Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.03.2012, Síða 27

27
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 3 — 2012
Breaking newsflash: Iceland is a really gay-
friendly country! Of course we all know this;
we have a big ol’ lez of a pM, our occasional
drag queen mayor and a pride parade that
draws in more families than the state church.
Not to mention the sheer number of daily
rainbows we get between spring and fall!
These are all perfect conditions for Reykja-
vík to jump on board with the worldwide phe-
nomenon of gay tourism known as Rainbow!
The Rainbow Reykjavík event was created by Pink
Iceland, a gay travel agency founded and operated
by tourism mavens and lovers Eva María Þórarin-
sdóttir Lange and Birna Hrönn Björnsdóttir. The
Grapevine was graciously invited along to take
part in the activities so yours truly hopped on board.
The fun started on February 16 at Trúnó with
a packed-house kick-off party. My partner and I
arrived rather early and took a seat in the window,
where we had a prime spot to watch the masses
of starry-eyed and smiling event guests coming in
droves. Queen of the queer blues Elín Ey treated
us to a quick solo concert and spun tunes while
the barman passed out free shots of Ópal. People
were mixing and mingling until the lights came on
and they kicked us all out. But this was only the
first night.
Day 2
The next day, I joined the group as they finished
up what I hear was a lovely Italian lunch at Pisa.
From there we met up with Hilmar Magnússon,
who took us on the two hour long Reykjavík LGBT
History Walk. Unfortunately, from the back of the
very large group, there was little chance of hear-
ing much. Still, the stories I did catch were quite
good and informative about local culture. It is a
shame how little history was recorded by the les-
bians though.
Nonetheless, the walk was a great chance to
begin befriending other event goers. Double en-
tendres and juvenile giggles got me acquainted
with Elvin Ramos and Heidi Hlawaty, a pair of
friends and colleagues from New York City who
were on their second visit to Iceland in less than a year.
At a cocktail hour later in the day, I met several
more people from New York City, as well as from
France, Germany and the Netherlands. It turned
out this wasn’t the first visit to Iceland for a lot of
people nor did it seem like it would be the last.
The group then went on to dinner at Harpa
and a show by Lay Low and Viggo & Víoletta. Páll
Óskar had originally been booked for the gig, but
he blew out his voice (pun intended!) and couldn’t
perform. We wish him a speedy recovery!
Day 3
Saturday morning we all loaded onto a magical
rainbow tour bus to go on a customised ‘Golden
Shower’ excursion hosted by a pair of drag queen
grannies. We started at Iceland’s very own golden
shower, Gullfoss, where the group got to have the
photo op session of their dreams. We couldn’t
have asked for a more beautiful day for the trip
and everyone was in particularly joyful spirits.
Then we headed towards Geysir (or as they
were calling it, GAYSIR) for a delicious lunch at
the fancy-shmancy Hotel Geysir. Here I sat across
from Ute Zimmer, an Icelandair representative
from Germany who was instrumental in putting
together the whole shebang. She told me it was
sold out weeks in advance, so they actually had to
turn people away! That can only be the harbinger
of good things to come in the future, I suspect. Af-
ter lunch we moseyed over to the great waterspout
for a group photo and shameless jokes about pre-
mies and multiples. And no, I don’t mean babies.
Next stop was the beautiful Laugarvatn Fon-
tana steam baths, which I have been partial to
since my first visit and talked it up to everyone in
the tour, but it seems to have been met with a less
than enthusiastic response. Many of the guests
found the waters either too cool or too hot and
many were not particularly interested in the dry saunas.
It was sitting in one sauna that I did get to chat
with New Yorker Stephen Pevner about how he
was enjoying himself, and although the ambient
air was hot, he seemed a bit lukewarm. He said
the tour could have used something more than
just the LGBT Walk, including some things of
more specific interest to people within the group
or different aspects of Icelandic culture. Still, he
was gracious to the first-year nature of the event.
Over in the hot tub, another New Yorker named
Steven Weinstein wondered aloud to me the best
possible idea: why didn’t they take us to the penis
museum!?
After a final quick stop at Þingvellir for kókóm-
jólk and hangikjöt on flatkökur, we rolled back
into town in a sleepy daze, with couples in cosy
amours, serenaded by the happiest French men
singing nostalgic pop hits of their youth. And as
the group went off to their hotels to gussy up for
their final dinner, it really felt like somehow we
found it: the rainbow connection.
The Lovers, The Dreamers And Me
Finding connections in Rainbow Reykjavík
Travel | Gay
REBECCA LOUDER
LEIFUR WILBERG ORRASON
ÞÓRSHÖFN
VOPNAFJÖRÐUR
THORSHOFN
ILULISSAT
ITTOQQORTOORMIIT
NUUK
KULUSUK
NARSARSUAQ
GRÍMSEY
ÍSAFJÖRÐUR
AKUREYRI
EGILSSTAÐIR
REYKJAVÍK
our very best price is always online.
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Visit rainbowreykjavik.is for information about the
next festival. Plan ahead, it sold out fast this time!