Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.05.2006, Qupperneq 28

Classified
Accomodation
Hótel Breiðafjörður 54
Hótel Edda 43
Hótel Framnes 54
Kaldbakskot Guesthouse 54
Salka Guesthouse 54
Activities
Blue Lagoon 43
City Centre Bookings 56
City Centre Information 4
Elding Whale Watching 20
Hafsúlan Whale Watching 43
North Iceland 11
Spa City 43
Cafes, Bars and Restaurants
2 Fiskar 28
A. Hansen 25
Aktu Takut 32
Bernhöfts Bakery 35
Café Roma 5
Café Rósenberg 26
Food Taxi 21
Friðrik V 52
Galbi 49
Hressó 35
O Sushi 36
Segafredo 5
Shalimar 37
Við Tjörnina 29
Vín og Skel 10
Events
Iceland Symphony Orchestra 20
Reykjavík Rocks 17
Reykjavík Tropik 41
Museums and gallaries
Árnesingar Art Museum 35
The Culture House 40
Electric Museum 52
Fold Gallery 35
Gallery i8 31
Glacier Museum 49
Gljúfrasteinn 31
Reykjavík Art Museum 47
The Settlement Exhibition 51
Politics
Left Green 15
Shopping
66 North 3
Álafoss Wool 47
Cintamani 9
Englatár 29
Húfur Sem Hlægja 37
Icewear 7
Rammagerðin 45
Viking Stragegy Game 51
Transportation
Air Iceland 55
Berg Car Rental 53
Budget Car Rental 53
Hertz 55
Reykjavik Excursion 13
Other services
Forex 49
Icelandic Postal Service 5
Summer School19
Grapevine Ad Index
Only 2 hours drive from Reykjavik. Small
and friendly hotel, perfectly located in the
centre of the town, only a few minutes walk
from the beautiful harbour of Stykkishólmur.
The hotel offers a splendid view over the
harbour and Breidafjordur. If our guests
need to access Internet they can do so on a
fulltime online computer. Hotel guests can
play golf without a charge at the towns 9
holes golf course.
s. +354-433-2200
www.prinsvaliant.is
hotelbreidafjordur@prinsvaliant.is
Salka Guesthouse
Skipagata 1
600 Akureyri
tel: 461-2340
alka@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
WWW.GRAPEVINE.IS
In a country largely unfamiliar with the many
uses rest-stops and public toilets can be put to,
Öskjuhlíðin was for a time the only place in
Reykjavík where men could embrace the love
that dares not speak its name. Or at least get a
quick shag in the back of a Volkswagen. The
tourists who flock to the Perla would probably
be surprised to hear that they were hanging out
in what could basically be described as a large,
outdoor bathhouse – but don’t let the locals
fool you. All of us, more or less, have heard
stories about the alternative side of Öskjuhlíðin
– and I don’t mean about the wild bunnies that
famously dredge out a meagre existence in its
rocky and barren landscape.
Not surprisingly, however, the Grapevine
had a tough time finding someone willing
to talk about his secret gay experiences with
strangers in their cars. A couple of men did
speak to us on the condition of anonymity. Let
us call them Guy #1 and Guy #2, both for-
merly closeted gay men in their forties. They
each confirmed the stories as being very firmly
rooted in reality, but weren’t too sure about
the current popularity of the place as a cruising
spot. Said Guy #2: “How much cruising goes
on there? People don’t seem to agree. In fact,
it seems to fluctuate wildly depending on the
amount of talk and news coverage on the issue
at any given time. When the stories about the
place become most rampant, that’s when the
guys stop showing up for a while and let things
cool off.”
According to both men, picking someone
up in Öskjuhlíðin may be time consuming but
the ritual is more or less set in stone and so is
etiquette. According to G1: “It’s not compli-
cated, you just show up in your car and drive
around for a bit, parking here and there and
just scouting out the area. It doesn’t really mat-
ter if you have your headlights on or not, but
you can flash your lights to try and tempt the
more timid guys over. Once you make a con-
nection and pull over next to someone it’s just
a question of who is going to make the first
move, which car will be used, stuff like that.
There’s not much talking, usually, especially
with the really nervous closeted types that often
show up there,” he said, adding that for some
reason he was always told Thursdays were the
best day to score at Öskjuhlíðin. G2 had never
heard the Thursday theory, however.
Despite the general public perception of
Öskjuhlíðin’s cruisers as middle aged and mar-
ried, the Grapevine could find little evidence of
a generation gap.
“Some guys like that scene, others don’t.
Just like some people like the bar scene while
others loathe it,” said G2. He added: “Of
course, chat rooms and web pages like einka-
mal.is have changed things a bit. Some people
even say that ‘Hlíðin’ has simply relocated to
the internet!”
With that in mind, our next mission was
definitely going to have to be to check out the
gay internet chat channel, #gay.is (it’s internet
relay chat, don’t ask us to teach you how to
use it). Once logged in, however, it became
apparent that this was a hook-up channel, and
no one was terribly interested in answering our
questions about Öskjuhlíðin. Penis size was the
topic at hand, and no intrusive journalist was
going to be allowed to waltz in and disrupt.
For anyone curious, 18-19cm seems a popular
size in that crowd, but interestingly some
people liked to use inches. An expert later told
me this was to make it easier to round off liber-
ally – sometimes up to equestrian proportions.
Five inches? Hell, that’s almost nine inches of
man meat you got there.
To conclude the hellishly difficult task of
digging up even remotely reliable information
about gay cruising in that area, we drew straws
and sent two representatives of the paper to
hang out in Öskjuhlíð on a relatively warm
and pleasant evening. We weren’t directly told
to take one for the team, but our editor was
clearly hoping our dedication to the assign-
ment would overcome minor issues such as
our heterosexuality. As it turns out, absolutely
nothing interesting happened – even after I
was left up there alone to listen to an iPod and
smoke cigarettes while wandering around aim-
lessly for an hour. Certainly, there were cars.
Certainly, some of them were cruising around
suspiciously, but the only one I got a good look
inside was occupied by four ill-kempt stoners
looking for a place to hit their bong. By the
way, if you’re reading this, guys, we hope you
didn’t have a heart attack or spill too much
bong water when the bearded guy suddenly
popped up in your rear view mirror. But, man,
was it ever funny.
At the end of the day, all our investigative
efforts got us was a bunch of anecdotes and the
definite impression that while the stories are
true they are also exaggerated and reek of prej-
udice towards gays. As G1 put it: “Öskjuhlíðin
may be notorious for gay sex, but there are
many other out of the way spots where you
can find steamy carfulls of heterosexual, as well
as gay couples, every single weekend. Some
people just need a place to screw, after all.”
Öskjuhlíð to Gay.is
The Grapevine follows the gay Iceland rumour mill
by gunnar hrafn jónsson
www.airiceland.is | tel 570 3030
tel 570 3030 | fax 570 3001
websales@airiceland.is | www.airiceland.is
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