Iceland in Pictures

É claro que tem jeito para Brasileiros vir estudar aqui!

You have two main choices, you can go as an exchange student or you can enroll completely in Iceland.

If you are ready for college and want to become an exchange student, then I think your Brazilian university would have to organize it.

If you are 18 or younger, then you can very easily come over as an exchange student through AFS or Rotary.

To enroll full time you need to make sure you are eligible study wise. The school system is a bit different from Brazil. You can see a good overview of it on Wikipedia. I think in your case you would have to have finished Ensino Médio in Brazil to qualify. Also since, we have lots of choices during our Menntaskóli years (comparable to Ensino Médio), not everybody has had the same courses. This means that each university program will have its own requirements. They may require a minimum number of courses in math etc.

I don’t think I can help you much more specifically than that other than point you to the University of Iceland’s foreign student portal. You can also just email them and explain your situation. I’m sure they are helpful.

Finally: Tenho certeza que você vai gostar tanto de estudar na Islândia como eu gostei de estudar no Brasil.

Thanks!

There are no well known popular hikes around the Golden Circle. You usually do the Golden Circle in a day by car or bus and there is minimal walking required at each site.

The Laugavegur hike (Landmannalaugar to Þórsmörk) that you mention is however super popular and a true hike. You can read more about that in previous posts.

I have also written some stuff about hiking in Iceland, which might give you some ideas. This post about hikes in Iceland is particularly relevant.

Since you mention “around the Golden Circle”, you remind me of one possibility. There is a hike called “Leggjabrjótsleið” (E. Leg Breaking Route) from here close to Þingvellir and down into the Botnsdalur valley. This is a long day hike or an easy hike if you overnight on the way. However there is no marked trail, only a difficult to see trodden path after the 4x4 track ends. This is not a loop though, so transport could be an issue.

You could also do a really nice day hike in Botnsdalur and see Iceland’s formerly highest waterfall.

Eating out is a bit expensive though. In Reykjavík you’ll find plenty of really good restaurants, but expect to pay a high price. Out and about in Iceland it hard to find really good restaurants and very few lie in the high price range. 

A typical price for a hamburger in a diner would be between 1100-1900 ISK. A large beer would be between 350-900 ISK (typically 500). Here’s the menu for one of my favorites.

You can get a half a sheephead (in picture) and a coke for 1650 at the bus station.

There have been plenty of questions about Icelandic food before.

Yes I had quite a backlog of questions since I’ve been travelling for the past few weeks.

The largest site with rental apartments in Iceland is probably the one run by the mbl.is news site. You can probably find your way around it by running it through Google translate (Interestingly it translates the town of Garðabær as “California”).

If you are studying in Háskóli Íslands (University of Iceland) and you want to stay within walking distance, you should look for miðbær (downtown) or Vesturbær (west town) and perhaps Hlíðar. The University also has some apartments and dorms. Here’s the English website. It is a waiting list system, but recently the general price of rentals has gone down in Iceland and the student apartments are just a little bit cheaper than the free market. Therefor, last time I checked the waiting lists were minimal.

Don’t worry about language at all. Virtually all Icelanders are fluent in English.

Still it is possible to learn Icelandic like this guy did. But for you it would be plenty to learn a few friendly phrases. You could also learn “every single word in Icelandic”.

In response to a question about Iceland Airwaves.

Yes even though Airwaves is out of the main tourist season, the festival is so popular that the city fills up again for a few days. Therefor all the tour companies are on full speed.

I was guiding during the festival a couple of years ago. At times it was a bit difficult to get people going in the morning as they were generally thoroughly hung over. But I can promise you a walk out on a glacier is a very good hangover remedy.

Officially we are mostly Lutheran, but I’d say we were mostly atheist. I’ve written several posts about religion before that you might want to check out.

I suppose the most optimistic of us are waiting for the never ending slaying and partying in Valhöll.

I know there are tattoo parlors in Reykjavík, but I’m sorry I know nothing about them.

The Icelandic word for tattoo is really cool though: húðflúr

We speak Icelandic.

The private bus lines have different summer and winter schedules and many locations only are serviced during the summer. Often this is because the highland roads are closed during winter. You can try and make sense of the rather complicated network on bsi.is.

However there are plenty of bus day tours offered from Reykjavík all year long, especially during the Iceland Airwaves festival, so it should be no problem to find something other than the festival to do.

Also the Reykjavík public bus system recently began servicing much of southwest Iceland. This means that you can take a normal scheduled public bus from Reykjavík to the brand new Landeyjarhöfn harbour for only 1400 ISK. From there you have a 40min and 1150 ISK ferry ride to Vestmannaeyjar (used to be 3hrs from Þorlákshöfn harbour). You can also fly with Ernir for between 7 and 20000 ISK.

Oh and by the way Vestmannaeyjar is one of the most beautiful places in the world. You could also go crazy and skip the Iceland Airwaves and go to Iceland’s greatest party “Þjóðhátíð in Vestmannaeyjar”. It is a festival with over 10k guests every year. You won’t get the hipster music of IA, but you’ll get classic Icelandic pop bands and a real Icelandic crowd.

Here’s last year’s official video:

Hi

I’m glad you are taking precautions. As great as Iceland can be for hiking, it is unpredictable and potentially dangerous, especially if you are solo.

Iceland has as you mention an excellent network of volunteer search and rescue teams (ICE-SAR). Through the website safetravel.is, they offer a leave your travel plan service. All travelers who intend to venture off the beaten track should be advised to post their plans their. Take note though that they don’t follow up on whether you’ve returned or not. That is still up to your trusted friend or family. But I’ve taken part in many ICE-SAR rescues and I can tell you every little piece of information is very valuable.

If you need more support from them they also offer you to come by the ICE-SAR office and get advice. In this case they will also follow up on you.

Regarding PLBs (Personal Locator Beacons) I think ICE-SAR has some to rent or lend. You might want to check that out. In any case, a GPS PLB is a lightweight and cheap safety item. I’ve never carried them, but I have carried satellite phones for the same purpose.

Cell phone service in the mountains has improved a lot in the past few years with the introduction of Vodafone’s long range 3G network. Make sure you have a 3G capable phone as this will give you best coverage. Still, coverage is far from complete and few valley bottoms away from civilization will have coverage. Here’s a coverage map (click the GSM and 3G buttons).

Regarding maps, there are three main sets of maps of Iceland for hiking.

Atlaskort Landmælingar Íslands 1:100.000: The traditional hiking maps for Iceland. Measured and largely drawn around 1910-20, but updated in the 80s. These are my favorite as I’m quite used to them. Available here.

US Navy 1:50.000 The most accurate maps of Iceland, drawn in the 50s. The originals are almost impossible to get, but a more recent mix of these maps and aerial photos is available. These maps are not available for the whole country. I have no experience with the aerial map version.

New Atlaskort 1:100.000: There is a new set of maps published a few years ago. I can’t find them anywhere online, but I know these are great for hiking. They have plenty of hiking routes marked on them.

Specific maps (Sérkort) 1:100.000: For many popular hikes and areas there are tailor made maps. For these areas these are almost always the best maps, with huts and paths marked. I think all of them are offered here.

Reykjavík has a few nice outdoors stores. The most accessible one might be Fjallakofinn as it is downtown. Other good ones are Everest and Útilíf. You can get butane gas cartridges (compatible with MSR, Primus etc. NOT compatible with Campingaz) at most gas stations.

Camping sites usually charge a fee per tent and sometimes per traveller. Here are a couple of posts I’ve written about camping in Iceland.