Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.12.2008, Síða 5

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Lögberg-Heimskringla • 15. desember 2008 • 5
To Iceland and back again
“Anonymous”
Thortravels, Jonas Thor’s travel agency in Iceland, is planning tours to Ice-
land in June of 2009. This is
done in cooperation with INL
Iceland and the Emigration
Centre at Hofsos.
Over the past six years, INL
Iceland has organized tours led
by Thor to the various Icelan-
dic communities in the US and
Canada. Emphasis has been
on the history of Icelandic set-
tlers in North America. Prior to
each tour, participants meet on
several occasions in Iceland to
prepare for the tour. A histo-
rian, Jonas Thor attempts to ex-
plain why Icelandic immigrants
chose a particular area for their
settlement site and how suc-
cessful they were. Thor uses
maps, diagrams, local histories,
official documents, letters from
the settlers, photographs of the
area and so on to further aid his
students.
“Such preparation makes
the visit from Iceland more
meaningful,” states Thor. “The
visitor is familiar with the his-
tory and consequently enjoys
his visit much more.”
Most significant settlement
sites in the US as well as in Can-
ada have been visited in recent
years, most often explored with
the help of local Icelanders.
“We visited settlement sites
in Ontario for the first time this
past summer,” Thor recounts.
“It was remarkable to travel
to Rosseau and Kinmount and
re-live the tragic events of the
past. To have fellow historian,
Don Gislason of Toronto with
us was invaluable.”
“The highlight of each tour
is always the time spent with
the local people, descendants
of the Icelandic immigrants,”
he adds.
Icelanders in general, more
and more, are interested in their
cousins in America, their his-
tory, the past as well as the pres-
ent. In recent years, groups of
school teachers, church choirs,
Rotarians and individuals have
participated in such tours, all of
them contributing to the cause of
strengthening the ties between
Iceland and the North American
Icelandic Community.
North American Iceland-
ers, seeking their roots and
establishing their background,
more and more see the value of
these visits.
“Yes, we often have dis-
cussed the possible return visit
by our hosts during our tours. It
is quite obvious that local Ice-
landers are interested in visiting
the land of their forefathers,”
Thor says when asked
about interest here in visits to
Iceland.
“I suppose it is safe to say
that the times for visits to Ice-
land have never been better: cir-
cumstances in the country have
devalued the króna, making the
dollar stronger than ever before.
A dinner in a local restaurant was
$46.00 a year ago, but the same
meal today goes for $27.00!
Iceland is probably one of the
cheapest countries in Northern
Europe to visit these days.”
Mr. Valgeir Thorvaldsson
at the Emigration Centre of
Hofsos was on hand at the Islen-
dingadagurinn in 2007, and in
his talk, both in Mountain, ND
and at Gimli, he invited every-
one present to come in 2009
and visit Iceland. He has taken
this a step further, because he is
planning an event for the visi-
tors at Hofsos. Details will be
introduced in due course, but the
main idea is to give the visiting
Icelandic North Americans an
opportunity to meet and mingle
with friends and relatives. The
celebration in Hofsos will take
place on Saturday, June 6. Thor-
travels offers a bus tour around
the island afterwards.
“The idea,” says Thor, “is to
offer participants help in finding
relatives in Iceland during the
winter, help them get connected
and then meet in Iceland in June.
The tour around the island will
concentrate on districts from
where most of the Icelanders left
for America. Obviously all ma-
jor sites will also be visited, the
tour will give the participants a
good view of the island as well
as the districts from whence
their forefathers came.
“The organizers here in
Iceland insist that members of
INL and other Icelandic asso-
ciations who have through the
years helped make visits from
Iceland so successful should be
given priority. The same peo-
ple, year after year, have vol-
unteered to show guests from
Iceland the sites, entertained
them at gatherings making sure
everyone left on a happy note.
We encourage those to get in
touch if interested.”
Asked about a possible
charter flight to Winnipeg, Thor
said “We closely examined ev-
ery possibility of doing a direct
charter this year, but these types
of arrangements are complex
and take time in negotiating
the best schedule and pricing.
Although we did have interest
from some carriers, we found
the timing was not quite right
for this year. We are continuing
to examine the direct charter
opportunity, and the results will
depend on how well our current
program does.”
First Lutheran Church
580 Victor Street
Winnipeg R3G 1R2
204-772-7444
www.mts.net/~flcwin
Worship with us
Sundays 10:30 a.m.
Pastor Michael Kurtz
A COMMUNITY-FOCUSED
CREDIT UNION
COMMITTED TO CREATING
VALUE FOR OUR MEMBERSHIP
34 Centre Street, Gimli 642-6450
23 Stitt Street, Winnipeg Beach 389-2550
Greetings from
Gordon J. Reykdal
Honorary Consul of the
Republic of Iceland
17631 - 103 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta
T5S 1N8
Tel: (780) 408-5118
Fax: (708) 443-2653
E-mail: gord@csfinancial.ca
PTH 6
Lundar Manitoba
762-5231
SaleS • PartS • Service
Danielson’s
Gleðileg jól
from
“I consider it a declaration
on that if some municipalities
are not capable of launching
such operations the state will
emphasize operations in these
areas,” Halldórsson said, propos-
ing harbor construction projects,
road constructions and construc-
tion of avalanche levees. “All of
these operations are very labor
demanding.”
Valdimarsson would like the
government to explain what kind
of operations they have in mind.
“Calling for labor-demanding op-
erations without revealing their
nature does not help the contrac-
tor who is thinking of selling his
heavy machinery in the country
and lay off his staff.”
Reprinted with permission
from IcelandReview.com.
Iceland Presents Plan
Continued from page 1
It’s beginning to look
a lot like Kreppujól
It’s a kreppujól, or “Recession Christmas,” for Icelanders
A majority of Icelanders intend to buy cheaper Christmas presents this
year, according to a new opin-
ion poll conducted by Gallup
and reported by RUV.is.
The poll, presented on Tues-
day, showed that 69 percent of
respondents believe it is likely
the current economic situation
in the country will have some
sort of a negative effect on their
Christmas celebrations this
year.
Of the above 69 percent who
believe economics will make a
difference this year, 91 percent
intend to buy cheaper Christmas
gifts. Nearly 62 percent said
they would not be buying new
clothes for Christmas, a surpris-
ing 61 percent will be spending
less on Christmas decorations,
and half intend to spend less on
Christmas food. 39 percent in-
tend to purchase fewer presents
this year.
Reprinted with permission
from Icenews.is.