Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.07.2010, Síða 39

Situated in the Central Bank´s main building in Kalkofnsvegur 1, Reykjavík.
Open Mon.-Fri. 13:30-15:30. Free admittance.
Numismatic Museum
The Central Bank and National Museum of Iceland jointly operate
a numismatic collection that consists of Icelandic notes and coins,
foreign money from earlier times, especially if mentioned in Icelan-
dic sources, and more recent currency from Iceland’s main trading
partner countries. A selection from the numismatic collection is on
display in showcases on the ground floor of the Central Bank’s main
building.
Licensing and
registration of travel-
related services
The Icelandic Tourist Board issues licences to tour operators and travel agents,
as well as issuing registration to booking services and information centres.
Tour operators and travel agents are required to use a special logo approved
by the Icelandic Tourist Board on all their advertisements and on their Internet
website.
Booking services and information centres are entitled to use a Tourist
Board logo on all their material. The logos below are recognised by the
Icelandic Tourist Board.
List of licenced Tour
Operators and Travel
Agencies on:
visiticeland.com
27
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2010
Coffee | and Cookies
Coffeeshop Icelandic
KATARzyNA GROWIEC
jULIA STAPLES
C is for Cookie is apparently Reykjavík's
most favourite new café. Try it out for your-
self. BTW, whaddaya think about the name?
A cosy new café has opened for
business in 101 Reykjavík. This is by
no means an unusual event, and we
normally wouldn’t pay it much at-
tention to it, except for the fact that
it is run by a Polish couple Agniesz-
ka Sokolowska and Stanislaw za-
wada. While this certainly isn’t the
first Polish-run business in town,
it is quite likely the first Polish-run
café in downtown Reykjavík. So we
checked it out.
From the sidewalk at Týsgata 8, you step
into a comfortable and relaxed atmo-
sphere, ideal for having an early lunch
with a friend or spending a lazy after-
noon over chocolate cake. It isn’t decid-
edly ‘Reykjavík’—in fact when looking
around the place, one can hardly tell
which city it is located in; it could be
Paris, Lisbon, Dubrovnik or Reykjavík.
Taking a lead from the internationally
recognised ideal of what a quiet and
calm coffeeshop should be, the coffee-
shop also sports an Icelandic twist. It is
called C is for Cookie, in tribute to ev-
eryone’s favourite Cookie Monster, and
it is good.
Agnieszka and Stanislaw are both
in their thirties and hold degrees in li-
brary science from the University of
Silesia in Katowice, Poland. Stanislaw
has been living in Iceland for four years
now. When he first came to Reykjavík,
he worked in the harbour unloading
trawlers, and then later in a brewery.
Agnieszka came to Iceland a year later
and worked in various coffee shops in
downtown Reykjavík. I asked them why
they decided to open a new café when
there are already so many around.
“The idea was to set up our own
business and go independent,” Ag-
nieszka tells me. “When Stanislaw lost
his job in the brewery, we decided that
it was the time to do it. I had the idea
of opening my own café for quite some
time since I adore baking cakes. I always
baked cakes and liked to invite friends
over to eat them with me. Why not make
a living out of that? I bake all the cakes
here myself. I am partly inspired by Pol-
ish tradition, especially when it comes to
a cheesecake, but also by British ideas.”
Why Iceland?
Both Agnieszka and Stanislaw speak
Icelandic. Agnieszka calls it “coffeeshop
Icelandic”—enough to chat at the coun-
ter, but insufficient if you need to talk to
a government official. They used to take
a course in Icelandic that was half-paid
for by their former employers. After a
year or so they grew disappointed with
their progress and decided to learn the
language their own way through contact
with locals, watching TV and studying
English language Icelandic textbooks.
They find the language very difficult and
demanding. Nevertheless, they made a
vow to learn it.
“Why Iceland you ask? It is the best
place for me to live,” Stanislaw remarks.
“No violence, no crime. I was travelling
around many countries and by chance
came here. I think I will stay for a long
time. Agnieszka and I have bought a
flat in a 100-year-old house with a huge
garden. We can play badminton there!
Many of my former friends left Poland as
well. Most of them live in UK or Ireland
now. There is nothing for me to go back
to.”
Agnieszka echoes her partner’s sen-
timent: “I appreciate the feeling of secu-
rity I have here, both economically and
physically. People here trust one other
and that it makes life much more pleas-
ant and less stressful. I didn’t leave Po-
land to earn more money. I also left with
the idea of not going back.”
Already making history
The plan for the future is to make “C
is for Cookie” a popular place with lo-
cal people. It is not meant to be a place
only for Poles or tourists. Tourists come
and go. There are local people who
have already supported Agnieszka and
Stanislaw during the construction work;
people who just dropped by and asked
how it was going.
C is for Cookie has also earned a
place in history already. Talks between
The Best Party and The Social Demo-
cratic Alliance had just commenced
when Jón Gnarr and Dagur B. Eggerts-
son met for breakfast there. Pictures
from this event were published in local
newspapers the next day.
All in all, C is for Cookie seems to
be a super-Icelandic café if not entirely
Icelandic in origin, just like the super-
Icelandic necklaces made of colourful
balls of wool that are actually imported
from New Zealand.
Music | Album Review
careening, goosebump-inducing voice isn’t
up to the task; it’s as strong as ever, but in
the end it’s the flat, mindless songwriting
that give it all away, with lush reverbs and
sultry keyboards not quite disguising how
hard the lyrics are trying, and failing, to
be poignant, and how the music just isn’t
trying, period… but goddamn, does it
sound fucking amazing.
—SINDRI ELDON Why do people try to cover Kate Bush?
Eivör fails as hard as Futureheads and
Placebo ever did, but we’ll disregard that
for the purposes of this review, because
other than that, the album’s pretty good.
Eivör wisely leaves the hard work on
Larva to her accompaniments. Its indulgent
guitars and jittery drums lead the way, with
gorgeous, epic-scale trip-hop production
setting the scene for her most interesting
album to date. Not that her searing,
Pretty decent, provided you don’t
think too hard.
Eivör
Larva
eivorpalsdottir