Nothing is more invigorating than a cold shower. No, not invigorating. Torturous. Our hot water heater went out this week during a cold snap in New England. We’ve got snow outside, freezing temperatures, no hot water, and my family is sick. It’s quite a fun time over here at our house. **UPDATE** My amazing husband got us set up with a new hot water tank. Ahhhh….
But, today, we will talk about souvenirs and fun stuff to bring home from Iceland. As with most aspects of this amazing country, you can spend as much or as little as you can imagine in Iceland on keepsakes. I will start with absolutely free ideas and go from there.
My first suggestion is to take millions of photos. Iceland is the most photogenic place I have ever been. You can capture frame-worthy images of rainbows, buildings, waterfalls, glaciers, oceans, mountains, lagoons, and much more. When you get home, print your favorites, frame them, and hang them around your home. On this trip, we focused on Reykjavik and the art murals on the buildings. Free art is always enjoyable!
Another free idea is to find unexpected keepsakes on your trip, and turn them into ornaments or other works of art. Receipts, tags, postcards, and other little items become my bookmarks, Christmas ornaments, and quirky art to hang on the wall. We’ve collected rocks and sea glass from places where it is allowed and used those as decorations, as well.
Icelandic wool sweaters are iconic and cozy, especially if you live in an area where you get cold winters. I would love to own a real Icelandic sweater, but my budget said no. Instead, I purchased two skeins of yarn to create some gloves or a hat at home. My total cost on the wool was $15 USD.
Candy, chocolate, and other treats are much more affordable at the grocery store than at the airport. Purchase all of your souvenir food at one of Iceland’s grocery stores before leaving to save a few dollars. If you’re into the big pink pig, get a souvenir grocery bag also. I spent around $50 USD on food to bring back for multiple friends. For myself, I kept two, for a total of about $5.
If you’re looking for one permanent souvenir, a tattoo is a really great way to spend that money. Reykjavik has many tattoo parlors with excellent artists. This time, we visited Street Rats Tattoo. They were affordable, super nice, and even opened an hour early to accommodate our flight home. My husband chose to get his existing Icelandic tattoo enhanced with some northern lights.
I took lots of photos of really cool clothing and dishes that I would have loved to bring back with me. And, I really do encourage you to splurge a little on your trip if you can. Get at least one good, sit down meal. Buy yourself one really amazing souvenir. Indulge in one fancy lagoon experience. But, if my choice was to go bare bones, or not go at all, I would return to Iceland in a heartbeat and consume only water and instant oatmeal.
I still think we spent more money than we intended to, but overall, we did really well on our 72 hours in Reykjavik. We ate iconic Icelandic foods, swam in iconic Icelandic geothermal pools, saw art, had transportation, got some souvenirs, and really enjoyed the heck out of our Iceland on a Budget challenge.