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Trip Start
Aug 20, 2008
1
10
15
Trip End
Sep 15, 2008
Reykjavík,
Iceland
Friday, September 5, 2008
Actually, despite the idyllic setting we were steaming through as we left the Faroes we were all a bit
apprehensive at that moment. This was the beginning of the trip across the North Atlantic. We could easily be leaving good weather behind as we began a week of cruising the open seas. According to the news, two separate hurricanes were ploughing northward up the Eastern Seaboard of the North American continent. Just
where might we meet them? And as we left the Faroes behind, the sea began to develop large swells that sent us
careening along the hallway as we made our way to dinner.
We ended up being lucky, however, and after one day of reasonably good seas, we arrived at Iceland for a day's stop in Reykjavik. Here, we had booked a tour through the cruise line so that we would have a chance of getting out of the city to see some of the geology for which the country is so famous. This turned out to be a good decision for, although seeing all the geology of Iceland is not possible on a one-day tour, we had a great guide, Kristina, who told us much about the country as we visited a tourquiose lake of hot springs water turned into a resort, checked out boiling mud pots that spewed superheated steam from the ground to make the bud boil, and moonscape lava fields that were used by NASA for training for moon landings. While all of this was interesting geologically, I found that, aesthetically the volcanic landscape that characterized the areas we visited was not appealing.
Joe here, but just for a few paragraphs. Kristina was a rather different tour guide, less skilled at the usual guide talk but very talented at responding to our curiosity and questions. Perhaps we resonated with her because she had gone to NYU, majoring in history and education communication while living in New York City. Fourteen years of living in Seattle, working at Microsoft and raising twins now nine years old followed. She, her husband, a software designer and the twins returned to their native Reykjavik a year ago because they wanted the twins to learn to speak their native language. Kristina and the rest of her family have dual citizenship and her mastery of both cultures made her both easy to visit with and more of a cultural guide than a tour leader.
Here is some of the information she shared with us.
Early in the bus trip we asked about the cost of housing. A typical home costs $750,000. Monthly income is 300,000 kroner, or about $50,000 a year. "Icelanders are heavily in debt," Kristina said. Housing has tripled in price in the last three years so that a $750,000 home was very recently $250,000. We assumed this house was of the typical simple ranch style, by far the majority of the homes we were driving by. (Note: Within weeks of this writing, the housing bubble came home to roost for the Icelanders. Their economy and currency collapsed and they had to be rescued by the other Scandinavian countries and the IMF.)
Fish, lamb and the recent addition of poultry make up the bulk of the diet, and that moss covering the lava rock we saw from the bus, which grows at the strikingly slow rate of a millimeter a year, is harvested and added to
dishes such as soups - "it is very nutritious!"
Fishing, and now four aluminum smelting plants, drive the economy. Plentiful water, geothermal water for heat and production of inexpensive electricity are important contributors. Tourism is growing, a trend that is expected to accelerate rapidly.
We noticed a plethora of recreational vehicles and learned that Icelanders love to camp, and that there are many sites around the country for this activity which is aided by the absence of mosquitoes and snakes. But they don't get a total free pass from outdoor annoyances - they do have biting flies, primarily around lakes. Camping seems like it would be the ideal summer outdoor activity as they have 24 hours of sunlight at that time of year, reduced to four in the winter.
Politically, Kristina said that Iceland's views are shaped by the fact that they are half way between Europe and the United States. We will just have to speculate on what that means as we did not pursue this topic. Iceland has historically viewed themselves as friends of the United States and as they lean to the left they are enthusiastic about Obama's campaign. There is a "temporary" blip in this as the Bush administration is viewed very negatively and as a consequence right now they do not think well of America. As Kristina can vote in the United
States we urged her to do so this November.
During our shipboard lecture on Iceland it was related that the UN's Global Peace Index recently rated Iceland #1 for happiness and the most favorable nation in the world to live in. So we asked Kristina.....why? After a thoughtful silence she said that geographically and population (approx. 300,000) wise, Iceland is small and homogenous, facilitating and encouraging people to care about each other. Iceland is small enough that people are listed alphabetically in the telephone book by their first names! The weather is wonderful, cool in the summer and not too cold in the winter. There is almost no unemployment, free health care and education. There are eight universities, and the government will even pay for a college education taken in another country.
Icelanders take pride in their country and their language, an example being their insistence on having their own word for something like the ipod, not just taking "ipod" as most other countries do. The social services are made possible by a high tax rate, from 10% to 40% income tax, 1% to 1 ½% property tax, and 24% VAT.
The small size of the country makes possible a very interesting and unique custom. Icelanders do not have family names as most other countries do. A boy is given a first name and his second name is taken from his father's name with "son" added. For example, a baby might be named Lars and his last name would be Olafson if his father's name was Olaf. A girl might be named Anna Olafsdotter. Since there is then no "family" name, the first name is paramount and in the phone book people are listed under their first names. Can you imagine that in Manhattan?
All of this does not preclude challenges. One is Icelanders debating what to do as the fishing industry declines.
Do they keep building smelters that impact the clean air they take such pride in, and the smelters need for great quantities of water requiring installing dams which flood extensive land areas. It's fascinating that they are considering limiting further expansion at the cost of less economic growth.
Before departing on our trip we had read a book and watched two moves about Iceland. All three were depressing because life was portrayed as bleak - nothing to do, nowhere to go. Our experience was just the
opposite - a rather vibrant city and people.
OK, that is what I remember.....back to Nancy.
