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Smoking Crow posted:Why are all the sagas in Icelandic? By sagas, are you referring specifically to the Icelandic family and historical sagas, or to Norse mythology and literature works like the Eddas? The family and historical sagas are just sort of an Icelandic thing, they largely detail genealogies and family histories, feuds, etc. Mostly kinda dry stuff, honestly, if you're familiar with parts of the Bible's Old Testament, they're similar to the genealogy sections there in some ways but with Nordic flavor. Dad and mom had a son who killed a guy*, then there was a blood feud between the two families which was resolved when the son paid a fair price of twenty head of cattle to the family of the man he'd killed. Then the son got hitched and had three more kids, and they went to the Allthing and there was politics, etc. Genealogy, history, little bit of politics, and blood feuds. Loooooots of blood feuds. Anyway, those sagas are written in Icelandic simply because it's a uniquely Icelandic medieval literature tradition. If you're asking about why many of our source texts for Viking/Old Norse literature and mythology are in Icelandic, that's for two reasons that I know of. One was a (Christian, notably) Icelander named Snorri Sturlurson who compiled a bunch of Old Norse skaldic poetry (most of which was handed down orally previously) into what's called the Prose (or Younger, or Snorri's) Edda. His intention was to teach readers how to understand the complex structure and idioms (kennings) used in skaldic poetry. The Edda compilation contains a ton of Norse creation and religious mythology, but Snorri edits it to make clear that he's a Christian and even though he's recording pagan mythology the focus is on the art form and not the religious content. The second is for whatever reason, more manuscripts survived in Iceland than elsewhere. The modern Icelandic language has changed relatively little from Old Icelandic, so it's very similar to the various dialects of Old Norse that Viking-age literature is written in. So it's not really that Norse mythology was specifically written down in Icelandic, it's simply that more important texts survived there than elsewhere in the Old Norse speaking world. I remember distinctly one of the saga manuscripts we got to handle was massive and bound with wooden boards, it had actually been used as a cutting board by whatever family it belonged to for many years (you could see the knife marks). *in medieval Icelandic society, if you killed someone "honorably" all you had to do was pay appropriate restitution to the family and everything was chill. By honorable, it meant you killed him openly and not in cold blood and then walked around the village proclaiming you were responsible and were going to make your amends. If you were sneaky about it or didn't tell everyone you killed the guy, then you were a murderer! This is pretty central to the plot of probably the most famous of the sagas, The Saga of Burnt (Burning) Njal.
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Jul 3, 2013 18:04
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Right of veto; he can deny signing legislation into law, forcing a national referendum. Before our current president, this had never been used and honestly it's a bit dubious if he should have. And he decides who gets the right to form government. Thanks, but I meant more privileges than powers. I was curious because you mentioned reaching the Mayor on Facebook. Is the President just a regular guy there? Does he get paid much? Does he have an official residence, or that sort of thing?
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Jul 4, 2013 20:45
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LittleBob posted:Thanks, but I meant more privileges than powers. I was curious because you mentioned reaching the Mayor on Facebook. He ain't a regular guy, partly because he wants to be "special" but mostly because no-one really likes him as a dude, if they like him at all. That tends to happen when you don't stick to a side in politics and play populist; while he may now be beloved of the Right they aren't exactly extending him party invitations. Never seen him out on the life either.
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Jul 5, 2013 00:02
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Is Jon Gnarr the best or the very best mayor in human history? I don't mean politically since I know he's been kind of a mediocre mayor from a political perspective but as a person.
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Jul 5, 2013 03:25
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Deceitful Penguin posted:He gets just over a Million ISK a month last I checked (Roughly 10K USD a month), he gets to live at a cool crib in Bessastaðir, in the pleasant sub-urb of my town Álftanes and has his own personal driver and cars. This website is like terrible 90s bad. It looks like a Hong Kong government website. I thought you people were supposed to be good at Internet.
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Jul 5, 2013 04:04
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WAFFLEHOUND posted:Is Jon Gnarr the best or the very best mayor in human history? I don't mean politically since I know he's been kind of a mediocre mayor from a political perspective but as a person. Bloodnose posted:This website is like terrible 90s bad. It looks like a Hong Kong government website. I thought you people were supposed to be good at Internet.
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Jul 5, 2013 04:59
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Wow cool thread, can you post more pictures? Of everyday life and food? If I want to fly to Iceland, is London the best/easiest hub?
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Jul 17, 2013 09:12
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How do you feel about Sigur Ros, OP?
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Jul 25, 2013 01:33
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Ah poo poo, I keep forgetting this thread. Really should start using bookmarks.caberham posted:Wow cool thread, can you post more pictures? Of everyday life and food? If I want to fly to Iceland, is London the best/easiest hub? http://imgur.com/a/GnwJY#9 Everyday life pics huh. I guess I could scratch up some pics but I'm coming up fairly dry on life pics. Here's traditional Icelandic food:  Ascetic Crow posted:How do you feel about Sigur Ros, OP?
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Jul 25, 2013 18:24
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If you're sharing pictures, you should show off your home. I assume it's some sort of upturned longboat?
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Jul 26, 2013 03:04
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I was just about to make a "Tell me about studying in Iceland" thread in the Tourism and Travel board when I saw this! I'm planning on going on an exchange to the University of Iceland at the start of next year so there are a few things I'd love to know, if you (or anyone else!) can answer them for me that would be great. What is public transport like? I'm a loser and haven't got my license yet, so driving around will be out of the question for me. That hasn't really been a problem here since I live within walking distance of campus. What is Reykjavik like in this regard, are most things within walking distance? Speaking of which, what is flatting like there? Is it very expensive? I'm not too keen on going into an international dorm of any sort since I don't want to be one of those exchange students who only sticks with the people from my country and doesn't interact with the locals much. I see that happen far too often here (especially with Americans, they tend to come over in pre-arranged hordes) and I'd like to meet a variety of people while I'm over there. What's the best way to meet people outside uni? Also, I've gathered that alcohol is quite expensive over there. Despite the notorious drinking culture in my country I'm only really a social drinker, and won't mind too much to go without. But I am curious how much it costs for a cheap bottle of vodka.
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Jul 26, 2013 14:19
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I found a tumblr for you caberham, which is about all the average things in Iceland! http://averageiceland.tumblr.com/ This looks like it has a bunch of normal things in it, so that's nice! Bloodnose posted:If you're sharing pictures, you should show off your home. I assume it's some sort of upturned longboat?  Have my neighbours house, which is apparently an architectural marvel as they, I kid you not, sometimes bus in architects or whatever to look at this loving thing.  And my cat before we put him on a diet:  Also funny to see your pic in the cartoon thread; especially for a goon you were very presentable. Laverna posted:I was just about to make a "Tell me about studying in Iceland" thread in the Tourism and Travel board when I saw this! Laverna posted:What is public transport like? I'm a loser and haven't got my license yet, so driving around will be out of the question for me. That hasn't really been a problem here since I live within walking distance of campus. What is Reykjavik like in this regard, are most things within walking distance? Laverna posted:Speaking of which, what is flatting like there? Is it very expensive? I'm not too keen on going into an international dorm of any sort since I don't want to be one of those exchange students who only sticks with the people from my country and doesn't interact with the locals much. I see that happen far too often here (especially with Americans, they tend to come over in pre-arranged hordes) and I'd like to meet a variety of people while I'm over there. What's the best way to meet people outside uni? To meet people outside of Uni is to find something to get involved with or go out drinking and be gregarious. Concerts, political things, art stuff, the local bar, all offer chances of social interaction but the onus is far more often on you to initiate the social encounter, as most Icelanders aren't as sociable as I am. You could try hanging with goons but honestly I can't vouch for any of the others, Freudian seems ok but Rulesbook is a dick. The others are pretty quiet, so ehh. I could take ya out but unless you enjoy political activism or nerd poo poo you might be bored. Drinking is, of course, always an option. Laverna posted:Also, I've gathered that alcohol is quite expensive over there. Despite the notorious drinking culture in my country I'm only really a social drinker, and won't mind too much to go without. But I am curious how much it costs for a cheap bottle of vodka. That said, the absolute cheapest half litre bottle of vodka you could find would still run you up around 34 bucks. Beer is a bit cheaper but mostly you just suffer the prices with stoic silence, or loud complaints about government monopolies.
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Jul 26, 2013 22:32
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Where you from btw? Icelanders in general drink pretty much like most of the harder European nations; the Polish, Lithuanian or Latvian peeps I've gotten hammered with were mildly impressed by the Icelandic appetite for vodka. Do you the Christmas beer thing like they do in Denmark? For the month of December all the local breweries (Carlsberg, Tuborg, etc) roll out their special Christmas beer, which is just like their regular beer except with around twice the alcohol content 
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Jul 27, 2013 02:20
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What are your favorite waterfalls? I fell in love with Aldeyrfoss when I visited, although standing near the top of Glymur was pretty amazing as well.
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Jul 27, 2013 10:40
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quote:To meet people outside of Uni is to find something to get involved with or go out drinking and be gregarious. Concerts, political things, art stuff, the local bar, all offer chances of social interaction but the onus is far more often on you to initiate the social encounter, as most Icelanders aren't as sociable as I am. You could try hanging with goons but honestly I can't vouch for any of the others, Freudian seems ok but Rulesbook is a dick. The others are pretty quiet, so ehh. I could take ya out but unless you enjoy political activism or nerd poo poo you might be bored. Drinking is, of course, always an option. I'm from New Zealand.  I'm not too social myself, so I'm pretty terrified of going the whole time without making any friends at all (I sound paranoid, but it has happened before. To be fair I was 11, but I still count it). I'm hoping to get involved in some things and join some clubs or whatever though! Gigs and art galleries are the sorts of things I get dragged along to. Whenever I try and think about what kind of social things I actually do I'm stumped. Probably just drinking with friends. Maybe I should get into some more nerdy kind of stuff. I had a blast playing Dungeons and Dragons for the first time with some friends recently! (Or a beginners variation of it. I quite like board games and improvisation and such. Is there much in the way of improvisational theatre there?) quote:Renting, you mean? Uhhh, let's see, one of the cheaper apartments I know about has 4 people renting, throwing together 250 quid a head? (That's, uh, 415 bucks) I dunno how expensive that is compared to where you at but renting here is fairly expensive? The dorm is a pretty legit choice, if you can get in; poo poo is central as gently caress, in walking distance from most of the city worth visiting. Hmm, that sounds a bit too expensive for me. (Unless your price is per month, in which case that's not too bad.) I pay about NZ$130 a week for my flat and that's decent. I guess I can try to get into the dorm if the opportunity arises but it doesn't sound like that's a guaranteed thing. What kind of accommodation do the locals and the exchange students who don't make it into the dorm use? Do they usually go flatting or living with parents/host family? What is food like? You said it's quite expensive to eat out, which sucks for me since I haven't really gotten the hang of just cooking for myself yet. And local food? I don't mean things like cows head and sharks, I mean stuff like a national fizzy drink or lollies or snacks. I just love exploring the supermarkets in different countries and seeing all the cool and interesting food and products. Any nordic stuff would probably be pretty new to me, since I've never really gone any further north than Germany. I'm pretty excited to go to IKEA again! We don't have one here and I just find it so cool!
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Jul 27, 2013 11:22
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 1) Is this your Parliament? If so, it's adorable! Why don't they have any desks or anything? 2) What are the collar things?
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Jul 27, 2013 14:42
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Exclamation Marx posted:
That looks a bit more like a church. The collars seems to be this kind of clerical collars.
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Jul 27, 2013 15:27
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This is more accurate.  A lot of parliamentarians don't show up unless there is some sort of big issue being discussed since they can just watch whatever is going on on the Alþingi tv channel. Deceitful Penguin posted:Freudian seems ok FreudianSlippers fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Jul 29, 2013 |
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Jul 29, 2013 02:21
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Pellisworth posted:Do you the Christmas beer thing like they do in Denmark? For the month of December all the local breweries (Carlsberg, Tuborg, etc) roll out their special Christmas beer, which is just like their regular beer except with around twice the alcohol content MothraAttack posted:What are your favorite waterfalls? I fell in love with Aldeyrfoss when I visited, although standing near the top of Glymur was pretty amazing as well.  (My cousin is visiting our grandmother right now and seeing as he's studying photography..) Laverna posted:I'm from New Zealand. Laverna posted:I'm not too social myself, so I'm pretty terrified of going the whole time without making any friends at all (I sound paranoid, but it has happened before. To be fair I was 11, but I still count it). I'm hoping to get involved in some things and join some clubs or whatever though! Laverna posted:Hmm, that sounds a bit too expensive for me. (Unless your price is per month, in which case that's not too bad.) I pay about NZ$130 a week for my flat and that's decent. I guess I can try to get into the dorm if the opportunity arises but it doesn't sound like that's a guaranteed thing. What kind of accommodation do the locals and the exchange students who don't make it into the dorm use? Do they usually go flatting or living with parents/host family? Laverna posted:What is food like? You said it's quite expensive to eat out, which sucks for me since I haven't really gotten the hang of just cooking for myself yet. Exclamation Marx posted:
FreudianSlippers posted:This is more accurate. FreudianSlippers posted:This is my only goal in life. Every waking hour, every ounce of energy, every thought and each breath is put towards seemingly being "ok".
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Jul 29, 2013 13:15
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Deceitful Penguin posted:
quote:Ah, a Kiwi. Known a fair bit of those, just expect some people to ask you if you've been to where they shot the LOTR movies and how Icelandic mutton compares a lot. I'll be sure to ask them about Game of Thrones in return. Think they're still going to be filming that there in 2014? quote:No, that's per month, although finding an apartment can be a bit of a hassle. Almost all of the exchange students I knew were at the dorms, with only the younger ones back in high school having host parents. Renting wouldn't be impossible but you'd probs need some assistance or roomies to make it possible. The dorms are really your best bet. I'll probably see if the uni helps with finding accommodation. If I can find a decent flat then that would be a great. But the dorms definitely sound like they have their pros too. It's a shame you guys don't have google street view though! quote:There are, what, 3 different candy companies and 2 soda bottling ones? There is a lot of that stuff, but the only one I really miss is the pineapple/mango soda. Icelanders take their foreign food seriously too, so there's plenty of variety considering how small it is. Hell, I still miss the great Thai noodles I got back home. There's decent variety and most of the food is good. quote:Let the record state that FreudianSlippers is a holder of the right opinions in Politics, a good taste in avatars and in video-games. I just don't know him or his character personally, so I'd be leery of pushing any Kiwis on him, as kiwis are a fuzzy burden to bear. That said he is undoubtedly a man of honour and humility who would be happy to take you out drinking, ne? Although, that's what I'm doing right now even though I have a bottle of wine within sight of me... For shame, me.
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Jul 29, 2013 23:35
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Laverna posted:That is an adorable dog! Laverna posted:Thanks for the heads up! I'll make sure I visit lots of LOTR spots and eat as much mutton as I can before I leave. Laverna posted:Ah, that's good! I'm so used to the rent-per-week thing. Laverna posted:How is the price of sushi? I know that in continental Europe it's insanely expensive. Here it's not cheap, but compared to over there it's cheap as chips. I love sushi and I always cry a little inside when I see one piece of nigiri for 4CHF. Uhh, lets see, 6 pieces of the stuff we got recommended from the embassy is 935 isk. That is 9.79 of your New Zealand Earth Dollars. It's probs cheaper in those prepared ones. I don't eat Japanese food unless its fried, personally, so this ain't my expertise, as they say. Laverna posted:I have decided to do A Smart Thing and start saving up a fund now specifically for going out drinking! No more will future me be doomed to be the person who sits alone in my flat/dorm typing on forums instead of out drinking.
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Jul 30, 2013 11:49
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Deceitful Penguin posted:This is wise. Everyone likes a man that brings the vodka.  They won't like me then. Are there any courses (in English) at the University of Iceland that you'd recommend? Having done them or having heard of them, or even just ones with supposedly great lecturers? What are the entertainment options for students? Cinema? Theatre? Or how about things on more of a student budget? Museums and touristy things are all nice and good, but what kind of things would you recommend for someone who's going to be there a few months rather than a few days? (Although I guess I don't get out that much, so I could probably stretch the museums out for a whole semester. I love museums!) Any nice cafes? I don't really drink coffee (my wallet is grateful) but I like to sit around in cafes and restaurants sometimes. TV channels! What are they like? I haven't watched any since our tv system upgraded and my tv became useless but I do like exploring the channels in other countries.  How many are there and are any in english?Thinking of questions to ask I've realised that the things that are important to me are so small... I'm sure there are more important things I should be asking about a country I've never been to. Are there going to be any cool festival events or public holidays between January and June?
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Aug 3, 2013 14:11
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Laverna posted:
Laverna posted:Are there any courses (in English) at the University of Iceland that you'd recommend? Having done them or having heard of them, or even just ones with supposedly great lecturers?  What, exactly, are you coming here to study? At most, a UG is able to take on 40 units, with the max possible being 8 or so 5 unit courses. My education has been in the humanities and in social sciences, with my specific department having been Philosophy, East Asian Studies and Japanese in the humanities and Anthropology in the Social sciences. I can recommend you a fair few classes in those departments but especially as an exchange student you are somewhat constrained in what classes you can pick. In the humanities, most classes were in Icelandic unless someone wasn't fluent in it, in which case it was taught in English. Almost all the primary reading was in English or available in English; while in the Social Sciences classes on the UG level were mostly in Icelandic with English material being studied. It all depends on what you are going to be doing here, however. Laverna posted:What are the entertainment options for students? Cinema? Theatre? Or to be specific; all major American films are shown here pretty much at the same time as in the States, with some major Scandinavian films as well with a OK independent film scene thanks to the Bió Paradís Cinema. There are several theatres, with the two largest both being in Reykjavík and both have fairly varied and good shows. None of this is that expensive and you can, as ever, just do the Icelandic thing and Torrent things. There are also frequent shows in the University. The Confucian institute shows cool Chinese films all the time and the Japanese students are sometimes on the ball enough to show some Japanese movies. Laverna posted:Museums and touristy things are all nice and good, but what kind of things would you recommend for someone who's going to be there a few months rather than a few days? (Although I guess I don't get out that much, so I could probably stretch the museums out for a whole semester. I love museums!) Laverna posted:Any nice cafes? I don't really drink coffee (my wallet is grateful) but I like to sit around in cafes and restaurants sometimes. Laverna posted:TV channels! What are they like? I haven't watched any since our tv system upgraded and my tv became useless but I do like exploring the channels in other countries. None of them are in English, but all the programs retain their original language with subtitles, because unlike some other countries we can read and watch TV at the same time. Laverna posted:Thinking of questions to ask I've realised that the things that are important to me are so small... I'm sure there are more important things I should be asking about a country I've never been to. Laverna posted:Are there going to be any cool festival events or public holidays between January and June?
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Aug 4, 2013 00:53
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I've just booked a plane to Iceland, for a couple of reasons, one being this thread,, the other being that having lived in New Zealand for five years, I'm really hosed off with long flights, and would rather break it up where I could. I'm flying in from New York on 4th September and planning on staying for a week or so before going to the Faeroe islands. What should I do in Iceland for a week? I could do with a break from pubs and that. I don't speak a word of the language either, is this something I can get away with, or should I have a go at it (I will anyway, there is nothing that annoys me more than someone overseas not having a go at the language). Do I need local currency( i assume so). Thanks.
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Aug 8, 2013 04:34
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You should really go back and read what the OP wrote when I asked about what to do in Iceland. I pretty much followed the itinerary he suggested exactly along with a few more local tours, and I had a great time. You can definitely get away with just speaking English. You do need local currency, and you can only get it in Iceland, so just exchange your money at the airport.
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Aug 8, 2013 11:50
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Deceitful Penguin, I am visiting Reykjavik between Christmas and New Year by myself. Will you take me out drinking in your fine country? 
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Aug 10, 2013 08:45
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GiantAmazonianOtter posted:Deceitful Penguin, I am visiting Reykjavik between Christmas and New Year by myself. Will you take me out drinking in your fine country? Aw, if only it were a few days later I could have also joined you! Deceitful Penguin posted:
Ah, sorry! I'm a humanities student but I'll hopefully just have interest papers left to do at that point. Well, what I mean by "hopefully" is that the University of Iceland doesn't cater to my major, so if I fail any of my papers this semester then I won't be able to go. (Or.... will have to do an extra semester!) I don't know any Icelandic and if my attempt to learn French last year was anything to go by then I'm not so great at learning languages. :P Especially not well enough to study in, so I think I'll have to stick to English only courses. I've heard that Iceland is a pretty safe place crime-wise, but I'd still like to hear what your opinion is on how safe it is for a woman to walk around alone at night in Reykjavik. I've never had any problems here but it's always something that people seem to bring up when talking about other countries.
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Aug 10, 2013 12:34
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Gambrinus posted:I've just booked a plane to Iceland, for a couple of reasons, one being this thread,, the other being that having lived in New Zealand for five years, I'm really hosed off with long flights, and would rather break it up where I could. Slight modifications are required: The weather is probably worse so no going to the beach but on the other hand I might be around to give a ride to IKEA. When the date draws nearer I'll also be around to see if there are any good cultural gigs or concerts going on, if you're into that kind of thing. Just tell me what you like and I'll look for it. As for English, everyone speaks it and if you want to have a go at Icelandic, haha, well be my guest. Some people really have a knack for it. And yea you need ISK, go to the EvE online thread and ask them to lend you some of theirs. (They are not the same ISK :shh: ) CupcakePrincess posted:You should really go back and read what the OP wrote when I asked about what to do in Iceland. I pretty much followed the itinerary he suggested exactly along with a few more local tours, and I had a great time. GiantAmazonianOtter posted:Deceitful Penguin, I am visiting Reykjavik between Christmas and New Year by myself. Will you take me out drinking in your fine country? Laverna posted:Aw, if only it were a few days later I could have also joined you! Laverna posted:Ah, sorry! I'm a humanities student but I'll hopefully just have interest papers left to do at that point. Well, what I mean by "hopefully" is that the University of Iceland doesn't cater to my major, so if I fail any of my papers this semester then I won't be able to go. (Or.... will have to do an extra semester!) Laverna posted:I don't know any Icelandic and if my attempt to learn French last year was anything to go by then I'm not so great at learning languages. :P Especially not well enough to study in, so I think I'll have to stick to English only courses. Laverna posted:I've heard that Iceland is a pretty safe place crime-wise, but I'd still like to hear what your opinion is on how safe it is for a woman to walk around alone at night in Reykjavik. I've never had any problems here but it's always something that people seem to bring up when talking about other countries.
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Aug 10, 2013 14:51
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It is also worth reminding you that "a woman walking around alone at night" in Reykjavík is a lot more flexible of a concept than other places. I remember my then-girlfriend and I volunteered to escort these two female friends of ours to the club and back if they liked, but upon realizing that it was going to be light outside when they arrived at and left the club, it suddenly seemed less necessary. Similarly I imagine that you have lunch in pitch blackness in December. Oh, but Iceland really does seem like the safest place I have ever been. All the other places that seem to me to be safe from human-driven problems like crime generally suffer from the "but this is the wilderness so there could be bears or coyotes or something" problem, whereas Iceland is just that awesome.
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Aug 10, 2013 17:20
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Yes. It is a dark and lonely time to go alone and while there's lots of family matters to attend to at that time I will try my best to free an evening or two to go out drinking with you. Well I'm also from New Zealand and live in London so I'm never really around family anyway. I travel a lot by myself but it's awesome to have a local to do some partying with. What's your email address and I'll drop you a line closer to the time?
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Aug 10, 2013 18:15
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Quarex posted:It is also worth reminding you that "a woman walking around alone at night" in Reykjavík is a lot more flexible of a concept than other places. I remember my then-girlfriend and I volunteered to escort these two female friends of ours to the club and back if they liked, but upon realizing that it was going to be light outside when they arrived at and left the club, it suddenly seemed less necessary. Similarly I imagine that you have lunch in pitch blackness in December. GiantAmazonianOtter posted:Well I'm also from New Zealand and live in London so I'm never really around family anyway. I travel a lot by myself but it's awesome to have a local to do some partying with. What's your email address and I'll drop you a line closer to the time?
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Aug 10, 2013 19:50
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Icelandic, once you get it, is quite simple. It's just that getting it is a process that for many takes many years of effort and even then you'll probably never lose the accent. "Icelandic is very easy after you spend years upon years studying it, and after that you'll still sound like a foreigner." I wouldn't listen to Deceitful Penguin though. It's really hard for native speakers to judge how difficult their own language is, and there's a huge bias toward everyone on the planet considering their own language the hardest in the world. On the other hand, the effort that is required to learn any language might not be worth exerting for Icelandic because you can fit all the native speakers of the language into a good sized stadium.
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Aug 12, 2013 02:43
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Bloodnose posted:"Icelandic is very easy after you spend years upon years studying it, and after that you'll still sound like a foreigner."  Bloodnose posted:I wouldn't listen to Deceitful Penguin though. It's really hard for native speakers to judge how difficult their own language is, and there's a huge bias toward everyone on the planet considering their own language the hardest in the world. But really, unless you intend to live in Iceland, don't try to learn much Icelandic. Everyone speaks English anyway.
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Aug 12, 2013 10:04
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Everyone speaks English anyway. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Language_Learning_Difficulty_for_English_Speakers Icelandic is ranked as a medium-difficulty language here, requiring about 1100 hours of class in order to reach a "professional proficiency" level.
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Aug 13, 2013 09:32
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Deceitful Penguin posted:It's wonderful to hear you had a great time! Do you want to tell us the highlights? I know a bit about it but I'd really like to hear more. Yup our trip was great! We were there for six days. Here are the highlights:   Horse riding on dinky horses!  Stop 1 on the Golden Circle, Thingvellir. The tour was kinda poo poo and we hurried past without seeing much, though the dreary weather probably didn't help things.   The second stop, Gulfoss, was definitely worth it though. They don't make waterfalls like that where we're from! And the sun was starting to come out, which was a pretty big deal as the locals constantly reminded us.  Final stop was Geysir, or what's left of it since it doesn't erupt. The other geyser right next to it happily obliged though.  On the way back to the city after the Golden Circle tour, the guide said we had enough time to stop at this other waterfall. I have no idea what it's called and it sure seems to be a minor place in Icelandic eyes but I found it breathtaking. The locals seem pretty desensitized to this stuff haha.  We took a walk on a glacier. It's shockingly big in person, but it's even more shocking how much of it is now gone - all that puddly space in the background used to be ice 20 years ago, we were told.  Right next to it is that infamous flight-stopping volcano.   Esja was amazing! And we definitely would not have found it without OP's help. I don't think it's widely known outside Iceland, which is probably intentional because the place is crawling with local hikers.  Reykjavik itself. I think that's Esja in the background?  Hallgrimskirkja, which is either an architectural masterpiece or a dinky excuse for a "tallest building in the city", depending on my mood  The obligatory hot dog! OP, you wouldn't happen to know who came up with the idea of putting fried onions on it would you? He or she deserves a medal.   The Icelandic handball team, as immortalized in the dick museum. There's lots more where this came from but I think that's enough for one post. Everyone should go to Iceland if they can!
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Aug 13, 2013 16:37
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I couldn't post pictures because I don't have Platinum, so I had breathstealer do it for me We also went whale and puffin watching - we saw the fins of maybe 2 dolphins and 1 mink whale for a second, and we didn't get as close as I would have liked to the puffins. Overall, it's not really something I would recommend people do, simply because there are so many cooler things you can do in Iceland (as can be seen in the above post).We cooked a lot in our hotel room, because we couldn't afford going out every meal. It's really crazy how self-sufficient Iceland is - most of the meat is local, and a surprising amount of vegetables is also local and grown in greenhouses. If anyone wants a good and relatively cheap meal, go to Kopar by the sea. Apparently, the owner moved from some other area in Iceland to Reykjavik, and he doesn't know he could get away with charging people more for his food yet! Iceland is one of the friendliest and safest places I've ever been to. The 24-hour daytime thing probably helped a lot. Everyone should go to Iceland, spend an afternoon in a cafe and play Scrabble with Icelandic alphabet tiles!
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Aug 13, 2013 16:55
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Finally mostly over the jet-lag. One day man will invent a type of travel that won't either take days of travel or make me feel like I left my soul in the other country.hitension posted:This probably goes further towards explaining why nobody learned Icelandic. I can't speak for everyone but the odds that I will learn a language are directly correlated with the odds that I will meet a monolingual speaker of that language. breathstealer posted:Yup our trip was great! We were there for six days. Here are the highlights:  And it's a shame the weather was bad for the first part, but the Golden Circle things can often be a bit mixed. Don't recognize the waterfall but then again I'm rather bad at names. And yea, Icelanders are a bit inured to natural beauty, but that just means we're impressed by different things: I remember the first time I saw a forest or a mountain with trees on it.And great you found Esja cool, which is indeed the mountain you can see from Reykjavík. Far better than Hallgrímskirkja, but it's a useful landmark. I asked around but no-one knew about fried onions, so it was probably someone foreign. My little brother loved those things so much he would buy a pack of them and eat them as snacks, leaving me angry when he ate mine too and my hot-dogs with only raw onions. CupcakePrincess posted:I couldn't post pictures because I don't have Platinum, so I had breathstealer do it for me And I hope more people come to Iceland, including hopefully you two. I'll try to be around this time. 
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Aug 15, 2013 12:34
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I want to come to Iceland, but it's a bit too far from Hong Kong for a weekend trip  Awesome pictures by the way, can you tell me more about this muscian - Ólafur Arnalds ? I just know he's Icelandic and playing in Hong Kong. Is the music going to sound like EVE online  http://www.ticketflap.com/en/events/100/
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Sep 2, 2013 03:49
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Don't recognize the waterfall but then again I'm rather bad at names. Faxi í Tungufljóti caberham posted:Is the music going to sound like EVE online
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Sep 2, 2013 17:59
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I'm going to Iceland in early November with my SO! Do you have any Icelandic literature and poetry to recommend that hasn't been translated into English? I really fell in love with the stuff and tried to learn to read Icelandic a few years back. (Went ok but then I got distracted by life.) Unfortunately I was limited to what has been translated into English because you can't get reasonably priced books in Icelandic in Texas, apparently. Not that I've found. My Icelandic reading materials were newspapers and some fairy tales I found online. So I was going to bring back some Laxness, but wanted to know if there are any other classics or good modern novels you'd recommend? Are elves actually a big deal or is it exaggerated for tourists? And what's the tradition behind cairns?
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Sep 2, 2013 20:50
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