Iceland was great, though by no means a destination for the budget-conscious traveler. The hard-hit Icelandic Krónur has rebounded nicely, and your Dollar or Euro doesn’t go all that far, when compared to purchasing power in other parts of Europe (though I will say that Iceland is a bit cheaper than the rest of Scandinavia). Anyway, one of the few good deals–if you can call it that–is bus service to/from the Keflavik International Airport for 1950 ISK or a tad under US$16 each way. Taxi? Oh man.
Despite being savvy in most aspects of the travel experience, I still miss the little things now and then. Like reading the bus schedule before it is too late.
I had a 10:15a SAS flight to Stockholm today and figured I would just show up at the bus station and I would find a bus departing soon thereafter. But Reykjavik is no Seoul or Tokyo. As I walked into the station around 8:05a, I saw a bus to the airport pulling out. I thought about trying to signal it to stop, but ruled it out, assuming another one would be leaving on the half. Bad choice.
Turns out the next bus did not leave until 09:30a. Faced with no other options–and not even anyone nearby to share a cab with–I made the “walk of shame” to the rank of cabs outside the bus terminal. All I’ll say is that at least in Iceland the cabbies are honest and friendly.
10,800 ISK (US$87) and 50km later, I arrived at the airport. The bus had beat us.
And to add salt to the wound, the bus had Wi-Fi, so I also lost an hour of productivity! Let’s see how long it takes me to make this same mistake again…
Ouch!