Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.07.2008, Blaðsíða 4

4 | REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 08—2008
LETTERS
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Say your piece, voice your opinion, Send your letterS to letterS@grapevine.iS.
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Reykjavík
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I just yesterday returned to Canada
from a 3 week trip to the UK and to
Iceland. While in Reykjavik, I had the
chance to read your English language
paper, which I found very interesting
and entertaining.
One of the Grapevine articles in this
week’s edition talked about how Ice-
land is in recession at the moment and
the article encourages tourists to spend
their Euros, pounds and dollars to sup-
port the local Iceland economy.
Before travelling to Iceland, I had heard
from every source about the high cost
of restaurant food and drink, so my
only surprise was to see just how ridicu-
lous the prices really are. They are ou-
trageous! I know that the prices include
a 24.5% VAT and the service charge, but
that is small comfort.
I had the chance to visit some of the
local large grocery stores (e.g. Bonus)
to confirm what I had suspected at the
outset…..grocery prices in Iceland are
far more affordable than what a tourist
might imagine when paying 1200 ISK
($16 Canadian or USD) for a hamburger
and fries or 2900 ISK ($38) for a filet of
cod or 900 ISK ($12) for a lager.
It is a wonder to me that Islanders
continue to tolerate this situation, even
if we tourists from all over the world
have no choice but to pay the costs if
we wish to visit. At any rate, as much as
I enjoyed my visit to your country, I do
not plan to return, for no reason other
than the exorbitant food and drink cos-
ts. There are many other countries in
the world with as much or more to offer
where the costs are more reasonable.
By the way, just in case you think I
am a naïve Canadian travel rookie who
doesn’t know the world, I have lived
and worked full-time in Europe for 7 ye-
ars, have travelled extensively there for
over 45 years and in the last year alone
have travelled in South America, Cen-
tral America, the USA and the UK.
Regards,

M. Sabey
Ottawa, Canada
Dear Sabey,
What you are describing is our reality. I
have no pity for your complaints. I have
to pay these prices every day, not just
during a weekend stop over.
Editor.
Peculiar Reykjavik
This peculiar place; that I cannot help
being fascinated by. The uneven fa-
bric of housing, beautifully restored
old wooden houses clad with the cha-
racteristic corrugated aluminium in in-
dividual colours next to rusty “needing
a loving hand” houses again next to
brand new build anonymous facades
all set in this perfect landscape, ever-
changing light and weather. Loving this
unpredictable city and setting, getting
to now every corner and irregularity of
the city it breaks my heart to see how it
has during the last year started to fall
apart.
It surprises/frightens me that here
are no authorities taking control, not
to me any known visions of where and
how this city is whished to be develo-
ped, no long-term visions. It seems to
me that the major concern here is fi-
nances and how to make it breed here
and now.
Question: so where are the visions?
What are your visions?
This is a few of my visions on behalf
of the city Reykjavik: - to keep/continue
the diversity of the community the inde-
pendent variety of retail (by not letting
the retail rents raise to a max) - avoid
splitting housing and retail into certain
areas, by making an effort to stimulate
and create varied and diverse spaces
between build areas and at ground le-
vel of new build - spare and keep the
existing public spaces and allow for
new types of public spaces to develop
and hereby letting the community ha-
ving “playgrounds” to interact and de-
velop across - use your extraordinary
setting and history to inspire how and
where the visions of Reykjavik is going
and not trying to remake other known
cities and their mistakes.
Luckily it seems like things are
moving smaller groups of people are
taking the action into their own hands
and just do something about it without
any financial support - this is also why
I love Reykjavik, enthusiastic and da-
ring.
Best wishes
Julie
Dear Julie,
You should run for office. I’ll vote for
you.
Editor
Dear Reykjavik Grapevine,
in issue #16, Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
advises tourists to “1. Wear normal
clothes. (...) 99% of the time it is pos-
sible to spot tourists in Reykjavik from
miles away. I even play a game with my
friends where we guess people’s natio-
nality based on their attire. Americans
are usually easiest to spot. Followed by
Germans and the French. Here is a litt-
le hint: you don’t need a bright orange
parka or hiking boots to traverse Rey-
kjavik. Dress like a tourist and you are
automatically excluded. Just dress like
normal folks.”
Having just spent a few days traver-
sing Reykjavik in green rubber boots, I
feel qualified to comment on Sveinn’s
advice. Of course even us stupid tou-
rists know we don’t need orange par-
kas and hiking boots in Reykjavik.
However, most of us probably don’t
come to Iceland just to go clubbing
and shopping in Reykjavik. It’s a lot less
unpleasant to be underdressed for the
few days we spend in the city than to be
underdressed on Mt. Hekla, and, face
it, we can’t very well go to Iceland by
car and take all our wardrobe. We have
to carry everything we bring with us,
and that makes you think twice about
bringing the Imelda Marcos shoe col-
lection.
“But why, oh why the orange par-
kas?”, I hear you asking. As a matter of
fact you’ll see a lot of people in German
cities cycling to the office in full “I could
go ice climbing any time in this outfit!”
gear. In a country with no wilderness
left it is considered quite ok to dress in
a way that shows you have access to
the wild outdoors, (e.g. by going to Ice-
land). I guess that’s the reason why it’s
next to impossible to buy outdoor gear
in Germany that doesn’t scream OUT-
DOOR GEAR in, well, bright orange.
As for Americans, Germans and
French being the easiest to spot: I sup-
pose these are also the people you see
the most of, so your pattern recognition
can go to work on them. If, say, Rhode-
sians, Austrians and Paraguayans were
the largest tourist groups in Iceland,
you’d be able to spot them from miles
away.
Dressing “like normal folks”, I’m
afraid, is a relative concept. Exclude
tourists all you want if they’re trying
to get into a stylish club wearing their
hiking boots and orange parkas. But in
all other cases, please try to remember
that they are dressed more or less “like
normal folks”. They don’t do it to an-
noy you, and they don’t do it because
they’re stupid. They do it because
they’re not from Iceland, and you can’t
very well blame them for that. (In fact,
you could, but it would be a Nazi thing
to do. I can’t really recommend it.)
Having said that, I promise to spare
you the sight of the green rubber boots
next time I come to Reykjavik.
Kind regards,
Kathrin
Dear Kathrin,
A pair of normal shoes was probably to
much luggage...?
Editor