Iceland - an undiscovered continent

We've just got back from our 11-day travel from Iceland in July 2015. The reason why I call it a continent is that it's quite far from any other place (we flew 3,5 hours from Gdansk, Poland while the closest destination is London with 3 hours flight) and it's culture seemed completely different from the travels we took before.

I. What have I learnt from the trip in Iceland?

1. There's a country between US and Europe, not only geographically but in many ways culturally too.
2. Iceland has completely different issues than what we usually hear in the news. Instead of overpopulation there are 300.000 people in a territory like Hungary or Kentucky. There are practically no people outside of the capital. A "city" of 2500 is a regional center. Heating seems to be solved 100% by geothermal energy just as warm water in houses is 100% thermal water. Unemployment, stealing, crime (not even petty crime like stealing!), military and police does not seem to exist.
3. Beautiful nature comes with harsh conditions: heavy wind, heavy rain, cold.
4. A four-hour long sunset does exist!
5. If you let your sheep go in spring you'll find them before winter.
6. Everyone speaks English.
7. Iceland has NO army. Three-hundred thousand is as tiny of a nation as you can imagine. With its own language, currency, culture and national pride and people striving to make it better one has to wonder how come other nations hasn't conquered it. It's independence is young though: since 1944.
8. There are NO other colours than white, grey and black when it comes to houses and cars.
9. There are very few buildings, churches, villages, etc. Instead of looking for nature you have to look for man-made things...
10. People really do believe in elves. You think it's impossible? Talk to locals. Amazing stories!
11. There's a place on Earth where you are always sleepy no matter that you sleep twelve hours daily...

II. Highlights of Iceland

1, Nature
- we can compare the nature in Iceland to the very best we've seen before (Andes, Bolivia)
Westfjords (we drove one day from Laugarbakki through Isafjordur to Olafsvik, about 800 kms)
Vestmannaeyjar / Westman Island (spent the night, climbed a vulcano, drove around, saw some puffins, enjoyed all the natural beauties), Leirhnjúkur lava field by Lake Myvatn and countless waterfalls and sights by the Ring Road.

2, People
- it's become a cliche to write that the best thing in whatever-country is the friendly and warm people. Usually I skip this part. I don't think people are that nice, friendly and warm usually. In Iceland with our 5 Couchhosts and the occasional interactions we had with locals did make us feel unusually welcome and gave such an insight to life in Iceland we couldn't have gathered otherwise.
From about 45 couchrequest that I sent after reading profiles (couple of hours of work, not the usual copy+paste technique) we had 5 hosts for 5 nights. Great people who spoke immediate-fluent English and were willing to share a lot from their culture. No host in Reykjavik.

3, Pools
I read in Reykjavik that every 2000 people in Iceland has a (geothermal) swimming pool. This means 150 pools: I'm not sure the "natural" ones are counted. I went to pools 5 times in Iceland: more times than I did in Budapest that is also famous for its thermal pools in 2 years. The reason is: warm, clean, social, relaxing, cheap and fun. Prices: locals might show you free ones, the usual swimming pool costs 2-4 euro while the "high end" ones cost 25 euro (next to Myvatn lake) and 45 euro (Blue Lagoon).

4, Driving
- as we did not book a 4WD car we drove mostly on the main "ring" road and we took some shortcuts (no F roads). Still, driving on gravel and mountain roads was a great joy for me. Not all the time for our passengers though. We managed not to hit any sheep. I'm definitely proud of this.

III. Lowlights of Iceland

1, Prices
This was our most expensive travel daily so far.
Getting there was okay: 90 euro / person for a flight from Gdansk/Danzing, Poland without luggage. We had to get to Gdansk though. We flew Wizz Air. Other destinations are connected by WOW Air, the low cost Icelandic airline.
Renting a car seemed the only option that would allow us to visit the majority of the sites for sure. Choosing from the cheapest options and renting an old Nissan Micra cost us about 67 euro / day. Bus passes didn't seem cheaper but more circumstantial. Hitch-hiking could work but be aware of wind and rain. Bringing your own car (ferry from Denmark) costs way more and takes longer.
Accommodation cost for 2 people between 60-95 euro that often meant dormitory / shared rooms. The other option is tent. Do bring however professional equipment as it does get very windy, rainy and cold in July too.
Food - if you wanted to eat no matter whether it was from the supermarket or from a restaurant was very expensive. The only meal that seemed cheap compared to others was hot dog that cost between 2-3,5 euros. A main course in a restaurant would be around 20 euro per person.

2, Reykjavik
I was born and raised in a town that is similar in size in Reykjavik. While my hometown is considered a city in Hungary I learnt soon enough that it is a small town. Reykjavik with its population of 120.000 is really small and after we counted a little we came to the conclusion that at a time during the summer high season there are more tourists on the streets at least of the city center than locals. This shows.
Reykjavik is a hip, chic, stylish city. If you like this aspect of Berlin or Amsterdam and you don't worry about prices (the very cheapest beer during a happy hour is about 2 euro and otherwise it can easily be 4-6 euro) you'll love the place. Stylish cafes, hip people, fashion, design and modern art shops. There was a kind of pattern repeating itself on the main street of the capital: hotel/hostel, souvenir shop with plush puffins, design/art shop, restaurant, fashion shop, travel agency and a hotel again...
The best things we did in Reykjavik was going to the cinema watching a new Icelandic movie (Hrútrar/Rams) and going to the main swimming pool (Laugardalur).

IV. My tips for Iceland

1, If you want to drink any alcohol buy enough at the airport. I read even locals go there. Prices are averagely double than the not-so-cheap duty-free at the airport.

2, Try to meet locals. A completely different culture, points of views, issues, solutions.

3, Don't do the ring road in 5-6 days. Leave at least 9 days for it as there are (marked) places to visit every couple kilometer next to the road.
4, Coffee is either for free or if you pay for it you can refill as many times as you'd like.

V. Pictures

Sunset seen from the ferry to Westman Island

Top of the vulcano on Westman Island because of which the whole population of 5000 had to be evacuated in 1973

Max's restaurant by Blue Lagoon: the best one we found in Iceland

Blue Lagoon

Westman Island

Driving on the Ring Road

Sheep crossing the main road of Iceland

Lazy seals - seen at Westfjords

Leirhnjúkur lava field by Lake Myvatn

The four hour long sunset on the way to Olafsvik

The four hour long sunset on the way to Olafsvik (2nd)

Being blown away by a fumarole

Belarus unveiled

Visiting Belarus is not impossible at most times but doesn't seem to be the travel of a life: lot of paperwork, showing up at an embassy, paying a lot of money for visa and what you get is a place of which you don't know too much and possibly don't wanna experience too much either. This changed temporarily for 25^th April - 31^st May 2014 because of the Hockey World Championship held in the capital, Minsk between 9-25^th May. No visa needed, no paperwork needed, no embassy needed and even the freeways are free of charge for foreign visitors: why not to take a look?

We decided to do it and after buying tickets for less than 10 USD per person we spent 9 days traveling from Hungary to see Belarus. What we found there was absolutely different from what we expected. Below you'll find some information about getting around the country and some pictures with some of our interesting experiences.

Language:

Russian is the spoken language by all the people you'll be likely to meet; English spoken in hostels by Couchsurfing hosts in Brest and Minsk, Polish comes useful in Brest and Minsk, many seemed to have learned German but weren't overly willing to speak it.

Cyrillic letters are the official ones. Learn them letters before you go. It might seem difficult but it's not. 20 minutes to 1 hour should be enough to learn the printed Cyrillic letters so you'll be able to recognize signs like “MINSK”, “BANK”, “HOSTEL”, etc. Cyrillic letters here.

Accommodation:

We slept in tent, hostels and used Couchsurfing. Can not tell much about hotels but we are positive that the country is not really ready to have many visitors and there will be thousands of extra visitors for the Hockey Championship and not only: a large number of tickets were bought by Poles that wanna visit the country and don't only go to see the matches. Try to send couchrequests ahead of time and/or make reservations. We were glad to stay in Hostel Revolucion in Minsk and get to know the nice English speaking daytime receptionist and having spent the night in bunk beds in basic rooms with corridors having stylish decoration and atmosphere.

Getting around:

When entering the country (at least a good 1 hour procedure) make sure you have your ice-hockey ticket on you printed and keep it with yourself at all times as it functions as your visa. Only one person can enter with one ticket and it functions as a single-entry visa. Try to enter through a small border crossing station. You might become a celebrity and the waiting time is less than on a bigger one. We entered from Sławatycze-Damacawa, Poland near the main Brest crossing.

Public transportation seemed efficient and a good possibility to see and interact with locals and we'd recommend it for those who plan to stay more than a week in the country. There are few buses to remote areas and there are trains connecting Brest, Minsk and Vitebsk with cheap tickets and sleeping cars too. The best way to get around is by your own car. Road quality is good. Comparable to the former Eastern bloc countries and you can count with an average of 90 kms/hour on main roads and 110 kms/hour on the highway (Brest-Minsk-and further on to Moscow). We were told on the border that you can go to Russia (and Kazahstan) without border control. The news are confirmed but if not having visa to Russia you can be prosecuted and we would choose another time (and a visa) to visit Moscow. Hitch-hiking was quite usual for locals and they do not pay for the rides.

Getting to know the country:

What we got hold of was an 8 year old Lonely Planet guidebook on Belarus that seemingly talked about a different country. There's a newer edition though from autumn 2013, I don't know about that. While the sights and museums remain (with the Great Patriotic Museum being temporarily closed) the country's outlook and people's behavior does not have to do much with the book's content.

So - if you are willing to have a non-shallow/non-package-tourist style experience in Belarus try to get in contact with the locals. Without at least intermediate Russian knowledge we'd recommend CouchSurfing, hostels (Minsk) and bars in towns. Locals will be most likely surprised to see Western visitors however all who speak English have traveled and/or studied in the European Union. People talk freely about their opinion on anything including politics, political systems, etc. Whenever we mentioned Lukashenko, a short silence followed. You might wanna avoid using his name in the first minutes of the conversation.

Food:

Belarus had the worst cuisine of the many countries we have visited. Don't expect anything good. Meat is usually not fresh and only available in 2-3 different varieties (mainly pork, sometimes chicken) while the national dish is POTATO: but it's made without salt and generally anything you'll have will be tasteless and not very fresh. Other pieces of cuisine like borsch soup and golubtsy are taken from Polish-Ukrainian cuisine but are always worse than in these countries. Usually grocery stores seemed to have more fresh and better quality products. We visited 2 expensive restaurants, many by-the-side-of-the-road and many places in smaller towns. Quality ranged from almost inedible to just-a-little-bit-better-than-the-cheapest-Chinese-place at home. Desserts were generally good quality. See some suggestions and places to avoid below.

Felicia, the wife of Boris

4 of us, Boris, Szilárd, Małgorzata and myself have driven 2900 kms by the invincible 17 year old Skoda Felicia on our 9 day tour through Poland, Belarus and Uraine.

Boris, Szilárd, Malgorzata, Daniel

Poland:

Krakow: well-known, beautiful and touristy city. We chose it because of our friends.

Lublin: Quite out of the tourist routes town with a great Old Town area and a former concentration camp with a good exhibition some 10 kms out of the town. If going by car check out Da Grasso pizzeria in the outskirts of the town.

Lublin castle

Belarus:

Brest: visit the fortress, walk on the main street of the town and roam around a little bit. Quite Polish atmosphere. Take a look at the line of people in front of the Polish embassy trying to get a “Polish card”. Avoid “Friom”, the local McDonald's looking-like thing. Almost inedible and overpriced. The Anchor restaurant however served great fish, chicken and pork. But mostly fish and while the trout was all right, the “paltus” was heavenly.

Brest railway station

Brest fortress, Thirst statue

Brest Fortress, tank of the Red Army

Kobryn: see out-of-the tourist way small town life. The Lakomka ready-made food and dessert place serves decent meals.

Local bank offering 37% interest rate on local
Belorussian rubel while 5,5% for USD and EUR

One of the few not-f***ing bad quality meals

The countryside: get off the road and look around. We stopped by during cow-milking and walked away with 3 liters of fresh milk after helping the locals a little bit while later thanks to Boris' Russian knowledge we made a deal of sleeping in one of the houses for 250.000 Belorussian rubel, some 18 euro for the 4 of us and got into another drinking night and see a little bit of village life through the life of 4 future veterinarian students. One of the highlights is the well-taken care of and pastoral countryside with its clean houses and yards.

With our hosts in Imyanin

Contributing by human workforce to the local economy

Boris and the cows...

Niasviezh

Niasviezh: We arrived after opening hours (until 5 pm) so did not get inside the complex: a somewhat touristy area with a number of Polish tourists and a large Russian-speaking Jewish group. There is a nice town-center, a gate in the middle of a roundabout which kind of taunts you to enter through it and a nice, wooden-looking restaurant with horrible food.

Mir Castle

Mir castle: Arrived again after opening hours (until 5 pm) but the castle was open with a hotel inside (100 usd a night if I remember well). A site to remember and on the way from Brest to Minsk.

Minsk: The big surprise. Fashionable people, expensive cars parking next to the statue of Lenin, beautifully illuminated houses and the cleanest capital we have ever seen. By the huge sized buildings and large avenues this completely rebuilt city resembled Paris without traffic jams. Good bars (TNT rock bar with live rock music almost every night), with a high number of hookers and girls taking you to hooker bars for commission. Taxis are reasonable (some 5 dollars for a good 8 km ride) but in front of rip-off places better to agree on the price or simply try to hitch-hike with payment included: a local car stopped for us earlier than the 5-6 bypassing cabs... A good way to see Minsk is is by renting bicycles for 2-4 hours. We got the directions in our hostel, the "Revolucion".

TNT Rockbar, Minsk

Boris... ...outculturing us

Lenin lives, Lenin lived, Lenin will live

Minsk, Theatre of the Army 

Saint... ...Boris?

Malgorzata and the cart

Dudutki: 40 kms from Minsk there's a genuine tourist site for Russian and Belorussian families. The only place where we've seen a tour guide showing something to people. The 6 euro entrance fee includes a taste of home made butter and flavoured cheese, seeing rabbits, chickens, ostriches, peacocks, goats and a reconstructed village with a wooden church and mills. 100% touristy but still has a great feel of the calm countryside. The place offers reasonably priced fresh-made dishes. It's family-friendly: what else is there to say? :)

Dudutki: get bit by a friendly ostrich!

Belovezhskaya Forest and National Park: we arrived to the forest quite late (driving from Minsk) and after paying a little more than 1 euro entrance fee we could see animals in cages (from small cages for foxes, owls and other smaller animals we arrived to the bigger areas for deers and the national pride: BISONs. Best way to see the forest is probably if you give it at least a half day and you rent a bike in the nearby hotels/guesthouses. To get an idea of the area an hour is more than enough.

The Bison

Ukraine: Getting to Ukraine was interesting: between the Belorussian and Ukrainian border we have found 2 abandoned and out-gutted cars and after taking pictures I took a souvenir from one of them. On the Ukrainian side the border police officer after a thorough search found the part of the car and threatened me with 5 years in prison then 200 euro penalty while at the end we agreed in a 55 euro bribe. Seemingly there still is a price to enter Ukraine in a god-forgotten small border station.

Crossing to Ukraine

The local bus

On the border town of Domanove we have found the “real Belarus” - that does not exist in Belarus: the country we imagined before going to the area. The smelly concrete toilet full of piss, drunk people roaming around at noon, shit-looking buildings, cars from the 1980's, dirt and rubbish and people speaking in broken Russian about not having any work in the country and being amazed by the fact that in Hungary the unemployment is only 11%. Not to mention the road that was in worse shape that any road any of us seen, including Pakistan, Georgia and Transnistria.

"International road" in Ukraine

Taking over...

Lviv: The former Austro-Hungarian, later Polish town has traffic like in the Balkans, beautiful buildings all over being neglected for decades, European Union flags and doesn't have the atmosphere of a city in a country where civil war is going on: lively, extremely cheap (prices hasn't raised in the last months followed to 30-35% inflation of the local currency compared to USD or EUR).

Old Town of Lviv

Lviv - Secession architecture from
the Austro-Hungarian times

Lviv, Ukraine

The guards of the Ukrainian flag from the Maidan
on the main square of Lviv

Learn more:

Visa requirements of Belarus during May 2014

Press release about visa requirements

Prices in Belarus

About the Hockey World Championship

Lonely Planet Belarus chapter (price: 3 pounds)

Belarus (Wikipedia)

Our route

Visit more:
We planned to visit in Belarus the Chernobyl area that can be only visited by organized tours, Vitebsk, the home town of Marc Chagall; Navahrudak, the home town of Adam Mickiewicz and Hrodna. If in the area it's worth visiting Białystok in Poland and Vilnius in Lithuania.

Belarus is waiting to surprise you!