Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.08.2013, Qupperneq 44

The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 11 — 2013
The National Museum of Iceland
celebrates its 150th anniversary 2013.
Along with the permanent exhibition that features
Iceland’s history from settlement to present day the
museum will offer a variety of exhibitions during the
year, e.g. on Icelandic silver and photography.
Opening hours:
Summer (1. May-15. September): Daily 10-17
Winter (16. September-30. April): Tuesday-Sunday 11-17
Suðurgata 41, 101 Reykjavík.
tel: 530 2200 Thjodminjasafn@thjodminjasafn.is
Pink Iceland shows us just how rosy 101 can be
By Parker Yamasaki
Walk This Gay
Gay couples, straight couples, curi-
ous wanderers, and a couple of nosy
reporters gather in Pink Iceland’s liv-
ing room while a tour guide serves
us coffee. We are about to embark
on the Pink City Walk—a guided in-
troduction to the great 101.
The tour
The tour guide begins with a spiel on
“how we got here so fast.” The guide
spits out a couple of quick statistics
to emphasise the complete 180 that
Reykjavík has taken over less than half a century. In
1975, he notes, Reykjavík was so bigoted that any sex-
ual orientation which dared challenge “hetero” was es-
sentially forced to flee. Last year the Gay Pride parade
attracted over 100,000 people. “That’s nearly a third of
the population of Iceland,” he nods approvingly. From
this introduction, and the nature of the organisation, I
step onto this tour thinking I am about to get a dose of
the “history of gay Reykjavík.” I’m thinking gay bars,
sites of political triumph in gay rights, sites of political
scandal in gay rights, and more gay bars.
Our first stop is against the railing at the government
office building on Lækjargata. Some facts and figures
spill out of his mouth. I’m sure they are very important
in the history of Iceland and the shaping of the current
political state, but all I can think about is how carefree
the kids on the bikes look weaving around the clusters
of tourists on Austurstræti.
The juicy scandal
We continued on the Austurvöllur and circled up in
front of the Parliament building. More on politics, a bit
on education, and a smidge of religion. Everything he
was saying was interesting. For example, did you know
that everyone in Iceland is signed into a religious de-
nomination at birth, and the amount of money each
church receives is based on how many people are
signed up with that religion? That’s an interesting tan-
gle of church and state. But I was still waiting for that
juicy scandal that went down in the basement of Par-
liament, or the riot of self-righteousness by the church
over gay marriage.
Before we depart Austurvöllur the tour guide spins
around and points out Hótel Borg. During the Ameri-
can and British occupation, he tells us, the soldiers
frequented Hótel Borg. It was their spot, where they’d
go to party and to get down with ladies, fellows, what-
ever. No questions asked. Check! Queer happening
number one. Scandalous soldiers at the Hótel Borg.
We continue the tour through the city
theatre, Iðnó, which smells like cake
and has an aged decadence to its in-
terior that makes me nostalgic for a
glamorous era that I was never a part
of. A plane flies unsurprisingly low
overhead, completing the scene.
“Hi Neil!”
Just beyond Iðnó’s patio is the pond
and the group leans up against the
railing so the guide can do some
more efficient pointing. “That’s
Fríkirkjan,” he tells us, motioning at the idyllic little
church across the pond, “the free church. I changed my
affiliation to them because they were the only church
that allowed for gay marriage.” This detail caught my
attention more than the rest. At this point the tour
guide wasn’t just pointing at things and naming them
for what they were, he was placing them in connec-
tion to himself. By drawing this personal attachment,
the little white church, as quaint as it looks, would be
nothing more to me than a quaint little white church
with a fact figuratively tacked to its roof. “These are
the ducks,” he says, pointing to some ducks. “This
sculpture here,” he says turning back toward the land,
“is a symbol of the anonymous servant.” The sculpture
carries a briefcase and walks casually with a giant con-
cealing rock over its head. “That’s my friend Neil,” he
says, waving at a man on the bridge, “hi Neil…”
The tour lasted exactly two hours, and I saw more
Reykjavík landmarks than I ever knew existed. We tra-
versed 101 from City Hall to Harpa, down the oldest
street, through the oldest neighbourhood, over to the
National Theatre, and even stopped for a well-timed
coffee break somewhere between. As a whole, the tour
was well put together and much more interesting than
I anticipated after the first two stops.
I later realised my disappointment in the lack of ‘queer’
was a bit naive. It may have been fun to learn just how
gay Reykjavík really is, but it wouldn’t align with the
poise of Pink Iceland. They are there to celebrate LGBT
culture, not to separate it from the rest of the commu-
nity. To over exaggerate it would be a misrepresenta-
tion, but to let it go unacknowledged, well that would
be no representation at all. With their Pink City Walk,
Pink Iceland demonstrates that while there is a thriving
gay community in Reykjavík, what’s more important is
that there is a community in Reykjavík, a strong one
at that, and the LGBT community is just one essential
piece of it.
A tremendous amount of care must be taken for an organisation to represent an
entire community to international visitors. And a notoriously outspoken com-
munity, at that. But the members of Pink Iceland, a travel organisation serving
the LGBT community in Iceland, execute their role with precision. The organisa-
tion provides a comfortable space for anyone and everyone who braves the six
flights of stairs that lead to their colourful Laugavegur headquarters.
The Pink City Walk is just
one various services offered
by Iceland’s LGBT travel ex-
perts, Pink Iceland. Stop by
their office at Laugavegur 3
for pamphlets and to check
out their LGBT library, or
visit their website: www.
pinkiceland.is for informa-
tion on everything the group
has to offer.
44Travel
Nanna Dís