More Iceland travel notes

Some things I discovered in Iceland that were totally unexpected…

1) Apparently the entire country is not a frozen wasteland. Given the name Iceland you expect the type of place where Superman would construct his fortress of solitude. Instead, it seemed to be more attuned to Swamp Thing as every available surface was covered with moss and lichen. It was rather pretty but given that it was in the seventies at times we seemed to be at a loss as to where all the ice was.

2) If you have ever traveled to European capitals you realize that every other building you see is actually older than the United States. That is not the case in Reykjavík as the city was basically built in the past 100 years. For some reason instead of making all of these nice, quaint buildings they decided to take pages from the old Soviet design manual. Lots of corrugated steel and squat, drab concrete structures. Part of the is necessity in a country where it is always rainy, windy and cold but it does take a little bit of joy out of the place.

3) While the majority of Icelanders speak English (enough so that we never had any issue in making our way through any situation) the primary language is Icelandic, which hasn’t changed from the Viking era. Apparently, the language has been so constant that the average person can grab a thousand year old manuscript and understand it completely. Compare that to English where it is difficult to read a 400 year old Shakespeare play much less Chaucer or Beowulf. I don’t think it is possible to read Beowulf in Old English without years of training. Anyway, Icelandic is such a foreign sounding language that not only is it impossible to understand any words but it makes all of the speakers sound like elves.

4) Because much of the island is volcanic and filled with hot springs the hot water is piped in from the hot springs themselves, which means that the water has a wonderful tinge of sulfur to it. You know that the water in the shower had warmed up when it began to smell like rotten eggs. It did wake you up in the morning; I will give it that praise.

5) Before it sounds like I am ripping too much on the water I have to say that the bottled water from the glacial springs is the best water you would ever taste in your life. The ice cube I had from an actual 12,000 year old glacier may be one of the best things that I have ever tasted. So it isn’t all bad.

6) This is more of a comment on Europe in general. I have no idea why no matter what country I travel to, no matter how good the hotel is, that they have absolutely no idea how to design a shower. I can accept the fact that I am taller than the average European so I have to stoop to get clean. But for some reason all of the showers are designed with about 12 unlabeled knobs and the shower head in the absolute worst spot imaginable. It is always fun to be dealing with jet lag and trying to reverse engineer plumbing.

7) Kim and I were there for just under a week, traveled around about half the island, and probably went through at least two thirds of the inhabited portions of the place. In that entire time we saw only two black people on the entire island. It got to be really disconcerting after awhile. We saw more tourists from mainland China.

8) Speaking of other tourists I have to tell this story. As part of one of the organized tours we took we were given the opportunity to look at a geothermal power plant. Kim had no desire to look at it and stayed in the bus reading a book. I may have had even less desire to see it because I have spent a good portion of my adult life looking at power plants and had little desire to watch a utility powerpoint presentation that I wasn’t being paid to sit through. What amazed me is how all of the other people on the tour were going up to the windows and taking pictures of the generators and the plant design. Trust me, it is my job and it is not that interesting.

9) They are really, really big on hot dogs. I have no idea why that is the case and as I discussed a few days ago they seem to be an acquired taste. It just seems to be like the most random food for them to be into. I just assumed that their entire diet consisted of fish. Oh, and don’t eat the dried fish unless you ate the fish food you gave your goldfish as a kid.

10) You have to love a country where the kids go out to the clubs at five in the evening and don’t come home until the next morning. That is dedication for you.

Best of 120 Minutes: Have to go with the Sugarcubes tonight. It’s Iceland’s number three export. And for the record, we did not stay at the Hotel Bjork though we went past it.



The five random CDs for the week:
1) The Raconteurs “Consolers of the Lonely”
2) Scott Miller and the Commonwealth “Upside Downside”
3) Robbie Fulks “Country Love Songs”
4) Neko Case “Blacklisted”
5) The Tragically Hip “Live Between Us”