Get into town

So you’ve gotten off the plane, you’ve got your luggage, and you’ve passed muster with the border agent. Then you hear that a taxi to the city is $100. What do you do? Do you take the train?

You do not take the train. There is no train. Anywhere. No trains in Iceland.

Instead the way to go is with FlyBus. There’s no need to book in advance, and it’s a fraction of the price of a taxi. They stop at hotels; if you’re staying chez Raggi, the closest one is the Hilton Nordica.

We will have a car. It’s likely, then, that we’ll be able to meet some people at the airport and drive them back. Details will emerge.

Once you’re in town, car rental is pretty pricey, and gasoline runs around $2.15 per liter. Welcome to Europe! SadCars is supposed to have the lowest prices.

The city buses are called Strætó. Their online route planner and app will tell you what you need to know. What the chez-Raggi crowd needs to know is that the #14 goes back and forth to downtown, the #5 goes to Árbæjarlaug which I am utterly determined that everyone will visit, fares are 300 kr, and you can buy passes at the main terminal. That terminal is called Hlemmur. And while city bus stations are not generally considered to be radiant pageants of joy, Hlemmur in particular is so depressing they actually made a movie about how depressing is is.

And, notwithstanding my anti-cash rant, the 300 kr fare is the one thing you might want to pay for in coins.