Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.07.2012, Blaðsíða 14

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2012 Vegetarians can also enjoy Bæjarins Bestu! Just ask for one with out the meat! It
won't be that interesting, but you'll have ticked off a box in the 'Icelandic musts'
category.
Special | Best Of Reykjavík - Institution
SELLING THE TOWN’S BEST
HOT DOGS FOR 75 YEARS
The Grapevine has a soft spot for Bæ-
jarins Beztu. The famous hot dog stand
is conveniently parked right outside our
offices and for the small sum of 500 ISK
it’s difficult to find a better hot dog and
a coke.
Originally, when the stand opened
75 years ago, hot dogs were served
without buns and you could get a sip of
milk instead of the soda, Magnea Stein-
ey Þórðardóttir tells me. The nineteen-
year-old is fourth generation to work
at the stand since her great grandpa
opened it in 1937.
She’s been working four years, but
her “training” began at a far earlier age.
“Every Wednesday when my little sister
and I were young, my grandma would
pick us up from school and we would
go straight away to get a hot dog. So
when I was young I’d have a hot dog at
least once a week,” she tells me.
“Whenever we spent the night at
grandma and grandpa’s, my grandma
would tuck us in and say the prayers
and then she would add, ‘And remem-
ber, when you start working at the
stand, always put the hot dogs in the
water to keep them warm.’ And that’s
when we were really, really young—
maybe six years old.”
After years of working there and
being inundated with the smell of hot
dogs, she can’t stomach even just one
more, but there must be something
special about them because they fly
out the window in incalculable num-
bers. “It’s a nice location and I think
the hot dogs must be good as people
come again and again,” she says. As far
as what makes them better than other
hot dogs, she’s not ready to give me any
hints. “It’s a family secret,” she’s quick
to say.
Now don’t be misguided by the
framed picture of Bill Clinton or the
cartoon featuring him eating a hot dog,
ordering “A Clinton” is not especially
recommended for you will receive a
boring hot dog with nothing on it ex-
cept for sinnep.
The proper way to order is to ask
for “Eina með öllu” or “one with every-
thing,” which will get you a toasty bun
filled with steiktur laukur (crispy fried
onion), freshly diced onion, ketchup,
sinnep (Icelandic mustard), remúlaði
(remoulade sauce), and naturally the
Icelandic hot dog itself.

Bæjarins Beztu
Tryggvagata, 101 D4
ANNA ANDERSEN
ALÍSA KALYANOVA
Special | Best Of Reykjavík - Institution
The Royal Swimming Hall
The most popular public institutions
in Iceland are probably the swim-
ming pools. We have a lot of them in
the greater Reykjavík area and if you
venture to the countryside and reach
a town of more than 50 inhabitants,
chances are that it has a pool. But none
of them quite feels like an established
institution, or classic, as much as Sund-
höllin (the “Hall of Swimming” in Eng-
lish). Not only is it Reykjavík’s oldest
pool, but also it’s just really awesome.
For 75 years the pool has been lo-
cated in the majestic white building
standing on the corner of Barónsstígur
and Bergþórugata. The building—a
blend of modernist, Art Deco and Cub-
ist styles—is designed by former state
architect Guðjón Samúelsson (who has
designed a number of other landmark
buildings in the city, such as Hallgrím-
skirkja, the University of Iceland and
The National Hospital). Both the build-
ing’s exterior and interior are protected,
and one of the first things you’ll notice
inside is the cool labyrinth-like layout of
the locker room, which is made up of
small cubicles that you can close your-
self in if public nudity is not your thing.
THE SPECS
The swimming pool is 25 metres long
and ten metres wide. The deep end of
the pool is almost four meters deep and
is popular for diving exercises. There
are two diving boards, the higher one
about three meters above the water. On
the other end, there is also a smaller
pool for children with various play-
things. And on the poolside there are
weights for pumping iron, but none of
the shiny airbrushed equipment you
find in World Class and the like, just a
single bench and worn dumbbells.
Outside on the balconies are two
hot tubs, one at 39°C for the people
who are warm at heart and the other at
42° C. There is also a small steam bath
and a lounge area with garden chairs
where you can cool off out there. But
what about the sun, you might ask.
Well, there is another large upper ter-
race especially made for sunbathing
with lots of benches to bake on while
enjoying a great view of the city. And
for those who embrace public nudity,
it is partitioned by gender so that one
can sunbathe in the nude and get rid of
those pesky tan lines.
The regular clientele is a mix of old
people, 101 bohemians and tourists
during the summertime. It opens at
6:30 in the morning and if you go early
enough you can witness old men doing
the classic Müller’s exercise routines.
The atmosphere is generally relaxed
and friendly but conversations between
strangers about politics or gossip in the
hot tub can get heated. This is pretty
much a national pastime; the Icelandic
equivalent of “word on the street” is ac-
tually “heard in the hot tub.”
POP CULTURE
The beautiful interior of the pool has
been used on countless occasions for
cultural events and as filming loca-
tions. One of the more notable ones is
the dreamy video for “Believe,” the first
single from GusGus’s debut LP. It has
singer Daníel Ágúst floating through
the locker room, jumping hoops from
the diving board and performing mouth
to mouth on co-vocalist Hafdís Huld.
Another one is the final scene from
‘Skytturnar,’ the first full-length fiction
film from Oscar nominated director
Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. In a magnificent
scene, a whaler on a drinking binge
breaks into the pool at night and is shot
to a pulp by police special forces and
crawls to the bottom of the empty pool,
leaving a trail of blood behind him. And
then a couple of years ago the pool was
also the venue for a special screening
of Jaws as a part of the Reykjavík Film
Festival.
Sundhöllin has no fancy waterslide
or modern equipment, but it is rich in
history, atmosphere and aesthetic. It is
the most beautiful and unique swim-
ming pool in Reykjavík and anybody
coming to the city who isn’t allergic to
water should take the time to pay it a
visit.
Sundhöll Reykjavíkur
Barónsstígur, 101 H6
DAVÍð ROACH GUNNARSSON
ALÍSA KALYANOVA
Try to repeat one particular
word for a bit of time. Say
it out loud again and again
and again and again… You know
the game: in the end you won't be sure
what it actually means or if it ever had
meaning. Eventually, the word might
even start to imply the opposite of its
original meaning.
While this is an almost universal
truth, there are a few exceptions. For
instance, regardless of time and con-
text, the word “best” never loses even
a glimpse of its meaning in Iceland—no
matter how often you repeat it. Just
try it while you read: “Best, best, best,
best, best, best, best, best…” See. It
still means “best.” Simple.
Iceland is the very best. Not only
do we have the most beautiful nature,
the purest water and the greenest en-
ergy, but we also know best how to fill
our fishing nets by the West African
shores. We surely know how to protect
our cultural and racial heritage, and are
amongst the very best when it comes
border control. When a catastrophic
earthquake shook Haiti in early 2010,
our rescue team was the first team to
show up. In 1989, Iceland's national
handball team won the Men's B World
Championship. And only a few weeks
ago, we secured that no democrati-
cally elected president has ever been in
power as long as our current one. Ha!
Our music is unquestionably the
most unique (ask Icelandic filmmakers)
and the same applies to just about all
of the creative segment's tentacles. Of
all the world's countries, Iceland is the
best one for children and women—not
to mention for women in power—as well
as all those who are not heterosexual.
And nowhere else are the people as
happy as here. We were the best at
banking and business until we took a
quick turn to being best at protesting,
and then the best at cleaning up the
banksters' mess. Now we are best at
getting the wheels of the economy to
spin again. No doubt we will become
best at banking before dawn.
Mahatma Gandhi said: “Be the
change you want to see in the world.”
(Actually, he never said this but some
damn clever advertising agency made
it up and printed it on bumper stickers
and refrigerator magnets with Gandhi's
signature for us to prove to ourselves
and the rest of world that our life has
a meaning). And if there is one change
that the Icelandic nation doesn't want
to see in the world, it is that other na-
tions become as best as—if not more
best than—Iceland.
Luckily, there is a simple solution to
this problem. We simply need to tell the
rest of the world that we are “the worst”
and encourage other nations to fol-
low in our footsteps. Thus we prevent
this nightmare from realising. And no
worries about this strategy's possible
impacts on the Icelandic nation's self-
esteem—if you repeat it long enough its
meaning becomes, to us, its absolute
Opinion | Snorri Páll Jónsson
Úlfhildarson
MY BEST ARTICLE
WALLY WALLYSON
clown
I've been to Stofan recently. The at-
mosphere is nothing to talk about.
It's a bunch of nerds running the bar.
That's what it is. No music, no games,
no nothing. Tourists, yuck. To be hon-
est, it's quite disgusting. Its one claim
to fame is that it's the closest possible
place to my home.
Things They Like
About Reykjavík
Special | The Locals Speak