.

Parking outside of Reykjavik at various places is free (hard to imagine if you live in the UK). Parking places along the Ring road (or elsewhere for that matter) are scares. Their roads are mostly raised, so “pulling over” means stopping in the middle of the road. Outside of the Golden circle, the traffic is not busy, so this is not so much of a problem.

They also have fair few bridges that are only big enough for one car to pass at a time. Here the rule is: the car that arrives first has a right of way. Do not race. You will find that the other car slows down.

Watch out for their sheep. I must say the Icelandic sheep has a better road sense than some of the people I know. The dark ones are tricky though, as they usually blend with the dark surroundings. Or tarmac even. In my whole stay, I have only come across one sheep that wouldn’t budge. She stood right in the middle of the road staring at me, and no amount of flashing and beeping the horn would make her move. After couple of minutes the scenario started to look comical, and I have decided to go and get my camera (that was in the booth of the car – mistake). As soon as I got out of a car and the sheep looked at me, it run away and so did the rest of the herd. So they might be the wisest, but are not the hardest :-)

Iceland Part 8 - Reykjavik

Most famous landmark - Hallgrímskirkja

Reykjavik is the most northern capital in the world. It has a round 200 000 inhabitants and the trip to Iceland is not complete without a stay in this place. While thinking “capital” do not think London, Paris and so forth. Reykjavik is really dinky, quaint even, so do not go into houses with graffiti on them thinking you are going to be using the underground.

Artwork inside

The place I could not wait to see was Hallgrímskirkja. The best recognised Reykjavik's landmark and for me, the most beautiful church. Iceland's ratio church: inhabitants is impressive 1:1000 It's also one of the youngest churches in the world and it could be because of this, it doesn't have an altar. It took 38 years to build 1945-1986.

Inside - huh, no altar

 If you are lucky with the weather the view of the capital from the top of the church is amazing. Well worth paying the money to go up. However - beware of it's bells when you are up there.

Very nice organ though

 You might be so taken by the views, you will forget the time and then suddenly, the bells will strike. You have been warned. The church is made out of concrete, which is frowned upon by many church experts. Personally, I'm not bothered. It looks unique and 11 months in the year it is not surrounded by scaffolding, because they are changing the sandstone. Every year. Like many cathedrals do.

Views of the capital, Mount Esja in the clouds on the left. Reykjavik is quite a colourful city

Mount Esja in the background

Tjörnin on the left, Catholic church

Harbour in the background, main shopping area

Rain is never far away in Iceland. Perlan (The Pearl) in the middle

Another famous icon of Reykjavik. With some tourists posing for scale :-)

Reykjavik is full of fancy (and less fancy) restaurants. Whatever you food preference, choice or allergy, you are bound to find something here. Also it boasts many art galleries, museums and shops. They are also famous for their night life. It is advisable you stay here over the weekend if you want to give them run (dance) for their night life money, as during a week the night life is not so busy.

The seedy side of Reykjavik? No. If you are after strip clubs, or massage parlours, Iceland is not for you. This type of activities are illegal here. However you can get your girlfriend to dress up.