Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.10.2013, Page 16

Winnipeg: The cool cousin
In large families, there’s always that one
cousin who you actually like, not because
you have to, but because, well, she’s super
cool. Winnipeg is that cool cousin; she
was Reykjavík’s first friend city, officially
affiliating in 1971.
Located in the Canadian province of
Manitoba, which is home to the largest
Icelandic population outside of Iceland,
Winnipeg is at the centre of “New Ice-
land,” the region to which over 20,000
Icelanders emigrated between 1870 and
1915. The Winnipeg-based University
of Manitoba has one of the few Icelandic
Language and Literature programmes
outside of Iceland, and the city also has
many active Icelandic and Icelandic-Cana-
dian organisations.
Winnipeg hosted núna (“now”), a
four-month series of Icelandic/Canadian
music, film, dance, visual arts, and liter-
ary events, which was curated by “local
artists with ties to Iceland” during sum-
mer 2013. Newly-elected Icelandic Prime
Minister Sigmundur Daví! and his wife
also made a visit to the city earlier this
year, arriving just in time for Manitoba’s
Icelandic festival.
These are blood ties, and they run
deep.
Seattle: The supportive BFF
Good BFFs are one in a million: they
keep in touch over long distances, are
supportive of each other’s art, and share
the occasional bottle of wine and get silly.
So it goes for Seattle, Washington and
Reykjavík. They became besties in 1986
and have been going strong ever since.
And Seattle is a model best friend—she
helped established the Seattle-Reykjavík
Sister City Association (SRSCA) solely to
support regular projects and collabora-
tions between the two cities.
In 2008, SRSCA brought 18 del-
egates from Seattle to Reykjavík, visit-
ing notable Icelandic companies such
as LazyTown and DeCode, and hosting
a reception highlighting Washington
State wines. A few years later, SRSCA
was invited to participate in Reykjavík’s
2011 Culture Night. Seattle brought
along musical artists, puppeteers, local
coffee and (more!) wine. And ever the
overachiever, she also brought six mem-
bers of the Washington-based Quileute
Native American tribe, who performed
several sacred ceremonies never before
seen outside of their reservation.
These affirming collaborations are
ongoing: Icelandic films are featured
regularly at the Seattle International Film
Festival and Icelandic musicians are often
invited to perform in the “Mostly Nordic
Music Festival” hosted by Seattle’s Nordic
Heritage Museum. Best Friends Forever!
Vilnius: The foreign
exchange friend
Studying abroad is all about getting to
know new people and different cultures,
about expanding your horizons and learn-
ing how to order beer in another lan-
guage. The friends you make during your
foreign exchange are friends who know
you as your best, coolest self—the self you
are when you’re open to everything and
are far away from everyone who knows all
your embarrassing childhood stories.
Vilnius, Lithuania and Reykjavík be-
came friends in 2006. It was natural that
the two would be interested in learning
more about each other—as of 2011, there
were 1,471 Lithuanian immigrants in
Iceland, representing just under 6% of
Iceland’s immigrant population. And Vil-
nius and Reykjavík keep in touch. In 2011,
for instance, the City Theatre of Reykjavík
travelled to Vilnius and also collaborated
with acclaimed Lithuanian director Os-
karas Kor#unovas on an award-winning
production of Shakespeare’s “The Tem-
pest.”
Moscow: That one old
friend who’s a homophobe
You know the story: you meet someone,
bond over a common interest, and share
some good times together. Maybe you
don’t see each other for a while, but you
keep up on Facebook. Suddenly, you no-
tice that your old pal is, well, a raging ho-
mophobe. De-friend! Such is the case for
erstwhile friends Moscow and Reykjavík.
The buddy bond was forged in 2007,
when then-mayors Vilhjálmur ". Vil-
hjálmsson and Júri Luzhov spent four
days together in Moscow, hatching all
sorts of plans for the future, such as es-
tablishing a renewed aviation agreement
and tourism-boosting initiatives, even
developing programmes to combat youth
drug abuse problems. In lieu of friend-
ship bracelets, Vilhjálmur presented the
Moscow mayor and his wife (both noted
horse enthusiasts) with two fine Icelandic
horses—the first Icelandic horses, in fact,
to ever be sent to Russia.
But as best laid plans often go awry,
nothing really ever came of Reykjavík and
Moscow’s friendship after 2007; none of
their ambitious collaborations ever came
about. Then this summer, the relation-
ship really soured when Russia passed its
prehistoric anti-LGBT bill and Moscow
cancelled its gay pride parade. These ac-
tions drew heavy criticism from Icelandic
activists, as well as Reykjavík Mayor Jón
Gnarr, who proposed that the City Coun-
cil officially end its relationship with Mos-
cow, including all cooperation and collab-
oration between the cities. The Reykjavík
City Council has agreed to reconsider the
relationship, and is currently drawing up
a proposal to either significantly alter, or
completely end, the city’s relationship
with Moscow going forward.
Sometimes tastes change; old friends
become bigots. People grow apart, you
know?
Moomin Valley:
The imaginary friend
Most of us have had at least one friend
who only we could see, and Reykjavík is
no exception. After a particularly enjoy-
able trip to Finland in March 2010, Jón
Gnarr reported in his online “Mayor’s
Diary” that he wanted to name Moomin
Valley as a friend city of Reykjavík. While
this relationship is yet to be made official,
the mayor has already established strong
ties with the Moomin Valley residents,
particularly Moomin Papa who, he’s re-
ported, has given him helpful advice on
such important topics as whether Iceland
should join the EU.*
*True Fact: See Jón Gnarr’s 2010 “Wel-
come to Reykjavík” post on our website,
www.grapevine.is.
International Relations | Friendly
16The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 16 — 2013
Vinaborgir: Reykjavík’s
BFFs Around The World
ListoflicencedTour
OperatorsandTravel
Agencieson: 
visiticeland.com
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.
“In lieu of friend-
ship bracelets, Vil-
hjálmur presented
the Moscow mayor
and his wife (both
noted horse enthu-
siasts) with two fine
Icelandic horses—
the first Icelandic
horses, in fact, to
ever be sent to Rus-
sia.”
Positioned as it is smack dab in the middle of the North Atlantic, Iceland
could potentially get a bit lonely. But friendly, urbane and well-travelled
country that she is, she’s made friends all over. Reykjavík, being especially
extroverted, boasts many ‘vinaborgir,’ or “friend-cities” (also called “sister
cities”) all over the world, and fosters these relationships in the name of
socio-economic collaboration, cultural exchange, and international rela-
tions. But just like in real life, each of these friend cities, and friendships,
are very different. Here are a few notable ones.
— By Larissa Kyzer
Inga María Brynjarsdóttir