Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.05.2017, Blaðsíða 8

Humans cannot live without food
(unless you’re one of those Soylent
people) so it’s natural that Iceland
has a plethora of food discussion
groups. “Besti Bitinn?”, which means
“The Best Bite?”, is one of these.
Though it has just under a thousand
members—most of them friends—
the group is active with reviews of
meals or questions about where one
could satiate a particular craving.
I’ve used it to lament occurrences like
when BK Kjúklingur only gave me two
pieces of chicken rather than the three
pieces I had paid for, an event I am put-
ting in this paper to hopefully pub-
licly shame them into giving me free
chicken for a year (just kidding) (unless
they want to give me free chicken, then
I’m not kidding). Other posts recom-
mend cheap delectable meals around
the city, most recently Rima Grill in
Grafarvogur, or rave about restaurants
like Brauð & Co., which one girl, Alvia,
described as “Next level shiit!”
But the group is not without its
share of controversy. For example, af-
ter eating at popular burger joint Vita-
bar, Aldís Dagmar Erlingsdóttir posted
a scathing review. “WTF Reykjavík
people? Vitabar fucking sucks… What
is with you? Just puttin’ it out there,
the hype is completely unreal.” This
spawned some aggressive reactions,
with Sölvi Magnússon (who you can see
in the above photo), replying, “La di dah
di dah, maybe you should take the silver
spoon out of your mouth and the stick
out of your ass so you can enjoy the nice
atmosphere and fair priced burger at
Vitabar.” Tómas Daði Halldórsson then
added, “Vitabar brings out the best in
me but obviously the worst in you Al-
dís. This is like ISIS’s persecution of the
Muslims.” Matthildur Matthiasdóttir
responded with a picture of her friend
eating a Vita-burger while throwing
the bird, presumably at Aldís. Many
members added their two cents, 99% of
them pro-Vitabar and anti-Aldís, and
to this day, Aldís cannot post any ques-
tion about food on the group without
people recommending Vitabar. As is
the case with 9/11, Besti Bitinn? never
forgets.
In conclusion, hey BK Kjúklingur,
my email is hannah@grapevine.is.
Let’s talk. Share this article:
gpv.is/groups
Words
Hannah Jane
Cohen
DIGITAL LIFE
AROUND ICELAND IN
80 FACEBOOK GROUPS:
Besti Bitinn?
(The Best Bite)
WORD OF
THE ISSUE
Like other useful aspects of Icelandic
conversation, this word is about the
weather. The word literally means “be-
traying calm,” and refers to a period of
fair weather just before a storm rolls
in. You may have landed in a svika-
logn yourself: peeked outside to see
mostly sunny skies, warm tempera-
tures and little wind, and then boldly
left home in only a light jacket, only
to get hammered by high winds and
rain only minutes later. That sharp
sting of betrayal you feel? That’s some-
thing you need to direct at the coun-
try itself, or your naivety in believing
you can trust the weather to the whole
day. In fact, it seems decidedly unfair
to accuse the weather of betraying
you in a country known for drasti-
cally and rapidly changing conditions.
Iceland’s just being Iceland; you only
have your optimism to blame. Still,
svikalogn says a lot about the human
tendency to develop expectations de-
spite all evidence to the contrary. PF
8 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08 — 2017
Readers
Write
Dear Grapevine
First, my wife and I love Iceland!
We are having a really good time
here, and everyone has been super
friendly. Just one thing bothers us:
each and every time we tell some-
one where we’re from, they always
ask something about Trump. We
are tired of this. My wife and I are
both solid Democrats from a blue
state, and actually voted for Bernie
in the primaries. We don’t support
Trump in any way, why are we for-
ever being asked to answer for him?
It’s not fair!
Sincerely,
Sad Dems
Dear Dems,
Get used to it. I mean, good for
you that you didn’t vote for him,
but literally millions of Ameri-
cans did. As an American travel-
ing abroad, like it or not you are
an ambassador of your country.
Non-Americans you meet, espe-
cially if they’ve seldom gotten a
chance to talk to an American
before, will invariably grill you
with questions about what is
most prominently on the news
about America at any given mo-
ment. Right now, for better or
worse, Trump is dominating
the headlines in America, and
around the world. So get used to
prefacing your response to ques-
tions about him by going out
of your way to explain that you
don’t support the sitting presi-
dent. You got to admit: Trump
isn’t just America’s problem, af-
ter all.
Bernily,
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Write to us:
letters@grapevine.is
The hunting instinct is still strong in the Icelandic fast-food patron
LÓABRATORIUM
WHERE WAS IT SHOT?
Hostel: Part II
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen
It’s rare that a sequel surpasses the
original, and ‘Hostel: Part II’, directed
by Eli Roth, is not an exception. Be-
ing a fan of the film, which is a prime
example of the “Torture Porn” genre,
is without a doubt a massive red flag
from any significant other or friend.
Not only does it say that they enjoy
watching people get their nails torn
off, but also that they don’t give a shit
about plot or continuity.
Basically, the movie revolves around
old rich guys that pay to torture young
girls. That’s it. I didn’t really under-
stand what was going on but the girls
are hot and occasionally someone gets
their throat cut or raped.
Now you might wonder—why on
Earth would ‘Hostel: Part II’ need
waterfalls and glaciers? The answer
is... well, it doesn’t. Roth—a massive
Icelandophile—made use of the Blue
Lagoon for a scene in which one of the
torture-babes swims a little bit and
then runs away from some guys into a
forest that is decidedly not in Iceland.
That’s really it. Not much screen time,
but the scene is beautiful. I don’t credit
Roth for that though, I credit the volca-
nos that made Iceland.
On that note, Roth was actually the
first foreign director given the privi-
lege to shoot anything at the Blue La-
goon. What an honour! That said, he
used it in a film where people play soc-
cer with a severed head.
A group of Americans, disembarking