On a related note, is WOW Air actually running flights below cost in some sort of promotion for Icelandic tourism? I know a lot of people in my social circle in LA who have all independently booked trips there solely because of the ridiculously cheap direct flights.
I wonder if fermented shark tastes good with poisonous ash.
OT:
Both WOW air and Icelandair promote iceland as a great "stop" on your way to eurotrip. A lot of people I met there in the rykjavik hostel were people who were just staying in iceland for 4 days to tour around quickly and then fly further to amsterdam. Apparently there is some promotion that there is no additional cost to stay in iceland a few days if you book a trip to europe through them.
If you're there on a budget, I highly suggest hitch hiking. It's one of the last european countries where you can really properly do this. Longest i waited for a hitch was 3 hours in the rain in a mountain range. But I think the mean waiting time has been 15 minutes.
There is only one main road, so you cannot really go into a wrong direction, just keep going right and you end up going all around the island back to rykjavik. I did it clock-wise, whilst most tourists did it counter-clockwise I think. The upside was that we mostly hitched rides from locals and we really got to know the country and its people this way.
It took me 20 days (with no rush) to cruise around the entire island this way. Must admit, we spent most of our time in the myvatn area, as it's just beatiful. The landscape changes every 20 metres and it's just gorgeous.
I feel compelled to point out that none of the species are endangered[1][2][3] and that the hot dogs are honestly not that amazing[4].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minke_whale [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_puffin [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_shark [4] Citation needed
Also, must admit, I have had some really horrible hot dogs as well in random gas station ;)
[1] http://us.whales.org/campaigns/visiting-iceland-help-us-keep...
That's a totally reasonable and very fair standpoint, but I want to be super clear on this: That argument has nothing to do with the conservation status of the species. You meant well, but you lied.
It's hard to talk about things like rational people if everyone is running around lying. Being passionate about something isn't an excuse for lies. It muddies the waters. Neither side is helped by lies, all lies do is entangle the discussion so that no progress can be made.
Also, you can't buy good sausages in this country. They're all pork, no one makes an honest aussie beef snag on the whole island. How can you make good hotdogs without good snags? :(
edit: apparently it's at least 54 minutes
I haven't tried australian hot dogs, but if you're looking for something better than the mainstream hot dogs in Iceland you should look at the polish specialty shops. They have more variation, some of them are quite good.
I don't know where you get the idea that Icelandic people don't eat these things. Admittedly puffin is not a very common dish, but whale meat is consumed by Icelandic people, and shark meat also has some following.
My friend's company in Iceland invited their employees to dinner a few weeks ago. The menu? Hrefnukjöt (minke whale meat).
WOW also appears to make do with a shoestring fleet -- they have only three long-haul planes, total, at the moment and seem to be relying on the range of much smaller A321s to do a lot of their US/Canada destinations.
Every time I've flown a WOW air flight, the attendants were Icelandic. So I don't think that's true.
Car rental, gasoline, and food were all pricey. If you drink, check the rules for Duty Free at KEF - I believe it's local tax AND duty free, so you can buy when you arrive and carry into the country for much less than buying elsewhere. We didn't bother as we were only planning to drink a few bottles of wine.