We had landed at Keflavik airport late at night (shortly before midnight), checked in at the nearby Guesthouse Alex and decided to find somewhere local to enjoy a couple of beers.
After walking down the main road (in cold, snowy conditions) for the best part of 20 minutes, and becoming increasingly pessimistic about finding anywhere open, we stumbled upon Rain on Hafnargata (the “High Street”of Keflavik as far as we could tell).
It is hard to describe Rain. In fact, it is listed under “restaurants”, “bars and pubs” and “discos and clubs” on one directory of Keflavik establishments that I found online. We stuck to the bar area, but we could hear live music and see a handful of people dancing in another room. It’s a pretty big place, it has a couple of bouncers on the doors (which seemed unnecessary at the time of our visit) and attracts a mixed clientele.
We knew that the beer would be expensive, but it was still a painful experience when I handed over 1200 Kronur (approx. 10 GBP) for our two pints of Egils Gull local beer! Thankfully, after a couple of pints, we fell in with a group of locals who insisted on plying us with beers (and introduced us to the local “Opal” liqueur – strong, dark, licorice flavoured vodka shots) in return for asking us questions about England…and The Beatles…and lower league English football. It was quite a surreal night. I dread to think how much the rounds of drinks were costing, but I believe that it is common in Iceland for bars to offer a special deal for a beer purchased with a shot of liqueur.
At the time of our visit, the bar area (a dark, cosy area with a handful of wooden tables and a piano) was still adorned with Christmas decorations. However, the pride of place went to one wall which was covered with photographs of local musical talent. We were told (many, many times!) by our hosts that Keflavik is the musical capital of Iceland, with this small town spawning dozens of top national (and international, although none of the names were familiar to me) performers.
I read online that the restaurant offers excellent sea views, but of course we couldn’t appreciate these on the dark winter’s night that we visited.
Rain bar – a good place for a few beers with the Keflavik locals!
