Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.08.2008, Blaðsíða 16

16 | REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 11—2008
ARTICLE By JaMes CrugnaLe
Google has mapped the moon, Mars and the
sky, yet amazingly cannot provide a roadmap
for Iceland. While every other European country
has been road-mapped for years on its website,
Iceland remains a black hole when it comes to
finding directions to simple landmarks like Hall-
grímskirkja or the Blue Lagoon. Google Map com-
mands (such as “pizza in Reykjavík”) that typi-
cally work in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo
also will leave locals and tourists stranded. While
Google does include aerial photography of the
country as well as new Flickr and Wikipedia fea-
tures, streets, landmarks and businesses remain
missing. So what is the problem?
“We usually acquire data from commercial
mapping companies (e.g. Tele Atlas), and they do
not include Iceland in their products,” said Ed Par-
sons, geospatial technologist at Google’s London
office.
“Normally, Google Maps has privately
owned data,” explained Iceland’s Ministry of En-
vironments’ National Land Survey service man-
ager Gunnar Haukur Kristinsson. “In Iceland,
there aren’t many map companies. Unlike the US,
whose maps are public domain, we must sell our
data by law. In recent weeks, we were contacted
by Google, which was looking for
data and asking how much.” While
Parsons wouldn’t divulge how much
Iceland was charging the company
to purchase the maps, insiders
speculate that Iceland’s government
charges exorbitant amounts for the
rights.
Karl Arnar Arnarsson, a staff
member from Ísgraf, an Icelandic
company specializing in selling
mapping software, said that he had
a few theories about Iceland’s long
absence from Google Maps. “Now
that Google has mapped [everything
else], they’ve moved on to Iceland
and because the maps are owned
by the government, they’re not will-
ing to pay a lot for them,” Amarsson
said. “They’re not looking at Iceland
as an isolated problem; they’re look-
ing at the overall picture.”
Other mapping-based companies like
Garmin have run into similar mapping difficulties
for the country. To remedy the problem, Google ap-
pears to be circumventing purchasing expensive
mapping rights with the creation
of Google Mapmaker, a program
where users can add geographic
information to selected areas
Google Public Affairs rep
Clara Armand-Delille said this new
program would help make local Ice-
landers “citizen cartographers.” “No
one knows local information bet-
ter than the people that live there,”
according to Armand-Delille. “We
believe that the knowledge of our
users will improve and expand the
depth and breadth of coverage in
Google Maps [and] will eventually
be added to Google maps but it may
take a few months to show.”
As to whether Iceland’s map
companies were intimidated that
Google is allowing users to take
matters into their own hands with
mapping the country themselves, Kristinsson re-
mained at ease. “We don’t see [Google Mapmak-
er] as a threat, our customers want verified data.
It will not hurt our business, only widen the use of
geographic information”” said Kristinsson.
they kInda look lIke legoS, don't they?
Lost in Iceland?
Google and others struggle to map Iceland
CHEAP REYKjAvíK
Welcome to yet another instalment of Cheap Reyk-
javík, where the Grapevine’s resident misers share
some of their patented money saving tricks and
tips. If you’ve got some miserly penny-pinching
advice you’d like to share with Grapevine readers,
drop a line to haukur@grapevine.is. and he will
pass it along.
CHEAP PIzzA
Most will agree that pizza is pretty good. Every-
one will agree that a pretty good pizza is absurdly
expensive in Iceland. Icelanders in their college
years spend many a hung-over Sunday devis-
ing master plans to get one with cream cheese,
pepperoni and garlic delivered on lay-away, with
oft-varying results. You can however munch your
hangovers into oblivion with the proper foresight,
for Bónus offers surprisingly adequate frozen piz-
za for a very meagre price (which we can’t really
divulge, because they keep changing it every five
minutes. But it’s generally cheap).
The Euroshopper line of frozen foods is
probably made of cardboard and petroleum
by-products, but with the correct use of spices,
condiments and add-ons, the fact can be easily
ignored. The Euroshopper Pizza can be found
either in “Margarita” form, in thick, green packs
of three (these are the cheapest per pizza), or as
a “Pepperoni” or “Three cheese” scorcher (a bit
pricier, but still cheap as dirt). These will set you
back around 125–250 ISK each, and can be easily
made to resemble some sort of Italian food using
common household items, such as vegetables,
lunch meats and oil. Enjoy!
CHEAP DRINKING
The cliché goes that you need to sell your kid-
ney to be able to sacrifice your liver drinking in
Iceland. This may be true – if your definition of
drinking involves fancy-schmanzy trivialities such
as “welcoming atmosphere”, “pleasant company”
and any form of good taste. If, however, you are
willing to give those things to get your drunk on,
frugal drinking in Iceland can be done.
Firstly: do you think the mumbling “bohe-
mians” cavorting on Austurvöllur on a given after-
noon are made of money? No! Most of them suffer
an extreme lack of cash, yet they manage to stay
drunk 24/7. Drinking on the cheap can be done,
and those professional party animals are living
proof.
Here is our first tip: be sure to stock up on
alcohol while the state liquor stores are still open.
But not just any alcohol. If you’re a vodka drinking
feller, then Koskenkorva should be your choice for
small, easily concealed bottles. For beers, Thor
and Slots are the cheapest to be had at 119 ISK per
33 cl can. While the taste is nothing to write home
about, and their alcohol percentage is quite low,
they can still keep you drunk pretty much all day
if you gulp down enough of them.
Eat Pizza and
be Merry
By hauKur s. Magnússon
Other countries
missing roadmap
information from
Google Maps:
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bhutan
Dominican Republic
Equatorial Guinea
French Guiana
Georgia
Greenland
Guyana
Lesotho
Mauritania
North Korea
Suriname
Western Sahara
www.mountainguides.is
Phone: +354 587 9999
DAY tours
Spectacular
Breathtaking
Unforgettable
Glacier & Hot
spring walks