You've been to Iceland?!! Really?!! Wow, what's it like?!!

Picture this if you can...

We’re sitting somewhere in Europe amongst other backpackers. It doesn’t really matter where. It could be an internet cafe or a hostel bedroom waiting while I track down the sweet soapy scent of my last pair of clean socks, but if you’d have spent any time with me in such places then there’s more than a good chance that you would have heard this conversation.

 •  So, where have you been?
 •  Lille, Ypres, London, Iceland...
 •  Iceland! Really! Wow!! What’s it like?

Iceland is one of those places that is a bit mythical and distant and somewhere that almost everyone I talked to wants to visit but doesn’t often get to... kind of like Australia. People know vague things about it: eg. that Iceland is actually green and Greenland is covered in ice and that Bjork comes from there. Sometimes people might even know that Iceland has volcanoes and glaciers and is where the word geysir comes from.

N.B. that people often also think Australia is simply a big desert filled with kangaroos and koalas, with Sydney being the capital and Summer Bay (from the TV soap 'Home and Away') being a typical Australian town...

The reality, as with any part of the world, is often different and hopefully unexpectedly so.

Now, I don’t think that it's too far-fetched to compare Iceland with Australia, as I did notice some broad similarities. I think these similarities might stem from us both being a bit isolated and both often having to deal with extremes of weather and natural disasters (leading to stronger connections between people and within communities). We also both have a lot of wild natural places, with the people of both places generally liking to drink, and both countries enjoying their own unique culture while at the same time having strong cultural ties with the USA and a former colonial master (Denmark for Iceland and Britain for Australia). One Icelander that I met also felt an affinity with the American Indians, the Inuit and Australian Aborigines because after the Danes arrived, there were significant cultural changes and a loss of traditional ways of living.

Anyhoo, enough of the cultural commentary, lets talk about the place where everybody wants to go but where few actually get around to visiting : )

I flew to Reykjavik from London but almost missed the flight because my line on the London tube was in a mess from signal failures and the crazy heat that had been knocking Londoners around for a lot of the 06 summer (see, it doesn’t just happen in Sydney ;) ). Thankfully, after 'running’ with my three bags strapped to me like a pack horse through the backstreets between Pimlico and Victoria tube stations (OK so I had far too much stuff, but I was new at this) and taking a gamble on which line to take to get me to Heathrow, I made it to my terminal and flight on time.

While making myself comfortable amongst the glitzy liquor and glammy makeup shops, one of those strange little moments of coincidence occurred when "Venus as a Boy” by Björk started to play in the terminal just before the flight was called to the gate. With the management at Heathrow airport now spending significant amounts of money on security and little clear plastic bags, I can't imagine that they have bothered to sit down and plan specific track listings for each outbound flight, so it really did seem to be a special little coincidence. Considering also that one of the reasons that I went to Iceland was my love of Björk’s and Sigur Ros’s music and a curiosity about how such a small country can produce so many good and interesting musicians, I took that coincidence to be a good omen : )

Before boarding the plane, I must admit that I was kind of expecting it to be full of people that were somewhat different from other Europeans that I’d seen. I guess I was expecting a plane full of nordic blonde hair and jet black hair like Björk. The reality was that there was nothing particularly distinctive about these people, apart from the fact that they were all soon to arrive in that distant, mythical land of fire and ice.

As anyone who knows me well enough could believe, I was pretty excited to be finally going to Iceland as it was somewhere that I’d wanted to go to for years. Maybe it was that excitement of flying across the North Sea to a dream destination or maybe it was the bravado that comes with being an anonymous traveller, but I decided to ask one of the beautiful and friendly hostesses from Iceland Air out for a drink on the following weekend. I tried to be smooth and explained that I was on my first trip abroad (and probably looked like it, not to mention probably also being a bit scruffy and smelly from my London dash) and was just wanting to meet locals from every place that I went to. With gentle grace however, she declined my offer and preserved my dignity by explaining that she wouldn’t be in Iceland that weekend. I then exited the airport and withdrew some beautiful Icelandic Krones from a cash machine and walked the streets a bit nervously towards my guest house (Nervously? Well, it was a new country, climate, language and culture for me...and I did look like a pack horse).

On my first morning in Reykyavik, I met yet another friendly and interesting Frenchman named Anthony Carcone. He works as a reporter and sound recordist for a government radio station in France and was in Iceland covering a sailing race from France to Iceland. In his spare time, and when he can convince his bosses that its worthwile, he also records silence in different places around the world. At first it sounds a bit surprising if not simply strange, but silence certainly does seem to have a different sound from place to place. Unfortunately Anthony was leaving that morning, but we were able to spend some time walking and chatting about Iceland and other things while he showed me around Reykyavik. I wasn’t able to spend too much time in there however as I was also getting on a plane that afternoon to head further north, but while I was there I did find one of the most amazing, unique and distinctive churches that I’ve ever seen...and by now I have seen A LOT of churches.

It is known in english as Hallgrim's Church and was named after the Rev. Hallgrimur Petursson (1614-1674), one of Iceland's most beloved poets. State Architect Gudjon Samuelsson (1887-1950) was commissioned to design the church in 1937 and also designed many buildings throughout the country. His goal was to create a style of national architecture in the same manner as his contemporaries in other Nordic countries, using motifs and materials from the Icelandic landscape with (volcanic) basalt columns playing a prominent role. The design of Hallgrims Church, his final and greatest achievement, is apparently reminiscent of the rugged mountains and icecaps which dominate Iceland's landscapes. It certainly is a beautiful church which like Iceland itself, is unique in the world and which to me makes it all that more special.

I did want to spend more time in Reykjavik, but that would have to come later as I was heading north to a place called Akureyi, Iceland’s second biggest town. On the plane there I talked with a friendly young guy named Orn. He told me about himself and about Iceland and was able to give me a better picture of what it's really like to live there. I asked about the long dark winter (its tough to get through), the reputation for drinking (he thinks people are generally shy and use alcohol to have a good time...sounds like a typical night out for a lot of people in Sydney or London as far as I know) and of course Björk (she’s just another person who lives in Reykyavik and is not treated any differently). Orn was also nice enough to convince his Mum to give me a lift from the airport to the centre of Akureyi. My gratitude quickly turned into relief as the centre was about 2km from the airport, not a few hundred metres as I was expecting.

Akureyi is a fairly small modern town on the north coast that is also neat and pretty. It’s situated on Icelands largest fjord and is also a harbour town. A lot of the houses are colourful and have a neat and cutish nordic design.

I stayed in a guesthouse for my first night there and it has been the only time during my travels that I have stayed in a place where the people you have to pay and ask questions of didn’t speak any english. This isn’t typical of Iceland (or northern europe for that matter) as english is pretty common, particularly if you're speaking to someone under the age of 30. So it was fun to sort out where I was staying as we were both throwing our hands around, drawing maps and writing down prices. We got there eventually and agreed on where I was staying and how much it would cost. I thanked her (takk) and said goodbye (blessed - pronounced like bleshd). Her husband then drove me to a small apartment building nearby and showed me my room.

For the rest of the day I walked around the town being a tourist, but I also found a good supermarket and discovered in a mobile phone shop that Neighbours (an Australian soap opera) was playing on Icelandic TV!!! Now that was a bit of a shock for me, but what was even more shocking was to find out that it has been on Icelandic TV since the show started back in the days when Kylie Minogue was a mechanic named Charlene!. Surprisingly though (well surprising only for other Australians maybe), Neighbours, Home and Away, McClouds Daughters and The Crocodile Hunter are pretty much everywhere in northern Europe, so we can't really blame people outside of Australia for thinking that Alf Stewart and Steve Irwin are/were typical 'bloody Australians' ; )

Later that evening I went for a swim at the local hot pool. Now of course this was my first time in any sort of pool in northern Europe and although it might sound strange, I was actually a bit nervous. You see, I’ve got dark shaggy hair on my head and a bit of body hair and to be honest, I was expecting to stand out like a gorilla in a milkshake......

To be continued : )

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