The “have any plans for New Year’s” question has become an equally boring and bland part of the typical holiday conversations this time of the year. It usually follows other annoying badgerings like “when are the kids coming” or “when are you getting married” and maybe “did you know that your cousin (insert name here) is really doing great at their new job?” Response to the aforementioned: “No – I don’t care about cousin (insert name here) – he’s a tool, I have no plans for kids, and I am married Aunt (insert name here), this is my wife standing right next to me – we have been married for 3 years – you were at the wedding – please enjoy that 7th martini…”
Anyway – Last year, overloaded by holiday cheer, we decided we needed a change of scenery. Instead of dreadfully agreeing to the typical New Year’s Eve city night out, overpaying for crappy finger food, and a cheap champagne toast at midnight, we booked a flight to sunny, warm ….Iceland.
The truth is Iceland in January is not warm and it’s certainly not sunny. In fact, you really only have 4 hours of daylight. Honestly, it’s not even a real daylight, more like a 4-hour sunset. It sounds horrible at first, but not only do you get used to it fast, it also makes for some neat pictures. Examples below.
I will have to add a complete post about Iceland at a later time because I want to focus on New Year’s, but the 5 point list on Iceland is as follows:
- It’s easy to get to with several direct flights from the U.S. daily.
- The people are amazing and pretty much all speak English. That’s important because…
- You won’t be able to read or understand anything. Their language originates from Vikings dropping Scrabble boards on the ground and picking up the letters one by one without any clear pattern or organization.
- The Northern Lights kind of look like greenish fog in person, but absolutely amazing on camera.
- Holy shit it is expensive. Example: 2 beers 2 burgers = $75USD
Now back to focusing on the topic. I am going to make a bold statement – I believe Iceland does New Year’s Eve bigger and better than any other country in the world. The country embraces the change of the calendar year as a time to reinvent oneself, letting go of the past year, and starting new. The buzz around the city starts days in advance. There are all sorts of drink specials and welcome deals for tourists coming in for the holiday.
The night of NYE (I am tired of writing it out) the Icelandic set bonfires meant to symbolize a ritual cleansing called Ármótabrenna- which is likely pronounced “cherrycheesecake” because, again their language is impossible to figure out. The bonfires start the night off with singing, dancing and drinking, and you can check them out by booking a tour or simply walking to one from the city.
At this point in the evening, you will likely notice a sporadic blast of fireworks here and there. Think of this as an appetizer to the most EPIC public fireworks display you will ever see. A little backstory- fireworks, from what I was told, are illegal in Iceland 364(ish) days out of the year. However, in an attempt to raise money, the Icelandic Rescue Squad (which sounds like a make-believe name) sell fireworks to the public which can be set off at midnight. Aunt (insert name here) might say, “oh cute, they sell bottle rockets and sparklers”, but again Aunt (insert name here) you are WRONG. They sell Macy’s 4th of July quality, nuclear explosion, pant splitting, eyebrow singed, scorched earth, fireworks to any Tom, Dick, or Harry off the street. Maybe it’s job security for the rescue squad to sell fireworks, I don’t know, but it makes for an amazing stroke of midnight.
We were able to book a ticket to a NYE party right in the center of the city. The party was hosted by a company called Wake Up Reykjavik, who originally just specialized in city bar crawls but has now branched out into booking adventure tours and other various nightlife activities. The party took place in what I think was a nightclub, but might have been a bar, possibly an art gallery, but could have also been someone’s really nice apartment. The rooms were dimly lit, filled with beautiful Viking people, speaking strange words, and staring at me as I walked around – kind of had an Eyes Wide Shut vibe going honestly. The host, Egil (pronounced Jonathan – kidding), assured me everyone was friendly and no one was going to put on masks and have sacrificial sex. Kidding again – Egil and his crew were amazing hosts and showed us a great time. The drinks were always kept full and the live DJ was keeping the crowd up and dancing. The best part about this party was certainly, by far, the rooftop deck. Climbing up a couple stairs, we were greeted by a 360 degree unobstructed view of the city. As the countdown to midnight approached, the city began to erupt.
That said, and without having to read any further… midnight NYE in Reykjavik. Really sorry about the language, whistling, and woo-girling… we were excited.
As our party started to wind down, so did some of the other gatherings in the various bars, clubs, and houses. Everyone started to spill into the streets singing and dancing as fireworks continued to explode overhead. The rallying point for the buzzing masses was a small square that had a dozen or so food trucks set up. We followed along making friends with some locals and tourists along the way. Posted up on a bench in the square, we stuffed our faces with fried donuts, cheesy fries, and god knows what else. The Icelandic have some amazing beer, but some, um…interesting foods. For example, when I say I had some good Icelandic puffin, it isn’t a code for anything X-rated. They actually eat those cute little-painted face penguins! Someone told me it’s because they didn’t have chicken, but who knows.
After a couple of hours in the square eating, drinking, making friends, and people watching, we decided to call it a night. Waking up the next morning, the fireworks were still going off albeit not at a fraction of the frequency from the previous evening. There really is so much more to Iceland than just NYE and as mentioned, I will follow up with another post shortly.
Bottomline – try something new, use your passport, spend the money, and book the experience.
Plane Addicted 