June 2008

Our Prime Minister, Geir H. Haarde, has now come out and said that it would be much more logical for Niceland to adopt the US dollar than the euro.

Just picture it: paying for our dried fish and brennivín with greenbacks featuring Abe Lincoln, as opposed to Nicelandic krona notes featuring a picture of YT’s dad.* I’m just sayin’.

Still, hearing old Geir talk, it doesn’t seem like such a crazy idea. We already do much of our business in US dollars, so if we were to join a monetary union it’s a more logical choice then the euro, despite our being in Europe. Also - and I know that this is the really clincher - old Geir doesn’t actually want to take up the euro because it would mean that we’d have to join the European Union. I also know he has the backing of a large share of the nation on that front. Our independence was too hard-fought for us to succumb to another controlling body - at least that’s the sentiment among a great number of Icelanders.

At any rate, it seems like it’s becoming crucial to do something [anything!] - the rate of the krona has fallen by 40 percent [!!!] since the beginning of the year [HINT: if you’ve been meaning to visit Niceland, this is the time to do it] and who knows where it will all end. Trouble is, the greenback isn’t doing so well, either. Pound Sterling, anyone?

ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY
This weather reporting is getting kind of dull - we have the same weather all the time, day after day. Brilliant sunshine, cool breeze, yadayadayada. The grass is starting to look parched - not something we experience very often up around this latitude. Right now 55°F [13°C - hell, why don’t we take up imperial measurements, too?] and the sun came up bright and early at 2.59 here in the capital, will set at 12.02 tomorrow.

* Trivia alert: my father actually served as a model for the drawing of Jón Sigurðsson, our independence hero, who is on the ISK 500 krona note, i.e. it’s a picture of my father’s body with the head of Jón Sigurðsson on top. So anytime anyone asks to see a picture of my father I can just pull out my wallet and show them the ISK 500 note, very convenient. Not that anyone ever asks, though.

There’s a place here in Reykjavík called the Family Park and Zoo, which as the name suggests is a park for families [i.e. they have play equipment for kids, rides, etc.] and a sort of mini-zoo, with domesticated farm animals, as well as wild animals found in Iceland: seals, foxes, minks and reindeer. Recently they’ve also set up a sort of mini-aquarium, with a few species of fish and other oceanic critters.

Anyway, each year during Midsummer Night they open the park between 11 pm and 1 am, for anyone who wants to listen in on the cows talking, or who fancies a roll around in the dew. They’ve also got lots of other things going on: a bonfire, live music, “strange creatures” roaming around [i.e. people dressed up in costumes], and suchlike. I’ve been meaning to go ever since AAH was little but have never got around to it - until last night. I was talking to a good friend on the phone who mentioned that she was going and told me just how great it was. EPI came home around 11 and I managed to coerce him into coming with me, and we ended up having a really fun time, even if we didn’t have any little kids with us.

We first came upon the seals, who were curious as ever. Is it any wonder the Germans call them “sea dogs”?

Next we checked out the aquarium. Can you spot the flounder?

Ah, there he is:

We went to listen to the cows, but this little guy, at least, wasn’t talking:

Whereas this guy had a lot to say, but I promised I wouldn’t tell …

In a tent there was a band playing jazz …

And outside there was a field for rolling around nekkid in the dew [note the clothes rack, very inviting]:

Meanwhile, Midsummer Night was encroaching on the little lake [although this photo was taken just prior to the one above - the position of the camera made it look darker than it actually was]:

On the way back out we bid farewell to the seals again [can you spot them?]

And on the way home, there was a gorgeous sunset:

… with the Sólfari sculpture looking like some strange prehistoric animal:

And that concludes our little Midsummer Night mystery tour. Thank you for joining us!

TODAY WE HAD YET ANOTHER STUNNING DAY
White-hot, brilliant sunshine. I was sitting inside today working [in an actual proper office] and it was SO HOT. I felt really sluggish and realized I hadn’t actually felt that way on account of the summer heat since I lived abroad. [Implications? Discuss.] Our economy is going to hell, the krona is in free-fall, Icelandair laid off 200 people today, gas is up to ISK 173 per liter [USD 7.40] … but at least we have beautiful weather. Temps right now 12°C [54F], sunrise this morning was at 2.57, sunset due for 12.03 tomorrow.

In Icelandic lore, there are four nights a year when mystical, magical things happen: the night before Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Twelfth Night [January 6] and Midsummer Night – tonight.

Many amazing things are supposed to happen on this night. Magical stones may be found that will make your wishes come true. Various types of healing grasses and herbs can be picked, just on this night. Cows gain the ability to speak – but if you do hear them, you must cover your ears, because anyone who listens in on their talk goes mad.* Also, the dew is very intense on this night, and it is said that if you roll around in it naked, you will be healed of whatever ails you, and will not become ill for an entire year afterwards.

Apparently it’s a common theme in Icelandic folklore that whenever something transgresses any sort of whole, some sort of threatening situation is initiated. Under such circumstances all sorts of forces are released, both good and bad, and things attain special, heightened powers [as in the magical stones, dew, etc.]. This applies, for example, when one process is complete and another begins, such as on the stroke of midnight, when a year is complete [on New Year’s Eve] and when the sun reaches its zenith in the sky, during Midsummer Night.**

IT’S A GREAT NIGHT FOR ROLLING AROUND NAKED
Although not sure you’d want to do it in the dew, cuz you’d freeze your butt. The light is magical, at any rate - right now at almost 11 pm the sun casts a gorgeous gold hue and there’s not a cloud in the sky. It’s 11°C [52F], sunrise this morning was at 2.56 and sunset here in the capital will be at 12.03 tomorrow.

* Perhaps they use Google translator.
** Nicked from the Icelandic Science Web.

[This post is filed under MY ICELAND.]

Well, I must be hitting the big leagues because I’m getting hate mail and lunatic rants.

Yay! I guess.

And while I generally have a policy of evicting anyone who comes at me or other readers of this blog with profanities and blatant disrespect, I rather think I shall let those be. Give a man a rope long enough and he’ll hang himself with it, I always say. Knock yourself out.

A couple of other things:

Graham from Scotland asked the other day whether I could post some pics taken between sundown and sunrise. I always make a point of going out at around midnight during the summer solstice every year, but I missed it this year because it came a day earlier than usual, on June 20th as opposed to the 21st, on account of the leap year. Pulled a fast one! And quite frankly I’ve been too exhausted in the last few days to head out at that time of night, with or without a camera. BUT - there is a solution in the form of the webcam they have set up eyjan.is [and probably elsewhere]. It gives the date and the local time, so log on there at any time after midnight our time and you’ll be able to see what our light nights look like.

Finally, one for the geeks in the crowd: can anyone recommend a good web host? I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but I’ve been having some trouble with mine lately, i.e. my site has been down fairly frequently and there have been a few other grrr-inducing things. The requirement is that it be reliable, affordable and have efficient and speedy customer service. Anyone??

IT’S BEEN SUCH A GREAT WEEKEND
Gorgeous weather! Sure - a bit cool, but that’s par for the course … at least most of that nasty wind has subsided. I’m working for much of the weekend [I really try not to work weekends, but in the last few weeks have had to relax that rule far more frequently than I like] but still I managed to do some work by the side of the Laugardalslaug pool yesterday, which was obviously highly preferable to being bolted to the office chair. It’s 12°C [54F] and sunrise was at 2.56 and sunset will be at 12.03. The will soon be getting shorter *sob*.

Finally got out today to see hunky Viggo Mortensen’s photo exhibit at the Reykjavík Museum of Photography, which opened around three weeks ago. My timing happened to coincide with a) the fact that I was in the neighbourhood, b) it was free, c) a few days ago I saw Eastern Promises and really liked it a lot. [How about that scene in the sauna, hm? Mercy.]

The exhibition is all about trees, with which old Viggo appears to have a fascination, and it’s actually pretty good. I expected it to be horribly gloomy and dour because all the promo shots I’d seen for it had been that way, but no. There were actually a few photos there that had colour and sunshine, plus there were poems written on the walls, some of which were by old Viggo himself. [Hint: this is for those of you who clicked on that Flickr menu disk a few thousand times. I know what you like.]

Incidentally, Viggo’s taken a bit of a shine to us here. He visited for the first time a few years ago, and now he just can’t get enough and keeps coming back. Probably because he can be a loner here and nobody cares. I read some interview with him the other day in which he said that, right after the opening of the exhibition, he was going to get in a car and drive out to the boonies, and just stay there by himself for three days. Hope he realizes that there aren’t any trees out there. And that there may be polar bears.

Speaking of which!

That third bear turned out to be a horse. Silly, silly tourists! Clearly someone needs to educate them about the fact that polar bears have paws NOT hooves. Perhaps someone could arrange an exhibit in arrivals section of the Leifur Eiríksson Air Terminal - THIS IS WHAT A POLAR BEAR LOOKS LIKE. IF YOU SEE ONE, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RIDE IT. Something like that.

WEATHER: NO CHANGE
Brilliant sunshine, cool breeze, lots of goose-pimpled Nicelanders with exposed skin. Right now 11°C [52F]. Sunrise at 2.55 am, sunset at 12.03 am.

See, I had to write that last post, just so I could keep writing about the polar bears, because of the promise I made at the very end of the post before that, and I never break a promise.

Okay…

There were some people out touring today, in a place called Hveravellir, which is up north but quite a distance inland. These people claim they saw bear tracks, plain as day. According to police in Blönduós, these people seemed very credible even if they were foreigners [kidding!] [no, really!] and drew a picture of the tracks that - gasp! - looked absolutely like the genuine article.

[Aside: why didn’t they take a picture? Whoever heard of tourists who don’t carry a camera??]

Anyway, did that old man or did he not say that there would be three bears?

[DumDum.]

“Knock knock”

“Who’s there?”

“Polar”

“Polar who?”

“Polar bear”

[Pause]

“Perish”

“Perish what?”

“Perish the thought”

“Perish Hilton”

“Perish France”

“Perish see you in your underpants”

[Pause]

“Knock knock”

“Who’s there?”

“Could I have a pillow?”*

AND NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION
Stunning day today. Gorgeous, blazing sunshine this morning and afternoon, but around - oh - 4 pm it started to cloud over and all of a sudden it was COLD. Who makes the weather around here? We currently have 11°C [52F] and the sun came up at 2.55, will set at 12.02 tomorrow morning.

* This conversation really happened.

So, it has transpired that the polar bear that came to visit yesterday was not only dead tired, it was also sick. More specifically, it was infected with trichinae, a parasite that is reportedly common in bears and other mammals. It lodges in muscles and tissues and causes a disease that can be very painful, apparently. Moreover, it was not injured on its paws as I mistakenly reported yesterday, but rather had chafe wounds beneath its front legs from swimming an enormous distance. Plus, it had not eaten anything for a long while.

Poor bear!

I know it’s a lethal animal and everything, but I can’t help feeling awfully sorry for it [- her. It was a female. See, I’m personifying it already]. Apparently the expert from the Danish zoo had to get within 30 metres of it to shoot it with a tranquilizer, and when the vehicles closed in on it, it simply fled towards the sea, at which point a decision was made to shoot it.

Not that it would have lived much longer anyway. I suppose this second polar bear incident was handled in the best way possible - every attempt was made to do the right thing, but without success.

More grave, however, is the implication of these two polar bear sightings within 14 days. I think all the experts agree that it means the changes to their habitat north of this country are significant and serious. Which probably also means that we will have more such visitors. It’s kind of freaky - on the one hand you want to think of them as endangered [as they are] and you want to help, on the other there’s no looking past the fact that they present a very real threat to human life.

Which of course means that we need something like a scarecrow - but for polar bears. What are polar bears scared of, anyway? Whales? Monkfish? Michael Jackson?

In any case, the Ministry of the Environment is working overtime at the moment to come up with a response plan for when the next bear shows up - one of the things that has been criticized is that no such plan exists, hence the mess they made of the first incident. Secondly, the coast guard is scanning the area up north with helicopters to see if any more bears are roaming the area. As I’ve said previously, it’s easy to do that now, what with the extended daylight, but what about next winter, when a polar bear could easily sneak up behind the local farmers in the darkness and yell BOO! Response-plan that!

Anyway, if you could just have a think about what a scarebear would look like and get back to me, that would be great, particularly as I’d like to be able to position it in the general vicinity of our hiking trip this summer. Ta.

I’M GETTING KINDA SICK OF ALL THIS WIND
It’s beautiful out there - the midsummer sun in all its glory - but it’s so damn windy! And of course, in Iceland windy means chilly. And for YT it means a pain in the neck because I’ve got this bum neck from my two whiplash injuries and the moment a cold draft hits the back of it I know I’m in for an unpleasant time. And I really don’t feel like wearing a windbreaker with a hood. Sigh. Life’s a beach. Right now temps of 12°C [54F]. Sunrise this morning at 2.56 am [the sun was a-blastin’ at 3.30 am this morning at which time YT awoke to find young AAH was not yet home] and sunset will be at 12.02 tomorrow morning. And I shall now stop talking about polar bears unless something really crazy happens, like if one comes knocking on my bedroom door tonight and asks for a pillow.

Well, the polar bear that was discovered roaming around up north yesterday and which they were hoping to capture alive was shot and killed this afternoon.

According to reports, the Danish experts from the Copenhagen zoo who arrived around midday were unable to get close enough to the bear to shoot it with tranquilizers. Apparently it became frightened and ran towards the seashore, so according to the police chief in the area “we had no choice but to shoot it”. [Don’t quite get the connection there - but hey, what do I know.]

Apparently it was a female bear, fairly old, and injured on both front paws. Which supports the hunch I had yesterday … I thought it was pretty suspicious that the animal kept taking naps all the time. Sure, maybe it had swum a long distance, but still. It just didn’t seem right. Also, it was very emaciated and, according to the Danish expert, would probably not have been able to tolerate the tranquilizers.

Anyway, it’s sad that it turned out this way. The thought of being able to rescue the bear and transport it back to its natural habitat was elating, but as our Minister for the Environment said [who actually interrupted her summer holiday to fly home due to this event] it was a risky operation. A lot of things would have had to come together for it to be a success, and unfortunately they did not.

On another note, I’m now starting to have serious reservations about our hiking trip up in that area next month. When the first bear was sighted EPI and I joked about the possibility of encountering a polar bear during our hike - but now that the second one has been sighted, it no longer seems to warrant that kind of flippancy. Particularly as experts say that it’s not unlikely that there will be more. [Yikes!]

Meanwhile, this whole episode starring the polar bear has completely superseded any reports of our National Day celebrations … yes, today is 17. júní, our National Day, and in lieu of a proper post about the occasion, I’ll simply defer to the ones I’ve written in the past, that I’m sure are still quite relevant: here and here and here.

THOUGH I CAN TELL YOU THAT IT’S SUNNY
And consequently fine weather for a National Day outing. The afternoon celebrations are mostly focused on families with small children, with lots of play equipment, bands, puppet theatre, that sort of thing. The evening belongs to adolescents and older, although sadly it also tends to turn into a bit of a drunkfest for the younger teenagers. We may head into town this evening; EPI’s sister always celebrates her birthday on this day so we spent most of the afternoon at her place and we’ll see how much energy we have left later on to go watch the revelers downtown. Although my fave Nicelandic band is playing on Arnarhóll hill at some point this evening [there are bands playing all over, all evening] so we may take a stroll down to see if we can catch them. There’s a bit of a pesky wind, like we’ve had all week; currently 15°C [57F], sunrise this morning was at 2.56 am and sunset due for 12.01 tomorrow morning.