Reykjavik Free City Walking Tour with Eric


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Europe » Iceland » Southwest » Reykjavík
March 30th 2015
Published: April 2nd 2015
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I arrive at Austurvollur, a little park area complete with wooden benches and presided over by a large statue, to find the very friendly and welcoming Eric who is to be our guide on the walking tour. Eric is a history graduate who is happy to pass on his passion for his country's history to visitors from around the world. In our group I'm the only one from England (I'm always surprised how well known Norwich is world wide forgetting the football factor!), there's a few from Scotland, a girl from Slovenia, a Newzealander and a lady from Bulgaria, but who has been living in Reykjavik for over a year (she'd not had time to look around properly so busy was she with work!). The rest of the group are Americans.

It turns out we are standing in 'protest square' outside the tiny parliament, a grey building with carved reliefs of a dragon, an eagle, a giant and a bull to provide protection - perhaps from all the protesting. With the collapse of the banks 7 years ago the people of Iceland weren't happy that their politicians were set on bankrupting the country in order to pay back the world's investors who had lost their thousands in savings. They marched to the square and the so called 'household revolution' began. No weapons, no fighting, just a huge banging of pots and pans. Eventually all the protesting worked. The elections were brought forward 2 years and the socialist party voted in. Unlike in the rest of the world, here the bankers were tried and actually sent to prison for five years. The president was also charged, on over 20 counts, but only one was proven. Even so he managed to wriggle his way out of a jail term and is now living in the US as Ambassador to Iceland. Eric shows us an interpretation panel showing how in the early days of Reykjavik, the ruling Danes took the biggest and best houses in the centre of town while the Icelanders had to make do with tiny shacks made from rocks. And what about the statue? Well it turns out he was a bit of a protester himself. John the President, who wasn't ever the actual president, that's just a nickname (his real name was Jon Sigurdson) was instrumental in pushing for independence for Iceland in 1850. He is therefore seen as a bit of a local hero despite a slightly chequered past. Sadly John the President never got to see independence for Iceland in his lifetime. That didn't come until much later in 1944 when Iceland took advantage of the Danes, their overlords, being slightly preoccupied by a little war in Europe! He is still remembered today though as one of Iceland's public holidays is on June 17th, John the President's birthday.

We move to a little area on a street off the main square and Eric explains this used to be Reykjavik's main cemetery. It's basically the size of a small garden! Thankfully all but 5 graves were moved to a much larger cemetery out of town. Presiding over the 'cemetery' is a large statue of High Sheriff Skuli Magnusson,'the maker of Reykjavik'. He improved the fishing fleet and made it a year round industry. He also improved the woollen and weaving industries. People started flocking to Reykjavik and its promise of year round employment from all over Iceland where winters were very hard. And so Reykjavik began to expand and become the main settlement of the country.

Eric now flips over another of his info boards and explains some of the oddities of the Icelandic language. There are 17 vowels! There is also a sentence about a man who lives in A who owns a sheep etc and is basically a string of a A a a with different accents on! We also find out how to pronounce the odd looking d with a horizontal line through 'th' as in 'the'. Takk is thank you, but usually this is followed by a few more qualifying words that change depending on the situation. Therefore Takk on its own sounds a bit weird to Icelanders so it's better to say Takk Takk as a compromise.

As we carry on with our walk we move to an area where we are surrounded by the typically Icelandic colourful, corrugated iron clad houses. I ask if they have any special planning conditions or protection and it seems they have similar status to our grade 2 listed building status in the UK. We are standing in another little park now. There's a large rock in the corner and Eric tells us, with a smile on his face, not to touch it as the elves might get angry! Apparently up to 50% of people in Iceland believe in elves although this is mostly amongst the older generation and a lot of it is more like wishful thinking. Recently road builders had to move a similar big rock that was in the way of the planned route, but it broke in two. Some people were so worried this might be the start of angry elves getting revenge and creating havoc on the new road that the help of an elf expert was sought and he seemingly was able to sufficiently pacify them. The guy was even interviewed on TV!

There have been a lot of changes in Iceland over recent years, for example the prohibition on beer was only lifted in 1989. March the 1st is celebrated as beer day. Eric showed us a special beer glove that had a beer can shaped holder knitted into the design. We also stop in front of a massive puffin - a stuffed toy version in a tourist shop that only sells puffins! Eric remembers the shop being a fishing equipment supply shop where he bought his first rod as a child. Since the financial crash, Iceland has seen a huge increase in tourism as people find it cheaper to stay now. Each year a million visitors come to the country on holiday outnumbering the locals three to one! Sadly tourists have helped keep up the tradition of eating puffins who are caught in the wild by expert rock climbers who have to abseil down cliff sides to get to the poor unsuspecting creatures! Whale is also on some menus. With tourists' desire to go whale watching you would think this practice would be way too controversial to openly carry out, but it seems not. Human beings being crap as usual!

We pass through a paved square, today being used by Reykjavik teenagers on skate boards. They've commandeered a bench and have put it at an angle down some steps and are doing a pretty good job of actually landing tricks sliding down it on the edge of their boards. In the square are two columns with steam rising out of the top. They are supposed to represent two wooden pillars first dedicated to the gods and then chucked in the sea by the Norwegian settler Ingolfur Arnarson in 874. Wherever they washed up on shore Ingolfur would settle. He called the place they were found Reykjavik or Smokey Bay as he'd seen steam rising as he entered the bay.

We walk up a hill to yet another statue, this time of the first settler Ingolfur Arnarson, defaced by revelers during the gay pride march - he now has his tackle showing and pink lipstick adorns his mouth! We find out that this is about as bad as criminal activity gets in Iceland. The police don't have a lot to do but are still very popular on their Facebook page where they have photos of them rescuing kittens and working out at the gym etc. There has never been an Icelandic army but there are coast guards who came into their own during the cod wars with the UK.

We pass through a deserted high school (Easter break). The students here are aged 16 to 20 and only have to pay $300 tuition fees with this rising to only $700 when they go to university. High taxes equals cheap education. How refreshing to see a country that feels it worthwhile to invest in their young people's education. We pass an old black building that's part of the school and find out this used to be the barn where they arrived on horse back. Eric shows us a photo of their yard completely packed with cars - the preferred method of arriving at school these days. The students have to leave their mobile number and class on a note in the window so that those blocked in can find the appropriate drivers to let them out!

We arrive at our last stop, the large lake I'd been to earlier in the day. I hadn't seen it before but there is a strange sculpture outside the ugly City Hall building of a suited, brief-case holding bottom half of a man and the top half is just an uncarved stone block and is supposed to represent the 'unknown bureaucrat. One very well-known (well in Iceland anyway) mayor of Reykjavik was comedian and actor Jon Gnarr. During his 5 years in office he was known for his outlandish antics and daft promises but he was really well liked.The Boris buffoon Johnson of Reykjavik it seems.

Free walking tour over (and tips given - well the guy has to eat!) I set off back to my hostel via the protest square we'd started from. I spot a huge rock split in two with a torch/beacon blazing out from the top of the crack. It's a sculpture called 'The Black Cone to Civil Disobedience' and has the inscription 'When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people, and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.'

Power to the people!


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