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The Atlas Obscura Podcast

The Last Big Mac in Iceland (Classic)

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.61.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2024

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Take a trip to a hostel in Iceland to visit the country’s last Big Mac, where the burger’s existence unfolds a story about economics and national identity. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/iceland-mcdonalds

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

In 2017, Alexandra Yinksd had a problem.

0:05.0

I needed to get to Reykjavik, and I was up here in the West Fjords.

0:10.0

Normally, the drive takes around six hours, but this particular day there was a massive snowstorm.

0:17.0

I didn't feel comfortable driving in the snow and so a friend drove me all the way down to Reykjavik and what normally takes six hours took many more because we got stuck on a mountain pass in the snow and had to wait for a plow to come dig us out.

0:37.2

After about 10 hours in the car, they finally made it and they checked into a hostile and exhausted she plopped herself down at the bar.

0:46.9

And there next to her on the bar was a cheeseburger and fries. But not a cheeseburger and fries.

0:57.0

But not a cheeseburger and fries that she could eat. This cheeseburger and fries, they were on display,

1:01.0

in a glass case, like a guest of honor.

1:07.0

With a little sign that said,

1:09.0

Hello, I have Mr. Berger.

1:11.0

And it had been such an awful day, and I just sat at the bar next to this

1:15.4

cheeseburger and it actually made me feel better. It was just such like a

1:20.8

a quirky thing. It's so Iceland.

1:25.6

This wasn't just any cheeseburger.

1:27.8

It was very specifically a McDonald's Big Mac.

1:33.7

And it wasn't just any Big Mac either.

1:39.3

I'm Delantheress and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible,

1:48.1

and wondrous places.

1:49.7

Today a visit to the last Big Mac in Iceland and the story it tells about economics and national identity.

1:59.0

But that da da da da. That's after this. Alexander might be the perfect person to have ended up sitting next to the last Big Mac in Iceland.

2:29.0

She's from Pennsylvania but has lived in Iceland for years and is getting her PhD in

2:33.9

anthropology and she sees the Big Mac as a cultural artifact. I thought that it was a

...

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