About three months before our trip, we found a good economy class fare for our trip, from San Francisco (SFO) to Vienna, and returning from Munich to SFO. Since there are no direct flights from SFO to Vienna, we looked at itineraries with a stop in each direction. We booked with Delta Airlines, which shares revenue with Air France and KLM for their flights across the Atlantic. Therefore, we were able to book our outbound segment on KLM, with a 4.5-hour layover in Amsterdam. The flight timings were as follows:

KLM 777-200 Flight from SFO to Amsterdam (Aircraft swap from usual 787-9)

Scheduled Departure: 1:50 p.m. on Friday December 1st, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 9:50 a.m. on Saturday December 2nd, 2017

Flight Duration: 11 hours

Class of Service: Economy

KLM 737-800 Flight from Amsterdam to Vienna

Scheduled Departure: 2:20 p.m. on Saturday December 2st, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 4:25 p.m. on Saturday December 2nd, 2017

Flight Duration: 2 hours 5 minutes

Class of Service: Economy

Since my friends and I all lived in Berkeley at the time, we worked remotely in the morning and caught a rideshare to SFO around 11:30 a.m. I spent my morning working from the 1951 coffee company’s Channing Way location, which is a nonprofit dedicated to offering jobs to refugees into the US. The year 1951 is significant to them because that’s the year when the Refugee Convention was held, stipulating that a refugee would not be forced to return to a country where their life was at risk. The cafe has infographics on the wall which explain the process that refugees go through to adjust to life in the US and to get citizenship. They make excellent coffee and although it can get crowded with students in the afternoons, in the mornings it is usually a peaceful place to work. At 11 I went straight to Taco Sinaloa, grabbing a couple tacos ahead of our trip to the airport. My friends ate on their own and I walked to their place shortly thereafter to all catch a rideshare together. A typical price at the time for Berkeley to SFO was about $45 for the Lyft, coming out to around $11 each for the four of us. Since it was noon, traffic was light over the normally crowded Bay Bridge, and we got to SFO at around 12:30 p.m. with around 80 minutes to spare. 

Checking our bags went smoothly, and soon enough we were through security as well. While my friends decided to wait near the gate area, I burned the remaining time before boarding by wandering through the terminal and taking photos of the planes and terminal artwork. First I spotted our KLM plane, nicknamed the Flying Dutchman. I thought that was a nice touch, although upon landing in Amsterdam I learned that all of their planes have that name… Next was also the Qantas 747 that flies to Sydney, which they’ve sadly but understandably retired now. Lastly was a side-by-side of Air France and Japan Airlines 777-300ERs. We could have flown Air France to Vienna instead, but their 1 hour layover didn’t leave much room for delays, and there’s always the risk of your flight being cancelled by their strike-happy workforce. To this day I still haven’t flown them, partially for that reason. SFO also hangs up a few large art installations in this terminal. I appreciated the saxophone cacophony in particular because I used to play that instrument in my high school’s marching band. 

Because I don’t make an effort to board economy class early enough to snap empty cabin photos, and the meals weren’t remarkable enough to be photographed, I sadly don’t have any photos of the flight itself. I do have a couple of things to note, however. KLM’s 777’s have 10-across seating, meaning that the middle of rows will have 4 seats instead of the 3 found on their 787s. For the lowest tiers of economy fares, you have the option of paying to reserve a seat at the time of booking. However, when you check in up to 48 hours before flying, you can assign yourself a seat then if you haven’t already. While families might still find it worthwhile to purchase seats together beforehand, I didn’t care about sitting beside my friends and was able to snag an aisle seat near the back of the plane, in a row that currently had an empty middle seat. I choose the back of the plane because passengers who still don’t assign themselves seats are assigned the remaining seats, usually middle ones, front to back. So sitting in the back of the aircraft will maximize your chances of scoring an empty seat next to you, with the  only real cost being that it takes you around 5 more minutes to deplane than the front of economy class. Our flight was delayed leaving the gate for around an hour, for a reason I don’t remember. And we used the shorter east-facing runway for takeoff, which surprised me since it’s shorter and longhaul aircraft almost always use SFO’s longer northwest runway. Even from the west coast I have trouble falling asleep on early transatlantic departures, and I remember watching The Circle and a couple other films between resting my eyes. Time passed quickly enough and we landed around 10 a.m. the next day in Amsterdam, in fog so heavy that I couldn’t even see the runway outside until we touched down.

The train from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport to their central railway station clocks in at just 15 minutes, one of the fastest out there. By the time my friends and I cleared EU customs though, it was already 10:30 a.m., leaving us just under 4 hours until our next flight departed. While we could theoretically make it into the city and back, eating a meal there would be risky. One of our friends had Priority Pass lounge access, so we went to a couple of those. However, they were so crowded that there was no seating left, and they’d stopped letting people in. So we hunkered down at some tables, got lunch from an airport cafe, and passed the time playing chess. Although the fog was causing nearly every flight out of Amsterdam that day to be delayed, our flight to Vienna managed to board and depart on time. I don’t have much to say about this leg, other than that I fell asleep the whole way after failing to do so on the longer segment. I did notice upon boarding that KLM somehow moved a Fokker 100 plane onto the airport terminal’s roof. And our plane used a remote stand in Vienna, meaning we had to walk down a flight of stairs from the plane and take a bus to the terminal itself. At the end of the day I found KLM’s economy class to be like any other. The food, entertainment, or comfort weren’t actively bothersome like they were on say, Air China. But nothing was memorable in a way that say, Singapore Slings get me to consider booking Singapore Airlines over other Asian carriers. I would choose KLM in the instances that they give me the best routing, which they did this time. And if my layover in Amsterdam was long enough to hop into the city, that would be a plus that I’d consider as well.

Trip Segments:

• Flight to Vienna via Amsterdam on KLM
• A marathon day in Vienna
• Budapest: Places I’ve Been Before and Some New
• Prague: Making Amends when you didn’t plan far enough ahead
• Agglomeration of Central European Food
• Nuremberg: But we were all actually just exhausted at this point
• Christmas Markets in general and between cities
• Bus to Munich, Lufthansa lounge Munich, Munich to Frankfurt, Frankfurt lounge
• United 777-300ER Polaris Seats in Business Class, Frankfurt to San Francisco

Welcome to my trip report of the first vacation I took after starting work: a group trip to the central European cities of Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and Nuremberg. This trip was planned in a rather interesting way, since we purchased our flights before really deciding on anything else. I’ll describe why we booked our flights first and how, and follow that up with how we planned the rest of our trip between the cities.

The story starts on Friday before Labor Day in 2017, the hottest day of the decade. Temperatures had skyrocketed to 104F in downtown San Francisco and had stayed there until about 5 p.m., when I left my office to meet a friend for an early dinner. I checked updates to a couple of travel blogs, and one of the posts absolutely shocked me. United Airlines had filed a business class fare from Munich to San Francisco (SFO) priced at just $900 roundtrip! This was the first time I’d seen anything like this deal, and I scrambled to find the first two reasonable dates that would come to me. First, I remembered that Christmas Markets were a big deal in Europe in December, but I didn’t want to go too late in the month that I’d miss various Christmas festivities with my friends and family at home. So I picked a Sunday, December 10th for my flight from Munich to San Francisco. I also made sure to book my connection through Frankfurt, so that I could fly on one of United’s 777-300ER aircraft that had their new business class seats. I booked my return as a redeye departing the evening of Friday February 16th, the Saturday before the long President’s Day weekend that year. I still had to get a flight from SFO to Europe, but I left that for later as I joined my friend for ramen (which, you can imagine, was a horrible idea on such a hot day!)

I started researching different cities and their Christmas markets, trying to build a 1-week itinerary that would end in Munich. Less than a week after booking my business class ticket, I was doing some planning over at my friends’ place and three of them mentioned that they had a couple friends studying abroad in Germany that semester, and might be interested in joining me. We started brainstorming together the cities we wanted to go through, probably three or four. In the end we chose four cities, skipping Munich entirely becasue two of my three friends had already been there, in adddition to the study abroad students. First was Vienna, which was the former seat of the Austro-Hungarian empire and a prominent classical music hub. Second was Budapest, which I pushed because I had studied abroad there and could infuse the visit with local touches, but still had things there I’d never seen. Third was Prague, which we’d heard was an overall gorgeous city. Lastly was Nuremberg, because it was a short hop from the students in Berlin, and reportedly hosted Europe’s oldest and largest Christmas market. It was also the most convenient spot for the study abroad students, since they just had to take a quick bus or train in instead of having to fly.

Early the morning of our departure, we would take a bus from Nuremberg straight to Munich airport, and fly out from there. So the task for our flights was to find one where the return leg would depart from Munich airport around 10 a.m., when my flight was also due to depart. Fortunately this was easy, since Delta had a multi-city economy fare for $550 from SFO to Vienna via Amsterdam on Friday December 1st, then from Munich to SFO via Atlanta on Sunday December 10th. The flight from Munich to Atlanta departed at 9:55 a.m., which lined up perfectly with my 10 a.m. departure. I followed up by booking my own ticket with KLM, which put me on the same flights from SFO to Vienna via Amsterdam on December 1st, but took me back from Munich on February 20th instead, so that I could get home after flying back to Munich on the return flight of my business class ticket. This was fantastic, since I’d be flying to Europe with my three friends, and we wouldn’t have to part ways until flying home out of the Munich airport. From there, we met a couple more times to book AirBnBs and plan itineraries for the cities we’d be visiting. My musically-inclined friend had ambitious plans for Vienna, and I took the planning for Budapest and Nuremberg while my two other friends came up with something for Prague. By the time the trip rolled around, we were all really excited to travel, and my friends were thrilled about seeing their friends on study abroad as well!

Ah, Glymur. Like my other favorite hikes of all time, we might as well have disregarded all the online descriptions of this hike. They suggested that it would be moderate in both length and difficulty, clocking in at around 3 hours. We picked it because it would be perfect timing for us to make our flight home to SFO later that day, and start at a leisurely pace in the morning. Starting a theme for the rest of the day, we arrived with what we thought was just enough time to finish the hike before heading back to the airport.

We were met instead by frothing whitewater tumbling over rocks that formed a path across only half of the river. Instead of the log that’s usually there, a single thick metal wire was the sole conduit by which we could cross. I rolled up my pant legs and tried to wade through and check whether the river was shallow enough. But I couldn’t reach all the way down without getting soaked, and possibly swept away by the icy current. Before the river drained the feeling from my legs, I shook my head at my friends, and we headed off to try to find a way up the canyon’s slope. However, we quickly lost faith in the clods of dirt that we shook loose from the hillside. Slipping and falling would be just as dangerous, so we decided to take one last look at the river. This time it was Jared who took the plunge, stripping to his boxers and reaching for the bottom of the river from the rope. Miraculously, it was just a couple inches shy of our waists, and we all charged across after him. The bone chilling current felt like it was sweeping my soul away, but I was ready for enlightenment.

Our only reprieve by this point was that the sun was out in full force, and it’s powerful evaporating rays had us dry in no time. That quick turnaround time would be vital to climb the path that shot up the side of the ravine. It was steep in places with loose soil, and it was cold enough that some parts were still icy as well. Fortunately, there were thick metal cables bolted into the ground here as well. We hung on tightly to the cables so that if we were to lose our footing, our hand grips would keep us from falling off and we could steady ourselves again. As we continued upwards, there were a few smaller waterfalls we passed that had been frozen solid. We were glad to see them in their icy stillness before they melted for the summer as well.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long until we reached our true goal, a full frontal with the Glymur waterfall itself. It’s the tallest accessible waterfall in all of Iceland, and it still had quite a healthy flow despite a few parts still being iced over. Most of the water when we visited was pouring down the right side of the falls, with a combination of trickles and frozen ice on the left. It’s definitely a breathtaking site, and like Bjarnafoss the previous day, we were so thankful to have visited while there was so much ice left that creates this beautiful contrast between the static and temporal.

However, it was here that we also learned that we didn’t all have the same idea about how we’d get back down. The rest of us turned back toward the way we came, to see that Jared had turned towards the river, upstream of where it tumbled over the falls. “We can actually get back this way”, he said. We looked at the river together. It did look more tranquil here above the falls, but there was still no telling how deep it was, whether there was a path across, and there was no wire in sight to stabilize us during a crossing. Furthermore, there was no path that we could see on the other side of the river that led back to the parking lot. The slope looked more gentle than the way we came, but it wasn’t clear to us that there wouldn’t be something like a cliff on the way that would stop us cold. Because of that, the rest of us shook our heads and motioned to go back the way we came. But Jared was pretty adamant about this path working, insisting that the hike is actually a loop. There was the additional risk, though, that even if the other route was traversable, that it would still get us back to the parking lot too late to make our flight home. And none of us were in the financial position to pay for a last-minute flight back that would be hundreds of dollars. We insisted on going back on the established path, and after one last burst of resistance from Jared we offered to split ways, but with the stipulation that we’d leave after a certain time if he wasn’t back yet. Unwilling to be stranded in the middle of nowhere in this desolate country, he let up and we all breathed a sigh of relief on the way down.

Of course, this meant that we had to cross the freezing river on the way down again. We knew that we could hold onto the wire and that the river’s bottom was shallow enough to ford if we stripped to our boxers. However, this time Jared and Joel had another idea. Rather than forgo their clothing, they put their hands on the wire and shimmied across, one at a time. Because it was a thick metal cord, it was sure to hold their weight. But one slip up, a loss of balance, or even sheer exhaustion would send them plummeting into the river’s icy current. I watched them with trepidation, but in the end they both made it through just fine. Ben on the other hand, had a more clever idea. He flipped himself upside down, crossed his legs over the wire, and pulled himself over with both hands. This worked wonderfully at first, and he moved much faster than either Jared or Joel. However, towards the end the rope inches closer to the water’s edge, and his hood fell off his head and into the frigid stream. Fortunately for him though, that was the only part of him to get soaked. That left me, with all my stuff and also Ben’s camera, since he didn’t want to risk it on his journey across. I did the tried and true method of fording the river, the one that was least likely to result in me dropping the precious camera or getting swept away myself. After a bit more time for me to drive off, we scurried along the last bit and back to the car. 

When we got back to the trailhead, we had to take a few minutes to all untie our boots and get settled for the drive back to the airport. And after I got my boots off, I saw a billboard with a map at the start of the trailhead. And to my horror, the route that it depicted actually showed it going further up towards the snowy mountain, before doing a wide loop and crossing the river again at a lower point. The map read that we’d only done about a quarter of the full loop, and that there was definitely no trail on the other side of the river. I called Joel and Ben over, and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. However, when we turned around to tell Jared about our findings, what should we see, but his greedy l’il paws tucked comfortably into a recently opened package of double stuffed Oreos! We had each brought some snacks to Iceland for sharing, and thought we had run out the previous day. But the scene that unfolded in front of us obviously read otherwise. We gave him one look, and he said “All right, these are for everyone too”. We demolished the bag almost on the spot, but the exhaustion of a well done hiking trail will do that to you. Thankfully, the rest of the drive back to the airport was uneventful, and the flight was as well. And yes, this time we filled up our water bottles well ahead of boarding our WOW Air flight so we wouldn’t get charged.

Our second day was a day trip to the Snaefellsnes peninsula, which ended up being my favorite day of the trip! Like our others, it started with a breakfast at Joe and the Juice in downtown Reykjavik. After that we had a scenic drive going northward along the coast, the most exciting part of which was our journey through the Hvalfjordur tunnel. It’s nearly 4 miles long and reaches a depth of 500 feet, which surprised our group the first time going through. Especially Jared, who tried doing that thing where you’re supposed to hold your breath through tunnels. Once we reached the peninsula itself, our idea was to just drive around until we found something we wanted to stop at. And boy, did we ever! 

We ended up making our first stop at a waterfall that we found tumbling over the Snaefellsnes peninsula’s plateau. Although the waterfall looked to be active, it was surrounded by a coating of snow, which piqued our interest. We parked the car and followed a path leading upwards, to the base of the falls. The path got steeper quicker than we anticipated, which got us climbing up on hands and knees at a couple points. Thankfully, this wasn’t one of those cases where the waterfall looks a lot closer than it actually is. It took us just under an hour to climb to the top, where we were greeted with sweeping views of the peninsula and the bay to the south.

What really made this hike special was that, once we got closer to the waterfall, we could see that some of the smaller flows on the side were actually frozen! The white patches on the cliffside that we thought were snow were actually ice that hadn’t melted yet. We scrambled eagerly, but safely, up the boulder field to get a closer look. At the very top was another surprise: some of the hexagonal rock columns on the lower part of the falls was actually frozen water! The coating of ice on these pillars made them appear like they shimmered, and when we got closer we could observe the bumpy pattern that this ice had. It looked almost like the droplets from the falls had frozen in place, but this rough texture probably came from the mist of the falls blowing into the pillars and then freezing. The ice coated a few of the boulders near the pillars, so we had to really watch our step here. We took quite a while just marveling at the frozen patterns that the ice formed on the side of the falls, and the falls themselves, before heading back down together.

One last delight on our descent was another batch of snow flurries that picked up once we’d left the boulder field. I normally don’t like the cold, but I have a great time when the snow flutters all around me. We scampered back down to our car in high spirits, and blasted Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” when we got back on the road. Pretty soon, we ended up in a small town called Hellnar, which had a single fish and chips shop for food. So, that was our lunch. After that, we got to wander around the rocky coast a bit, which was pretty scenic. After a half hour of wandering, it was time to get back in the car.

The last part of our day trip was definitely the most adrenaline-pumping, though. After our lunch and coastal walking in Hellnar, we thought about circling around the coast of the peninsula before heading back. But it looked like there was a shortcut that went past the peninsula’s main mountain, so we decided to check that out first. What we found, shortly off the main road, was a set of dual tire tracks heading straight up the mountainside. Since the snow wasn’t very thick the treads were easy to drive on, but not necessarily that easy to see. We went up the first slope, but started feeling uneasy about halfway up. Since there was nowhere to turn around, Ben did an excellent job backing us down all the way in reverse. But before we could revert to our original plan, an Icelandic dude in a pickup came down the mountain right after us. He rolled down his window, took one look at our car, and said “I think you guys can make it”. So we gave each other one look and decided to try again. 

This time we made it further up onto the mountain, where the slope evened out. However, it had started snowing a little harder and clouds nearby made it clear that the weather could change quickly on a mountain like this. Eventually, we decided to park the car on a flat plain and explore a little further up on foot, to see if the tracks still stood out against the falling snow. I rushed off ahead of the group, but made sure to always keep at least one person in sight. Eventually I reached a ridge, and because of the weather it became hard to see where the road went. I turned around and walked back to our car, in order to report this to everyone. But when I got back, Jared was missing. Before I could ask what had happened to him, my question answered itself when I saw the top of him hunched over a cluster of rocks some distance away. It turned out… on the side of a snowy mountain with a snowstorm possibly coming our way, that Jared just had to drop a deuce in the snow. Honestly, due to the chilling temperatures up there it’ll probably end up looking similar to the rocks up there. Maybe it’ll become fossilized and aliens will use it to confirm the record of our existence… who knows. Anyway, we drove back down the way we came soon after that, just in case the weather turned ugly. Fortunately, the most we saw on our way down were the same light snow flurries as before. The rest was an uneventful 2 hour drive back to our AirBnB in Reykjavik.

So, I think it’s clear from this segment that we’re ready to give a rave review from our time on the Snaefellsnes peninsula. The Bjarnafoss waterfall just off to the roadside was in such a unique state when we hiked up to it, and to this day it’s still probably the most fascinating waterfall experience I’ve ever had. Hellnar was nice and worth a stop, but I wouldn’t come all the way out here just for that. And the mountain we ended up driving on… that was an experience we probably won’t repeat, but it was breathtaking nonetheless. I’d absolutely recommend this one as a day trip from Reykjavik, and I’d go as far as to recommend it over the Golden Circle road we drove the previous day.

The first day of our trip had a pretty easy blueprint. Iceland has a loop road near Reykjavik called the Golden Circle road, which covers a couple nice river canyons, a set of geysers, one of Iceland’s highest volume waterfalls, and some serene lakes. It’s easy to go through these leisurely on a single day, so that’s exactly what we did. After fueling up with a morning at Joe and the Juice, we started on Iceland’s highway 36 to set out on the road!

Our first stop was a rocky canyon in Pingvellir Nat’l Park. There’s a short trail through the canyon that’s a really pleasant stroll, and it took us about 45 minutes to meander through. One of the greatest pleasantries of this stop was the snow flurries that started drifting about during our walk. There were also many gorgeous lakes and evergreen trees visible along the way. It was a wonderful example of why it was special to visit Iceland during the off season, where snow flurries like this were a greater possibility and lended an extra layer of beauty to our day!

Our next stop was this Great Geysir, which is accompanied by a few smaller geysers nearby. What makes this one special is that it’s a rare geyser that erupts frequently. We personally only had to wait a few minutes for an eruption. Unfortunately I didn’t save a video from that, but it’s less impressive than the Old Faithful eruptions in Yellowstone. It was some of my friends’ first times seeing a geyser though, so we really appreciated that. There was also a nearby market where we grabbed some food for lunch, so that was a good opportunity for us.

The star stop along the Golden Circle was the Gulfoss waterfall, a thunderous pouring of water into the Pingvellir canyon. The river pours straight into the canyon before abruptly changing course, which makes it harder to get a frontal shot of the falls. But this also means that it’s easier to get a shot with both the falls and canyon in it. Just the roar that that amount of water creates as it tumbles town is incredible, and we struggled to hear each other talk without raising our voices. There are a couple walkways with closer viewing points to the falls, but they were closed because they were too slippery. Just the normal spray of the falls makes those areas pretty slippery, though. After gazing at their magnificence for awhile, we decided to begin our journey back to Reykjavik. 

We did have one more stop on the way back, though. This one was Kerid crater, a natural crater that had filled up into a clear lake. The crater walls were all very steep, so there was no trail to the edge of the water itself. Instead, it was the redness of the soil and the vibrant traces of algae along the crater’s sides that make this a photogenic stop. We took the quick walkway around the crater to get a few different shots. At one point, a couple of our group members tried to see if they could throw a rock far enough that it would make a splash in the lake below. The distance is deceptively far however, so neither of them made it. 

The Golden Circle is usually praised as one of Iceland’s top day trips, so how does that high praise compare with our experience? Out of our 3 full days, we were probably the least impressed with this one. Part of that is due to the nature of our group though, as we prefer a couple longer trails to a few short stops for our travel days. Looking back, the Pingvellir canyon area was probably my favorite, because that’s where we encountered the snow flurries and more gorgeous scenery. The geyser was also a neat experience, but I wouldn’t say it’s a must for anyone who’s seen say, Old Faithful before. Gulfoss was certainly a spectacular waterfall and I’d absolutely recommend going to see it. And the crater lake was nice, but only somewhere I’d stop again if it was right along the way. At the peak of Iceland’s tourist boom these locations would have experienced large crowds in the summer, which is why we were glad we went in an off season that didn’t also experience the harshest part of winter. But when travel resumes, maybe the summer crowds won’t be a detractor for visiting in peak season like before.

Ah, Reykjavik. As Iceland’s capital and largest city by far, any visitor to the country will almost certainly pass through here, and will probably stay here. Since we only had a long weekend, we decided to base our visit in a single AirBnB for 3 nights and do daily driving trips from it. Since our WOW Air flight arrived at around 2 p.m. and we didn’t settle in our AirBnB until 3:30, we decided to stick to the city on our first afternoon. We were about a mile from the downtown area, so we just walked there. One notable discovery on the way was the museum of, er… phalluses. Phalli? Anyway, the downtown area is pretty compact, and features just a couple of parallel streets that are lined with commercial shops and cafes. Despite it being a Friday afternoon, traffic was extremely light and there weren’t many groups walking around. I guess Iceland’s tourist season still hadn’t kicked off in earnest, even in late April. What struck us the most walking around though, were the prices being charged. Especially for food. A Subway footlong sandwich was $15, and it was hard to find anything at all under $10. 

On our way back was the famous Icelandic church of Hallgrimskirkja. It’s famous for its sloping, pillar-esque design. It evokes the country’s mountainous landscape and its volcanic hexagonal pillars of stone. It’s definitely the most picturesque structure in Reykjavik, compared to the drab, concrete buildings that line the suburbs. At certain times you can even venture inside and climb to the top of the church. But that option wasn’t available during our visit, so we settled for photos outside. 

To be honest, after this we went back to our AirBnB and napped for a couple hours due to jetlag. Even as early as April though, the daylight hours stretched pretty far and the sun didn’t set until past 10 p.m. This meant most restaurants were open until at least then, and it was no problem to find a restaurant at 7 p.m. when we got going again. Since it was our first day, we decided to go to a restaurant with some local Icelandic specialties. The three we ended up trying were, dried whale meat, fermented shark, and puffin steak. The fermented shark in particular carried an odor, but Joel and I didn’t mind that much. It was tough and chewy, and I can’t say it had much flavor. The whale was pretty unmemorable as well, and it was chewy without as much of the toughness. The puffin, however, was really delicious. It was like a mouth-watering rare steak. Unfortunately, we found upon returning to our AirBnB that puffin is actually an endangered species… sorry about that! The last highlight for me was some local Icelandic beer, a porter for me. It came fittingly branded in a Viking cup.

Because we were driving around the island during the day, it was only for breakfast and dinner mealtimes that we spent any more time in Reykjavik. One breakfast was at the downtown Dunkin’ Donuts, where we found that Icelandic flag donut. The other two were at a modern cafe and a Joe and the Juice, which served up fresh juices in addition to breakfast sandwiches. We really enjoyed our juices at Joe’s, but they were pricey like everything else. Unfortunately, that turned out to be one business where the prices were not inflated compared to other countries. 

Our next two dinners were a lot less good, however. Our first night’s Icelandic meal was great, but also more expensive than we were willing to do for the next couple days. For our second night, we found a hot dog cart that the Clintons had apparently been to, so we went there. It was barely above freezing and drizzling rain on our walk there, so we were already downcast when we arrived. But the hot dogs were cold, flavorless, and just overall miserable. We ended up going to a local market and buying pasta and sauce for that night and the next. Had we stayed for longer, that probably would’ve been the norm for us. 

So, what was our impression of Reykjavik? We wouldn’t recommend stopping for any longer than you absolutely have to here. Since most of the lodging options are here though, we’d recommend staying here if you’re going to stick to the southwest part of the island. It’s also going to be the best spot to pick up groceries and the breakfast options weren’t too expensive relative to everything else, so we found it a great spot to get started in the morning as well. That’s about all the endorsement we have for the Icelandic capital, though.

“Did you know they charge for water?” my friend asked after we disembarked the aircraft at Keflavik airport.

That sentence pretty much sums up the WOW Air experience. It’s WOW, all right. But, in the opposite of the good way. And they went out of business a year before the pandemic, which should also tell you all you need to know about their business accumen. Seeing as they were the only airline flying nonstop between SFO and Reykjavik at the time of our trip, we were willing to endure whatever this airline threw at us in order to enjoy Iceland.

I’m sort of surprised that WOW Air comes with such a brilliant pink color scheme. Not because of the choice of decor, but because the paint actually costs a lot more than you might think. Like, hundreds of thousands of dollars per plane. Anyway, this pinkish hue was a mainstay on all of their aircraft. As a low cost carrier, they actually still have a couple of features above, say, Ryanair. The first is that the seats actually have a holder for the safety placard and a magazine for food and other buy-on-board items. Ryanair prints safety instructions on the plastic of the seat in front of you in order to cut that cost. There’s also a small pouch of netting where you can store objects, which Ryanair doesn’t have either. Lastly, there are actually 110V power plugs between the seats. I found this particularly surprising, since this is a free utility that I haven’t seen on any narrowbody LCC planes. That’s where the frills end, however. Instead of padding, the seats just have a stretchy covering over the hard metal exterior. They recline, but not by much. And if you’re like us and were too cheap to pick your seats, you’ll be randomly assigned somewhere. On the flight back, where the next picture was taken, you’ll see that I lucked into an empty pair of seats. This made it a bit more comfortable to work on an essay I had due the next afternoon. For sleeping, I found that I was able to use a jacket and scarf to provide enough padding against the seat that I was able to fall asleep. I would recommend bringing something soft onboard to help yourself if you plan to sleep as well. Anything (including water, apparently) for eating or drinking onboard costs money, and the crew will be happy to assist you in emptying your pockets. Eat ahead of your flight and don’t forget the water bottles!

However, WOW Air wasn’t all shambles for one major reason. And that’s the scenery enroute to Iceland, and departing from Keflavik airport. Because the eastbound flight is a redeye, you’ll get a gorgeous sunrise about halfway through the flight, somewhere above northern Canada. After that you’ll pass straight over Greenland, which is probably the only way I’ll see it myself. The endless expanse of the ice sheet and its lakes simply glued me to the window all the way over that peninsula. Departing from Keflavik were amazing views of the Snaefellsjokull peninsula that we’d been on the previous day, and I was surprised by how flat the mountain we’d driven up on was. Since our return flight was westbound as well, we paced with the sunset and it dragged into a wonderful, calming display of candlelight-like glow. I love that no matter what airline or cabin class you’re flying in, you always have access to the wonderful views like these just outside the window. 

So, in short, flying WOW Air to Iceland was bearable and it was more than worth it for the wonderful trip we had! A lot of passengers avoid LCCs for being cheap and having a shoddy reputation, but the fact is that any of these major carriers are actually as safe as can be and running on time is usually also in their repertoire, given that they’re otherwise grasping at straws for how to differentiate themselves. I can’t say I miss the airline itself, but I do miss the downward pressure they put on airfare to Iceland. Before they collapsed you could find roundtrips to Iceland regularly for $300, and to their European destinations for $400-500 roundtrip. With only Icelandair in the market, the Iceland nonstop fares jumped to $900 roundtrip, while the Europe fares still stayed low due to other competition in that market. Of course, no one knows what pricing will look like once travel restrictions due to the pandemic ease up. At that point, each traveler will just have to decide for themselves the price that they’re willing to pay. And the remaining airlines will adjust their prices accordingly.

Trip Installments:

• Flying WOW Air
• Exploring the Capital, Reykjavik
• Golden Circle Day Trip
• Snaefellsnes Peninsula Day Trip
• Glymur Falls Hike

As we went into our last semester, my housemates and I were mostly looking forward the most to the weeklong Spring Break trip that we’d planned to Japan together. However, as we started the semester and started looking forward to our job offers, we also grew a little restless and I in particular was wondering what else I might be able to fit into this semester. I was budgeting to be able to stretch my remaining savings until starting work in early July, and still had a few hundred dollars to play with. Before this year, this amount would have only been enough for a domestic flight somewhere. However, there was an ultra low cost carrier called WOW Air that was based in Reykjavik, and their entire strategy hinged on getting you from point A to point B with no frills whatsoever. Their fares were extraordinary, and in late February they had a 2-day sale of 30% off all of their fares. I had been interested in Iceland for awhile, and this sale sunk the cost just low enough that I was willing to book. I picked the last full weekend of April for a prospective trip, because it was the last weekend before dead week and other senior year parties and celebrations would happen. I booked my tickets, which were around $282, to depart on a Thursday night and return on the Monday night. 

Since my housemates all have busy lives, I wasn’t expecting that they’d decide they had time for a trip like this. Since this final semester had a lot less schoolwork for us, I decided to pick my dates and then ask if they wanted to go on those dates. I asked them one by one in person, and as I expected they each declined. That night however, I was on my way out to study at a library and passed my housemate Jared playing Smash. He asked, “When were you planning on going to Iceland again? Not that I’m interested…”. Of course, this meant he was actually interested but I wasn’t going to try too hard to sell this trip. I answered his question and went on my merry way.

The sale was due to expire at midnight in Iceland’s time zone, which was 7 hours ahead of us. 3 hours before then, a history class that Ben, Jared and I all had together was starting. After I took my seat, they sat down next to me and asked about Iceland again. It turned out that Ben had been cycling through pictures of Iceland, and was surprised that any place could have that much natural beauty. Jared also loved hiking and outdoor exploration, and Iceland had some of the most gorgeous outdoor scenery out of anywhere I’d talked about going before. We chatted back and forth on Messenger throughout the class, and by the end they decided to book their tickets for the same price as mine, for the same $282. 

But that wasn’t quite all. Once we three had decided to book, we asked Joel if he was interested. He had budgeted most of the money he was willing to spend for our Japan trip though, so he declined at the time. However, after our Japan trip we hadn’t spent as much as he thought we might. In addition to that, we’d filed taxes for our internship and he’d gotten a lot of money back through his tax returns. So, we checked the airfare for our flights, and to my surprise the flights were still just under $400. That was good enough for him, so he booked and it was time for us to find a rental car and AirBnB together! 

We settled on using Reykjavik as our base for the four nights, and rented a car with winter tires in case the weather got rough. The AirBnB had two bedrooms and a couple spacious couches, so there was more than enough space for flexible sleeping arrangements. This ended up being important because we all dealt with the jetlag with varying degrees of competence. It also had a chair designed as a rocking cradle, which was wonderful to lounge in. The car’s winter tires got a little annoying for us, since there was a dinging sound that came on whenever you took the car above 90 kph (~55 mph). However, we did drive through some snow flurries and on an icy road our second day, and were extremely glad we had the tires then. We didn’t come up with a detailed itinerary beyond that ahead of time, but here’s what we ended up with.

For the flights, we had the following:

WOW AIR A330-200 Flight 162 from San Francisco to Reykjavik

Scheduled Departure: 10:20 p.m., Thursday April 20th, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 1:40 p.m., Friday April 21st, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 8 hours, 20 minutes

Class of Serivce: Ultra Low Cost Carrier

WOW AIR A330-200 Flight 161 from Reykjavik to San Francisco

Scheduled Departure: 6:30 p.m., Monday April 24th, 2017

Scheduled Arrival: 8:30 p.m., Monday April 24st, 2017

Scheduled Duration: 9 hours

Class of Service: Ultra Low Cost Carrier

Since we had an afternoon arrival our first day, we ended up just doing a walking tour of Reykjavik, and then getting dinner at a local Icelandic restaurant. That gave us a chance to try local erm… delicacies… like fermented shark and puffin steak. Our next day we did the most popular driving loop in Iceland, the Golden Circle which features geysers, the Gulfoss waterfall, and a crater lake. Our second full day featured a trip out onto the Snaefellsjokull peninsula, which is where we hiked partway up a half frozen waterfall and adventured out onto the slope of a snowy mountain. And on our last day where we had an evening departing flight, we did the infamous Glymur hike. It was a spectacular trip for the length that it was, and despite some of the trials and tribulations we faced on this one, we all came away having had a fantastic time! I can’t wait to tell you about it.

I went to Ottawa for 1 reason only: to run my very first marathon! I hoped that the Canadian capital would have a solid food scene, especially for healthy options that I’d be choosing before my race. I have to say, I was actually blown away by some of the places I went to. Some of them so much that I went back multiple times! I’ll walk you through the places I went to, although it’s also important to say that there were a lot of restaurants I would’ve loved to try, but just didn’t have the meals for.

My first day was a Friday that I spent working. I did part of it in my AirBnB, but the rest of the afternoon I spent in the Ministry of Coffee for a late lunch. It was a comfortable place to work, and the coffee was much-needed after taking 3 hours to fall asleep the previous night. The sandwich was a warm panini with pesto and sundried tomatoes, and hit the spot even though the bread scratches the roof of your mouth like most paninis. Three days later, I took scones at the Scone Witch, a filling treat with deliciously sweet blackberry jam. I also had a ham and guyere cheese scone, which kept me full ‘til lunch. I had time after that for a flat white at Equator coffee, a local transplant from my hometown which was a nice, familiar brew.

Now I want to spend some time talking about the Pure Kitchen on Elgin street, a vegetarian restaurant that specializes in cold-pressed fruit juices. My first visit there was for a breakfast, bleary-eyed after a night where I struggled to fall asleep. I ordered their vegetarian mex bowl and a black-colored bamboo-based juice, which I originally balked at the price of. Both gave me a fresh jolt awake though, and it wasn’t until mid-afternoon that I needed another coffee to wake me up. Since they did well this time, I returned an evening later for the last meal before my marathon. This time, I got a kale-colored green juice and their take on vegetarian pad thai. It was the load of carbs that I needed, and it tasted decent but not fantastic. It was nice making small talk with the staff about the upcoming Raptors/Bucks game that night, and I told them it’d be exciting to see them against the Warriors in the Finals. I was a lot less excited 3 weeks later… but hey, it was nice to share that sentiment! 

My last meal there was a second in a row. I took a 90 minute nap at my AirBnB after the marathon, and didn’t want to walk far for food after waking up. Pure Kitchen was perfect, and I decided to go all-out with my order. I had a glass of sparkling Cava to celebrate my race, as well as my now-favourite bamboo juice and another date-based one. I got spicy noodles with tofu, as well as a strawberry asparagus salad to earn back some of the calories I had lost. For healthy options, I’d absolutely go back here. I even got a couple bottles of juice to go for my last day.

For lunch before the race, the bus tour of the course deposited me back at the convention center. I decided to head to Byward market to find lunch, since there was a hand-pulled noodle restaurant near there that was supposed to be really good. The market itself is mostly indoors, with more trinket shops than takeaway restaurants. The blocks around it are packed with choices, though. The one I ended up stopping at was La Bottega Nicastro, an Italian grocer that also serves some lunch items. I got a lovely carbonara pasta there for lunch before my race, but I only remembered to take a photo of the arugula and prosciutto pizza I got for lunch 2 days later. The pasta was definitely the better of the two. Lastly, any Obama fans might remember that Byward market was actually his first stop on his first international trip as president. 

Another one-off restaurant I went to was a sushi place near Byward market, for dinner the night of my marathon. Honestly, I mostly went because I could finally drink again and they had a cherry blossom and anise cocktail that looked really good. I usually don’t get sushi inland, and the rolls I got here were average as expected. The restaurant was also pretty lightly packed for what it’s worth, and it looks to be gone now. Oh well, that’s the way it is sometimes…

The last restaurant is one that I stumbled into on my first night, looking for a place that had filling food with plenty of ingredients. I ended up at Riviera that night, an upscale restaurant specializing in new Canadian cuisine. I pretty immediately recognized that I was the least well dressed person there, coming in jeans and a tshirt. They still seated me in an open space at the bar, which is my preference when dining alone. I stuck with a carb-heavy meal and didn’t delve into drinks before my race, of course. The bread in itself was an impressive brioche loaf, with a soothing spread of butter. The pasta with hen and pistachios was definitely my favorite part of this meal, though. The pasta and chunks of hen soaked up the light sauce just perfectly, and all the ingredients were spread evenly through the dish, which isn’t always easy to do with pasta. It was the perfect dish as I was looking to eat healthy before my race. Still hungry, I ended up ordering duck with razor-thin fried potato slices. The duck was excellent, juicy with crispy skin and cooked to a perfect medium rare. The potato honestly stole the show though, especially with the sweet date sauce on top of it. The texture of the flakes felt like you were eating chips, but they looked much more healthy than that and they were a lot less heavy, too. I left really happy that night, and with the resulting food coma, I fell asleep right away and fully switched over to East Coast time.

I typically don’t repeat restaurants on a single trip to a place, since there are so many other choices. However, I wanted to pick a special dinner for my last night in Ottawa. Despite doing research on several other nice restaurants, I kept coming back to the menu from Riviera, especially their drinks menu which I was now allowing myself to try. So after I was done with my day’s activities, I found myself right back at the bar at Riviera, better dressed in a button down and jeans this time. Despite trying new places usually being a more immersive and exciting experience, there’s still such a satisfying feeling of sitting down at a restaurant and knowing for sure that you can expect a fantastic meal. Riviera delivered yet again, starting with my first drink. It was based with lavender and a smooth gin, and the foam on top encapsulated the lighter flavors of the drink just perfectly. Lavender is one of the most soothing flavors to me, and this drink did just that. I also decided to order the half dozen oysters, as I was actually closer to the Brunswick and PEI regions that produce some of the best ones. With just a couple drops of lemon juice each, they were absolutely delicious and creamy. I was smiling the whole time, glad I was lucky enough to enjoy my last meal in such a special city this much. I followed that up with beef tartare, which was good for what it was, but after a couple more tries later on I’ve decided that this dish is not for me. I switched back to seafood after that, ordering a plate of scallops with lemon juice and cream served under a bed of bitter vegetable stalks. These were on par with the oysters, smooth and bursting with flavor. The vegetables provided a nice break, but I ate them first so that I could end with the wonderful scallop flavor. For desert, I was originally planning to just order a local ice wine and have that be it. However, I saw a Duth vermouth on offer that was under none other than my first name: Willem. I had to order it. It and the ice wine both have their sweet notes, but each has a unique undertone. The ice wine tastes more fresh and crisp, while the vermouth is smoother and left a strong aftertaste. I took my time sipping on these, watching the restaurant’s clientele filter in and out. All got the dress up memo better than I did, and I saw everything from couples on dates, to businesspeople clustered at larger tables, to a few singles at the bar who seemed to know the staff quite well. Because the kitchen is right behind the bar, most of the kitchen staff passes near each bar customer at some point. My first night, I was in front of the grill station and it was fascinating to watch the guy work so confidently with the flames, and time his cooking of the meats so well. The second night I was at the end near the bartender, who was up for chit chat a lot more than the busy cooks. He asked if I’d run any races that weekend, and I got to proudly tell him that I’d finished the marathon! It’s always a nice extra touch when the restaurant staff is curious in those ways, and looks for opportunities to banter with solo diners. Well, I’ve talked glowingly enough about my experience, so let’s go through the pictures now…

Despite being the Canadian capital, Ottawa receives much less air traffic and tourists than neighboring Toronto and Montreal. Those two cities get the vast majority of intercontinental air traffic, leaving Ottawa with seasonal flights to London and Frankfurt only, and nothing further west of the Great Plains into the USA. To be honest, I only visited myself on a standalone trip to run the marathon. However, I’d actually say that Ottawa is one of the cities that beat my expectations going in, and that’s especially true of its culinary scene. Even though its a little insulated, the city’s dining scene is world class and features standout restaurants of nearly every international region of the world. Being the seat of politics, they also have some showstopping fine dining restaurants as well, like Riviera. The next time I find myself in Toronto or Montreal, I might just have to swing by again… 

Since I put off any tourist activities until running the Ottawa marathon, I didn’t end up at any museums until the Sunday evening. However, I tried my best to see the ones that interested me after that. The first is a museum that I actually forget which one it was… so, sorry about that! It had a few paintings with emphasis on climate change, a pending crisis that the Canadian government didn’t emphasize for a long time in the hopes that melting Arctic ice would open up lucrative northern shipping lanes. However, after growing pressure from Canadian communities feeling the effects of climate change and also perhaps the inevitableness of those lanes opening up, the government has stepped up their efforts of climate awareness and combating of some causes in the last decade. Oil drilling in Alberta continues to accelerate though, showing that the government still has limits in terms of how far they’re willing to actually go. The museum also had a good amount of indigenous art, which I’ve found to be the case pretty much across Canada. Lastly, there was a really cool video of a Hong Kong housing block, which looped and spent time zeroing in on various residences. It was a lot to focus on, and I ended up taking quite a bit of time to take it all in. Let’s see what you notice in that last photo:

The next morning, I stopped by the National Gallery of Canada after my visit to the Senate chambers. There was a new variety of artwork here as well, of all sorts. You’ll find everything from classical to indigenous to modern art here, and I think the pictures will really say more than any broad descriptions I could give. So, here they are:

Soon after, I passed by the official US Embassy, as well as the city’s Notre Dame cathedral. After a whole pizza for lunch, I ambled all the way over to the Canadian War museum, which had exhibits on wars from ones with the First Nations to World War II and more recent efforts that Canadians have participated in. Unfortunately, exhaustion from the previous day caught up with me here and I actually spent much of my time resting on benches. Still, I was able to catalogue some of what I saw…

So, how did these compare to famous museums in other cities, particularly those in the United States capital? I had a great time perusing the collections of Canada’s national gallery, and found the collection in the war museum very engaging before I just ran out of energy. They don’t have the expansiveness of the National Mall museums in Washington D.C., but they’re well worth a visit while you’re up here. It’ll take an ambitious day to go through them all, or a leisurely two days which is what I’d recommend.