Normally when people return from Iceland, they laud the drastic landscapes, the fickle weather, the wildlife (puffins and horses and whales, oh my!) and the geothermical soul-stirring oddities that you find on volcanic teutonic-plate-borderlands, such as ice-blue hot springs, steam coming out of the ground and temperamental geysers (the one below is named Strokkur).
But for me, what left the most lasting impression was... the tourguides.
I can't get my head wrapped around what it is that constitutes the icelandic frame of mind, other than what I gathered from our tourguides. What they had in common was to be very detailed, very personal and very prone to suddenly telling us suprising facts. I could never make up my mind as to whether they have an acute deadpan humour, or were just inadvertently funny.
The first one, a pretty young blonde, enlightened us with the following three observations, in order of appearance and shock value (quoted moderately verbatim...):
"If you look to the right you see here the tallest building in all of Reykjávík... It was finished last year and is now used for all sorts of offices. There are bakers, lawyers, taxi drivers and all sorts of things next to each other, in no particular order. It's like that in Iceland."
"Across from it is the second-largest shopping center in Reykjavík, and if you look at the building's architecture from above, it looks like a penis. I don't know why... But it's true, you can google it and take a good look."
"Most people ask what is traditional Icelandic food, and I have to tell you that we like to eat puffins, but also rotten shark, and also the head of sheep. What you do is you take the head of the sheep and cut it open, but while some people think we eat the brains and the spinal cord, this is not true. We take that out first. Anyway, I really like it. But some people think it's maybe a bit creepy when it grins at you."
A couple of days later, the second tourguide offered us the following information:
"Last year there was plenty of building going on, but it is slowing down now because the Icelandic economy is going down... So the average Icelander is a bit worried right now... Our inflation is really high... but we have a saying here in Iceland: 'Que sera, sera'. [chuckle from passengers]. You know, we just don't plan ahead, so not many Icelanders keep a savings account. Here, we're used to everything changing, so we don't plan ahead."
The third tourguide was actually a regular taxi driver, who, when picking us up from a day trip to bring us to the hotel, deliberately turned the wrong way, saying "I'm just going to show you the view." He drove the taxi up to a lookout point that consisted of a roundabout, and stopped the car 2m away from one of the exits (leaving other approaching drivers very puzzled as they meekly formed a queue behind him inside the roundabout). While he waved them briskly past, he told us about the lay of the land and the landmarks at leisure, while we swedes nervously squirmed at being the cause of moderate traffic mayhem... Our impromptu guide eventually let us know that he normally didn't get to talk much, as he lived in a house with four women ("but I like it", he added...) and was taking his chance with us. As we got dropped off, one of our company asked to be taken to another place in town instead, and when we met her later that evening it transpired that the ambitious taxi driver had taken her for an additional (involuntary) half-hour sightseeing tour of downtown Reykjavík. She hadn't quite had this in mind, but apparently he had driven past several restaurants and pointed out the ones worth while.
So for lack of other Icelanders to compare with, my impression of them is that they are very helpful and quite personal, maintaining a desolate air about their situation without actually complaining, and getting into very detailed and personal descriptions of how things are, to your benefit. Usually with a few throw-ins of bizarre observations that for them have long lost their shock value, but catch tourists by surprise because the remarks are delivered as languidly as if your tourguide had not quite gotten out of bed yet.
The best thing was a joke (which, btw is very illustrative of the Icelandic flora) told by tourguide number 2:
- What do you do if you get lost in an Icelandic forest?
-?
- You stand up.
Great post!
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