Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.12.2014, Síða 26

26 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 18 — 2014OPINION
www.elding.is

Elding Whale Watching schedule
* From 15 May to 15 September
** From 15 June to 31 July

Make sureit’s Elding!
WHALES
& DOLPHINS
from Reykjavik all year round
Call us on +354 519 5000
or visit www.elding.is
Jan-Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov-Dec
EL-01 / EL-02 / EL-03
13:00 13:00
9:00 9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
9:00
13:00
17:00* 17:00 17:00 17:00 17:00*
10:00
14:00
10:00
14:00
10:00
14:00
13:00
20:30** 20:30
NORTHERN
LIGHTS CRUISE
Call us on +354 519 5000
or visit www.elding.is
Daily departures from 15 September
Make sureit’s Elding!
Welcome To Iceland,
We’ll Get You Naked
… And clean as a whistle
What is the deterrent to showering naked
before getting into a pool—to being naked
in the company of others, for that mat-
ter? Of the same sex? The only times the
Americans or British are
ever really naked in front
of other people for an
extended period of time
is during sex or at the
doctor's, and neither is
always absolutely com-
fortable. For Americans
there is a built-in cultural
self-consciousness that
borders on shame. Like
our language, we get it
from the British. Icelan-
dic friends have recount-
ed their bemusement at
an episode of ‘Friends’
where Joey walks out
into the living room
naked and everyone
violently recoils, shout-
ing for him to go put some clothes on. This
doesn’t translate to Icelandic.
In the Icelandic locker rooms, and I
can only speak for the women’s, one can
usually recognise the Americans (and the
British for that matter) by the towels they
wear to walk to the showers. As if our
modesty, protected until the showers, will
be preserved in them. I can understand,
though. My first time in an Icelandic swim-
ming pool I was acutely aware of my shy-
ness. Feeling uncomfortable but being
adaptive, I pretended to
be invisible and got on
with it, without a towel.
However by this time
around, being a regu-
lar swimmer in Iceland,
I am over the nudity. I
confirmed this over the
summer when I ran into
a woman I met at Kiki bar
in the showers. She had
texted me at 5 o'clock
one morning, but I never
texted her back. That’s
potentially embarrassing
enough with clothes on.
However, we had a full
discourse about what
happened and why, all as
she was shampooing her
hair and washing her breasts.
For everyone who frequents the pool,
the London Lido has a grand total of five
outdoor showers with inadequately timed
pushbutton-operated ”on” cycles, as well
as three indoor showers in the women’s
changing room. I suspect there are the
same amount in the men’s. That’s eleven
showers for an entire facility the size of the
Laugardalslaug outdoor pool. The day we
went, the five outdoor showers were out
of service due to maintenance. “When
you think about it, people are not clean
when they go into pools. I go under [the
pool showers back in America] with a little
trickle of water to get wet so they don’t tell
me to shower, and I don’t use soap,” my
mom remarked. “It’s healthy that people
are made to wash their assholes and their
genitals and under their arms. (Also their
feet and heads.) It shows a societal value.
It shows that society values cleanliness.”
On sunny days at the Lido the water is
clouded with sunscreen, sweat, and what-
ever else.
There are so many advantages to
Icelandic pools and I’ve not even started
on the geothermal angle. Take adequate
time to observe, reflect and compare the
American and British pool systems with
the Icelandic ones. Cleanliness aside, the
lack of “modesty” cubicles means that we
see each other’s bodies. Real bodies. Not
airbrushed bodies. Ones of all shapes and
sizes with folds, zits and cellulite, varicose
veins, beautiful and bizarre, you name it.
The first time I was in an Icelandic locker
room, I exclaimed to myself, ”oh, so that’s
what other women look like.” What a relief.
“Do we have to shower naked at this one or can we get in it dirty, like pigs?” asks my
mother, on our way to swim at the London Fields Lido swimming pool. My mother is a na-
tive New Yorker born on the island of Manhattan. I am American by birth but British by
naturalisation (I’ve lived in the UK for nearly half my life). We have just returned to London
from a week in Reykjavík, making that my eighth week this year. We swam nearly every day,
and the first time I felt compelled to explain ahead of time that you must shower, naked,
with soap, before you're allowed anywhere near an Icelandic swimming pool. My mother,
unsurprisingly, looked a little worried.
Photo
Anna Domnick
Words
Gabrielle Motola
Icelandic friends
have recounted
their bemusement
at an episode of
‘Friends’ where Joey
walks out into the
living room naked
and everyone vio-
lently recoils, shout-
ing for him to go put
some clothes on.
This doesn’t trans-
late to Icelandic.