Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.08.2006, Qupperneq 28

Classifieds
Accomodation
Guesthouse Móar 54
Grundafjörður Hostel 54
Salka Guesthouse 54
Activities
Arctic Rafting 15
Blue Lagoon 43
City Centre Booking Service 56
City Centre Tourist Info 4
Elding Whale Watching 53
Hafsúlan Whale Watching 42
Reykjavík Excursions 13
Spa City 45
Cafes, Bars and Restaurants
2 Fiskar 28
A. Hansen 25
American Style 32
Bernhöftsbakarí 35
Café Roma 5
Café Rósenberg 26
Fjöruborðið 41
Fljótt og Gott 37
Friðrik V 49
Galbi 29
Hressó 35
Humarhúsið 45
O Sushi 34
Sea Baron 35
Segafredo 5
Shalimar 29
Viking Village 49
Við Tjörnina 29
Museums and gallaries
City Library 31
The Culture House 50
Gallery Fold 33
Gallery Hafnarborg 44
Glacier Museum 41
Gljúfrasteinn Museum 31
Settlement Exhibition 33
Shopping
66 North 3
Álafoss Gift Store 41
Cintamani 7
Handknitting association of Iceland 44
Icewear 9
Lýsi 19
Naked Ape 29
Rammagerðin Gift Store 17
Thule Light Beer 56
Viking souvenir shop 10
Vík Wool 35
Transportation
Air Iceland 55
Berg Car Rental 51
Budget Car Rental 53
Hertz Car Rental 55
Road Traffic Directorate 48
Other services
Endurmenntun HÍ 31
Forex 51
Musik 51
Grapevine Ad Index
Salka Guesthouse
Skipagata 1
600 Akureyri
tel: 461-2340
salka@nett.is
Þjóðveldisbærinn
A reconstructed viking farm from the 11´th
century. Situated in Þjórsárdalur valley,
approx. 1 1/2 hour from Reykjavík.(Take
route 1, turn off at route 30 and then again
at route 32) Opening hours every day from
10-12 and 13-18.
Tel. 488-7713
Guesthouse Móar
301 Akranes
tel: 431-1389/897-5142
e-mail:sollajoh@simnet.is
4 rooms, 9 beds + 2 summerhouses 1x1
without bath 3000ISK sleeping bag acc.
2000ISK.
Cooking facilities available
There are 56 words in the Icelan-
dic language for “snow & ice”. In
English, we have “snow” and “ice”.
If there can possibly be that many
words for the different conditions of
that-icky-cold-stuff (now I guess we
have three), then perhaps there is a
lot to say about it, enough to fill a
museum, and perhaps, then, Iceland-
ers are the best to talk about it.
At the Glacier Exhibition in
Höfn, they do, at length, tell you
everything you ever wanted to know
about the country’s prize pile of ice,
Vatnajökull Glacier, and glaciers in
general, as well as its surrounding
history, and science. Filling in the
corners of the thorough overview of
glacial nature conservation, they also
offer the warmer side: the cultural
aspect of glacial research.
Launching into the discussion of
how the glacier has impacted the Ice-
landic people and society in its very
first exhibition room by listing every
one of the aforementioned 56 words
on a clear plastic panel, the museum
then abandoned the 56 word discus-
sion, and got to the fun stuff.
Upstairs, in the corner of one of
the rooms, a flat-screen television
was showing clips from the James
Bond film Die Another Day, which
was shot on-location on the glacier,
and in the opposite room was a dis-
play comparing the clothes and gear
used by climbers past and present. In
the background in the second room,
there was a sampling of what I can
only assume to call glacier hiking
songs: a sombre folky and rather long
collection of tunes sung out boldly by
a chorus of men.
The exhibit then, focused mainly
on the historical aspects of the gla-
cier, presenting displays about tours
on Vatnajökull through history with
maps and photographs. It offered no
educated theories or research about
the cultural aspects, but instead
did a thorough, and in the long run
impressive, job of chronicling its his-
tory.
Closely beside the action-packed
bursts of Bond stood what was
perhaps the highlight of the exhibit,
an enormous walk-in plastic ice cave.
Up the walls of the lofty walkway
hung blue sheets of (plastic) ice,
casting gloomy shadows around the
streams of green light coming from
the room at the far end. In a small
opening in the “ice” wall, there was
a tiny one-dimensional silhouette of
a man trapped inside an icy crevice.
Beside it a sign explained the story of
nineteen-year-old Sigurður Björns-
son, who was looking for his sheep
on Breiðamerkurfjall, a mountain
that extends into the Vatnajökull
glacier, when an avalanche occurred.
Trapped 28 metres under the surface
of the ice, Björnsson, only able to
move a single finger, maintained
consciousness by singing hymns
loudly to himself until the rescue
squad, following the sound of his
voice, found him 24 hours later.
As I walked further down, the
eeriness of this plastic tunnel was
further enhanced as I started to
barely make out “Sigurður” singing
hymns in the background behind
one of these walls. I followed the
light to the end of the tunnel where
there was another opening in the
wall, this one big enough to walk
into. Here the floor was made of
glass and it was slippery like ice,
and a pillar stretched between it and
the low ceiling. The sound effects
this time were of dripping water,
and through yet another opening,
through about six layers of plastic ice,
water was streaming down the wall,
soaked in green light projected from
somewhere in the small opening and
reflected all around by the floor.
Though my travel mates stood close
by in just in the next room, engrossed
in the adventures of Bond, the cold
walls imposed on me an overwhelm-
ing sense of solitude.
The organization in the mu-
seum then involved each room in a
theme. The plastic room, I later dis-
covered, was called “experience”. In
the second gallery on the first f loor,
for example, there were numerous
3D exhibits of the animal life on
and around the glacier. In one of the
main displays stood a giant stuffed
woodland caribou, a stuffed hooded
seal and a stuffed arctic fox, almost
smiling as he lightly rested his paw
on the breast of a stuffed dove lying
on the ground. The room was titled
“Nature and National Parks”, and
its close, but obviously not close
enough, neighbour was “Nature
Conservation”.
Walking out it was somehow
surprising that the air in Höfn was
a little bit more chilly than inside.
Outside, I could see where the outlet
glaciers reached out towards the
village. After spending a full hour
inside, I felt interested and just about
prepared for some glacial exploration.
ICE-land Glacier Exhibition, Haf-
narbraut 30, 780 Hornafjörður. www.
hornafjordur.is/is-land/english
– Car provided by Hertz Car Rental,
Flugvallarvegi, 101 Reykjavík, Tel.:
505-0600, www.hertz.is
– Accommodations provided by Hótel
Edda, Tel.: 444-4000, www.hotel-
edda.is
ICE-land Takes Puns to New Low Fronts
The Glacier Exhibition in Höfn
by valgerður þóroddsdóttir photo by skari
travel
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grundarfjordur@hostel.is
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+354-5626533
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4
www.airiceland.is | tel 570 3030
tel 570 3030 | fax 570 3001
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