tips for tourists

Alright, so where were we? ~ Yes…

From gkb:

As someone who lived in North America and returned to reside in Iceland, what differences do you notice most between the two places (both good and bad, of course)? Apropos of this, what commentary, suggestions, or advice might you have for someone who is considering moving to Iceland?

~ There are loads of differences, I couldn’t even begin to list them all, so I’ll mention the first that comes to mind: it’s a lot easier to meet people and make friends in North America than here. Icelanders are notoriously reticent, they have very set social circles usually made up of people they went to school with, and they seem to sort of fall into an easy pattern of socializing with the same people all the time. It can be incredibly difficult to penetrate that; however, if you do manage to make friends with Icelanders they are generally your friends for life and incredibly loyal. So my advice - if you’re serious about staying here, give it time. It takes ages to integrate.

From Ruth:

Just wondering about how much time you spend blogging daily (reading, commenting, and posting) and if you ever feel it takes away from the “real” things you have to do in life to the point where you have short-changed these more important things and must cut back on the blogging to gain a better balance.

~ It varies. Maybe an hour on average. Let’s just say that I get the things done that I need to get done [e.g. I don’t let blogging interfere with my deadlines], but when I do have surplus time or a slow day I do tend to fill it with surfing the web or reading posts from my fave bloggers, even though the time probably could be better spent elsewhere. Writing posts doesn’t take me a very long time as a rule [I’m a fast typist and things just sort of spill out of my brain, although I do revise, at least once], and posting for me takes priority over reading and commenting elsewhere. These days, for example, I’m scrambling to finish various tasks and assignments, and while I do post regularly [which seems to be necessary for my mental health, incidentally] I don’t have much time to read.

From Steve:

If we`re not limited to one question per customer, what tickles yer funnybone?

~ Googlies! And EPI. He’s the funniest guy I know - everybody likes to be around him because he’s got this great sense of humour. And I’m lucky because I get to live with him. We laugh a lot.

From Don in Seattle:

I have been visiting Iceland for over 30 years, and I have seen many changes within the economy there. But nothing quite like what has happened within the past month in the Icelandic financial markets. Has there been a dramatic change in the daily life there, or is life going on as before? How is the average Icelander weathering this financial storm?

~ You know, it’s bizarre. Everybody outside of Iceland keeps talking about this serious financial crisis that has supposedly befallen us here, that our banks are going down the toilet, the króna is going the way of the dodo bird and whathaveyou. Yes, our currency has depreciated in value, yes share prices have gone down dramatically … but the same has been happening almost everywhere. Call me naive, but I don’t think it’s that much worse here than in other parts of the world. We’ve been told that food prices will rise by 20 percent in the next few weeks, but that’s because food prices are rising everywhere. And yes, we have pretty high inflation now, but Iceland has had high inflation before and survived. I expect that some people are in deep shit because they’ve taken massive loans and their property, cars or whatever have suddenly depreciated in value, or they have foreign debt which has suddenly increased. However, the Icelanders are remarkably sanguine when it comes to economic upsets. Their favourite phrase is “þetta reddast”, which basically means “it will work out one way or another”. And often it does. So [to get back to your question] essentially it’s business as usual around here.

From Jay:

I imagine the diet of the average Icelander to be high in seafood. How safe would it be for me, as a person with serious fish allergies, to visit Iceland? Is fish everywhere on the menu?

~ Well, unless you are so allergic that you cannot breathe in the air of fish being cooked [which I’m told some people are] you should be OK. Just avoid anything that says fiskur on the menu. There will be other options, for sure.

From Jon [via email]:

I am sure you have addressed this before, but how do you survive the gloominess of winter?

~ Jon! You’ve just reminded me that I never did get back to my loyal readers on the subject of the SAD lamp and its effectiveness, even though I promised to. [So thank you.] ~ To be perfectly honest, the winters here are deadly. For me it’s not really depression in the mental sense, but rather an extreme sluggishness that starts around the beginning of November and persists until, say, the end of January. Problems concentrating, lack of energy, and boy is it hard to drag my ass out of bed in the mornings. I used to take massive vitamin doses with ginseng but I stopped … and finally this year EPI and I went out and got the SAD lamp. I have to say, it works wonders. Within three days I was back to my normal self. My father-in-law got one too, and felt like a newly-minted two-shilling piece*. ~ Oh, and I also take cod liver oil.

And the final one, from Runa [via email]:

When I was young my parents didn’t put up our Christmas tree until Christmas Eve as it was ‘tradition’ not to put up decorations until the 24th in Iceland (my dad was Icelandic and adapted the tradition to fit in with 24th/25th thing). We loved it and the neighbours thought we were weird. My mum was frantically rushing about on Christmas Eve when we were in bed decorating the house, on top of everything else she had to do for our lovely Christmas morning surprise on the 25th. So you said in your blog all the houses were decorated earlier - is this true? Was my mum rushing about on Christmas eve giving herself a mind blowing work schedule for nothing?

~ It is tradition here to put up the tree very close to Christmas, on the 23rd or the 24th. However, the other decorations go up much earlier, like at the beginning of Advent [four Sundays before Christmas Eve]. So if your mother was putting up the tree AND all the other decorations, then yes, I’d say she was giving herself a mind-blowing schedule for nothing. Or that she thrived on stress.

Okay! That concludes our little Q&A session, thanks for your input everyone, I’m feeling so much better now as far as the mojo thing is concerned …

EXCEPT THAT IT IS CURRENTLY SNOWING
I couldn’t believe it, I looked out earlier and everything was white. And here I thought we’d left winter in the dust already. With any luck the white stuff will all be gone tomorrow; in fact if it isn’t I’m filing a formal complaint. Today was a gorgeous day as seen from the window, very enticing, enough to have you believe that spring was here and that it was OK to go out running in shorts and a t-shirt [like one guy I saw today - you’ve gotta hand it to the Nicelanders, if there’s sun they’ll take their clothes off]. Right now we have -2°C [28F] and SNOW, and sunrise was at 6.20 am, sunset at 8.41 pm.

* Yet another Nicelandic idiom.

This question thing is easy, perhaps a bit too easy. And I’m sure it could get tedious after a while, seeing as how I’d have to be answering questions all the time pretending I was in the loop about all kinds of stuff and couldn’t just rant about daily stuff, like the ditzy woman with wet hair who had her open [black] car door pushing against my [silver grey] car outside Bónus today while she pulled stuff out of her back seat …

YT: Excuse me, your door is pushing against the side of my car.
LADY WITH WET HAIR: Oh.
YT: It left a mark.
LWWH: I didn’t slam it against yours.
YT: It left a mark.
LWWH: [Wets finger and rubs the black mark on YT’s car.] Yeah, well I didn’t slam it.
YT: Oh, I see. You just pushed it.

~ BUT we still have questions, and here are a couple more.

From xl:

Do you ever get “island fever?” (That is, have the feeling of being trapped on the island and have to go to a larger space.)

~ Nope! I do not. I sometimes want to get out of here to see something new, immerse myself in a different culture, but I don’t really associate it with being on an island. And after all, Iceland is big. A total of 103,000 square kilometres to be exact.

From Virginia:

Are Icelandic ponies like Shetland ponies, in that they are psychotics with Short-Man Syndrome, or do they have sweet personalities to match their utter cuteness?

~ They have sweet personalities. And incidentally, they’re not ponies. They’re small, but they exceed the official pony size and are bona fide horses. Be forewarned: ‘Iceland ponies’ is a term that should not be uttered in Iceland. Under any circumstances.

From Skúli:

I constantly return to your blog precisely for the things that you complain make you unhappy about it. That’s what life is like - it’s not focused. Then a question: would you agree with the proposition that style shows the personality of the writer?

~ First, thank you for the first part of your comment. Very reassuring. Second, yes, I would absolutely agree with your proposition. In fact, I am consistently amazed at how clearly some people’s character shows through their writing. There’s no way to hide it. It seeps out somehow.

From the Pharmacy Trainee [now a pharmacist]:

My question will be the sillyest of all and perhaps offensive (I hope not) but… Dont you feel that Iceland is worldwide knew (not only, but mostly) because of Bjork? (Oh God, that´s a question I´ve always wanted to ask an icelandic and never had the balls to make…)

~ Not silly and certainly not offensive. The question is a resounding YES. Björk totally put Iceland on the map. She did what the Iceland Tourist Board could not have done with a ten-billion-dollar budget. BJÖRK FOR PRESIDENT!!

Okay, that’s it for now, I have to go to bed.

IT WAS A GORGEOUS SUNNY DAY, VERY DECEPTIVE
Because as soon as you went outside, it was absolutely freezing. Windchill temps well below zero. Tolerable out of the wind, though, but intolerable if you had it full-on. Right now -4°C [25F] and sunrise was at 6.34 am, sunset at 8.29.

Ok, enough whingeing: here comes a restaurant review.

EPI and I went out for dinner on Friday night with a couple of friends to Vín og skel [Wine and Shell – NB not the oil company] on Laugavegur. I’d been curious about the place for a while, having heard good things about it. In fact, I’d wanted to try it in its previous location, a bit further up on Laugavegur, tucked away down an alleyway and inside a little courtyard that was supposed to serve as an idyllic sheltered place in summer, where we could all pretend we were on continental Europe, sitting outside and freezing our butts off. But that’s another story.

Vín og skel specializes in wine and shellfish, as the name suggests, and has a really easygoing bistro feel, with the specials written in chalk on a blackboard and so on. We were tucked away in a corner in the back, which was very cosy, and in general the ambiance was delightful. Also delightful was the service … our waiter, who I believe is the owner of the restaurant, had the sort of easygoing charm I associate more with the US or Canada than with Niceland, where the wait staff tends to be either uptight, aloof, rude, or sometimes all three.

It started off extremely well. We ordered vino [they have a good wine list there and even had my favourite white, Gewürztraminer, although not by my favourite producer, but nevermind] and the execution of the wine service was flawless. The waiter also brought an ice bucket to our table, which is not standard here in Niceland [and indeed debatable whether it is necessary in the land of ice – although inside a geothermally-heated restaurant it probably is]. I ordered something called a Fjöruferð [‘excursion to the shore’] which turned out to be a three-course menu of scallops as an appetizer, monkfish as a main course, and the house chocolate cake for dessert. I asked to substitute the cake for crème brûlée, which was not an issue. [Add a point for flexibility and all-round charm.]

Next we were brought a basket of bread with possibly the most excellent tapenade I’ve ever tasted, and soon afterwards came our appetizers, which were delicious. By this time I was ecstatic. Everything had run absolutely smoothly and I couldn’t fault a thing. - Alas, it was not to last. Our appetizers were taken away, and we waited for at least 30 minutes – if not more – for our main courses. Finally they arrived, and sadly were less than satisfactory. My monkfish was tasty enough, but it was way overcooked [an absolute sin where fish is concerned], and consequently tough like an old piece of leather. EPI had ordered a ‘fish trio’ – salmon, spotted catfish and tuna … and it arrived cold. Also, his fish trio shared the same sauce, which seemed rather substandard and contrasted sharply with our previous experience at Grillið, where the three fishes all had their own sauce. Our friends both reported the same dissatisfaction with their food – it was merely average, or thereabouts.

By this time the service had also fallen rather severely from grace, as EPI waited for five or ten minutes for a new set of cutlery [we’d all had ours taken away after the appetizers, but a waitress had brought new cutlery for us all, except EPI] and eventually we actually had to fetch the girl to bring it [did I mention his food was already cold?]. My friend L. had also ordered more red wine and that took forever to arrive, meaning she ate a large portion of her main course without it [unforgivable].

Seeing as the main course is, well, sort of the main course, this put a rather large damper on the experience. Meanwhile, the dessert was just fine – my crème brûlée was satisfying and EPI’s chocolate cake was very good.

I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt and think that they were having an off day with the overcooked and cold fish, but don’t quote me on it. However, the service was utterly charming, so that carries some clout. Dinner for me and EPI, with a bottle of wine, came to ISK 17.960 [USD 265/EUR 173] and I now see on closer inspection of the bill that we were charged with a coffee we didn’t order. Just goes to show you should always check your bill at the table.

All in all, three out of five for the food, and subtract half a point for charging us for something we didn’t order.

Afterwards we wandered into a few pubs/clubs and wound up at Næsti bar, which is the only place in Reykjavík where you don’t have to shout to be heard [i.e. they don’t play deafening music to make people drink more]. It’s also where all the theatah people hang out, and sure enough, there was dreamy Gael Garcia Bernal hob-knobbing with the locals [he’s in Reykjavík doing a play, if you remember], while all the Nicelanders were trying really hard to act like they didn’t see him. Hilarious. However, that is probably why famous people like coming here – because everyone goes out of their way not to see them.

WEATHER

Right now it looks lovely out there. There’s no wind to speak of, and the sky is mostly brilliant blue with a handful of scattered white clouds. Temps according to Yahoo are 0°C [32F] so not too terribly cold. Sunup today 8.02, sundown scheduled for 7.14 pm.

Really, I’m no fun these days, what with my nose immersed in books and glossaries and excruciatingly dull sample texts*. So in lieu of my sparkling wit and exuberant demeanor, allow me to share with you a short video created by a reader who visited Iceland at Christmastime, a video that explains precisely why we Nicelanders behave like extravagant tycoons every time we travel abroad.

Um … I’m guessing he found it a tad expensive here?

[Thanks Doug!]

Friends, no doubt you will be relieved to know that there are no regulations banning Icelandic women from baring their breasts [aka flashing their titz] at public swimming pools across the nation. Phew.

This crucial bit of information came to light following a heated debate in Denmark, where they are apparently all a bunch of uptight puritans. Believe it or not, some swimming pools are demanding that their female guests wear tops when they go swimming. This has sparked quite the controversy, with women showing up by the dozens for the sole purpose of flaunting their breasts in the face of anyone who might consider them the least bit sexy. Because female boobs are not, you know, sexy. They’re just … boobs. For feeding children and such.

With this in mind, Nicelandic women set forth to discover exactly where the limits lay in our fair land, i.e. whether all those ladies who routinely strip off their tops at the Laugardalslaug on sunny days in summer should be tarred and feathered for their audacity. Turns out it’s all cool, we’re allowed to flash at the pools, but - hear ye hear ye - absolutely not in the Blue Lagoon. Why? Because so many foreign guests go there and they might be offended by the brazen display of Icelandic hooters.

So ladies, remember: at the Blue Lagoon, make sure you get naked in the showers, but put your top on before you go outside. At the pool, get naked in the showers, but put on your top only if you feel so inclined.

AND NOW IF YOU’LL EXCUSE ME I HAVE TO GO DIG MY CAR OUT OF A SNOWBANK
We had a minor blizzard last night and everything is covered in the white stuff. There was a lot of drifting too, with almost all the snow in our parking lot drifting in behind my car. Incidentally, did you know that running in five inches of snow is an excellent workout? I think I’ll make a special DVD - Work It in the Snow with Alda Kalda. Temps currently -1°C [30F] and the sun came up at 10.56, will set at 4.18.

Last year when EPI and I got married, our four exceptionally wonderful daughters gave us a fabulous wedding present: a night at the Hotel Saga plus dinner at Grillið, their in-house restaurant that happens to be one of the best in Reykjavík. It’s taken us almost a year to fit this little outing into our busy schedules [a scandal, really], but last night we finally managed it.

EPI’s main concern was that we’d get bored. I mean, we planned to check in at 2 pm and dinner wasn’t until 9.30 – what would we do in the interim? However, he comforted himself with the thought that, if push came to shove, we could always go home, seeing as how we live only five minutes away by car.

Personally I had no such worries, because as I pointed out to EPI, the hotel actually has a spa at which we could hang out for the duration of the afternoon. This generated even more anxiety for EPI, because by his own admission he didn’t know what to do in a spa. [I was going to mention Brazilian waxing, but decided against it.] Plus we could take a book and actually lie in bed and read, or – you know – whatever. It was supposed to be a romantic getaway after all.

So we checked in around three. The first half an hour was a bit weird; we unpacked our bags and examined the slippers and bathrobes folded neatly on the bed, stared out the window a bit, and then for lack of a better activity sat in the armchairs provided and read the newspapers. That took us up to about 4 pm, when it was time to take a deep breath and venture out to the spa.

After a bit of humming-and-hawing about what to take with us [bathrobe? towel? slippers?] we finally made it down there, only to discover that three Nicelandic couples had staked their claim to the Jacuzzi and were drinking beer and generally having a rowdy time. Great. So we alternated between the steam bath and the sauna and eventually shuffled over to the Jacuzzi after the ladies had retired to the changing room, only to discover that this Jacuzzi has salty sea water in it and the bubbles have this rhythm that is just so soothing, and OMG it’s fricking amazing. So we basically we just flaked out there completely inert until the woman who worked there came and told us the spa was closing and we had to get out now, otherwise she’d have to pull the plug.

Anyway, cut to a few hours later, and we were sitting on the eighth floor up in Grillið being served the meal of a lifetime. Seriously. The food was to die for. This was my second time eating at this particular restaurant and both times it’s been out of this world. [Meanwhile, the service was merely adequate, but that’s hardly news around here.] We picked the ‘Discovery Menu’ and the discoveries consisted of the following: an appetizer of king crab with buttery sauce; seared tuna steaks with a little croquette ball with a tiny zuccini slice inside and some other delectable accompaniments; pan-fried plaice with scallops and mango foam; melt-in-your-mouth beef with mashed potato all artistically carved and arranged plus vegetables and oxtail something wrapped up in like a pastry type thingy set on top … see? Words fail me.* I can’t even begin to describe what it was like. – Oh, and not forgetting dessert, which consisted of something called a ‘banana club’ [as in ‘sandwich’], crème brulee, sorbet and a fourth something that escapes me at the moment.

Along with these mouthwatering treats we were poured three different kinds of wine – Riesling with the fish, Shiraz with the beef, and a Hungarian dessert wine with dessert. Yowsa!**

AND THEN WE WOKE UP TO A BEAUTIFUL DAY
And despite still being stuffed, went down to a lavish hotel breakfast before packing our things for home. I’ve decided that staying in a hotel that’s right near your house is the only way to travel – you’re not stressed out about forgetting something, and you don’t care how you pack before you leave the hotel because you know you’re going to unpack ten minutes later. But I digress: the weather was exceptional today, brilliant sunshine and temps hovering around the freezing mark. As soon as we got home [and unpacked] we went out for a long walk and tanked up on some daylight, which was clear and bright enough to take us through to the end of next week, I should think. Currently –2°C [28F] and the sun came up at 10.05 am and set at 4.20 pm.

* PS I reserve the right to be wrong about the food descriptions. It was all so exceptionally artistic and complex that I can’t remember what everything was called.

** I should probably mention, for anyone intending to follow our example, that delightful as this dinner was, it didn’t exactly come cheap. Two four-course ‘Discovery Menus’ accompanied with ‘a glass’ of wine with each course [it was actually only about half a glass] came to ISK 25.500 [USD 418 / GBP 204]. In my opinion the wine was the least value for money - it was fun to try different wines, but we could have easily ordered two bottles for the price they charged. Just FYI.

So the last post generated still more questions in the comments box, which I’ll endeavour to answer, even though as most of you will have surmised by now this blog isn’t really about Iceland, nor the weather, but rather a completely self-serving exercise allowing YT to empty the contents of her brain into this endless dumpster called Cyberspace every couple of days.

Be that as it may, I don’t mind answering queries from people who are nice about it and say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and especially ‘can I get you any duty free booze’ … nor from people who are faithful readers, nor from any of my friends. In fact, I usually don’t mind answering questions at all, unless the person asking seems to assume that I have been put on this earth solely for the purpose of catering to their touristic needs, to wit: I’m coming to Iceland next week, what will the weather be like from Tuesday to Saturday? Thanks. [signed] Sowanso. Or: Hi, I’ve got a few questions for you. 1. Where should we go to see glaciers … [etc.]

[/rant]

Anyway, Karen and JT presented me with questions in the comments yesterday and as they’re nice people and faithful readers and fulfil all related YT criteria, here are their questions addressed.

Karen:

We’re planning on visiting in the later half of next May. Anything special going on in that time period?

Not that I know of, yet – check the listings closer to the time, e.g. here or here.

As for Viking stuff … hm. I’d suggest checking out the National Museum and also the Reykjavík museum plus minus 876 or whatever it’s called [the craziest name ever for a museum – how can anybody ever remember it?]. I’m not sure which Viking Village you mean, although I vaguely recall hearing something about one … I know there’s a restaurant in Hafnarfjörður that gives you the ‘real Viking experience’ – serve your food in troughs and whathaveyou. I’ve been there once, for a wrap party with some American film crew, when AAH was performing in a Showtime commercial. It was pretty cool – probably worth checking out if you’re into Viking stuff.

JT:

Northern lights - the tour companies “try different places” to see the lights. That sounds like codswallop to me - surely anywhere dark will do. Could you suggest a specific place to go, ie close to Reykjavik, and a paved road which is not too busy at night?

Actually, I don’t think it’s codswallop [what a great word! and so apt] – the Northern Lights appear as streams of light that are constantly moving and shifting, and they don’t appear everywhere. BUT – I’m not an expert so I really don’t know. There are tours that take you out and I think they offer some kind of guarantee, like another tour if you don’t have a sighting, but like I said, I honestly don’t know. The Northern Lights are completely hit and miss, unfortunately – even for us, they always take me a bit by surprise when they appear. They really are exquisitely beautiful – but alas, they can’t be counted on to appear. The conditions have to be just right – cold [below freezing] and clear.

However, if you wanted to try to see them on your own, your best bet is to drive a bit out of the city. I think taking the road to Þingvellir would be a good idea – about a 20 minute drive, up into Mosfellsdalur valley. You’d have to ask someone at your hotel how to get there.

If I rent a normal (not 4×4) car, can I do the golden circle and a few other places in mid Nov reasonably safely?

If the weather is OK and there is no ice on the roads, then yes. You should note that roads outside the capital ice up a lot faster than in Reykjavík. You can check the conditions of the roads here before you set out. Or ask someone at your hotel.

Do restaurants and cafes get sniffy about babies?

The posh ones might, but as a rule, no. Iceland is an extremely child-friendly country and you’ll find baby seats in just about every café and restaurant.

Can I get you some duty free booze?

Thanks but we stocked up pretty well on our trip last month. Very sweet of you to ask, though!

Rozanne:

What’s leaf bread?

Leaf bread is wafer-thin bread that is deep fried and eaten with smoked lamb. The traditional thing is to decorate them with designs – today families often get together to do this and make an event of it. See pic here.

OKAY THEN! THIS POST HAS GONE ON A BIT LONG
So here is a brief account of the weather – mild, calm, no precipitation. Temps 9°C [48F], sunrise was at 8:29 am and sunset due for 5:55 pm.

Got an email from a reader in Athens, Greece, who is planning to visit our fair isle over Christmas and New Year’s and who presented our YT with a set of questions related to his upcoming trip. Seeing as how the information might be useful to the myriad other punters who are planning on doing the same [if the google searches I’m getting are anything to go by, there are many] I thought I’d post both the questions and the answers here. Doing my bit for king and country, as it were.

What would you suggest as something traditional to do over New Years Holiday?

~ Go out on New Year’s Eve and mix with the locals at the brennur – the big bonfires generally held down by the seashore. [In Reykjavík the one on Ægissíða is the best, in my opinion.] Then at midnight go up to Skólavörðuholt, in front of Hallgrímskirkja church, and observe the mayhem as Reykjavík residents shoot up fireworks worth the GDP of a small African nation within the space of half an hour. TIP: you may want to bring earplugs.

What are the possibilities of seeing the northern lights? (we are renting a vehicle so we have the opportunity to leave the city during the nights).

~ Hit and miss. If you’re lucky it will be cold and clear, the conditions needed for the northern lights to appear. Driving out of the city also increases the chances, what with light pollution and everything.

What would you consider to be the best public pool/water slides for families?

~ 1. Árbæjarlaug, 2. Laugardalslaug.

Best Traditional Icelandic food (I am a big fan of Seafood)?

~ At Christmas? Smoked lamb [hangikjöt], ptarmigan [rjúpa] if you can get it [you probably can’t], reindeer pâté, leaf bread [laufabrauð], smoked puffin. All those will be present at any Christmas buffet in the city [except maybe the ptarmigan], which are hugely popular around that time. If traditional Christmas isn’t de rigueur, then you can’t go wrong with seafood and lamb. Even the most basic restaurant will do good seafood [except, maybe, Icelandic Fish and Chips, as I found out to my dismay] and I can recommend Við Tjörnina [no I’m not getting a kickback – if only!] for great fish dishes.

Okay then! If anyone else has any questions, do send them in, we aim to please.

STILL FREEZING COLD, UNTIL TOMORROW
The last few days have been miserable, what with the freezing temps and particularly the strong wind from the north that gets in through every nook and cranny and just makes you feel so cold. BUT we’re in for southeasterly winds tomorrow and rain for the next few days, much to the chagrin of another reader – from the UK – who emailed yesterday to ask if the weather forecast he’d seen somewhere with temps of 7-12°C was really true. And I was forced to tell him that Iceland is, in fact, the most misnamed country on the planet, save for Greenland which obviously is in a league of its own. Temps crawling upwards, currently 4°C [39F] and sunrise was at 8:23 am, sunset due for 6:02 pm.

As this is written, a massive search is underway for two Germans who were reported missing a few days ago, but who have not been heard from for about three weeks. Their relatives got in touch with the Icelandic authorities when they didn’t return home on their booked flights last week.

Sadly, foreign tourists going missing or being gravely injured is not an uncommon occurrence here.* This is a dangerous place – the weather is unpredictable and up in the highlands can turn savage in an instant, the roads can turn from paved to gravel without warning, glacial ice forms deep and dangerous crevices in the summer, the interior is vast and it’s easy to lose your way, crossing rivers in vehicles is subject to very specialized guidelines, and a only slightly misplaced foot on the banks of a river can mean sudden death. The list goes on.

The Iceland Tourist Board distributes very clear guidelines for tourists, including rule number one: Let someone know where you’re going and when you expect to be back. Still, it’s amazing how many people neglect this simple procedure. One of the two German men now missing reportedly told his girlfriend that they were going ice climbing on a glacier, and then provided a description that could apply to several different locations here. The area currently being searched is 70 km2 and it may not even be the right place – it’s considered likely, because one of their cell phones registered a signal near that place at the end of last month, but really it’s all speculation.**

There was a very apt editorial in Morgunblaðið today, about the increasing number of tour groups coming to Iceland from abroad, with their own buses and their own guides that often are not even qualified guides, but rather ‘group organizers’. The paper pointed out how brazen and foolhardy this is – Icelandic tour guides, by contrast, must undergo intensive training for a full year in order to become qualified. They must know not only about the popular tourist sights, history, geology, etc., but also about the inherent risks of traveling in this country, what equipment to take along, and how to respond should emergencies arise. The paper cites a recent case in which an Icelandic tour guide happened to be in the vicinity of a foreign group when it was hit by falling rocks and a woman was injured. The tour guide was able to assist the woman and call for help – fortunately, since the rest of the group was completely at a loss and had no idea what to do. The paper didn’t elaborate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was no cell phone reception in that area – in such a sparsely populated country there are many areas only accessible for a few weeks each year – and generally there is no reception there.

That incident had a fortuitous ending – but there have been many that did not. I recall the case of an Italian man a few years ago who went hiking by himself up north and simply vanished. And a couple of years ago – just after I started blogging – I got an email from a brother of someone who had been killed here in Iceland under adverse circumstances on which he didn’t elaborate. He’d seen his brother’s name on an Icelandic website, and wanted to ask me to kindly translate and let him know what it said. I was moved.

Today’s editorial goes so far as to suggest that perhaps tour groups from abroad should be banned from traveling through certain regions of the country unless a qualified Icelandic guide goes along. That would surely enhance the safety of our foreign visitors. Personally I think it’s a fantastic idea that should be implemented pronto.

One more thing: the Icelandic search and rescue teams that operate all over the country consistently fill me with awe. These are people working under severe and difficult conditions and putting life and limb at risk – and all on a volunteer basis. They fund their activities through donations and fundraising efforts like selling fireworks at New Year’s. As soon as there’s an emergency, or the threat of an emergency, they’re out there performing deeds that can only be described as immensely heroic.

WE’VE HAD REPEATED CLOUDBURSTS IN THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS
Very rare here in Niceland, where we’re more prone to getting drizzle and fog. Anyway, it’s rained buckets – looks like we’re finally being delivered the rain we didn’t get earlier in the summer. Which is fine because it’s conducive to staying inside and working, which is what my life pretty much revolves around right about now. Temps 12°C [55F] and the sun came up this morning at 5:39 and set at 9:20 this evening.

* I don’t want to suggest that only foreign travelers get caught up in dangerous situations – Icelanders are definitely not exempt.
** I realize I may sound insensitive to the case of these two men, but truly I’m not. I sincerely hope they’re found alive – but I have to say that, all things considered, it’s not very likely.