Name: What Can $100 Get in Iceland (Expensive AF)
Uploaded: 2024-01-04T21:01:20.000Z
Duration: 10 min 29 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The superlative

Iceland is one of the most expensive countries on the planet, but also one of the most beautiful.

Adverbs of frequency

I have always been super fascinated with this nation of 380,000 people, and curious why everything is so overpriced.

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So today, we are going to explore the capital city of Reykjavik, and see what we can get with $100.

So I've done this $100 series in a lot of expensive countries including Switzerland in New York City and even in Dubai in the UAE.

But I have a strong feeling that this one may be the quickest.

So let's see if this can last us a full 24 hours.

First up, let's see how much a cup of coffee is here.

So a coffee was $5.50 which is not terrible but still on the pricier end.

But this has to be the most perfect pour of coffee I've ever seen.

So next up, we're going to go to this place right here called Brauð & Co, supposedly they are the most famous bakery in Reykjavik and known for their cinnamon rolls.

I could use a nice warm cinnamon roll right now.

So for $5, we got the famous cinnamon roll, which is not too far off from what you'd pay back in America.

But I feel like this may be one of the only cheaper options for food here in Reykjavik.

Definitely one of the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had.

So guys, we just ran into someone who watches the videos named Edgar from Estonia? -  Estonia.

But you've been living here in Iceland for the past two months, you just said? - Yes, yes.

And what has that been like? 'Cause I've only been here for one day and this place is unlike anywhere else in the world that I've ever been.

What made you want to come here and live here for the past couple of months?

And, yeah, I just had some burnouts in my life and worked really hard and I was trying to get my life back together.

So you're saying like this is like a good place just to be remote and kind of like escape from the rest of the world for a little bit.

Yeah, because there's a lot of room here. If you go out of the Reykjavik, you know, there's lots of space, you can clear your head, you know.

Yeah, a lot of good hikes in nature, for sure.

I guess my last question is, what have you been doing with the prices?

Because this is probably one of the most expensive countries I've ever been to.

I'm staying with my friend right now. Just couch surfing, you know.

Edgar was a super awesome guy and he definitely inspired me to come back here and see more of the country since unfortunately, for this trip, I only have a couple of days, so primarily going to stay in this area of Reykjavik.

But Iceland is only a five hour flight from New York City where I live.

So definitely want to come back and explore.

If you guys want to see a video of seeing more of this country, comment down below because totally, I want to come back already.

So what I was slowly starting to learn was that for the goods that are created in Iceland, the prices weren't too terrible,

but since this is a very low-populated nation that is an island, most products are imported and have a very hefty import tax.

So clothing, food in restaurants, even grocery stores are insanely overpriced.

So I'm back home editing right now and I realized that I was in Iceland for such a short period amount of time that I did not shoot enough B-roll. Really is the worst feeling.

They have stock videos and images of just about anything and anywhere you can think of.

I love Storyblocks is because a lot of these other stock sites operate with an expensive pay per clip pricing.

But Storyblocks offers their library of literally millions of clips all for royalty free with one set price.

Storyblocks is a partner of mine but I gotta say, I genuinely have been a customer of theirs for years.

If you guys want to learn more, go to storyblocks.com/brettconti or click the link down below.

So, now, for transportation in Iceland, it is quite limited and very expensive.

There is no subway and buses aren't really a thing within the city and then taxis, forget about it.

I took a taxi from the airport to here in the city and it was 45 minutes, but cost  $150.

So the best way to get around the city of Reykjavik are these scooters right here.

They both pretty much go across town for like five bucks.

So one of the main things to do here in Reykjavik is to go to the top of the church right behind me.

And what's super interesting about this church is that it's actually the second-tallest building in the entire country.

This is a super beautiful church but crazy that it must only be about nine stories, which is lower than my apartment back home in New York City.

To get to the top of the tower was $10, but I feel like this is something you got to do when you're here in Reykjavik.

You know, sometimes coming up to these touristy viewpoints isn't worth the money.

But for 10 bucks to come up here and get to see the entire city of Reykjavik, where the city really does look like candy land and then all the mountains and the ocean in the background.

So right across the street from the church is Café Loki.

Supposedly, this is one of the most famous places here in Iceland to get some traditional food.

And I have no idea what traditional Icelandic food is.

I went with the lamb shank since there weren't many options on the menu that I thought I would like since I learned that traditional Icelandic food consists of things like whale, horse, shark, puffins, and a couple of things that I've never heard of.

But yeah, traditional Atlantic food is definitely something I need to get used to.

I should say that a hotel or Airbnb in Iceland will cost you roughly $400 per night.

So we are going to be staying in a hostel tonight at this place called the Kex.

It's $40 per night, but I am going to have to sleep in a room with 42 other people.

Definitely the most amount of people I've ever slept with.

So this is the Kex hostel where we're staying for tonight.

It doesn't look too glamorous but never judge a book by its cover.

The common area is empty right now, but this is such a cool hostel.

We got this stage behind me for some karaoke.

There's a foosball table, we got a piano and there's so much space.

So in this series, I typically like to use the Big Mac Index to get a better understanding of a country's purchasing power.

But this is the first time where there are zero Mcdonald's in the entire country.

And that's because when Mcdonald's tried opening one, it became home to the most expensive Big Mac on the planet due to the import fees into the country.

Then once the 2008 financial crash happened in Iceland where all three of the as banks collapse, it unfortunately brought down Ronald Mcdonald too.

So one of the other alternative, local fast food joints is here at AKTU TAKTU.

I did just take a quick look at the menu and even their equivalent of a Big Mac meal was about $16.

So I'm going to see what we can get with our remaining amounts and see how this AKTU TAKTU tastes.

So we unfortunately had to go a little bit over budget since the cheapest thing we could get is this hot dog with a drink and a KitKat bar, and this came out to $7.13.

Now, Iceland is known for their hot dogs, so I am excited to give this thing a try.

I guess, you know, if you are coming here to Iceland and trying to get by on a budget, AKTU TAKTU as your back, I guess, $7.13.

It is pretty ridiculous for just the hot dog.

So after barely surviving a day in Iceland with $100, I was able to connect with a subscriber named Baylar who was born and raised here in Iceland and asked him a bit more about what it was like growing up here in Iceland.