Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.11.2009, Side 27

I like Yoko Ono. In fact, I like Yoko
Ono far more than I’ve ever liked John
Lennon. I once worked in a museum
and watched Ono’s “Cut Piece” almost
every day. I appreciated the way she felt
it necessary to include the audience in
her work and wondered at the small
but revealing results of that dialogue.
I was thus looking forward to see-
ing the Imagine Peace Tower. A five-
minute boat ride later, I stepped off
the pier and onto Viðey Island. It’s a
rugged crop of land, but handsome
too, featuring two 18th century struc-
tures: one of the oldest churches in
Iceland and the stately residence of
Treasurer Skúli Magnússon, which is
used these days for weddings, banquet
celebrations and the communal eating
of sheep heads. The guided tour by-
passed all this at first, opting instead
for the Imagine Peace Tower.
Despite resembling a death laser,
there is something calming about the
Imagine Peace Tower from up close.
Six powerful beams shoot through
the ground, bounce off 45-degree mir-
rors, join nine more lights, and launch
into the sky forming a brilliant white
column. The base structure, known
as the ‘Wishing Well’ is panelled by
opaque glass with the words ‘Imagine
Peace’ etched in 24 languages. Born
out of a conceptual artwork known
as the ´Light House, ´ I wonder if the
tower wasn’t an intergalactic weapon
after all, but a beacon of hope. At the
instruction of the guide, the tour-
ists joined hands in a human chain
around the Wishing Well and respect-
ed a minute of silence. It was all very...
peaceful, for lack of a better word.
Back at Magnússon's pad, we write
peace wishes on little cards meant to
be buried under the tower, drink hot
chocolate and listen as our tour guide
weaves history and humour, extract-
ing laughter with rehashed zingers.
Back to the boat and back to town be-
fore 23:00—all in all, a peaceful, pleas-
ant and painless tour.
In Reykjavík, however, things are
a bit more complicated. I live down-
town, where I can see the Imagine
Peace Tower every time I go out for a
beer. It’s always there, burning bright
between houses and trees. It frustrates
me: unlike her other work, Ono’s
Imagine Peace Tower doesn’t need
my participation, it’s a blinding mono-
logue I can’t silence.
A few days ago I stepped outside
my house for a smoke and saw what
every foreigner dreams of seeing in
Iceland: the glowing ribbons of the
northern lights. Seeing them in Reyk-
javík is rare, and seeing them this
bright is rarer still. I grabbed my coat
and ran to the shore, the darkest place
I could think of. Sitting on the break-
ers with the city at my back, the north-
ern lights were brighter and faster
than I’d expected. But I couldn’t help
thinking that without a gigantic beam
of light shooting aimlessly at the sky,
they would’ve been brighter and fast-
er still—that sometimes, Reykjavík
might be a more peaceful place with-
out the Peace Tower.
This country sure has a lot of water:
trapped in glaciers, f lowing from gla-
ciers, trickling down mountainsides,
raging through canyons. And all that
water sure is something nice to look
at. But what watery spectacle is the
nicest to look at? The most magnifi-
cent? Which foss is the mother of all
fosses*?
1. DETTIFOSS
Without a doubt, Dettifoss is one im-
pressive foss. The thing is huge, at
100 metres wide and 44 metres high,
carving out the gorgeous Jökulsárgljú-
fur canyon with its powerful surge of
water. In fact, Dettifoss is the wateri-
est foss in all of Europe, spewing 200
cubic metres per second of the wet
stuff. While unrelated to the foss, this
well-visited tourist attraction not far
from Mývatn is made all the more en-
joyable by the hilarious signage above
the restroom sinks warning of a water
shortage in the area, despite there be-
ing a raging waterfall right there. How
delightfully ironic.
2. GOðAFOSS
While it is a relatively small foss,
Goðafoss makes up for what it lacks in
size in pure natural beauty. Here the
Skjálfandafljót river tumbles 12 me-
tres over the horseshoe-shaped ridge,
with one main powerful chute and a
gentler trickle reaching around to the
right of it, where the river is shallow
and dotted with mossy rocks peak-
ing up through its surface. Goðafoss
is also special for its role in Iceland’s
history—after spending some time
wrapped in fur and deep in thought,
Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði decided that
Iceland would adopt Christianity and
promptly threw all his Norse idols into
the waterfall on his land. You know,
that’s probably why this foss’ name
translates as “waterfall of the gods.”
Another major selling feature of this
foss is that despite being fairly close to
Mývatn and Dettifoss, Goðafoss is not
congested with all you tourists, so it
can be appreciated in peace.
3. GuLLFOSS
The most visited foss in Iceland, Gull-
foss is just a hop and a skip from Reyk-
javík and is one of three attractions
of the famed Golden Circle—in fact,
Gullfoss translates to “golden falls.”
From a distance this mid-size foss ap-
pears to not be a foss at all, instead the
Hvítá river seems to just vanish. But
upon closer inspection tourists—and
there are always a lot of those—notice
that this multi-level foss is just ob-
scured by the curved canyon that it has
carved out over the centuries. Another
high point of this foss is the ample and
delicious lamb soup available for con-
sumption on site. Gullfoss and meat
soup is a recipe for good times.
So which foss is the best foss? It’s
a tough decision and all fosses have
their pros and cons, but this round
goes to Goðafoss. Goddamn, that’s one
beautiful foss. It may not have made as
massive a dent in the earth and it may
not be accompanied by some seriously
tasty meat soup, but Goðafoss is so
spectacular it could bring a tear to the
eye of even the most cold-hearted tour-
ist traveller there. Apologies to the los-
ing fosses and to the fosses that didn’t
even make the list, you’re all very nice
too.
*Foss means waterfall and fosses is not
the actual plural of foss. But it sounds
fun.
23
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17 — 2009
Trip was provided by Elding
Adventures
www.elding.is
Travel | Viðey Travel | Waterfalls
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Yoko’s Tower of Power
Tres Foss
How peaceful is a column of light?
Dettifoss v. Gullfoss v. Goðafoss: which foss reigns supreme?
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