Ask me anything about Iceland, its history, culture, and modern politics

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me anything about Iceland, its history, culture, and modern politics

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Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

LittleBob posted:

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?

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 Bessasta�ir, in the pleasant sub-urb of my town �lftanes and has his own personal driver and cars. I don't really know him that well after he and my dad had a falling out over politics, but I see him on occasion when he's around and about. Sometimes I chat with his driver/bodyguard guy about things if I see him around. He's an ok guy. Bit right-wing though.

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.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2013 00:02

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 04:45

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

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.

You know very well what party he represents, so I'm going with Best. Did you notice what he linked on his "Happy 4th of July!" post on facebook? Hilarious.

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.

Well, English versions are universally worse but yeah, he's been in power long enough that when he started this whole "Internet" business was just a fad. I really doubt he's intelligent enough to really put any priority into updating his site more than he needs to.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2013 04:59

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

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?

Hmm. Everyday life and food? Are you sure you said that and not landscapes? poo poo, I should learn to read posts before digging for pics. Imma toss them up in an album rather than post individually then:
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?

You will not hear me say a bad word about them, as I am in no way racist against elves. They are a fine group of musicians and I often listened to their music when other people played it.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2013 18:24

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

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?

I try not to share too much personal info on the internet but I suppose it can't do too much harm? I, don't seem to have any on hand though and google street view doesn't work in Iceland. :shobon:

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!

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.

Ah, but how lucky you are this thread wasn't in one of its periods of dormancy. I'm not sure how this thread would have been without periodic assistance from the China thread.

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?

I'm going to resist pointing and laughing here, to tell you that the Bus system, our sole public transportation option is, OK. Not good, and at times fairly bad but for getting to and from Uni it's mostly OK and around Reykjav�k I'd say it's even almost good, as well as not that expensive for students. This depends on where you at though. If you are near the center; most of the cool poo poo is within easy walking distance. Bit further away, basic necessities and bus access are fairly close by. Further away, ehh.

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?

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.
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.

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.
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.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2013 22:32

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

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

Yes to the special beer, no to the double alcohol content. We do, however, import that beer from Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia.

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.

There's one in the east you can walk behind, as well as the one in ��rsm�rk after a bit of walk which is inside a cave. The one in �lafsfj�r�ur is great too, but that's mostly just good memories from having picnics there. I couldn't tell you their names as I am terrible at those, but I have a pic of the �lafsfjar�ar one:

(My cousin is visiting our grandmother right now and seeing as he's studying photography..)

Laverna posted:

I'm from New Zealand.

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.

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!

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?)

Through the Uni you can get into all sorts of nice starter poo poo and then we have the Nexus board for a lot of the nerdy things, for the cultural stuff you usually just have to keep an eye out (or have friended the right people on facebook so you get auto-invites to everything). Icelanders in general are fairly friendly though, so long as you're a bit pro-active.

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?

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.

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.
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!

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.

Exclamation Marx posted:

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?

It's been said, but that is them at church. It used to be tradition for parliamentarians to go to church at the start of parliament or some such rot; a bunch skip it nowadays because church is boring as poo poo and an archaic timewaster besides.

FreudianSlippers posted:

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 Al�ingi tv channel.

I used to joke that the site was for all the senators in prison but turns out its more for the dudes staying home hung over. Ah, Iceland.

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".

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?

# ¿ Jul 29, 2013 13:15

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Laverna posted:

That is an adorable dog!

She is M�a litla, after the red-haired moomin character.

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.
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?

It's not like they ever really leave the Wall, so maybe. I guess if you really wanna work on that bit more obscure NZ cred you could memorize BrainDead but honestly NZ is far enough off that those two things are the only things most peeps know about it.

Laverna posted:

Ah, that's good! I'm so used to the rent-per-week thing.
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!

Apparently the google car should be wandering about the streets any day now, as I got a bunch of posts on facebook a bit back about going out naked or leaving silly signs.

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.

Nori is vile. Onigiri is where it at, which is of course why you can find it practically nowhere.
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.
Although, that's what I'm doing right now even though I have a bottle of wine within sight of me... For shame, me.

This is wise. Everyone likes a man that brings the vodka.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2013 11:49

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Laverna posted:

They won't like me then.

Work hard, get mad dolla, buy a lot of the vodka.

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 how about things on more of a student budget?

Yes.

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 Bi� Parad�s Cinema. There are several theatres, with the two largest both being in Reykjav�k 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!)

Get a pool card. Icelandic pools are heated, with good saunas and hot tubs, which are one of the main social hubs of society. Get in shape and enjoy that most Icelandic of past-times. Finding a decent group to play with is also nice.

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.

Plenty. But I ain't no latt� sipping city-slicker, no sir. Eymundson is popular amongst some of my friends but there's plenty around in the capital.

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. How many are there and are any in english?

I barely watched TV at all back in the day and I do so even less now. As far as I remember there are at least 3, with some of the for-pay ones having a bunch of optional extras that you as an exchange student probably won't have. The main ones are St�� 1, the state TV station, St�� 2, the first private one and Skj�r 1, the formerly free one I never had.
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.

Money, maybe? Eh, don't worry too much, �etta reddast~

Laverna posted:

Are there going to be any cool festival events or public holidays between January and June?

There's �orri and Easter, as well as some childrens holidays. If you stay the whole of June you'll get independence day, but on the whole Iceland is sadly rather bereft of festivals and poo poo. I guess there's also Japan Fest in late January, with the Chinese festival a bit after.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2013 00:53

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

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.

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.

The posts CupcakePrincess mentions are this one and this one.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Laverna posted:

Aw, if only it were a few days later I could have also joined you!

Awww man, you'll miss the new year? drat, that poo poo is pretty cool. C'est la Vie I suppose.

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!)

When do you need to finish your lesson plan? If you want we can go through the curriculum at a decent time and check what might interest you, as I've had some experience wrangling that thing into a lesson plan to my liking. (I am taking classes from several inter-related disciplines right now but finding them was a hassle.)

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.

French is a right bastard though. 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. Don't worry about it though, English will do fine.

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.

It is probably in the top 5 of safest places to be, for whatever that's worth. I'm not a woman so I can only talk about what I've been told, which is that it is mostly completely safe, but all of my friends are out at pride at the moment so I can't ask them directly. This is the second year in a row I miss Pride. My friend is all alone with his Lederhosen...

# ¿ Aug 10, 2013 14:51

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Quarex posted:

It is also worth reminding you that "a woman walking around alone at night" in Reykjav�k 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.

Yeah, endless light in summer, 2 hours of dim light the 23rd of December. It is a pretty safe place but I'm still waiting on any of my friends to come back one, bloody after pride parties and here I am, hundreds of kilometers from the closest one.

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?

I barely check my email but the one I'm using here is malcowitz atte gmail dot com and you can also just throw me a line in this thread when the time draws near.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2013 19:50

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

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.

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.

I, of course, would never point out the absolutely terrible effort/worth ratio to learning Icelandic, but I know a not insignificant amount of foreigners that have been here in Iceland for more than 20 years and can count on one hand the amount of them that are completely fluent. All of them are Germanic language speakers as well, with 4 of them being from the Nordics. I'd think that would indicate some amount of difficulty to the language, especially to people from less related linguistic families, but ehh.

But really, unless you intend to live in Iceland, don't try to learn much Icelandic. Everyone speaks English anyway.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2013 10:04

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

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.

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.

I know more native Tagalog speakers than English speakers, so it makes sense I might think it mo' difficult than that. Still, for those that at least try Icelanders are always very happy; the attempt is an achievement in itself.

breathstealer posted:

Yup our trip was great! We were there for six days. Here are the highlights:

[Wonderful Things]

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!

Our Horses are Magnificence in ~~miniature~~ perfect size, actually. You can just get on top of one and ride, I hear they need ladders and things for foreign parts. And they can carry even the heaviest of tourists with relative ease, so they are the best. :colbert:

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. :v:

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 Reykjav�k. Far better than Hallgr�mskirkja, 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

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!

It's wonderful to hear you liked it so much and that you saw so much of our nature. It sometimes surprises people how much is grown in Iceland but appearances are a little deceiving in that a lot of things, like animal feed, fertilizer and staples are imported.

And I hope more people come to Iceland, including hopefully you two. I'll try to be around this time.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2013 12:34

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

caberham posted:

I want to come to Iceland, but it's a bit too far from Hong Kong for a weekend trip

Yeah, been looking at it from the other side tryin' to maybe go to HK and drat if it ain't one hell of a journey. Maybe come Christmas, some year. :smith:

caberham posted:

Awesome pictures by the way, can you tell me more about this muscian - �lafur 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/

Nah, I don't know him personally or his current music. I think I may have attended a concert when he was in Celestine? Don't know a lot of people from Mosfellsb�r anyhow. He sounds nice though! As for EVE, only guys I know there are on the tech end so I wouldn't know either, sorry~

dor1 posted:

Faxi � Tunguflj�ti

Takk f�lagi.

muscat_gummy posted:

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?

Ho hum. Now, I'm mostly not a fan of the most popular form of Icelandic novel, the "Nordic Crime" book, but I can ask for good recommendations there from my ma and others that do read those, iffin ya want.

When it comes to recommendations on other genres, I'm actually rather spoilt for choice; there's a lot of good Icelandic books but not looking it up I'd think most of the ones I really like might have been translated. (I did look, most of them are). This, alongside the fact that I mostly read foreign books rather conspires against me, but I'd say that "Englar Alheimsins", "Indj�ninn" and "Draumalandi�" would be 3 Icelandic books I'd recommend blindly, but hearing your preferences towards genres would make recommendations easier for me and I could also point out places you could get more recommendations here in Iceland.

Buuuutttt, if you want "classics", then I'd say that "Dj�flaeyjan", the aforementioned "Englar Alheimsins" and "101 Reykjav�k" are all modern "Classics", with older works I'd recommend being "Piltur og St�lka", "Salka Valka" and "Dalal�f" (With a side-order of "T�minn og Vatni�".) For stuff out today, eh, not so good on that.

muscat_gummy posted:

Are elves actually a big deal or is it exaggerated for tourists? And what's the tradition behind cairns?

Some people do, some don't. Lots of agnosticism regarding them. It's definitely exaggerated for effect though. And what do you mean by cairns? If you mean for burial, none, if you mean the piles of rocks we leave all over, on top of mountains and such, those are reparation for wear and tear after walking on top the mountain. Nordic people are very environmentally concious, you see.

inscrutable horse posted:

Not to steal DP's thunder, but if you have any questions about the Faroe Islands, feel free to ask. I don't know if there are any others around, so I'll happily take the mantle of resident Faroese goon.

There's more than enough room in this thread for our cousins in the Faroes. Be my guest.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2013 02:18

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

luminalflux posted:

I'm considering going to Airwaves, since at least 2 bands I love will be playing there. How swamped is the town then compared to nerdfest?

poo poo, with how big the nerdfest has been getting the last years I'd say that it is roughly about the same. You notice the people and you might even have to, gasp, wait in line in some places (insufferable! ban all tourists from our country!) but I'm guessing that the main problem would be accommodations.
And despite my nerdish temperament I dig the airwaves crowd more due to less skewed gender ratios and never having been goonswarm.

Shy posted:

How close are Faroese and Icelandic? Do you understand each other?

inscrutable horse answered this very well, but from the Icelandic end, it depends. Sometimes we get them completely, like when they're on the news, other times they need to be subtitled. They're certainly a hell of a lot closer linguistically than any other languages.

That also applies to cultural matters: about the only real difference I can think of is that the Faroese tend to take religion a bit more seriously on average than does an Icelander and they aren't as reckless. The view of them being our cousins is pretty accurate, I'd think. They've always got our back and we try our best to have theirs.

And T�r is also well known in Iceland, and often after a few drinks you'll hear someone start "Ormurin Langi" because it's a drat fine drinking song. _{even if we usually gently caress up the words}

# ¿ Sep 4, 2013 20:10

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Laverna posted:

Hey!
So I'm still going to Iceland at the start of next year. For a while I'd thought I'd completely hosed up my study visa but I think it should be all fine.

Before I leave New Zealand I thought it would be good to ask, are there any things in Iceland that are quite expensive compared to, say, mainland Europe that I should take with me rather than buying there? Things like general necessities that might get a bit dear.

I still haven't got accommodation sorted, but apparently they'll let us know about it around early December or so, so I hopefully won't end up living on the streets. If I do get an option what are some good districts that I should look out for that would be within walking distance of the university?

Wow, I'm really onto it with this whole going on exchange thing.
At least I've already booked my flights!
Oh, wait...

Thank Christ I check my bookmarks every now and then, because I thought this had fallen into the archives!
(Didn't I promise to go drinking with someone? And to help you pick classes? Did you already pick them?)

Uhhh, to answer your question: The two things I think of right away are booze and luxury chocolates. You may not be too much into the latter but the former is really, really expensive in Iceland and as a foreign exchange student you may want to be prepared for the inevitable moment you are kidnapped by Icelanders taking you to a party. (I have done this twice now, personally)

The rules about booze aren't that complicated, but uh, here goes:
"1 litre of stong alcohol and 1 liters af wine and 6 liters of beer or
3 liters of wine and 6 liters of beer or
1 liter of strong alcohol and 9 liters of beer or
1,5 liters of wine and 9 liters of beer or
12 liters of beer.

"Wine" is anything less than 21% that isn't beer and everything over that is strong alcohol. Or you can try and smuggle in more if you think you can get away with it, they don't usually search foreigners and if it's just another liter of strong poo poo it might slide. Try and bring something from New Zealand too, so people can go: "Ohhhh, is that from New Zealand? Was it brewed by Hobbits?"

As for where to stay, if you do not get student accommodations, which are the most convenient, anything around there will be fine. Quite frankly almost anywhere in the Major Metropolitan area works though, because bus route 1 goes right next to the Uni and you can get a student card that will last you throughout the year or a 3 month one if you're only staying for the semester. Finding an apartment can be tricky, but if you're really in trouble I might check around for you. My contact with the foreign student thing at the Uni is back too so I can talk to her again, if need be.

And don't worry about the flight, the only thing you lose out on not getting it early is, possibly, a lot of money. Find a cheap flight to the mainland, where doesn't matter too much and fly from there to Iceland is my advice. My flight to Japan was from Frankfurt, so I'm guessing it works fairly well the other way around. (You are from New Zealand, right? That's almost the same, right? )

Deceitful Penguin fucked around with this message at 10:30 on Nov 17, 2013

# ¿ Nov 17, 2013 10:24

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

lllllllllllllllllll posted:

May I just say you have an impressive coat of arms.

Yeah, almost makes up for a supremely lame national anthem that has terrible lyrics and no-one can sing properly unless they've had training.

lllllllllllllllllll posted:

Culturally do feel closer to the Scandinavian, (generally) European or even American sphere?

Iceland is a society built upon Scandinavian foundations that has always looked towards America, whether in scorn or in adoration. We compare ourselves to the other Nordics with our societal metrics, our legislation and regulatory framework is European but culturally we are far more American than they are, in things such as consumer products, popular media or even education (in terms of content, not quality). A whole lot of Icelandic people were educated in the US, including a lot of the political right-wing elite which ruled the country for far too long. This meant that the general right wing discourse in Iceland is of the American style, with our right-wingers being roughly your Democrats even if they want to be the Republicans.

Such feelings are to some degree illusionary. As an example, the aforementioned right wingers have had a few wingnuts try and co-opt the more religious language from America, like talking about "Freedom" or "Jesus" and whatnot and have been widely derided for it. A former PM infamously said "God Bless Iceland" and was soundly mocked for it even to this day. But we have all night stores, eat at Dominos and KFC and watch Breaking Bad when it's relevant. We're Nordic Europeans, but more than any Europeans I know of, we resemble yanks. Can't think of another nation that might call someone "The Local Sarah Palin" for instance.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2013 12:56

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

GiantAmazonianOtter posted:

I'm coming for a visit next month and I managed to rope a friend into coming too! We're ridiculously excited.

Noice! Hope you get good weather.

Skeesix posted:

I have to fly from the US to Copenhagen in January and I was thinking about stopping over in Iceland for a couple of days to see the northern lights and/or Reykjavik. Good idea/Bad idea? How much would my wallet hate me?

I'd say it depends on if you can stand the weather. If you can, you get a decent look at an Icelandic winter and some post-christmas poo poo, while still getting some of the night-life and most of the cultural thangs are operating just fine.

Iceland can be pretty expensive, but you can check out what a few nights at a hotel costs and then either be frugal or go hog wild. Aside from that fixed cost you can experience a lot of Iceland for relatively little money, but of course more money often helps and opens up different things, especially if you only have a few days.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2013 22:24

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Laverna posted:

Good thing you checked them then!
Drinking sounds great, as for classes I think I've already picked them but I can't actually remember what ones I picked. Probably some mythology or history related ones because they sounded the most interesting. Hopefully I've got it written down somewhere.

Luckily I already have my flight to the mainland booked, so I just need to get my Zurich-Reykjavik flight. Which looks like it'll cost me around 600 euros.
(And in Switzerland I will be able to stock up on luxury chocolates, although I don't know how the booze prices there compare to New Zealand.)

I'm still waiting to hear about accommodation, but hopefully that will all go smoothly. By the sounds of it Iceland isn't really a place that would have dingy student flats, but I'm still a bit nervous about signing a lease without even getting to see the place!

What kind of cellphone companies are there over there? Would it be worth it getting an Icelandic SIM card for my phone and which would be the best one to get?
Also, do you have the same power plugs/sockets as Europe or different ones?

Speaking of weather, what should I be expecting weather-wise for Iceland in the middle of winter?

Oh what. drat habit of half-finished messages, meant to send this days ago. Really sorry, it's last turn-in for assignments before exams as well as last time to really party before the exams end~

Uhh, you probs got good classes but if you wanna change or try others you can, I can guide ya through it like I do for the new UGs if no-one else does; I've had to show some of them how to do it. (And why taking 402 level courses on their first year might not be a good idea, although one was up for it and didn't do bad)

Die Schweiz had ok prices for booze, from what I remember, but then again practically everywhere does compared to here. Definitely stock up on Lindor Lindt though, those things are loving great.

There are student places but they are assigned to students through a University run system. :ussr:

You should be fairly high up in the priorities if you applied; if not, there are always ways to find somewhere to stay.

Yea, you should get an Icelandic SIM and I guess you'd appreciate Nova the most; they have free calls from Nova to Nova. Otherwise you should be hanging on facebook mostly and using your iphone to chat on there, like normal folks. We have the same sockets as Europe, from what I remember from Germany.

And Icelandic weather isn't much different from New Zealand weather, except maybe windier and less warm but not more cold. Bring a good windbreaker but you can buy an Icelandic woolen sweater when you're here to blend in for cheap, which you should anyway.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2013 17:24

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

stab posted:

Did your country give the men's national soccer team a hero's welcome for their near qualification for the World Cup? To get that far for a country your size is astounding....

My country has 35 million and we can even get to the final stages

There was a bunch that were way happy but a lot more were sad as we really thought "we" had a chance. I uh, am more of a basketball man than a footie man so I wasn't overly excited but yea, Iceland is way better than you'd think considering our crazy few numbers in a bunch of things.

We never win though, although we've come drat close many times. But ya take what you can get and instead just try for infamy~

# ¿ Nov 24, 2013 16:37

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Sure, representing a plurality of opinions on Iceland is cool. I know some of the other Icelanders here are reading but don't post, for some reason, but I say go ahead and chime in wherever. And yea, in many ways I stray from the ideal type of the Icelander, for better or for worse.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 06:43

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Kitsch! posted:

I don't want to turn this into a pseudo-travel/tourism thread (unfortunately doesn't like there's one in that sub-forum), but I'm spontaneously debating whether to travel to Iceland during the week of Christmas (my state job is on furlough that entire week). I'm not sure how much sightseeing I'd be able to do since I'm still deciding how many days and night to stay (I would arrive on the 23rd though).

Part of me would like to stay in hotel in the city, plus it looks like there's some good rates out there and I like the independence to do whatever I want. However, I was also looking at AirBnB.com which seems to have some private room offerings from some Reykjavik residents (mostly families). For the record, I've never traveled outside of North America (Canada and US) but it'd be interesting to experience Christmas in Iceland (albeit alone if I do end up traveling).

I'm, not exactly sure what your question is? If you're asking what you can do here over the Christmas, then there's the usual christmas sales, cultural stuff and lots of family things, with a lot of drinking and partying culminating in the new year, which is simply spectacular, where we blow up a shitload of fireworks.

If you're asking about staying, I'd wonder if those folks want a visitor over Christmas: some people would probs be way cool with it, others may be expecting family over but I mean, from what I see of that site I'm guessing they'd mostly be cool with it? They seem to have good availability anyhow so once you narrow down where you gonna stay and for how long I could work better on your itinerary. I can say though you won't find much to do 24th, at least after noon. Other days have plenty and I could give you more details when the december Grapevine comes out. (They collect the tourist stuff fairly well together.)

Still, even a couple days can be filled with good stuff; especially if you just wanna experience a bit of "the real" Iceland.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2013 18:47

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Pffff, goony foreigners are a cultural staple for Icelanders and I'm sure that they would show you the Yule spirit, by giving you J�lagl�gg (somewhat, but not totally unlike your eggnogg), malt & appels�n, hangikj�t and letting you light up a few fireworks. A shame you'll miss the new year but you'll still be able see some good stuff, depending on the weather; there's regular tourist staples like the golden circle, cultural things around the city, drinking like a mofo or maybe you can meet up with me and that guy I promised to take out for a drink. (If he remembers it, who knows at this point, wait was that you? I'll take you out anyway, but maybe just for some food and a bit of drinking)

# ¿ Nov 30, 2013 20:51

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Yea, that's a good location, if nothing else. Haven't really stayed at hotels in Iceland, I got family all over so I've never had to. J�lagl�gg is very different from eggnog so you may get lucky and dig gl�gg, I'll see about getting you some if ya wanna meet up. Having a local around to show ya poo poo is a really different experience than just going alone.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2013 13:52

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Skeleton Jelly posted:

If gl�gg in Iceland is anything like in rest of the Nordic countries, it really doesn't have anything to do with eggnog (besides possible alcohol content and being a Christmas drink) and is a lot more closer to the German gl�hwein. Absolutely delicious, anyways.

Probably, gods know that we probably didn't invent it ourselves, although we may have adapted it.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2013 22:42

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Deep Winter posted:

I want to pop in and mention that I, too, love SigurRos, but it's been done. So, instead ill ask how similar is Icelandic and "Hopelandic"

Vonlenska is just him adding Icelandic sounding gibberish with occasional Icelandic words into it. I personally like it better when it was just plain Icelandic lyrics or such gems as: "I don't remember the lyrics, but that doesn't matter, because we're in France where nobody understand anythings" but it's still good music.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2013 11:36

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

ookuwagata posted:

As far as I can tell, there's still no Iceland thread in T&T.

I was thinking of going for a week in Iceland in maybe August. I was also thinking of renting a car to see the Golden Circle attractions at my own pace, spreading it out over two days. How good are the roads on that route (I think it was route 36 and 37 or something like that)? Same question for the ring road to Vik to see the basalt columns on the beach.

On a non-tourism note, what do Icelanders think of Skyrim?

I keep wondering if I should ask the mods to toss this one there, seeing as that's mostly what I'm answering these days. :v:

The roads are pretty much fine everywhere nowadays except for the far-East and West. Ring Road in general is fine to drive on, with some of the side-roads occasionally having some gravel, which builds character. Just don't drive too fast on it.

Opinions were as ever; Grognards at first rejoiced then, then bemoaned the lore and simplification, normal folks dig it. There's a bunch of jokes like Heimskr meaning "Dumb" and of course Tiber Septims quest with Hjalti, which is a common Icelandic name and one grognard was about to give up on it when they got that quest and almost finished the game 'cause of it. I sadly got the game on the PS3 and it was so lovely I thought I deserved a refund but alas, none was coming.

In general though, Skyrim is way too green and woody to be Iceland and also has the wrong type of sheep and cow. That was lame, continental sheep are lame also it wasn't Icelandic horses or dogs. (I heard this from an animal lover)

Hah, Morrowind was a lot more indicative of Iceland, funnily enough. Ashlands at least.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2013 17:59

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

ookuwagata posted:

The travel pages for Iceland certainly do play up the risk of driving, so good to know.

Funnily enough, the Dragonborn expansion of Skyrim is situated in Solstheim, and the southern half of the island is basically ashlands.

Well, yeah, if you go on a gravel road you have to slow the hell down and take the turns easy, but they exaggerate the dangers for the very good reason that it's on those roads that most tourists die. Just be safe.

And I haven't got that one, so maybe it is more like Iceland. Maybe one day.

Bloodnose posted:

I want to see the Icelandest picture and the Icelandest YouTube video.

Also what's the oldest building in Iceland? Do you guys have any castles?

You don't ask for little do you? I couldn't pick one, because I've never seen any truly iconic pic of Iceland ("Do you want landscapes, a volcano, people, the northern lights or protests?" asked my photographer cousin) but I got ya a few videos to gawp at instead:

The simply titled Home by Sigur�s has Landscapes, people and music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL_7-qIMvlI

It's also pretty long though, so I added others. Also, one my other cousins wife says I should link this too, as it is like Home.

Another suggestion was this video of the Mayor of Reykjav�k and possibly the most popular Icelandic politician since President Vigd�s Finnbogad�ttir:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl_mjFn9feo

He used to be a comedian. That is from F�stbr��ur, the most popular sketch comedy show ever to appear in Iceland.

But the one that I think gives the best, shortest snapshot at what is quintessentially Icelandic is this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXk4KeTV_eo

Everything about it is perfect. From her laughter to the Christmas song playing. :allears:

Honourable mention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VNCWIqXYiw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysPcyOvNJew
That is pretty much Iceland: the attitude and Icelandic humour put forth without words.

Iceland was for the longest time among the poorest countries in Europe so no, no castles, alas. I thought the oldest building was Hegningarh�si�, our first stone prison and was gonna make a quip about that but turns out it's apparently this thing, Vi�eyjarstofa.

It's a museum today and if you go there you can also see Yoko Onos Peace Pole. Went there as a kid once. We played baseball there (we improvised the rules as nobody knew them) and a kid jumped off a cliff into the sea on a dare but was fine.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2013 20:47

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Bloodnose posted:

According to Icelandic Wikipedia (no English article on it), it only dates to the 18th century. Even my babby country (America) is full of buildings way older than that. Did volcanoes and trolls eat all your old stuff or what?

Nice videos too. I'll have to watch that hour and a half long movie later. Some of them have more views than there are people in your country which is tricky.

Nah, we built houses out of perishables; turf and rocks with some wood mostly. poo poo didn't really last and no-one really had the money for anything other than wooden houses, which also don't last very well when you have to import everything.

And it ain't that surprising; more tourists visit the country every year than there are people in the country, for example.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2013 15:45

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Cessna posted:

What's the general opinion on Asatru, the attempt to reconstruct or revive pre-Christian religion? It is my understanding that they're building a church/temple in Iceland. Harmless kooks? Cool folk traditions?

(If this is an iffy question, ignore it.)

It does say ask me anything yanno. :v:

In general, people are mostly positive, if they think about it much. They're a visible minority as you see plenty of people around with a little Mj�lnir around their necks, which is the more overt tell for it. �satr� has an, interesting history, in that despite ostensibly being the original faith of Iceland it had a lot of problems getting official recognition from the state due to the Church being general assholes; a bigger waste of money than that lot I've yet to meet. It's reconstructed from what are probably biased sources, but to consider it completely invented is pretty rich when it comes from Christians.

They're as a group mostly politically left simply due to their message and underlying principles; any overt racists get kicked out very quickly but the nationalists and right wing guys are simply frowned upon, so long as they aren't too serious. They do some general bl�t and whatnot and they're, well, not that bad I guess, although I haven't attended since I became an atheist. I still pay my church taxes to them though, because we should support domestic religion and not foreign ones. Besides I'm boycotting Israel and that Jesus guy came from the occupied territories so it would be very bad paying his cronies.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2013 06:20

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Cessna posted:

I'm an American who follows that path myself; I was just wondering how the general person-on-the-street in Iceland sees it...

Ahhh, well, it certainly has a lot more acceptance than it does elsewhere. Never any hassles and there's plenty of people that are glad some people follow the old ways, even if they aren't.

From what the reaction was when I used to be �satr�ar on the forums I expect yanks aren't very fond of it, on either political end.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2013 18:51

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Cessna posted:

I've never received any grief for it - not one bit. I suspect that this is because:

1. I live in Colorado, not the Bible Belt. Colorado is pretty open to this sort of thing. One of the ski towns even has an Ullr Festival; admittedly the whole thing is an excuse to get drunk and fall off skis, but it's still nice to see anyway.
2. I'm a pretty private person. I wear a Mjollnir, but it is under my shirt/tie at work. Co-workers who wear Crosses or the like do the same.
3. I have a job and wife and all that; I'm not a teenager.
4. No one knows what it is anyway.

When it does come up, which is rare, the reaction is generally affable cluelessness. "You do what? Huh, I didn't know anyone did that."

It's nice to know there's a place where people not only know what it but are positive towards it.

And nice to know that people are keeping the old ways outside the Ice.

PT6A posted:

I think part of the negative reaction towards it in the States (and possibly Canada and Western Europe) has to do with how some white supremacist groups have co-opted it.

Cessna posted:

Yeah, the hell with them.

That's one drawback of not having any central organization; there's no one to kick out the people who make the reasonable people look bad by association.

Yea, there is absolutely nothing about race or ethnicity in the writs and any that add elements like that are, very misguided at best. There haven't been many people of foreign origin wanting to join in here but if they did they would be welcomed with open arms, so long as they are people of honour.

The more violent parts, ehh. Some people put a lot of focus on that and you can't rightly call them heretics, but then again it's not like the Christians are known for, hah, "turning the other cheek" when it comes to war and whatnot.

Bloodnose posted:

It sounds really dorky to me in the modern world where Thor is a comic book character.

This is what I usually link when people ask me how I feel about comic book Thor but you keep to the OG Abrahamic faith so you probs aren't all up in arms about that Jesus guy.

Also I was re-playing Sleeping Dogs and I thought of you and Cab. Maybe one day. :hongkong:

TerryLennox posted:

I'm an atheist but I like that polytheist religions are still around. Hindus were lucky that it wasn't the Spanish who colonized their country. While the English were imperialists I get the impression that they were indifferent to the native population professing a different creed. What is it with Catholics and imposing their faith on other people? Didn't they try converting the Japanese and caused the Shimabara rebellion?

Wish there was a Greek pantheon religion as I'm a big fan of the whole mythology.

The Shimabara was actually a bit more complex than that, especially seeing as you had the Ikko Ikki preaching what was in many ways very similar to the Christian creed politically (though Pure Land Buddhism has got a lot of differences with Catholicism of course), and seeing as getting rid of them had been a major pain the Tokugawa wanted to nip Christianity in the bud, from what I remember.

I don't think the Spanish getting India would have helped much, but this is Ask me about Iceland, not ask me about my impressions on different colonial masters and the various ways in which the different regions of the world are capable of resisting imperialism. :v:

# ¿ Dec 20, 2013 12:47

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Ferdinand the Bull posted:

In your best estimate, what percentage of immigrants speak Icelandic decently? How many non-native Icelanders have you spoken Icelandic to? What is the general population's view on language and culture? Do you think it is possible for a non-Icelander to be considered culturally assimilated?

Long term immigrants mostly learn to speak decently and part of gaining citizenship is at least, 120 hours of Icelandic I think? It's very rare folks can't speak some Icelandic but a lot use English as a crutch to get by that then sticks. Percentage wise is hard for me to guesstimate and right now I'm going out so I too lazy to look it up.

I speak Icelandic to all folks unless they feel more comfortable speaking some other language, so which are a fair number but there's plenty who speak good Icelandic but aren't confident in it. Just yesterday though we had a dude here helping patch up the house and my cousin didn't realize at first he was Polish. Talked about Jak and Daxter and he was perfectly fluid, if a bit off re: grammar.

As for views on language and culture, that answer could run on for thousands of words. Can you be a bit more specific on what you want to know? Like, linguistic, what kind of culture, et cetera. Obviously Icelanders are "proud" of their language and go to great lengths to keep it modern but most people aren't exclusive or overly smug about it; comes from everyone speaking at least one other language I'd guess. Icelanders aren't overly keen on high culture, aside from maybe literature, but a lot still dig that.

And it's possible to assimilate perfectly but far from easy. They never seem to be able to let go of the whole umbrella thing for one, or they still arrive on time. Although a fair few blend in so well it takes a keen eye to tell they ever came from foreign shores. For kids, of course, it's no big problem.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2013 07:32

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Kitsch! posted:

Hey, do you have PMs or anything? Flying out in a few hours and don't wanna clog up the thread. I figure I'll spent most of Tuesday sleeping/eating/drinking, not necessarily in that order.

I've been enjoying reading about Christmas customs in Iceland (I've subscribed to Grapevine and Iceland Review) like these Yule Lads with names like Sausage-Swiper and Window-Peeper. I'm kind of relieved I won't have to deal with the shopping-focused holiday that takes place in my neck of the woods.

Nah, I really should get plat again. Tuesday is Yule, as in, today, so I'm pretty busy ferrying out presents and visiting family anyhow but Toss me a line at malcowitz at gmail.com and I'll see about showing you around the town. I'll check it when I can and give you my number there.

And yeah, they have great names. A fun pasttime is inventing dumb new names, like Door-Licker or Kebab-Taker, which never fails to amuse kids.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2013 14:12

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Laverna posted:

So I've got accommodation and I think it might possibly be near the centre of town or the good part or something, but not knowing a thing about this city I don't actually have a clue in the slightest. It's in the area near the Hallgrimskirkja, is that a good area or am I gonna get shivved walking home from uni at 4 in the afternoon?

Should I also send an email? Although I guess I'm gonna be there a while so no hurry. I should probably focus on packing instead.

I'd write my will now and get a good life insurance policy, so at least your death will partially repay your debt to your parents.
(Your fears are completely unfounded and you're in a fairly good location, I'll show you the good noodle joints around there.)
I've already tossed my email around here, but in any case the one I'm using for this thread is malcowitz at gmail.com. Toss me a line there when convenient.

goku chewbacca posted:

Don't parents leave their babies in their carriages unattended outside shops and caf�s while they're inside? And don't Icelandic parents believe that cold air is good for their child's health, and so stick them outside when they're napping?

What is the average Icelander's perception of crime? Are there bad neighborhoods? Immigrant enclaves where feelings of exclusion are pervasive? Do they even consider that pedophilia exists?

Yea on that, Iceland, despite the name, isn't that cold and mostly they aren't out long enough and are well insulated enough that they should be fine.

And yeah, dor1 is pretty on the money; while violent crime has been decreasing, petty theft has been increasing; depending on where you are though you might be oblivious to it. People know pedophilia exists and we have all the usual scandals on occasion, we even had a "pedo scare" a way back. There's this perception of Brei�holt being a bad neighborhood, but this is greatly exaggerated, I feel. No enclaves as far as I know.

Kujaroth posted:

Interesting thread! I'll be visiting Iceland in a few months so this was cool to read.

I'll fire off a few questions of my own...

How did your country end up being so crazy expensive? I live in Australia, which is hardly a cheap place to live. I am accustomed to high prices, so accustomed in fact that I can visit just about any other country in the world and consider it 'cheap' in comparison. Yet prices in Iceland are insane, particular car rental. I'm having to drop more than $4000 USD just to rent a 4x4 for three weeks. Plus fuel on top of that.

I don't think we've had qualified people working at our central bank or financial ministry since, uhhh, poo poo. '72? We had a brief stint of four years of a government that had some ideas how to work an economy, but that happened in the aftermath of the recession and they lost power the moment my countrymen heard the promises of free money, so there was a zero chance of any long time improvement on that end. (This applies to both the left-wing stints) I don't know Australian political history well, but from what I vaguely remember you haven't always been ruled by idiots like Abbot, unlike our lovely land.
Also we're way tinier than Australia, in such things as size of economy, population and number of poisonous snakes. Smallest independent national currency mofos!

Kujaroth posted:

Does the average tourist have a hope in hell of ever pronouncing anything correctly in Icelandic? I am pretty sure I can say Reykjavik and Landmannalaugar correctly but not much beyond that.

Different sounds present different problems to different tourists of different nationalities. Japanese tourists, for instance, have no problem with Hjalti, but Ellert? Hah.

Kujaroth posted:

What do Icelanders think of Australians? Do you see many Aussies up there? It's pretty much as far away as we can possibly travel, so maybe not.

We've had "Neighbors" on the telly for, decades now. For most Icelanders, that is pretty much the first and often last place they see Australia depicted in media. Oh, and a bunch of folks saw that great video of Julia making GBS threads over Abbot a while back, yea. And there's a few Aussies around, although I don't know any personally. One works for ma, I know.

Kujaroth posted:

Also, up for going drinking with any Icelandic goons in this thread in July when I am there although I don't plan on spending more than a day or two in Reykjavik. Your booze prices do not scare me, they are pretty much the same as those at many 'good' Sydney based bars and clubs. Only slightly more expensive at worst.

If I'm not drowning in work or abroad I'm game.

Btw, thanks for chiming in dor1. Good to have others giving their opinions to the readers.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2014 16:15

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Elrobot posted:

I also just booked my flight from Canada in July to visit your country for the first time with my gf! They now have a direct 6hr flight from Edmonton to Keflavik for a decent price, so I'm visiting in July for the ATP concert series. Has anyone had any experience with the festival? It's first Icelandic version of the festival was last year at �sbr� in Keflavik and this year there is supposed to be stuff happening in Reykjav�k the week before I'd like to check out alongside some touring of the country. Aside from the headliners all the other bands announced so far are Icelandic.

Alas, I don't listen to music, so despite my country being stuffed with these festivals I don't know much about it. If none of the others chime in I could ask my cousin, whos an audiophile, about it or my aunt, who is an organizer for Airwaves and might know.

Noctis Horrendae posted:

What are the main foreign influences on modern Icelandic culture? Is Icelandic culture similar to other Nordic nations or distinctly different? I've always wondered about this.

There's a lot of Icelandic culture! In comedy, there's a lot of British and Danish influence, with shows from both countries like Klovn or Blackadder, Black Books and shitload being watched a lot. Other TV thangs are mostly American, with some European things thrown in; German crime and Scandinavian, while with cinema I'm simply not that well into it.

Art is also rather cosmopolitan; plenty of mainland and yank influences there, though I'm not good on the haut� couture end. Literature is solidly European though.

But yeah, Iceland, while somewhat supportive of domestic culture before the current administration decided that culture was for losers, was pretty Americanized, with continental influences being more structural than intentional.

If your question was meant more about like, "national culture", then Icelanders are the most Right-Wing of the Nordics, which is like being the shittiest member of the best club in the world, to use a flawed analogy. Stereotypically, Icelanders are characterized by a carefree attitude towards everything, with the general idea that things will work out in the end, being always late and being kinda money-grubbing. Oh, and way too conceited and arrogant on the international political stage. Hah. On the other hand they're supposed to be friendly, hard-working and good at drinking? Something like that. That kinda poo poo always seems a bit over-simplified to me but then again, I'm in the culture game academically. (Just, focused on the other end of the planet.)

Nicknames include: Little America, Europes Nature Park and The Country that went Bankrupt.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2014 17:44

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

There is a saying: "Keen is the visitors eye", which may apply here. My view of Iceland has always been very critical, but perhaps one of the best attributes has undeniably been our ready acceptance of foreign influences up to a point.
Although until recently we didn't have great mexican and the new place doesn't make quesadillas.

Most of the other places I been for long enough to compare with have been podunk places anyhow, like the S-German countryside or Norway. And Norway don't even got KFC outside they capital!

Noctis Horrendae posted:

Very interesting, thanks. IMHO being extremely right wing isn't too much of an issue so long as you don't end up with too many extremist groups, and Iceland doesn't have the population to support that, so.

Oh, our extreme right dudes are usually libertarians, which are laughed at by the majority of the population. Really, the current right-wing here might be described as blue dog democrat on a bad day but normal one on a good day.

Laughing Zealot posted:

A few years back there was an unusually high amount of fights and attacks on people in the Reykjav�k nightlife. Well, maybe just an unusual amount of news about them.

http://www.grapevine.is/Author/ReadArticle/Is-Reykjav%C3%ADk-the-City-of-Fear

DP may be able to provide a better answer though.

Just like most of the world, violent crime has been going down for years. There's some truth to there being more coverage of it, but also the fact that we actually always have cops there now, which is practically the only time you see the buggers. I haven't seen a traffic cop for months until the day before yesterday, was kinda thinking they'd gone extinct.

I guess it would be remiss not to mention that there were a few violent crims that were out on the street when they oughta been in prison but weren't, due to lack of room but that was only a few dozen at most and they made room soon enough, from what I remember.

GiantAmazonianOtter posted:

Myself and a friend were in Reykjavik for a few days between Christmas and New Year and had an amazing time.

We did our tour with Iceland Excursions which was �170 and we thought pretty good value for money (seven of us in the truck; Geysir, Gulfoss, Northern Lights, Viking parliament, dinner and thermal baths, 11 hours).

Good price and seems like you got a good view of the south! And great you had a good time, did you get some good pics?

# ¿ Jan 14, 2014 17:24

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

NFX posted:

Podunk, maybe. But slightly less barren than this:

I visited Iceland in the summer of 2011, had fun driving all the way around.

Nice pics! I'm mostly only bitter because Pizzabakeren is awful and no fried chicken meant my two comfort foods were off the table. Meanwhile KFC had a summerlong special with great pieces and I missed it. :qq:

Also you get movies way late, jesus.

inscrutable horse posted:

I'm going to start a business, and export white paint to Iceland - I'm going to make a fortune

Market is all tapped out. But you're in luck; like half the drat houses in Germany seem to be "Red Tiles, White Walls" so you could take it there instead.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2014 18:29

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

drat nice pics NFX! The thing about Iceland that is sometimes forgotten is that we are the largest desert in Europe. That isn't that hard mind you but a shitload of it is flat as hell. Especially in the East, you have the quite frankly unique experience of seeing nothing but the road before you, black sand around you that to one side ends at mountains and the other in the sea.

Skeesix posted:

nevermind, this isn't a travel thread and I should stop using it like one.

Like dor1 says, I'm already doing travel poo poo here all the time and I'm too lazy to make a thread in the main T&T forum.

Hell, I even welcome tourists and make detailed itineraries for them here, I and the others don't mind in the least.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 00:48

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Several things. You've probably been told about B�jarins Bestu, but close to it you'll find the Kolaport flea market, which can have some cool things in it. Close to that is the Reykjav�k art museum, where you can get a pass to visit 2 other art museums. In addition to that there's the Penis Museum only about a 5 min drive from the city centre. If you're more for a historical view you might like �j��minjasafni�, which is also open 'tween 11 and 17, like most of the other stuff.

'cause you have GPS you might also maybe wanna visit the Icelandic White House, which is also white. Maybe you can chat with the president, but the bugger is almost always out these days. There's a few other things like that outside the capital proper, but overall a day is too short to get to see much of it.

If you wanna buy beer you're outta luck though; the state monopoly is closed on Sundays. No going to the store and getting booze in Iceland! You'll sadly have to either hope the hotel sells some (likely, but possibly not) in which case a bar might be your best bet.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 16:03

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Skeesix posted:

That completely blows my mind. Even the states in the deep south let you buy booze on Sundays now.

The store is closed. You can go to bars iffin ya really got a thirst I suppose. But yea, as far as I know we're also one of the very few places with a complete state monopoly too, at least as far as Europe goes.

When the vikings came here there were apparently some trees. Coming from a place that is swarmed with the awful things, they chopped often and liberally and I can't imagine what their surprise was like when eventually they ran out. Some driftwood from Siberia still reached the country but overall wood became a rarity that had to be imported.

Not 2 decades ago the hill above my town was bare as desert and on bad days it blew sand all over the town. Today it's covered in, Lupine (Lupinus) of various colours. Now, the thing you gotta realize about the attempts at revitalizing the country are the following:
1. Certain parts have always been desert. This applies mostly to the South East, which thanks to glacial melt and bad climate never really had much to do with this whole "life" thing, but we're far enough North that parts have never been green, really.
2. There is a huge debate on how much we should be willing to terraform Iceland. I myself am conflicted on it, as the currently most effective way, the aforementioned Lupine is foreign to the Icelandic flora and while it was supposed to make way for the normal Icelandic plants, reality has proven different. Many people are very opposed to it, wanting to use different plants, more hands on methods but:
3. There's almost zero money put into it by the state. There's shitloads of private people and forestry things, some of which are supported by the municipalities but seeing as the least forested places are firmly out of sight (the vast majority of all Icelanders live on the coast, which is usually green enough) not many people care overmuch. I've been active in forestries around my town and we've made some progress but there's also the problem with some of the oldest trees getting ripped up by routine storms, the fact that Iceland isn't really warm enough for a lot of species and that peeps usually have other, bigger things to think about.

In addition there is the question of if we do want to change the highlands to have plants. It's the last unspoilt parts of Europe, do we really need it also to feel the touch of man? Do we have to make it green? I can say that I at least was a bit sick of all the sun and green when I was in Germany, as well as all the drat trees all over Europe. A few here and there are fine but there's too much of a thing you know?

# ¿ Jan 20, 2014 18:28

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 04:45

Deceitful Penguin: Feb 16, 2011

Punc posted:

So, a couple of us are planning to rent a camper and drive around Iceland for two weeks. Is camping near the road (or on a parking) in a camper allowed?

It's mostly nature stuff (since we like nature stuff), but are we missing any essential Iceland to do things by sticking to this route, or would you add/remove something from the list that you think is better/poo poo?
Since we only have 14 days, we want to make sure to do the cool stuff

Hmmm.

That is a pretty solid nature itinerary. Missing the West-Fjords is pretty inevitable when you're strapped for time and driving, they still haven't got enough tunnels there to keep the tourists from driving off of cliffs. Missing the east though... At least you get a decent look at the upper-highlands, which are pretty boss.

Dunno about the camper, I think you may have to park them in specific camping sites but if you just drive a bit off and aren't in the way too much I doubt the cops will catch you. Just don't drive off-road and gently caress up nature.

Kiri koli posted:

That's a lot of driving. We did Reykjavik to Hofn and back in about 10 days. Some of my favorite parts:

Those are some drat fine pics and good advice.

Christoff posted:

I went to Iceland in 2009. I was doing some traveling and the economy there had just crashed so I figured it was a good chance to check it out.

...

Downtown Reykjavik was pure debauchery. As with most of Europe the partying went until about 6 am. Vomit everywhere, people passed out in the streets, mobs of people trying to get food.

This seems perfectly normal to me. Except maybe stopping so early.

Christoff posted:

Cracked me up that the parliament was just a house in the city with a couple guards out front. You could literally walk up and knock on the door.

Our White House is the same. I like to take people there and check if they can talk to the president.

Christoff posted:

I know you guys are prideful about your horses. Isn't there strict laws in terms of the export of your horses and import of other horses? Well strict as in not allowed.

Yeah, first of all they are not ponies. They are exactly the right size and it is the other, foreign horses that are way too big to be proper horses. They are clearly some kind of cow or something. :colbert:

And the importation of all animals is strict as hell, with horses just being a particularly vulnerable group. Horses taken outside the country can never again return. Kinda sad really.

Christoff posted:

Tell me about the Icelandic folklore? From what I gathered from asking questions the older folk are very supersticious when it comes to that kind of stuff. Especially trolls. Or was it elves? Gnomes? Can't remember.They said if they built a house over a rocky formation where trolls might have lived weird things would happen. And they'd actively avoid building highways over these areas and would just go around. Sometimes they'd have "experts" come out and ask for permission to build there and such.

Folklore is a pretty big subject, with Iceland having been a country of superstitious peasants since, say, the late 60s or so. (joke, it was until the late 40s). People are mostly agnostic on the whole deal, but they lean more toward believing in them than not. Any specific questions or just wanted to hear about trolls, elves and whatnot in general?

Christoff posted:

I also remember learning that it's one of the few languages that has been pretty much unchaged. That an Icelandic teenager could go read some old Icelandic writing and pretty much understand all of it. Isn't there also a much more ancient language?

If you guys like Sigur Ros definitely check out Heima. It's sort-of a documentary about Iceland.....with their music.

Ehh, Iceland is a derivation of Old Norse, same as the other nordic languages. Unlike them, we both kept ours less influenced than the other and cleaned it up better post-nationalism/romanticism. There's been more changes than folks like to talk about though.

And I've already linked Heima here somewhere. Maybe I should toss some of the poo poo I written in the OP, but :effort:

Skeesix posted:

I definitely dug the hell out of Iceland. Whale meat was amazing. Downtown Reykjavik was cool. Also Brennivin. That was a trip to have with dinner - there's some herb or something in there that numbs the tongue. It was the same sensation as this one vegetable they use in Szechuan cooking.

Also, as I learned from the history museums and they in turn learned from Y-chromosome vs. mitochondrial DNA, the first settlers of Iceland were mostly Norse men and Celtic women. So I guess that's the secret of "Supermodels flipping burgers."

And did you enjoy your stay? Any pics?

_{_{why do they never talk about us good looking men}}

# ¿ Jan 22, 2014 22:18

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me anything about Iceland, its history, culture, and modern politics

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