Atlantica - Iceland Review

No.1. 2011 January-March
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WELCOME TO ICELAND
Icy Cycling • True Lies
Storytellers • Iceland’s Golden Boots

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JÓNSI ON THE GO
THE SPECTACULAR ERUPTION
IN FIMMVÖRDUHÁLS – 24 PAGES
Editor: Bjarni Brynjólfsson. Deputy and picture editor: Páll Stefánsson. Contributing writers: Alda Kravec, Ásta Andrésdóttir, Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir, John Boyce, Lucy Mallows,
Mica Allan, Stephanie Orford and Sari Peltonen. Art director: Erlingur Páll Ingvarsson. Proofreader: Jane Appleton. Production: Erlingur Páll Ingvarsson. Color production: Páll Kjartansson. Contributing
photographers: Christopher Lund, Katrín Elvarsdóttir, Svavar Jónatansson. Contributing Illustrator: Noora Iseoskeli. Publisher: Benedikt Jóhannesson. Advertising sales: Helga Möller, helgam@heimur.is.
Editorial/advertising offices: Borgartún 23. 105 Reykjavík, Iceland, Tel: (+354) 512-7575, Fax: (+354) 561-8646, atlantica@heimur.is, www.icelandreview.com. Printing: Ísafoldarprentsmiðja,
Iceland. atlantica is published in Reykjavík, Iceland, by Iceland Review, a division of Heimur Ltd. Copies of atlantica can be obtained from the publisher at USD 10 per copy (airmail,
worldwide). No articles in this magazine may be reproduced elsewhere in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher.
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Welcome to Iceland
A letter from the editor.
On the Fly
A gigantic polar bear, the coolest things in Iceland, thriller
Sagas, Dreamland’s author Andri Snaer Magnason and five
questions for chilly Icelanders.
Lord of the Ring Road
Svavar Jónatansson hitch-hiked on Iceland’s ring road to
produce his film Inland / Outland made out of more than
20,000 photographs. Stephanie Orford spoke to
him about the experience.
True Lies
Sari Peltonen traces modern culture’s infatuation with
Iceland. Illustrations by Noora Iseoskeli.
A Culinary Cult Classic
Riding the bus back to home-style cooking. Alda Kravec
interviews a man who sells sheep’s head and fish pudding
for a living. Photos by Páll Stefánsson.
Iceland’s Golden Boots
Iceland’s best soccer players do not play in Iceland.
They play abroad. John Boyce ponders whether Iceland’s
national team will ever do great in an international competition
and writes up the golden boots that make up football
history in their tiny homeland.
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Top Ten
Páll Stefánsson lists some of Iceland’s most difficult to
pronounce place names and highlights the most spectacular
places with his stunning photographs.
Shutter Stories
Sari Peltonen profiles art photographer Katrín Elvarsdóttir
whose pictures tell more than a thousand words.
Icy Cycling
Lucy Mallows discovers a great way to appreciate Iceland’s
magical capital—from the saddle of a guided bike tour.
The Storyteller
Meet Ari Eldjárn, leader of Iceland’s new generation of comedy.
Interview by Ásta Andrésdóttir.
Pole to Pole
Mica Allan met with the enigmatic Icelandic born, New Zealand
based singer, Hera Hjartardóttir, and talked to her about
parallel universes, Elvis impersonators and soaking in
a bath tub of red wine.
The Atlantica Guide to the Best of Iceland
Your guide to good eating, cool excursions, products,
shopping and services, plus facts about Iceland.
Cover photo by Páll Stefánsson.
The sleeping volcono giant Katla, with Mt. Hafursey in foreground.
Photo on this page by Páll Stefánsson.
CONTENTS
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Reykjavík, I would
say, is one of the
coziest capitals in
the world. What we have
here is comfortable living
with affordable luxuries to
survive the harsh climate.
Take our outdoor swimming
pools for example. Heated
with geothermal water, they
are more reminiscent of
extravagant spas than mere
pools. There is nothing more
relaxing than taking a long, warm soak in the hot tubs and
steam baths to wind down after a long working week. I
often go on Saturday mornings with my family for an hour
and a half. Don’t let freezing temperatures scare you away.
The water is warm and you can run the shower as long as
you feel like. Here is a little tip: Try the open air changing
rooms. It is simply amazing getting dressed outside in the
frost after a long, warm soak.
The libraries and art museums are another luxury not to
be missed. Downtown you will find the Reykjavík Library
in Grófarhús. You can spend days in there reading the latest
magazines, newspapers and books in many languages.
There are cafés to be found in all libraries and art museums.
I strongly recommend The Reykjavík Art Museum at
Kjarvalsstadir. It is a wonderful place in all seasons, has a
good café and often has concerts, recitals and readings at
lunchtime. You should also visit the Hafnarhús Reykjavík
Art Museum and look at the ongoing Erró exhibition, and
Listasafn Íslands by the pond is simply adorable. Try the
meringue cake in the café there and it will make your trip.
Don’t forget to try a rolled pancake with sugar. That’s
what we eat on Sundays to celebrate that the sun is slowly
moving higher on the horizon.
Nature in the capital is not far away. My favorite walks in
winter are on the southern shore of the west side of town,
on Aegissida as it is called, where you can catch the low
winter sun on a good day and observe seabirds and even
seals and porpoises if you are lucky. Take the walk from
there all the way to Nauthólsvík beach house where you
will find a hot tub. You can even take a dip in the ocean
there which is growing in popularity among locals. The
pond downtown is also a fascinating place, especially if it is
frozen which attracts families on skates.
Reykjavík is easy. That’s why I like it so much. Normally
it does not take more than 15 minutes to get from one
place to another by car. And you can walk all over the
place on scenic paths along the shoreline. So day to day
business is not a burden at all and although we complain
about rush hour traffic sometimes it is only because we are
accustomed to smooth going all the time.
The sun is very low at this time of year and it can be
blinding when you are driving.
If you venture out of the capital for some adventures
then make sure you’ve got the latest weather forecast and
the right equipment for all sorts of weather.
Have an excellent stay.
Bjarni Brynjólfsson
Editor
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ATLANTICA 3

on the fly
Polar Bear Walks on Langjökull
By Alda Kravec
Photo By Christopher Lund
In November, a polar bear appeared at the base of Langjökull, Iceland’s
second largest glacier. Larger than life, it measured 80 by 50 meters and
could, in theory, be seen from space. Conceived by artist Bjargey Ólafsdóttir,
“Red Polar Bear” was a work of “creative activism” carried out as part of a global
art exhibition entitled 350 Earth, which aimed to raise awareness about climate
change on the eve of the UN Climate Change Conference that was held in
Cancún, Mexico.
While an enormous scarab holding a sun appeared in the desert outside
Cairo and two thousand people gathered in Brighton and Hove, England, to
form an image of the legend of King Knut trying in vain to control the seas,
Iceland’s contribution was similarly in step with its geography. The producer
of the polar bear project, Charlotte Ólöf Jónsdóttir Biering, had this fact to
share after speaking with Iceland’s leading glacier expert: “Glaciers in Iceland
are losing mass each year, and if temperatures rise as predicted, Langjökull will
melt to 15 percent of its current size by the end of the century. This will have
a significant impact on Iceland’s hydrological system, and melting glaciers
worldwide will contribute to a rise in sea level, putting people in coastal areas
and small islands at risk.”
The polar bear was created using organic red coloring, which was applied
only a couple millimeters deep into the snow. Biering underlines that the
environmental impact was minimal and temporary: “By the time the team
was leaving, the wind was blowing fresh snow over the bear, and after the
weekend it totally disappeared…but hopefully polar bears and glaciers will
still be around for generations.”
4 atlantica

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on the fly
THE BELOVED INSPECTOR ERLENDUR
From Bulgaria to Brazil, New Zealand to the Nordic countries, Arnaldur Indridason’s
detective novels, starring inspector Erlendur, have sold over seven million copies in
over 30 countries. The books have been awarded the Nordic Glass Key Award (twice
in a row), the Martin Beck Award and the CWA Gold Dagger, not to mention praise
from the likes of The Guardian and The Independent. In 2004, a startling seven out
of 10 most borrowed titles in the Reykjavík City Library were by Indridason. There
are 10 books in the chilly Reykjavík Thriller series, with the unforgiving winds of the
northern island blowing through each tale. Aggression toward immigrants, human
remains at construction sites, domestic violence and the gene pool of an entire
nation—the aging, diligent lone wolf Erlendur investigates cases mired in the darker
side of life. In Voices he even has to solve a case of stabbed Santas. The most recent
English translation is Hypothermia (Harvill). For the follow-up, Outrage, you will have
to bite your nails until October 2011.
TREASURE BOX
In the Icelandic farmhouses of the past, children would keep a völuskrín
under their beds. Literally a box for heel bones, it was every child’s
secret treasure box, a place for small toys and other precious finds,
with a touch of child’s imagination as magical as anything in the Nine
Worlds. The most common of prizes were sheep bones, to represent the
farm animals on the imaginary farms that all children would keep. The
Völuskrín toy set, designed by Lóa Audunsdóttir, is a remodeling of this
tradition. The woman behind the project Thórey Vilhjálmsdóttir says,
“We wanted to offer guests traveling from abroad something traditional
Icelandic with a modern twist. Völuskrín promotes and re-establishes
the original Icelandic toys for generations to come and for the children
all over the world.” The box transforms into a farm house, nestling in a
small valley by the mountains, and contains fences for the fields and 13
(plastic) bones, just like the sheep bones treasured by the children of
old. Available at several stores and online on birkiland.com
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS
The latest addition to the bar scene in Reykjavík and the town’s only
gay cafe, Trúnó, opened its doors in October. Eva María Thórarinsdóttir
and Birna Hrönn Björnsdóttir, couple, business partners and dj duo ‘Dj
Glimmer’ set out to open “a chic, fabulous gay café designed especially to
cater to the queer crowd in Iceland.” With purple walls, the biggest disco
ball in the country and vinyl albums by Barbara Streisand and Diana Ross
adorning the wall—in their own words—“the decor of the place does just
that.” Open from late morning till late evening, the café serves up everything
from Cosmos to Gaga Kaka (kaka is Icelandic for cake). Located on
the main downtown street Laugavegur, the building used to house legendary
gay club 22 in the 1980s, so the community’s newest living room
is something of a homecoming. And if you feel like dancing the cake
away, the only gay club in town, Barbara, is conveniently located upstairs.
Laugavegur 22
6 atlantica

The Frozen Trove
Downtown Reykjavíker Sari Peltonen collects the unusual, entertaining and hip from the green pastures of Icelandic culture.
ICELANDIC-FINNISH CHINA
Scandinavian design across borders—Finnish design studio Elinno and Icelandic
jewelry designer Gudbjörg Ingvarsdóttir of Aurum have joined forces to create a set of
beautiful, delicate tableware. “We have a lot in common in our design,” Ingvarsdóttir
says about the collaboration—both Aurum and Elinno shape fragile forms from hard
material, and both underline quality, timelessness and inspiration from nature. For the
new line, the Finns provided the porcelain and Ingvarsdóttir the designs, previously
available only on her jewelry. There are two different patterns, both in blue on fine
bone white china: Dögg is inspired by blossoms moist with dew in the morning sun,
and Hekla portrays flowers growing on volcano slopes. The set includes everything
from teapots to plates and bowls, but the matching earrings are extra. Available at
Aurum, bankastraeti 4.
COZY, COOL AND COMFORTABLE
DESIGNS FOR LIFE
Known in local circles for her superb sense of style, Jet Korine’s design goes deeper
than just the pretty surface: Made of natural and organic fabrics using vegetable
dyes and natural pigments, her garments are locally produced to last—the vocal
opposite to the season-by-season fashion world and sweatshop chains. Her
2009 collection #01 Endless Light featured pieces bleached by Iceland’s midnight
summer sun, #2 Life Coats are blanket-esque jackets to be used as wrap, cape or
hooded cloak. The summer #3 collection Ash wave (which sold out like tickets
home) featured clothing dyed with fresh-spewed ash. Catch Jet Korine’s clothing
while you can, in her freshly minted studio-shop on Skólavördustígur or online at
Jetkorine.com. For more information on sustainable fashion design and Korine’s
creative and work principles, see Katharine Hamnett’s campaign Clean Up or Die
online, katharinehamnett.com/campaigns/clean-up-or-die.
Tucked away amidst the 101 courtyards, brand new
apartment hotel Grettisborg is one of the sweetest bets
for a bed in Reykjavík. Owners Róshildur Jónsdóttir and
Snaebjörn Thór Stefánsson also run careers as product
designers for their studio Hugdetta, so it is no surprise
that the six flats at Grettisborg are decorated and fully
furnished with impeccable style. Prior to opening
this fall, the 1920s house went through extensive
renovation. “We tried to make the apartments as we
would like to have a holiday apartment, like two
showers so two can shower at the same time, enough
storage, dishwasher and lots of pillows on the sofa—
just comfortable,” says Jónsdóttir. The outcome is
homey, design savvy, comfortable and cool, all without
breaking the bank. The flats also serve as hands-on
gallery space for local design and art. Whether a
sculpture or a kitchen cupboard, if you like it, you can
buy it and take it home with you. grettisborg.is
ATLANTICA 7

on the fly
Ancient Bestsellers
Compiled by Sari Peltonen
They may be ancient historical documents, but don’t judge the books by their covers. A far cry from the dusty old yawnathons, the
Icelandic Sagas provide a unique insight into the local psyche—and enough ghosts, blood shedding and heartbreaking love stories
to keep any keen reader entertained. Here are the three biggest hits of the 600-year-old bestsellers to add to the must-read pile.
NJÁL’S SAGA
Most famous of the sagas, Njála—the saga’s nickname in Iceland—
recounts a series of blood feuds between the years 960-1020. A catfight
of sorts, Bergthóra and Hallgerdur, the wives of Njáll and his friend
Gunnar, get into a quarrel, and contract killing and other adventures
follow. Like so many of the sagas, the story spans several generations,
this time on the plains of Southern Iceland. For a closer look, visit the
Saga Centre in Hvolsvöllur, njala.is
EGIL’S SAGA
Egil’s Saga tells the story of farmer, poet and Viking Egill Skallagrímsson.
Ugly, talkative and rebellious, the ultimate Viking kills for the first time
at the age of six and regularly takes down men by the dozen. The story
recounts his voyages to Scandinavia and England spiced up with war,
encounters with royalty, poetry and plenty of mead (the local brewery is
called Egils for a reason). Most of the events take place around Borgarnes,
where you will find the excellent Settlement Centre, landnam.is
The SAGA of Grettir The Strong
A fish-stew-western, this Saga centers around outlaw Grettir
Ásmundarson, a bad-tempered, red-haired and freckled boy who grows
up to be the most tenacious of all Icelandic troublemakers. Outlawed for
his killings, he hid mostly on the island of Drangey (located in the middle
of Skagafjördur in the North). It took sorcerous help to finally overcome
Grettir—right before the outlawry was to be lifted. For a dip in the same
hot spring where the hero bathed after swimming to the shore from
Drangey Island, head to Grettislaug in Reykjaströnd.
8 atlantica

I C e L A n d I C d e s I g n
Laugavegur 1
101 Reykjavík • Iceland
Tel: +354 511 0991
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Hand in Hand
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On the Fly
By Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir
Photo by Geir Ólafsson
The Makings
of a Dream
Accomplished author, poet and playwright Andri Snaer Magnason is Icelandic nature’s most outspoken advocate.
Born in 1973, Andri Snaer Magnason comes from a family of doctors
and nurses. When asked why he chose a different career path instead
of following the family tradition, he replies: “My big sister is a brain surgeon.
It was hard to top that. I read a lot of poetry in high school and wanted
to do something creative.” Magnason’s first book, a collection of poetry, was
published in 1995. He continued with poetry for a while, moved on to short
stories and then published a children’s book in 1999. The Story of the Blue
Planet became the first children’s book to receive the Icelandic Literature
Prize. It has since been published in many different countries, most recently
in China and Lithuania. He changed course again and in 2002 his sci-fi novel
LoveStar, which has also been published in German, was named Book of the
Year by Icelandic booksellers. “My goal has always been to betray my audience,”
Magnason grins. “After becoming a successful poet I wrote a children’s
book and then a sci-fi novel which children couldn’t understand. Then I turned
to non-fiction.” Yet there is a red thread connecting all of his books. “I play with
big ideas,” the author explains. Published in 2006, Dreamland – A Self-Help
Manual for a Frightened Nation, also a winner of the Icelandic Literature Prize,
has appeared in English and many other languages. A release in Germany,
where Dreamland received the respected Kairos award earlier this year, is
impending. A documentary with the same name, co-directed by Magnason,
was named Best Documentary of 2009 at the Eddas, the Icelandic Film and
Television Awards.
In Dreamland, Magnason discusses energy harnessing for aluminum smelting
in Iceland. “I was lucky to get to travel in the highlands a lot as a child and
learned to respect the landscape and the land that we own. It struck me when
I found out that the government had promoted many of the most beautiful
and sensitive places as some sort of mines for the aluminum industry.” He
fought against the dam at Kárahnjúkar in the eastern highlands, which was
constructed to power the mammoth Alcoa aluminum smelter in Reydarfjördur,
something Magnason describes as a scandal. Magnason believes that it is
contradictory to promote aluminum production in Iceland as “clean” when
the initial stage of the process, bauxite mining, is an environmental hazard
as the recent eco-disaster in Hungary shows. Now two new smelters are
planned, in the southwest and northeast, both of which would have to rely
largely on geothermal energy. These controversial plans have been harshly
criticized by Magnason. “Those who support these projects are as mad as
the people who ruined the economy,” he says. “It is completely unknown
whether the high temperature geothermal areas can power smelters and
whether they can be harnessed at such a speed for such a long time. After
a few years we could have overused the energy for future generations.”
Statements like these have prompted supporters of smelters to declare that
Magnason is against progress. “Progress is not to repeat 50-year-old ideas
again and again until they cannot be executed any longer. This would be a
huge regression for Iceland,” Magnason responds, adding that the smelter
in Reydarfjördur—which was supposed to be progressive—has failed. “It
has not saved the local economy, people are still moving away from there,”
he says.
Magnason is now working on a new children’s book and a new documentary—a
large project which remains a secret for the time being. As
to whether he sees something positive emerging from the crisis, he says,
“Society wasn’t pretty the way it was heading.” The crisis brought it to a halt
and a certain re-evaluation has taken place. “It would be good to review the
energy policy,” he says, mentioning the upcoming Constitutional Assembly
which will rewrite the Constitution. “There are many good people running
for the Constitutional Assembly who can do positive things. This is
an opportunity to add a clause on sustainability.” An opportunity to create
Magnason’s dreamland, perhaps? a
10 atlantica

What’s On
In Reykjavík
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Five Questions
By Páll Stefánsson
Björn Blöndal Assistant to the Mayor of Reykjavík.
1. What is your favorite swimming pool in the capital?
Laugardalslaug pool.
2. Where is the best place to enjoy nature in Reykjavík?
Heidmörk nature reserve.
3. Where would you take a foreign guest to dinner?
To the Sushismidjan restaurant by the harbor.
4. What is your secret place in Reykjavík?
The secret garden.
5. The most beautiful building in the city in your opinion?
Hljómskálinn by the Pond.
Tanja Berglind Hallvardsdóttir Film producer.
1. What is your favorite swimming pool in the capital?
Seltjarnarneslaug pool is a cozy pool on the outskirts of town.
2. Where is the best place to enjoy nature in Reykjavík?
By the sea on Aegissída shore, to see the ocean stroke the land. Beautiful.
3. Where would you take a foreign guest for food?
To Vid Tjörnina (‘By the Pond’) which is an old and established eatery in
the heart of town.
4. What is your secret place in Reykjavík?
Grái Kötturinn café, they have the best breakfast in the world.
5. The most beautiful building in the city in your opinion?
The posh 100-year-old villa at Fríkirkjuvegur 11, by the pond.
. a
12 atlantica

Kristján B. Jónasson Writer and publisher
1. What is your favorite swimming pool in the capital?
The Árbaejarlaug pool.
2. Where is the best place to enjoy nature in Reykjavík?
At the waterfalls down in Gljúfurdalur valley on Mt. Esja. It is sometimes
forgotten that Reykjavík reaches over a whole mountain.
In there you will find beautiful rock formations, crags and there is
hardly anyone there. Then you can trek up to Kambshorn summit
and enjoy the view and even the storm.
3. Where would you take a foreign guest for food?
Restaurant Dill at the Nordic House. It has a good atmosphere and
food that lightens you up.
4. What is your secret place in Reykjavík?
I just wish that I could hide more often at the Kaffismidjan on
Kárastígur street.
5. The most beautiful building in the city in your opinion?
City Hall, Rádhúsid and the Ásmundarsafn museum in
Laugardalur valley. It is typical Icelandic architecture,
improvised and impractical but charming in its eccentricity.
Lára Jóhanna Jónsdóttir Actress
1. What is your favorite swimming pool in the capital?
The Vesturbaejarlaug pool. It’s so refreshing to go to the outdoor dressing
rooms and then dip into the hottest hot tub.
2. Where is the best place to enjoy nature in Reykjavík?
Ellidaárdalur valley comes to mind as a good place for a picnic, in summer
and winter. The Aegissída shorefront is incredibly scenic, even all the way to
Nauthólsvík beach and then say hello to friends who have passed away in
the graveyard of Fossvogur. It is also fun to find a good slope in winter for
toboggan rides.
3. Where would you take a foreign guest for food?
To Grái Kötturinn for breakfast.
4. What is your secret place in Reykjavík?
The sculpture garden adjoining the Einar Jónsson Museum.
5. The most beautiful building in the city in your opinion?
The Parliament house, Althingishúsid, seen from the outside and Kristskirkja
on the inside. a

on the fly
Lord of the Ring Road
By Stephanie Orford
Photos by Páll Stefánsson and courtesy of Svavar Jónatansson
Svavar Jónatansson hitch-hiked around the ring road for three remarkable
years, taking more than 200,000 photos along the way.
You cannot travel around Iceland without driving the ring road, route
no. 1. Many visitors do the whole circle in summer and Icelanders talk
about “driving the ring”. Icelandic artist Svavar Jónatansson did that trip
dozens of times over, traveling with anyone that would take him and snapping
photographs along the way. It took him three years, tens of thousands of kilometers,
and a few nights in an abandoned jeep. The fruit of his labor is his video
project Inland/Outland-Iceland.
“You realize that it’s five in the morning when you get there,” says Jónatansson,
recalling a night in November, “and the truck driver says goodbye, and everything’s
closed, and you find some abandoned car and you crawl into it. I basically
fell asleep to people finishing their Saturday night partying in a small town
in the Eastfjords.”
“This is the story of the whole project,” he says, “of making it work somehow.”
The 29-year-old sociology student started his project taking photographs
out of buses and freight trucks at regular intervals in 2007 with his first digital
camera. Over time, the project escalated and Jónatansson found sponsorship,
hitching free rides in buses and freight trucks.
Almost three years and a long editing process later, Inland/Outland was
born. The work consists of two videos that Jónatansson spliced together from
about 40,000 of his photos. They take the viewer around the country in 43 minutes
and twelve seconds, starting and ending just north of Reykjavík, and are
meant to be shown simultaneously on either side of the viewer when formally
exhibited, simulating a view of the countryside rolling by out of the right and
left-hand windows of a car.
The stop-motion effect of the ordered photographs feels like a movie, but
as the viewer travels from frame to frame, the photographs can transition from
summer to winter, from morning to evening, and from rainy to sunny. “It’s quite
a wide way of perceiving the landscape,” he says.
Along with showcasing Iceland’s stunning landscape, the videos also take
a look at the country’s less traditionally photogenic places. Inland/Outland
puts aside what Jónatansson calls “the beauty shots” and shows you what he
describes simply as “all of it.” That way, the viewer can experience the ring-roadbound
landscape as a whole, not just as a few disjointed postcard pictures.
The project shows a stubborn pride in the less glamorous side of his homeland,
truck stops and all.
Inland/Outland was chaotic in the making, much like the wildly varying
landscapes and weather Jónatansson captured on camera. His shooting was
constantly subject to bus and truck schedules, road conditions and weather.
Not to mention that he didn’t start off with a clear plan, he didn’t stick with just
one camera, and he didn’t use maps to check off what areas he had covered
until later in the project.
“Every opportunity I’d use to shoot,” he says, and his trips were convoluted
as a result. “I would go in the morning on a freight truck, and I would drive
14 atlantica

halfway to Akureyri, and have lunch in a gas station, and then drive back, and
this is something I did regularly. Then I’d go on a bigger trip to Akureyri or
Höfn, sleep there, and come back the day after. I’d do a couple of full circles,”
he recounts.
Jónatansson completed his project one step at a time, focusing on the task
at hand without over-thinking the final product. “To plan it all ahead,” he says,
“would have been discouraging and unrealistic.”
But his constant traveling hasn’t been risk-free. One incident particularly
resonates for him. In August 2009 he was traveling by truck at night when
the driver got a call that a truck going the opposite direction had driven off
the road on its way to Reykjavík. The passenger had died. “When you’re sitting
there, having been about two years sitting in trucks like this, so many times
doing the same thing, and then something like that happens—that does influence
you quite a bit.”
Despite the project’s chaos, Jónatansson persisted. Even though he had
good sequences, something always kept drawing him back to photograph
more. That’s what makes Inland/Outland such a complex portrait of the
Icelandic landscape.
“Doing it again and again, being tempted by ‘Oh! this weather’s amazing.
That looks great,’ meant that I had much more to choose from in making the
videos.”
Even after he started editing the project he felt compelled to keep shooting.
His persistence earned him something of a celebrity status among the smalltown
residents and drivers who saw him pass through regularly.
“That was a very interesting point, to start to feel that people had heard of
me,” he says. “Now, basically, when I go around the country, people in gas stations
know about me.”
Inland/Outland premiered at the ‘Núna (now) Festival’ in Winnipeg last
summer, backed by a hypnotic score by Daníel Ágúst Haraldsson, front man of
Icelandic band GusGus.
“Music under this piece really helps you get into this hypnotic state of mind
where you let these tens of thousands of frames just go by you, and enjoy the
kind of calmness,” says Jónatansson.
In July he released a DVD of the project in Iceland, and exhibited it at City
Hall in Reykjavík during the city’s Culture Night in August.
He still takes trips around the ring road and can’t help snapping pictures
along the way, mainly for the possible book version of the project, but also
for his new project, for which he uses the working title Extensions, he is taking
on the roads that branch off the ring road. He has already snapped more than
10,000 images for it, focusing now on the Snaefellsnes peninsula.
“If there’s a road ... if I can get in motion and photograph, then plenty of
places are waiting.”
Inlandoutland.com a
atlantica 15

What do The Simpsons, Sex and the City,
George Orwell and Jules Verne
all have in common?
TRUE LIES
by Sari Peltonen
Illustrations by Noora IsOeskeli
Apart from success and fame, Iceland. Be it literature,
television and film, from supermodels to cartoon
characters and unpronounceable volcanoes,
Iceland pops up in the culture as an inspiration, curious
setting or just for novelty. A study in filmography and bibliography
of the island portrays an otherworldly landscape
and a handsome nation. In between the stereotypes and
soft soap, one may also come across some strikingly sharp
portraits of the state of affairs.
NORTHERN EXPOSURE
Fi r s t a n d f o r e m o s t it is of course the stunning
nature in the distant, freezing ultima Thule that
has stirred our inspiration, and an entire gang of
cultural icons have used Iceland as their running
grounds.
Godfather of all Iceland references is Jules Verne,
whose science fiction classic Journey to the Centre of
the Earth from 1864 depicts a trip to the center of
the earth through the volcano Snaefellsjökull. An
inspiration for generations of sci-fi nerds, the latest
in the Verne-inspired pieces is the 3D-blockbuster
from 2008.
Another remake of sorts, Gerald Butler raved
through the fog and green pastures of Iceland as
Beowulf in a 2005 version of the legend of Beowulf
and Grendel. It was a failure in the box office, only
making a heartbreaking 4,000 USD (ISK 449,280
EUR 2,942/GBP 2,491) during its opening weekend.
A better watch is the documentary depicting
the making of the epic, Wrath of Gods, which
chronicles how the financial outcome was merely
a dot above the i for a project that was already catastrophic
in every way imaginable.
007, on the other hand, was perfectly successful
in ordering his “vodka martini with ice, if you
can spare it” by the glacial lagoon Jökulsárlón in
the 2002 flick Die Another Day. Comic hero Tintin
stopped by in Akureyri for fuel for his vessel Aurora
on an expedition to the North Pole (a little too late
to catch fellow expeditionary Prince Nikolai in
Dostoyevsky’s Possessed). Iceland is also a regular
pit stop in the work of critically acclaimed English
comic-book writer Warren Ellis. In his Global
Frequency, parapsychologist Beta Kristjansdottir,
while investigating an angel sighting in Norway,
sets the language issues straight:
Allan Crowe: You speak Norwegian?
Beta Kristjansdottir: Well, Icelandic is only spoken
by the Icelandic and there are only a quartermillion
of us. It helps to speak another couple of
languages. You?
Alan Crowe: I don’t have to. God was an
Englishman.
16 atlantica

Designers a
Comic hero Tintin stopped by in Akureyri for
fuel for his vessel Aurora on an expedition
to the North Pole.
atlantica 17

a Designers
a TRUE LIES
“Fair-haired boys”, “a large group of insane
men”, “insane Nordic animals”
and “tundra tycoons”.
18 atlantica

TRUE LIES a
“The scariest thing from Iceland since
Björk in that swan outfit.”
REALITY BITES
Re a l-li fe h e r o e s, t o o, h av e w a s h e d u p on the
sands of Iceland in increasing numbers over
the last few years. In the TV date show The
Bachelorette, Ali looked for love on the island—
and dumped one of the suitors by the lavaspitting
volcano Eyjafjallajökull (“The scariest
thing from Iceland since Björk in that swan
outfit,” as David Letterman put it, though he
might change his mind if he got a good look at
the snow-Björk which the Gilmore Girls built in
tribute to the star). Top Gear visited the volcano
too, in typical laddish style, even taking credit
for its eruption.
The contestants of Britain’s Next Top Model
liked it cold, on the other hand, with a fashion
shoot as fairies (a different kind to the ones you
will find in the Artemis Fowl book) in sub-zero
temperatures at the wintery Blue Lagoon and a
commercial promoting boiled sheep head, svid,
and fermented shark. The girls were somewhat
less keen on the grub than the tub, but in their
defense, they aren’t the only ones to gag in the
face of the island’s culinary delights: In 1936,
young poets W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice
spent three months in Iceland. In their travel
journal, Letter from Iceland, they recount:
“Dried fish is a staple food in Iceland. This
should be shredded with the fingers and eaten
with butter. It varies in toughness. The tougher
kind tastes like toe nails and the softer kind like
the skin off the soles of one’s feet.”
PRETTY WOMEN
Not o n l y t h e m a j e s t i c l a n d s c a p e s , but the
female inhabitants are renowned for their beauty.
In the 1960s television series Batman, the
terrifying, blue-faced Mr. Freeze’s chosen—and
frozen—one is a blonde Miss Iceland in a swimsuit.
It is not exactly a match made in heaven
though: “I wouldn’t marry you for a 10 billion
dollars!” the beauty queen says, to which the
groom cold-heartedly replies: “In the morning,
I will freeze your beautiful body solid!”
The blonde beautiful ice queens cause a stir
wherever they go. In Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed
American Gods, the protagonist Shadow meets
the god Odinn himself, but has eyes for the
women (alongside cloudberries and puffins)
too. Sex and the City vamp Samantha gets left
for an Icelandic supermodel, Anka, a name you
will never hear in Iceland—and neither will you
hear Stitch, even if the Disney film Lilo & Stitch
suggests otherwise.
In the TV series The Sopranos, it is the stewardesses
of Icelandic Air that cheer up the Italian
mafia party. For Friends’ poor Joey Tribbiani, on
the other hand, Iceland is the only country in
the world from which he hasn’t dated a woman.
Luckily enough, latest date Sara turns out to be
part-Icelandic. A careful viewer of the series—or
one with knowledge of Iceland’s whereabouts—
will question Joey’s bookkeeping though: on a
world map portraying his conquests the mid-
Atlantic country has already been marked with
a red pin.
Icelandic men are big blonde Vikings, universally
silly or sinister. The first type is represented
in 2005 horror flick Hostel in the form of the
backpacker Óli who wears an orange wind coat
with a flag of Iceland on the sleeve, runs after
women and sings a lot. The latter appears in the
TV series Chuck in the form of crossbow wielding
assassin The Icelandic Archer and, most terrifying
of all, in the film D2: The Mighty Ducks 2,
in which the world champion Icelanders, dressed
in black with blonde hair greased back, show no
good will at all and a ton of dirty tricks against
our heroes in The Junior Goodwill Games in
California—not so unlike the Icelandic business
Vikings who terrorized the financial world some
15 years after the movie premiered.
Another recent addition to the Icelandic male
fauna is the international man, such as Carl
of the Simpsons, an Icelandic-African-American
Buddhist, who spent the latter part of his boyhood
in Iceland before moving on to acquire
a masters degree in nuclear physics and a job
alongside Homer at Springfield Nuclear Power
Plant, as well as a taste for bowling and regular
drinks at Moe’s Tavern.
DIRECTOR’S CUT
The b e a u t y o f t h e Ic e l a n d i c f e m i n i n e form
doesn’t go unnoticed in the town of Twin
Peaks either. “I’m in love with Heba, she is this
giant snow queen smile like a sunrise on an
ice flow you could go blind. See what she gave
me—a giant lamb leg!” Jerry declares, as the
Icelandic business delegation arrives at the Great
Northern hotel.
The Icelanders drink, sing and dance in their
woolen sweaters hard enough to earn the
description “most god awful racket” from Agent
Cooper in one of his voice memos. Other well
earned titles include “fair-haired boys”, “a large
group of insane men”, “insane Nordic animals”
and “tundra tycoons”.
Director David Lynch himself arrived in
Iceland in 2009 in order to help the suffering
nation via transcendental meditation classes at
a discount rate.
Another iconic director, Quentin Tarantino,
who produced the aforementioned Hostel, spent
New Year’s Eve in Iceland in 2005 and 2006, and
described the celebrations in Late Night with
Conan O’Brien: “I’m in a room full of supermodels
who were drunk out of their mind standing
on a table, going, ‘Let’s get the party started.’
I’m like, ‘Where have I been all my life?’” He also
reported that in Iceland, the supermodels work
in McDonalds. Don’t get too excited though—
following the financial crash, McDonalds packed
its bags and fled the country.
Director Christopher Nolan came to Iceland
for Batman Begins, but the weather left him little
time for the ladies. The crew shot in 75-milean-hour
wind, and Nolan was quoted as saying,
atlantica 19

a TRUE LIES
“We come from the land of the ice and snow,
from the midnight sun where
the hot springs blow”
“Our first day of shooting was out on a frozen
lake—and the ice was cracking the way it’s supposed
to in the film, which was very unnerving.
It was a pretty extreme way to start a film like
this.” In the film, the Skaftafell glacial tongue
plays the Himalayan foothills. Other impersonations
by Iceland include Siberia for Lara Croft:
Tomb Raider (in which a fur clad, dog sledding,
Russian army duck driving Angelina Jolie surfs
the glacial lagoon Jökulsárlon) and the black
sands of Japan for Clint Eastwood’s war film duo
of Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.
SOUND OF MUSIC
The o t h e r wo r l d l y s o u n d s of Björk and Sigur
Rós have traveled the world and under the
ocean, whether in the BBC’s Planet Earth soundtrack,
Children of Men, Vanilla Sky or The Life
Aquatic, but they’re not the only ones to have
been inspired by the Icelandic landscapes.
Bing Crosby sang his ode to a favorite salmon
fishing river,
“You’ll dream of all that fishing on the Laxa
and all those other brawling rivers,
Lovely Iceland, Land of salmon,
Whether you have lost or won,
You’ll return again to Iceland
And the land of the midnight sun.”
Led Zeppelin arrived on the island in the mid-
70s to open their tour around Iceland, Bath and
Germany. Legendary track “Immigrant Song”
was written in the country, proudly proclaiming,
“We come from the land of the ice and
snow, from the midnight sun where the hot
springs blow” (the midnight sun was less of an
inspiration to Jenna from 30 Rock, who couldn’t
shoot her “sexy supernatural thriller, in the vein
of Twilight and True Blood” with werewolves
due to lack of darkness). Going several steps
further, violinist, multi-instrumentalist Eyvind
Kang composed an entire experimental album
inspired by his childhood in the country, fittingly
titling it The Story of Iceland.
The Stranglers held their Black and White
debut party and concert, flying in their own
core of British hacks for the event, while the
new-wave British band Echo and the Bunnymen
posed with the waterfall Gullfoss on the cover
of their album Porcupine, echoing the frigid feel
of the music on the album. The photographer
Brian Griffin, another Iceland aficionado, later
said of the session, “The sun barely appeared the
whole time we were there. To walk, stand up, or
just think seemed a massive effort”.
Some artists thought it best to stay indoors.
Former Sporty-spice, Mel C, shot her video
“Never Be the Same Again” entirely at the Blue
Lagoon... gym. Her sister in song, Mel B, did get
to grips with the rugged beauty of the country,
dating local hunk Fjölnir Thorgeirsson during
the Spice fame. Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s video for
“Today the Sun’s Upon Us” barely steps out of
Hótel Borg. Showing their macho chops on the
other hand, Take That hit the rocky terrain for
the video to come back single “Patience”, foolhardily
sporting microphone stands in place of
hiking gear.
FRIENDS
In a s m a l l c o u n t r y , all these visitors don’t go
unnoticed. Ever since Led Zeppelin, anyone
with 15 minutes of fame and a foreign passport
to even remotely enjoy a visit to the island has
earned the title “friend of Iceland”, Íslandsvinur.
From president Bill Clinton, who had a hotdog
at the Reykjavík booth Baejarins Bestu, to
Harrison Ford, who ate at the Indian restaurant
Austurindíafélagid, and from Damon Albarn,
who used to own a part of his favorite watering
hole Kaffibarinn (and has a house in Reykjavík) to
Paris Hilton, who drank Icelandic Glacial water
(a drink also favored by Geek-extraordinaire
Sheldon in hit sitcom Big Bang Theory). Not to
mention Microsoft millionaire Paul Allen, whose
yacht floated on the coastal waters of Reykjavík,
Gael García Bernal, Natalia Vodianova, Vladimir
Ashkenazy, Nick Cave, Mark E. Smith, Bobby
Fischer, Al Gore, Kiefer Sutherland, Kiri Te
Kanawa, Prince Charles, Swedish King Carl
Gustaf, Victoria Abril, Cameron Diaz, Tommy
Lee, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono... For such a little
land she sure has plenty of friends.
And why wouldn’t she? Distant, northern, volcanic
and mysterious, with lava, glaciers, whales
and trolls, Iceland is abundant in the magic that
has entranced its friends and continues to fire
the imaginations of the ones that never made
it there—as author Jorge Luis Borges put it,
“Iceland of the seas, How lucky all men are that
you exist.” a
20 atlantica

Goldfinger
Fully licensed
Gentlemans club
OPEN FROM 20:00
EVERY NIGHT
Smiðjuvegi 14 - 200 Kópavogur
Tel. 577 4230 - www.goldfinger.is
atlantica 21

A Culinary
Cult Classic
Riding the bus back to home-style cooking in Iceland
by Alda Kravec
Photos by Páll stefánsson
22 atlantica

It is perhaps the first thing that meets you as
you disembark the Flybus at BSÍ: the strange
scent of singed and boiled sheep’s head mixed
together with the more familiar fragrance of deep
fried fare. BSÍ is not only Iceland’s transportation
hub for national coach travel, it also houses Fljótt
og Gott (Fast and Good), a cafeteria that specializes
in quintessential national dishes such as sheep’s
head, fish pudding (plokkfiskur), fish balls (fiskibollur),
meat stew, lamb cutlets and, of course, hamburgers
and French fries. However, you might just
be too excited or exhausted from travel to bother
to stop and ponder the aromas let alone sit down
for a bite to eat, in which case you risk hurrying by
a legendary establishment with a false sense of
having been there and done that.
Although BSÍ has long housed dining facilities
of some kind, father and daughter team, Bjarni
Geir Alfredsson and Katrín Ösp Bjarnadóttir, took
over the place in 1996 when they founded Fljótt
og Gott. While his daughter manages the place,
Alfredsson is the head chef. Alfredsson (b.1951)
began his cooking career at the age of thirteen
in the kitchen of a fishing boat, and has been
working in the restaurant industry since 1969. He
explains how BSÍ’s dining hall has served traditional
Icelandic food for fifty years and he plans to
keep it that way despite continual changes in local
culinary practices: “Icelandic restaurants changed
between 1970-80 as we began importing different
ingredients and looking more abroad. For example,
in the late 70s, I opened up a restaurant in the
French style in Kópavogur and we served steaks
with pepper sauce and wine, but then these kinds
of cutting-edge restaurants started popping up
all over the place…But as one ages, one begins to
long for the food one grew up on, and so I started
serving sheep’s head here, and people laughed
at first.” However, fewer people laugh nowadays,
especially as a return focus on local ingredients
and traditions has become the new cutting-edge
trend.
Still, Alfredsson distinguishes his traditional fare
from the “New Nordic Food” currently pioneered
by higher-end trend setters such as the Nordic
House’s Dill restaurant, and he admits his version is
more in the vein of home-style cooking. To be sure,
the atmosphere in Fljótt og Gott is unapologetically
dated yet invitingly unpretentious, more like
a cult classic than a new hit sensation. In addition
to the daily special and the hot buffet, there is a
salad bar which includes at least three kinds of
herring salad, and a cooler filled with Danish-style,
open-faced sandwiches on rye while the heads of
sheep—served on plastic-wrapped plates alongside
two individual scoops of potato and turnip
mash—are sprinkled throughout this variegated
food arrangement like trophies in a glass cabinet.
It is a stunning presentation that brings to life pictures
out of cookbooks from the 1950s.
Like any cult classic, Fljótt og Gott has its cult
following. Although it attracts both tourists and
locals, Alfredsson claims that the larger share of
his customers are Icelanders—“a peculiar bunch”,
as he affectionately describes his regulars. “Those
who we might consider different, they flock here,
and it may well be because I’m so strange myself.
But I like these people, they always speak their
mind; if the food is not up to par, I get to hear
about it.” It is for the sake of his regulars that
Alfredsson maintains the same weekly specials.
For example, there is always salted lamb and split
peas (saltkjöt og baunir) on Wednesdays and a rack
of pork (grísahryggur) on Sundays. The sheep’s
head (svid or kjammi) is available daily and it
stands as the second most popular traditional dish
on the menu, after lamb cutlets (kótilettur): “I sell
between nine and ten thousand servings of head
per year,” estimates.
While it’s the traditional menu of Fljótt og Gott
that particularly attracts tourists and an older
generation of Icelanders, Alfredsson worries about
the younger generation, who hardly go in for the
fish and potatoes or kjammi unless on a wager.
“They generally eat with one hand, while the other
hand is holding a phone or working a computer,
and food is prepared for them accordingly; a slice
of pizza, a hamburger, a sandwich.” Fljótt og Gott
concedes to the younger demand for hamburgers,
pizza and French fries, which are also made available
at a drive-through window. It may sound like
a strange twist of fate, but according to Alfredsson,
Christmas day is by far the busiest day of the year
at the drive-through window: “The children sit at
home in front of all that traditional food out of
politeness, but they don’t like it, and so we open
the drive-through window and sell pizzas and
hamburgers non-stop, all day long.”
In order to encourage people, not least young
people, to eat local and traditional food, Alfredsson
is presently opening a new store or deli in the centre
of Reykjavík, where he aims to make his fare
more readily available and affordable. “The store
will be called Mamma Steina Matbúd after my
mother who was named Steinunn and had a great
appreciation for food.” In addition to the familiar
ready-made fish and lamb dishes and various
sandwiches of Fljótt og Gott, Mamma Steina will
also sell food products that come direct from the
farmer, such as “meat preserves (sultur), salted cod
from Hauganes, smoked trout from Mývatn, and a
new kind of sheep’s head that has never been sold
on the market before, smoked sheep’s head.” So if
you missed your stop for Icelandic home-cooking
at BSÍ, there is no need to fret for Mamma Steina is
just around the corner at no. 23 Skólavördustígur.
a
atlantica 23

y John Boyce
Iceland’s Golden Boots
Icelandic footballers abroad
As the curtain went down on the 19th World
Cup final, the competition was declared
the most expensive and most lucrative
ever. South Africa hosted nations from the four
corners of the globe. Iceland, unfortunately, was
not among them. As a sporting nation in the
international arena, Iceland has always had to play
against the odds. With a population not much
bigger than the London borough of Wandsworth,
the pool of available talent is inevitably very small.
Nonetheless, this feisty Nordic nation has produced
many fine sporting figures, particularly in
the realm of soccer.
Iceland has an impressive array of native footballers
plying a lucrative trade on the European
continent, most notably in England. Yet despite
the availability of decent talent and creditable performances
in qualifying rounds, Iceland has never
really come close to qualifying for a major competition.
This may all be about to change in the not
too distant future according to Morgunbladid journalist
and all round footy nerd, Kjartan Kjartansson.
An enthusiastic football blogger, Kjartansson also
writes for the football website Sammarinn.is, dedicated
to thought-provoking articles on Icelandic
and international football. For the lowdown on
Iceland’s international prospects, native soccer
players abroad and more, I decided to pick his
brain between blogs.
John Boyce: “You have been quoted as saying that
Iceland’s prospects in international competition may
have become considerably brighter, how is this possible?
Kjartan Kjartansson: Even with our current
crop of players, qualification for the world cup
is well nigh impossible. It would require both an
incredibly exceptional generation of players and
a great campaign to even reach the playoffs. The
European Championships, however, is another
matter. UEFA have recently expanded the competition
to 24 teams from 2016 onwards which
effectively means that half of the member nations
will play in the final tournament. With a decent
performance in the qualifying stages, and the
squad playing to its potential, Iceland has a very
real chance of making it to the European finals,
the qualifying rounds of which begin in the fall.
JB: Iceland has had some memorable giant killing
moments in the last decade or so. What, in your
opinion, has been the most impressive performance
by an Icelandic national team to date?
KK: Well, I don’t think you would find too much
disagreement on this point, certainly in terms
of the result. It would have to be the 1-1 draw
against France in 1998 just after they had been
crowned World Champions. The score line, quite
stunning on the face of it, was a mixture of two
things I think: an exceptionally determined performance
by the Icelandic side and complacency
on the part of France. I well remember some of
the French team giggling as the national anthems
were being played. In hindsight a moment I’m
sure they regret! Iceland’s draw against eventual
winners Spain in the qualifiers for Euro 2008
would also have to be a contender, especially in
retrospect, considering the run the Spanish team
has had.
JB: Many of the current established Icelandic internationals
are approaching the end of their careers,
players like Eidur Smári Gudjohnsen and Hermann
Hreidarsson. Of the younger, up and coming players
hoping to continue the successful record of Icelandic
players abroad, who has impressed you most?
KK: I would have to plum for Gylfi Thór Sigurdsson.
He had a very impressive trajectory with Reading
where he performed admirably in quite adverse
circumstances. He scored 20 goals in all competitions
and was voted player of the season. He is very
cool headed for one so young and is an expert set
piece taker. He definitely looks set to establish
himself at his new club Hoffenheim in Germany
and has already started scoring some goals. He
has all the opportunities to go on to even greater
things in the future and I can see him becoming
the heir to Rúnar Kristinsson in the national team
as the midfield lynchpin.
JB: And finally. Who, in your book, is worthy of the
title of greatest Icelandic International to date?
KK: Iceland has produced some cracking, top
class players over the last 50 years, like Ásgeir
Sigurvinsson and Arnór Gudjohnsen certainly
come to mind, but at the end of the day, it’s hard
to overlook Eidur Smári Gudjohnsson. He is the
outstanding player of his generation with a technique
that’s beyond any of his team-mates in the
national team. On the minus side, there is a feeling
that he could have done more, particularly for the
national team. His commitment has sometimes
been an issue. The legendary Gudni Bergsson
would also be there, a fantastic professional and
a legendary captain at Bolton. It’s a shame that a
silly disagreement and the stubbornness of the
national coach kept him out of the national side
during his best years.”
Whoever one might choose for the accolade
of Iceland’s greatest footballers, what remains
beyond doubt is the impressive contribution that
Icelandic professionals have made abroad.
(Continues on pg. 26) »
Photos on this spread by Sigurjón Ragnar / SR Photos
24 atlantica

Defenders Ólafur Ingi Skúlason and Helgi Valur Daníelsson
guarding Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo at Laugardalsvöllur
stadium in Reykjavík in October 2010. It was Ronaldo’s first
and only appearance in Iceland. Skúlason plays in Denmark
and Daníelsson in Sweden.
I well remember some of the French team
giggling as the national anthems
were being played.

Who’s Who of Icelandic Soccer
Icelandic internationals past and present
Gudni Bergsson
Albert Gudmundsson.
Albert Gudmundsson
Born way back in 1923, Gudmundsson has the
distinction of being Iceland’s first professional footballer.
He first played with his local Icelandic outfit
before moving to Scotland to study business. After
amateur stints with Rangers and Arsenal (he was
unable to secure a work permit), he was head hunted
by French side Nancy and was their top scorer
in his first season. Gudmundsson also had a short
stint with the legendary A.C. Milan, cut short by
injury, as well as several other French clubs before
retiring in 1954. Gudmundsson also made a transition
almost unheard of in sport, from professional
football to national politics, serving in the Icelandic
parliament for 15 years and holding the posts of
minister for Finance and minister of Industry.
26 atlantica
Ásgeir Sigurvinsson, captain of Stuttgart.
Ásgeir Sigurvinsson
Another seventies legend is the attacking midfielder,
Ásgeir Sigurvinsson. A pioneer of continental
European football, he spent more than eight
seasons with legendary Belgian club Standard
Liege, lifting the Belgian cup in 1981. From there
he moved to German outfit Stuttgart and helped
them to their first league title in 32 years, before
retiring in 1990. He continued to work for the club
as a scout for several more years.
On the international front, Sigurvinsson played 45
times for Iceland and later coached the national
team from 2003 to 2005. In 2003 to celebrate
UEFA’s fiftieth anniversary Sigurvinsson was selected
by the Icelandic FA as its golden player, the
most outstanding Icelandic player of the last 50
years.
Arnór Gudjohnsen
One of the outstanding players of the seventies
and eighties would have to be Arnór Gudjohnsen,
father and agent of Eidur Smári Gudjohnsen.
He played for R.S.C. Anderlect and scooped the
Golden Boot for top scorer with that club in the
Belgian first division in 1987. He also played professionally
in both France and Sweden. Along with
his son, Arnór has the distinction of being the only
father and son to have played for their country
during the same game, Eidur Smári coming on as a
substitute for his father in 1996 when Iceland beat
Estonia 3-0. In total, Arnór Gudjohnsen made 74
appearances for his country.
One of the great Legends of Icelandic football
of the last 20 years, Bergsson made his international
name with Premier side Bolton in the 1990s
and remains a hugely iconic figure at the club.
Having originally failed to make an impact at his
first English club, Tottenham Hotspurs, Bergsson
decided to quit football and study law, but was
quickly snapped up by canny Bolton manager,
Bruce Rioch. Bergsson quickly settled in and
became a central figure in Bolton’s epic up and
down struggles to stay in top flight football.
Bergsson claimed a well deserved Championship
medal in 1997 for his central role in returning
Bolton to the Premiership. He remained a stalwart
defender of the club until his retirement at the age
of 37. He is now a qualified lawyer and TV football
host on Icelandic television.
Atli and Jóhannes Edvaldsson
The Edvaldsson brothers come from a true footballing
family. Their father, Evald Mikson, was a
goalkeeper with the Estonian national football
team in the 1930s, while Atli’s daughter is a member
of the Icelandic women’s national football
team. Atli himself is regarded as one of the most
influential players to have come from Iceland.
A talented midfielder, he had a very successful
career in Germany with both Fortuna Dusseldorf
and Bayer Uerdingen from the early eighties to the
mid nineties. He played 70 times for his country
and upon retiring became a well known manager.
His older brother, Jóhannes, also made the international
Icelandic team, capped 34 times. He began
his continental career in France and Denmark
before moving to Scotland in 1975 where he made
his name with Celtic. Following a spell in the USA,
Jóhannes returned to Europe signing for Scottish
side Motherwell before retiring in 1984.

Pétur Péturson
Born in 1959, Pétur Pétursson made his debut
with ÍA in Iceland before being snapped up by
Feyenoord Rotterdam where he won the national
cup in 1980. He also played with Anderlecht and
Royal Antwerp in a continental career spanning
almost 20 years. Pétursson also made 41 appearances
for his country, playing his last match for
Iceland against France in 1990. Since his retirement
he has been actively involved in management and
is currently the assistant manager of Reykjavík club
KR and the Icelandic national team.
Eyjólfur Sverrisson
Yet another Icelander to enjoy a stellar career in
Germany was Eyjólfur Sverrisson. He moved to
the continent in 1989 to play for VfB Stuttgart
and became league Champion with them in 1992.
Later he moved to Turkey signing for Besiktas and
helped them to the national league title in 1995.
Six years later, back in Germany, he lifted the super
cup twice with Hertha BSC. One of the stars of the
Icelandic national team, he was capped 66 times
and also captained them during the 1990s. He
retired from competitive football in 2005 but now
coaches the ever so successful U21 national team.
Eidur Smári Gudjohnsen
Of the current crop of Icelanders coming to the
end of their continental careers, the most successful
has undoubtedly been Eidur Smári Gudjohnsen
who began his career with Reykjavík side Valur
before transferring to English championship side
Bolton. He quickly became the clubs most valuable
player scoring 21 goals in the 1999-2000
season. It was not long before Chelsea came calling
snapping up the striker for four million pounds
in 2000. At Chelsea Gudjohnsen was revered for
forming a deadly strike partnership with Jimmy
Floyd Hasselback, netting 23 goals in his debut
season with the blues. Even greater glory was to
come in the form of the premier league trophy
with Chelsea in 2005 and European Champion
league success in 2009 following a lucrative move
to Barcelona in the summer of 2006. Off the
pitch, however life has not been quite so rosy,
with Gudjohnsen publicly admitting to a serious
gambling problem that had seen him lose in the
region of 400,000 pounds. Barca sold Gudjohnsen
to Monaco where he didn’t enjoy much success,
then he transferred to Tottenham, then to Stoke
City where he still resides.
Ívar Ingimarsson
Another Icelandic stalwart of the English league
over the last decade is Ívar Ingimarsson. He began
his soccer career with lower division sides, Torquay
and Brentford before flourishing as the first signing
made by Steve Coppell in 2003 when he took
up the reigns at FC Reading. In the next three
years, along with Ibramhima Sonko, Ingimarsson
formed one of the most formidable defenses in
the English League. Dedication and talent were
rewarded when Reading won promotion for the
first time in its history to the Premier league.
Ingimarsson capped a tremendous year by being
voted Reading player of the season. Ingimarsson
has remained loyal to the club and signed a new
one year contract at the end of last season.
Heidar Helguson
After a very successful season with Lilleström
in Norway, Helguson signed to Premiership side
Watford for a club record fee of 1.5 million pounds
and made a stunning debut against league leaders,
Liverpool. He has enjoyed one of the most varied
careers of any Icelander, which has taken him
to Fulham, Bolton Wanderers and Queen’s Park
Rangers where he resides now. He also notched up
over fifty appearances for his country.
Hermann Hreidarsson
One of the stalwarts of the English Premier League
and championship, he has dubious distinction of
being relegated five times from the Premiership
with five different clubs.
A tough and dedicated defender, Hreidarsson
began his English league career with premiership
newcomers Crystal Palace in 1997 before moving
on to Ipswich, Wimbledon, Charlton Athletic, and
finally to Portsmouth, who were relegated at the
end of this season. Hreidarsson has also played
with distinction for the national side notching up
an impressive 80 caps.
Eidur Smári Gudjohnsen with Barcelona.
Gylfi Thór Sigurdsson
Perhaps the most exciting new prospect of
recent times is the talented young midfielder,
Gylfi Sigurdsson, who for this season transferred
from Reading to the Bundesliga team Hoffenheim
where he has been doing wonders.
Described by top Guardian pundit, Barry
Glendenning, as one of the best young dead
ball specialists since David Beckham, it may only
a matter of time before the giants of the English
league begin to wave bundles of cash in his direction.
Rumor has it that Manchester United already
has his eye on him. Sigurdsson began life with his
hometown team FH Hafnarfjördur from where he
went to FC Breidablik (currently premier league
champions in Iceland) before moving on trial
basis to Preston North End. He was snapped by
the Reading Football Academy in 2005, eventually
signing a full time one year contract in July 2007.
He established himself as one of Reading’s most
valuable players. Sigurdsson scored in Reading’s
FA cup defeat of premiership giants Liverpool and
got the Reading player of the year award in 2008.
He has already scored several goals this season
for Hoffenheim and was Iceland’s hero scoring two
thunderbolt goals for Iceland’s U21 team against
Scotland, resulting in an Icelandic win 2-1.
atlantica 27

Icelandic Men Playing Overseas
ENGLAND
Premiership
Hermann Hreidarsson, born 1974, Portsmouth FC
Grétar Rafn Steinsson, born 1982, Bolton Wanderers FC
Eidur Smári Gudjohnsen, born 1978, Stoke City
Jóhannes Karl Gudjónsson, born 1980, Huddersfield TKTK
Gudlaugur Victor Pálsson, born 1991, Liverpool FC
Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson, born 1990, Westham United FC
Championship
Ívar Ingimarsson, born 1977, Reading FC
Brynjar Björn Gunnarsson, born 1975, Reading FC
Aron Einar Gunnarsson, born 1989, Coventry City
Heidar Helguson, born 1977, Queens Park Rangers
League 1, England
Ármann Smári Björnsson, born 1981, Hartlepool United FC
Kári Árnason, born 1982, Plymouth Argyle FC
Premier League, Scotland
Eggert Gunnthór Jónsson, born 1988, Hearts of Midlothian FC
GERMANY
Bundesliga, Germany
Gylfi Thór Sigurdsson, born 1989, Hoffenheim
Other
Gardar B. Gunnlaugsson, born1983, Unterhaching
HOLLAND
Jóhann Berg Gudmundsson, born 1990, AZ Alkmaar
Kolbeinn Sigthórsson, born 1990, AZ Alkmaar
Ólafur Karl Finsen, born 1992, AZ Alkmaar
Aerstedivisjonen, Nederland:
Björn Jónsson, born 1990, SC Heerenveen
BELGIUM
Jupiler Liga, Belgia
Arnar Thór Vidarsson, born 1978, Cercle Brügge KSV
Alfred Finnbogason, born 1989, Lokeren
Bjarni Thór Vidarsson, born 1988, Mechelen
DENMARK
Superligaen, Denmark
Arnór Smárason, born 1988, Esbjerg
Arnar Darri Pétursson, born 1991, Sönderjysk E.
Sölvi Geir Ottesen Jónsson, born 1984, Copenhagen FC
Rúrik Gíslason, born 1988, Odense BK
Stefán Gíslason, born 1980, Brøndby IF
Ólafur Ingi Skúlason, born 1983 SönderjyskE
NORWAY
Eliteserien Norge
Árni Gautur Arason, born 1975, Odd Grenland
Björn Bergmann Sigurðarson, born 1991, Lilleström SK
Gunnar Heidar Thorvaldsson, born 1982, Fredrikstad
Kristján Örn Sigurdsson, born 1980, Hønefoss BK
Indridi Sigurdsson, born 1981, Viking FK
Birkir Már Saevarsson, born 1984, Brann
Birkir Bjarnason, born 1988 Viking
Veigar Páll Gunnarsson, born 1980, Stabaek
Pálmi Rafn Pálmason, born 1984, Stabaek
Bjarni Ólafur Eiríksson, born 1982, Stabaek
Stefán Logi Magnússon, born 1980, Lilleström
1 divisjon Norge
Gardar Jóhansson, born 1980, Strömsgodset
Gudmann Thorisson, born 1987, Nybergsund
SWEDEN
Allsvenskan
Ragnar Sigurdsson, born 1987, IFK Göteborg
Hjálmar Jónsson, born 1980, IFK Göteborg
Theódór Elmar Bjarnason, born 1987, IFK Göteborg
Helgi Valur Danielsson, born 1981, AIK
Jónas Gudni Saevarson, born 1983, Halmstad
Hallgrímur Jónasson, born 1986, GAIS
Gudmundur Reynir Gunnarsson, born 1989, GAIS
Gudjón Baldvinsson, born 1986, GAIS
Eyjólfur Hédinsson, born 1985, GAIS
Steinthór Freyr Thorsteinsson, born 1985, Örgryte
Davíd Thór Vidarsson, born 1984, Öster
Superettan, Sverige
Ari Freyr Skúlason, born 1986,GIF Sundsvall
Hannes Th. Sigurdsson, born 1983, GIF Sundsvall
2.division
Heidar Geir Júlíusson, born 1984, Angelholm
ITALY
Emil Hallfredsson, born 1984, Reggina, on loan to Verona
Icelandic Women Playing Overseas
Björg Bjarnadóttir, born 1987, Klepp IL, Norway
Sif Atladóttir, born 1985, 1. FC Saarbrucken e.V, Germany
Thórunn Helga Jónsdóttir, born 1984, Santos, Brazil
Gudbjörg Gunnarsdóttir, born 1985, Djurgarden, Sweden
Gudrún Sóley Gunnarsdóttir, born 1981, Djurgarden, Sweden
Edda Gardarsdóttir, born 1979, KIF Örebro DFF, Sweden
Ólína G. Vidarsdóttir, born 1982, KIF Örebro DFF, Sweden
Erla Steina Arnardóttir, born 1983 Kristianstads DFF, Sweden
Gudný Björk Ódinsdóttir, born 1988, Kristianstads DFF, Sweden
Katrín Ómarsdóttir, born 1987, Kristianstads DFF, Sweden
Margrét Lára Vidarsdóttir, born 1986, Kristianstads DFF, Sweden
Dóra Stefánsdóttir, born 1985, Ldb FC Malmö, Sweden
Thóra Björg Helgadóttir, born 1981, Ldb FC Malmö, Sweden
Hólmfrídur Magnúsdóttir, born 1984, Philadelphia Independence, USA
28 atlantica

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EXCURSIONS
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Fall and winter is the time of the Aurora Borealis. On clear frosty nights
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Winter arrives in Iceland and northern lights rage in the sky in all their glory, green,
pink, blue and red waves of light that illuminate the clear, frosty Icelandic nights.
Because of the clean air the visibility can be stunning and you can see the aurora
borealis flowing through the sky like highways made of this incredible light. However you
need to get out of the electric buzz created by human existence to enjoy this spectacle. This
is an experience best enjoyed in dark places where human-made electric bulbs do not dilute
the natural light presented by nature itself. According to specialists the activity of the
aurora borealis has been quite low in recent years but because of solar storms increasing it
is expected to rise significantly in coming years.
That does not mean these stunning waves of electricity have vanished from the sky in the
last few years. In fact enthusiasts have been quite lucky in spotting them all over Iceland.
You can even see them in Reykjavík on starry nights but then you need to be extremely
lucky because the city lights dilute them.
Reykjavík Excursions offers special nighttime tours to see this amazing phenomenon. The
locations visited are different every tour since they go where the aurora borealis are most
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atlantica 29

Isavia
Isavia is an Icelandic company that provides
service both on the ground and off it. While
Isavia is responsible for running and maintaining
all airfields in Iceland it also operates all air
traffic controlling in Iceland, both for domestic
flights and for international flights crossing the
North Atlantic. The company has 600 employees
and an additional 100 working for its subsidiaries
Tern Systems and Duty Free at Keflavík
International Airport. In terms of employees,
Isavia is therefore one of the biggest companies
in Iceland.
Large air traffic control area
The Icelandic air traffic control area is over five million square kilometers making
it one of the world’s largest. It reaches from the west coast of Greenland to
the Greenwich meridian, and from the North Pole to just north of Scotland.
Almost 300 flights enter the area every 24-hours, with over 1,200 aircraft
crossing the North Atlantic every day. The Icelandic air traffic control center is
located at Reykjavik airport.
The airline with the most frequent flights within the Icelandic air control
area last year was Icelandair, followed by Lufthansa and British Airways. Boeing
was the most common type of aircraft and the most frequently flown flight
path was from London to Los Angeles. The second most popular was London–
San Francisco, with Copenhagen–Keflavík in third place.
In 2009, a total of 101,503 aircraft entered the air traffic control area. In the
year prior to that, 110,366 aircraft flew in the area, while in 2007 a total of
105,414 aircraft used the area. The year 2007 was the first year the annual figure
exceeded 100,000 flights in the control area.
30 atlantica

Isavia
Icelandic air traffic control area
Canada
Svalbard
Greenland
Norway
Iceland
Scotland
Ireland
Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption
The Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption in the spring of 2010 had quite an impact
on Isavia staff’s workload. At first the eruption did not affect flights in
Iceland but affected flights in Europe severely as the ash cloud reached
Europe because of northerly winds. But in nine days, when winds started to
blow from the east, the airspace over Keflavík airport was also closed for a
total of 10 days. When the airport was closed, air traffic through the Icelandic
air traffic control area reached numbers no one had seen before. For several
days, a wall of ash was blown from the glacier in a southerly direction over
the North Atlantic. Consequently almost all flights between Europe and the
US passed through the Icelandic air traffic control area. During a four-day
period, the air traffic record for the area was broken four times. The first three
days after the eruption saw 758 flights within the control area, followed by
906, then 984. On day four, a total of 1,012 flights went across the region in
a 24-hour period—almost doubling the previous record of 576 aircraft, set
on July 1 in 2008.
Despite the heavy disruption to flight traffic during the height of the volcanic
eruption, an international airport was open at all times in Iceland, except
for just a few hours one day.
Winner of the Eagle Award in 2009
Isavia is a recognized member of the aviation world which was distinctly
demonstrated when the International Air Transport Association (IATA)
awarded it with the prestigious Eagle Award for the most improved air navigation
service provider of 2009. IATA presents this award annually to air
navigation and airport service providers.
It is a worthy recognition for outstanding services, financial and operational
progress, and in the opinion of IATA, Isavia is a leader in optimizing
efficiency and safety on flight paths over the North Atlantic and the North
Pole. In presenting the award, IATA acknowledged Isavia’s diligent work in
improving performance, implementing good cost-containment initiatives
and reducing charges. “Isavia has also played a key role in initiating significant
improvements to the changing structure in the North Atlantic airspace.
This is the kind of innovation we need in our partners,” said Giovanni
Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
Four international airports
In addition to controlling the Icelandic air traffic control area, Isavia also operates
all of Iceland’s state owned airports, with Keflavík International Airport
being the biggest. There are four international airports in Iceland: Akureyri,
Egilsstadir, Keflavík and Reykjavík where the bulk of all domestic flights go
through. Akureyri is located in the north, Egilsstadir in the east, and Keflavík
and Reykjavík are relatively close to one another in the south-west.
The best in Europe
Keflavík Airport was chosen the Best Airport in Europe in 2009 in a wide
ranging customer survey which was conducted in 140 airports around the
world, 48 of which were in Europe. The survey, carried out on behalf of the
Airports Council International, asked passengers for their views on the level
of quality of over 30 service factors. The results are published quarterly, followed
by an overall total for the year. Keflavík Airport has taken part in the
ACI surveys since 2004 and has regularly been among the top three European
airports. In 2004, Keflavík achieved third place internationally in the category
for airports handling less than five million passengers per year.
Last summer, eight airlines offered almost 200 scheduled and regular
charter flights per week during the high season at Keflavík Airport. Icelandair
was by far the most active airline, with flights to 27 destinations in Europe
and America. Iceland Express (Astraeus) and SAS also operate regular scheduled
services all year round to mainland Europe. Iceland Express (Astraeus)
also flies to the US. In addition, Lufthansa, Germanwings, Air Berlin and
Transavia flew regularly to and from Keflavík during the summer months.
atlantica 31

Top
Ten
by Páll Stefánsson
Eyjafjallajökull volcano put Iceland on
the map. Not only did the eruption
stop air-traffic for couple of days here
in the northern hemisphere, the volcano
was also a tongue breaker for journalists
around the globe, producing some very
funny pronunciations, in our opinion.
But some of the big and notorious volcanoes
here have short, strong names
like Hekla, Askja and Katla. Others are
slightly more difficult for outsiders to pronounce,
like Öraefajökull, Eyjafjallajökull,
Theystareykjarbunga and Snaefellsjökull.
For your next trip to Iceland, you should
plan very carefully and aim to only visit
places which have more than a dozen letters.
And, for an even greater challenge,
learn to pronounce those place names
perfectly.
So here are the top ten places to visit in
Iceland next summer:
Landmannaafréttur,
Öxarfjardarhreppur,
Nordur-Ísafjardarsýsla,
Hrafntinnusker,
Breidamerkursandur,
Snaefellsnessýsla,
Steingrímsfjardarheidi,
Sólheimajökull,
Thorskafjardarheidi and
Fáskrúdsfjördur.
Bon voyage!
32 atlantica

The natural pool in Landmannalaugar, south central highlands,
is the perfect place to have a bath, after a long day hiking.
Fuji GX680III / 180mm / Velvia
atlantica 33

a Horses on Lava
Fauskaklettur by Thvottárskridur, East Iceland.
Fuji GX680III / 125mm / Velvia
34 atlantica

Horses on Lava a
The road to Langanesfontur glowing in the midnight sun.
Northeast Iceland. Hasselblad CW503 / 50mm / Velvia
The geyser Strokkur, next to
the famous Geysir, is one of
the most popular tourist
destinations in Iceland.
Fuji GX680III / 50mm / Velvia
atlantica 35

a Top Ten
The midnight sun, reflecting on a small pond at Stekkjamelar, close to Héradsflói bay, East Iceland. Fuji GX680III / 180mm / Velvia
Longest day of the year, looking over Faxaflói bay from Reykjavík, at Mt Akrafjall. Fuji GX617 / 300mm / Velvia
36 atlantica

Króksbjarg and waterfall, in Fossá at Skagi peninsula, Northwest Iceland. Hasselblad H1 / 300mm / Velvia
atlantica 37

a TOP TEN
Mt. Herdubreid, often called the queen of Icelandic mountains, north central highlands.
Hasselblad CW503 / 250mm / Velvia
Mt Bláhnjúkur in Landmannalaugar, south central highlands. Linhof PC612II / 125mm / Velvia
38 atlantica
38 atlantica

atlantica 39

SHUTTER
STORIES
by Sari Peltonen
Photos by Páll Stefánsson and courtesy of Katrín Elvarsdóttir
Strong yet subtle, artist Katrín Elvarsdóttir’s photographs
are worth more than a thousand words.
here, just a few more steps!”
shouts the blond-haired woman.
“Come
The name ‘Katrin Elvarsdóttir’
still adorns the door of the old studio, but the
photography artist has recently moved further
down the aisle in the SÍM artist residency building.
It is hardly unlike Elvarsdóttir to be on the
move: Born and raised in Ísafjördur, a fishing
village with population 3,900 in the Westfjords
of Iceland, Elvarsdóttir attended high school in
Sweden, then returned to Reykjavík to study
French, when she “fell in love with [photography],
I guess it took over—I loved the medium
and got completely hooked. From that point
there was no turning back.”
Upon graduation, Elvarsdóttir hit the road
again, with her then boyfriend and now husband,
to Boston, US, where she completed a
degree in fine arts. From there, she moved on to
New York—working with fashion, editorial and
increasingly upon her art photography—spent a
couple of years teaching in Denmark and made
several shorter stays elsewhere in the world,
before returning to Iceland in 2004.
From the tiny Ísafjördur, nestled in the
Westfjords to the world village that is New York,
“they are two different worlds, right? I think I
have benefitted greatly from having experienced
both,” she says. “I think where you come from
affects what comes out when you do your work,
no matter what it is. But it’s hard to tell for your
own work.”
Now based in Reykjavík, with a view over the
40 atlantica
North Atlantic opening from her studio window,
she still travels regularly to avoid claustrophobia.
“I tend to feel quite isolated if I stay here for
long periods of time, so it’s been one of my
main goals to keep visiting other places.”
Apart from travels (China), Elvarsdóttir has
kept busy with exhibitions this year: She curated
the Nordic photography exhibition Núna/The
Present is Now at the Nordic House and held two
private exhibitions, Nowhereland in the Reykjavik
Art Museum and Equivocal, The Sequence in
Gallery Águst, continuing the themes started
with the original Equivocal in 2008. A book based
on the series is set to come out in 2011.
Acclaimed for her use of light and composition
to create emotionally charged imagery,
the subjects of Elvarsdóttir’s photographs are
“people and places. That’s basically it.” She
often collaborates with friends and family. The
Simulacra series features four works with strikingly
similar-looking red-haired women, dressed
in identical clothing, posed in front of the same
window during different seasons and weathers,
“to confuse the viewer about what’s the same
and what’s not the same. Viewers often thought
it is four different windows and four different
girls, and in fact it is two different girls and just
one window. It is about getting people to look
closely and to figure out what is going on,” says
Elvarsdóttir.
Narratives work through implication and suggestion
rather than explicit storytelling. “I often
try to capture a tiny fleeting thought and turn it
into something bigger, to make the photographs
fit together to create a larger narrative—I often
hear various interpretations of my works, all of
which could be valid.”
Her first series after returning to Iceland,
Revenants, was shot with an elementary camera,
little more equipped than pinhole technology,
in the emptied countryside, with ghostly shapes
forming on the paper. “Nowhereland [major private
show in Reykjavík’s Art Museum featuring
shots of caravans and foggy forest landscapes]
is similar in that I find places that are desolate,
more disturbing than beautiful. You get a sense
that something is about to happen, maybe a
catastrophe. That attracts me, this dangerous,
scary feeling,” Elvarsdóttir explains. She also
finds inspiration in the un-obvious, “things that
others don’t seem to notice. You think to yourself
‘there is something there, but I’m not sure
what’. I find that really fascinating.”
Sometimes, the works are considered and
carefully planned, in others, they are merely
happy accidents. “You see these curtains,” she
points at a work on the studio wall featuring a
pair of curtains (windows are a recurring motif
in Elvarsdóttir’s work) flying in the air, “I was in
Palermo and accidentally went to check out this
hotel, saw this and ended up photographing it—
that happens a lot. It is a combination of seeing
things, grabbing them and photographing”.
A book based on the Equivocal series will be out in
2011, for more information, see
katrinelvarsdottir.com.

atlantica 41

a SHUTTER STORIES
FACT FILE
Katrín Elvarsdóttir
Born 1964 in Ísafjördur, Iceland
Lives and works in Reykjavík, Iceland
>EDUCATION
1993 Art Institute of Boston, BFA
1990 Brevard Community College
1988 University of Iceland, BA in French
>SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010 Equivocal The Sequel, Gallerí Ágúst, Reykjavík.
2010 Nowhereland, The Reykjavík Art Museum.
2008 Equivocal, Gallerí Ágúst, Reykjavík.
2008 Home-away, Reykjavík Museum of Photography
2007 Without a trace, The National Museum of Iceland.
2003 Seventh and Second Gallery, Revenants, New York, USA
2002 Akureyri Art Museum, Revenants, Akureyri, Iceland
>BOOKS
2008 Reflection: Icelandic Contemporary Photography
2005 Morar-naervidd with sound by M.Hemstock
THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY
With its magnificent nature and supreme landscapes,
Iceland has long played host to armies
of enthusiastic amateur photographers. Artists
occupying the dark room is a younger phenomenon.
The first fine art photographs in the world
are generally credited to Englishman John
Edwin Mayall, who illustrated the Lord’s Prayer
with his daguerreotypes in 1851. In Iceland,
a professional photography association was
founded in 1926, but the medium was principally
connected to journalism and advertising.
It took until the 1960s before a group of artists
called SÚM, influenced by Fluxus and Dadaism,
introduced the use of photography in artistic
expression.
“The approach to art photography is different
in Iceland compared to many other countries
as there’s a lack of tradition,” says Jóhanna
Gudrún Árnadóttir from the Reykjavík Museum
of Photography. Owned by the city, it currently
holds a collection of five million or so
photographs. The National Museum also has a
photography department, and independent galleries
occasionally exhibit photography. But the
market remains small for photographic works.
“If you want to collect photography, now is a
good time to buy,” Katrín Elvarsdóttir smiles.
Several years behind its Nordic and European
neighbors, the field is unknown within the local
sphere, lacking written sources and infrastructure.
Photography has only been taught as a
trade at schools, and only during the last 10
years have private schools started to offer studies
in artistic photographic expression.
But things are about to turn. The 2010
Reykjavík Arts Festival, focusing on art photography,
was a landmark in the development of
the craft. A dedicated photo festival, initiated by
the Reykjavík Museum of Photography, in collaboration
with the Reykjavík Tourist authorities,
is in the plans for 2011.
The artists themselves have taken action too.
Founded in 2007, the Icelandic Contemporary
Photography Association ICPA aims to create
a forum for discussing and exploring the photographic
medium as an art form. “With the eight
founding members we all had the same goal: we
wanted to exhibit more and get the work out
there,” says Elvarsdóttir, “Just a couple of years
more, and we’ll be getting there.”
42 atlantica

ICY CYCLING
Photos by Lucy Mallows
Lucy Mallows discovers a great way to appreciate
Iceland’s magical capital – from the saddle of
a guided bike tour
The frozen Reykjavík pond glowing in the November evening sun.
“Wriggle your toes to keep your
feet warm and follow me!”
shouted gentle giant Stefán,
as he set off, pedaling along the middle of the
road straight towards an oncoming car, which,
with Icelandic good manners, slowed down
and gave way. Our group of novice cyclists followed
in slightly less cavalier fashion, through
the streets of Reykjavík, Iceland’s cycle-friendly
capital.
In winter months, the dark, cold weather can
make even the healthiest person feel lethargic
and keen to snuggle up with a hot chocolate
in the corner of a cozy café, however getting
out and about in the open air and making the
most of the brief daylight hours is a real energy
booster.
In late November, I fulfilled a life-long ambition,
visiting Reykjavík for the first time, and
on day one, I set out to explore Iceland’s arty,
44 atlantica
friendly capital in a new style: on a guided
bicycle ride.
When the winter streets are slippery, cycling
on sturdy rubber tires is, surprisingly, a more
assured way of getting about than skidding on
the glacial sidewalks.
The tour, led by Stefán Valsson, a native
Reykjavíkian and trained tour guide, really helps
visitors connect with the environment as there
are many stops at places of interest, where
Valsson provides fascinating, often humorous,
anecdotes and brief history lessons.
We set off from the Old Harbor and the ride
took in some of the classic Reykjavík tourist
sights, but often Valsson suddenly stuck out his
arm to signal and veered off down a back road
or secret alleyway that only locals know.
The bicycles are not uncomfortable, spinenagging
mountain bikes, but more of the ‘sit
up and beg’ city bike variety; a good choice for

Cycling on the icy but snowless streets of Reykjavík was easy. Riding to the outskirts of Reykjavík only takes minutes and there you will find unspoilt natural beauty.
visitors who are maybe not as experienced on
two wheels as they think.
We set off, breathing in deeply Reykjavík’s
crisp, fresh air. We crossed a main road, cutting
in front of motorists, who kindly slowed
down for us, and rode up a little hill and into a
tiny park, more of a back garden, by Túngata,
where we had our first taste of superstitious
Reykjavík: an enormous rock where the ‘hidden
people’ are said to live.
Hidden People are called huldufólk in Icelandic,
which is often mistakenly translated as ‘elves’.
These creatures live in rocks all over Iceland
and are invisible, although they are supposed to
look like attractive humans.
Author J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a thesis on Old
Icelandic, and the country’s rich folklore with
its hidden people, trolls and elves, had a great
influence on his ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy.
Moving or defacing a rock upsets the hidden
people who then take revenge. “It’s important
to respect these rocks,” said Valsson, “There are
many examples of a drunken student peeing
against rock then two seconds later falling over
and twisting his ankle.”
Valsson knows this people-friendly city inside
out and clearly loves his hometown.
From the rock, we pedaled a short way to
Adalstraeti, or Main Street, the oldest street
in town with the oldest house at number 10,
built in 1762. We stopped to admire the statue
of Skúli Magnússon, a tax collector and the
‘Father of Reykjavík’ who is buried nearby on
Videy Island.
From here, it was another short ride to see
the statue of Ingólfur Arnarson, who named the
area Reykjavík or ‘smoky bay’. “It should have
been called ‘steamy bay’ from the geothermal
activity underneath it, which Arnarson took as a
good omen from the gods,” said Valsson.
atlantica 45

The old fisherman’s huts on Aegissída, Reykjavík’s southern coast.
On sighting an icy land, Arnarson threw his
two ‘high-seat pillars’ into the sea, swearing to
the Norse gods that he would settle wherever
they came to rest.
He landed at Ingólfshöfdi in southeast Iceland
and ordered his two slaves, Vífill and Karli,
to walk west along the coast of Iceland until
they found the pillars. Three years later they
found them, washed ashore in a small bay. We
came across a stark monument, representing
the steaming pillars, after whizzing around the
corner.
The dark grey dolerite stone Parliament House
(Althingishúsid) adorns one of Reykjavík’s prettiest
squares, Austurvöllur or ‘east field’, located
by Kirkjustraeti and Pósthússtraeti, streets
named after the church and post office respectively.
On our late November morning, we
were blessed with glorious sunshine, but the
square was bare and watched over by a 1931
statue of national independence struggle hero,
Jón Siggurdson, by sculptor Einar Jónsson. “In
summer, this is Reykjavík’s greenest square and
everyone sits out here enjoying the sunshine
with a beer or an ice cream,” said Valsson.
The dinky Dómkirkjan, Iceland’s national
church, is known locally as ‘the cathedral’,
despite its modest size, and the famous Hotel
Borg can be seen at right angles to the church.
We stopped for our next break at Reykjavík’s
famous hot dog stand opposite the Kolaportid
(flea market) building and Valsson told the story
of how US president Bill Clinton accompanied
his wife Hillary when she visited Reykjavík on
diplomatic business. Clinton was at a loose end
and wandered along the street to the Baejarins
bestu (Town’s Best) hot dog stand and bought
one. “However, he didn’t order it in the traditional
way ‘with everything on it’, but only
chose mustard. He couldn’t add raw onions
because he had to meet people, and no fried
onions, ketchup or rémoulade because of his
46 atlantica

Svalbard
Greenland
Norway
Iceland
Scotland
Ireland
On Seltjarnarnes peninsula you will find a small island with this stunning lighthouse on it and abundant birdlife both in summer and winter.
diet,’ said Valsson.
After the snack, we continued to the Rádhúsid
(City Hall) and went in to warm up. Some
of the cyclists from more crime-afflicted cities
were shocked that Valsson left the bikes
unlocked outside.
I was later informed by a guesthouse owner
that crime is not common in Reykjavík. “Until
recently there were no crime novels at all in
Iceland,’ said Edda, who runs the Eric the Red
guesthouse.
We then cycled along the bank of the Tjörnin
lake, which looks so pretty in the evening with
the lights twinkling and little children wrapped
up warmly in brightly colored jumpers skating
over the thick ice.
We whizzed across Reykjavík university campus
and noticed that many pedestrians seemed
wary of cyclists. There are many well-marked
bicycle lanes and it’s legal to cycle on the pavements.
We continued to Aegisída, Reykjavík’s southfacing
beach, where singer Björk has a house,
and stopped to admire the stunning view across
the water and also to sip reviving hot chocolate,
thoughtfully provided by our host. We gathered
by some ancient fishing huts and noticed how
our bodies and bikes made long shadows in the
midday sun.
After the gentle, seven-kilometer, two-and-ahalf-hour
ride, I felt as if I really had a sense of
the city and could explore with confidence on
foot at a later date. It was the highlight of my
first visit to Reykjavik.
Information:
Reykjavík Bike Tours
Old Harbor (behind Elding Whale Watching)
Aegisgardur 7
Email: Bike@IcelandBike.com
atlantica 47

The Storyteller
by Ásta Andrésdóttir
Photo by Páll stefánsson
A regular on prime time TV, a member of popular standup
collective Mid-Ísland, a gifted screenwriter and an
extraordinary mimic; meet Ari Eldjárn, leader of
Iceland’s new generation of comedy.
48 atlantica

Interview a
a
ÁA: Iceland is facing a massive crisis, people are protesting in the streets and
many are losing their homes. Is this really a good time to be making jokes?
AE: Absolutely. In fact, I think we need comedy and written material more
than ever. People appreciate a break from reality. When times are hard,
people need to be entertained.
ÁA: Early last year, you joked that Iceland’s only hope would be a volcanic eruption.
Cue Eyjafjallajökull...
AE: That was intense. I was pointing out how we always celebrate and
exaggerate our coverage in the world press, when the truth is that we’re
a mere footnote on the map. Basically, only Scandinavians know we exist,
and everyone else has a vague idea about Björk, fish, our financial crisis and
volcanoes. In the wake of the collapse, we feared that we would become
outcasts and thought that an eruption would be our only ticket to making
headlines.
ÁA: You recently did stand-up at London’s Comedy Store. How were you
received, given the Icesave dispute and all?
AE: Very well; everyone loved laughing at Iceland’s bankruptcy. The
Comedy Store is a lion’s den. For example, a heckler rudely demanded
his money back. I ceremoniously handed him a thousand-króna bill and
advised him to exchange it quickly, as it would soon be worthless. I began
my act by explaining how before the economic crisis, people always said to
me: So, you’re from Iceland... the country or the supermarket? And how I asked
in return: How dare you associate my country with frozen assets? I then told the
audience that since the economic crisis, my answer was that I came from
the supermarket. It was a good icebreaker, no pun intended.
ÁA: Define the Icelandic sense of humor.
AE: Ironic and understated; less is definitely more.
ÁA: Have you always been the funniest guy in the room?
AE: I wouldn’t know about that. But I’ve always been good at telling stories
and mimicking. I worked as a flight attendant for a few years, which was a
great experience, I suppose. I enjoy speaking foreign languages with different
accents, and the atmosphere on board is lighthearted. Plus, I must have
learned a lot about performing by demonstrating the safety instructions.
ÁA: Your imitations of celebrities are hilarious, what’s the secret?
AE: It’s not about getting the voices right, but what I have them say. The
key is to make that ring true. I have great respect for the people I imitate
and study them thoroughly.
ÁA: Tell me about your increasingly popular comedy collective, Mid-
Ísland.
AE: In the spring of 2009, a few friends and I began doing stand-up. We
were all experienced debaters but had never dreamed of crossing over to
comedy. There was a strange feeling in the air; the Icesave debate was on
hold and we just went for it. Mid-Ísland is a term for the Icelandic highlands,
that uncharted territory where anything goes.
ÁA: Is everything fair game in comedy?
AE: Yes. However, it depends on who does it, where, when, how and
why. I’m a fairly good judge of what I can joke about where, but some
people will always be offended, assuming that comedy has to be a unilateral
attack on an issue, when it can actually be much more layered.
Comedy is also a great platform for discussing difficult issues. My
comedy album, Grín skrín, includes a stand up skit about leather-clad
gay men. At first glance it might seem exploitative but in reality it is a
celebration of Iceland’s progress in human rights.
ÁA: What has been your most memorable performance?
AE: Last Christmas, Mid-Ísland entertained at Litla-Hraun, Iceland’s
main jail. I’m always a bit nervous before performing but never as
much as when we were escorted into a gym hall, where 80 inmates
were waiting for us. What if they didn’t like us? But then they laughed
heartily at all our jokes, except maybe for the ones dealing solely with
the economic crisis. I think the prison probably has an economy of its
own, and it’s probably more stable than the one outside it. But they
gave us a warm welcome and this visit was a beautiful experience.
Stand-up is really my day job; writing material for television, theater
and films is where my long-term ambitions lie. I studied screenwriting
at the London Film School, which was a great experience. Since
then, I have for example written for Áramótaskaupid [The National
Broadcasting Service’s comedy show the entire nation watches on
new-years’ eve] and for the ongoing comedy series Hlemmavídeó.
ÁA: Is it really possible to make a living that way?
AE: Of course. At my next reunion I’ll act condescending to my former
classmates: So you became a lawyer? Good for you. I chose to play it
safe and pursue writing. One has to pay the bills, you know...
ÁA: Your father [Thórarinn Eldjárn] is one of Iceland’s most distinguished
authors. What advice has he given you?
AE: None, really. Just unconditional support. He has undoubtedly
inspired me, but so have my brothers, who are very funny and active
in both music and writing.
ÁA: Your late grandfather, Kristján Eldjárn, was Iceland’s third president.
Would you ever consider a career in politics?
AE: No, not at all. Being head of state must be a very difficult job, by
no means suitable for a fragile, creative person such as myself.
ÁA: Comedy however seems to be a gateway to public office. Just look at
Jón Gnarr, Reykjavík’s new mayor.
AE: Jón Gnarr is one of my idols and I admire him even more for
having had the guts to run for office. Politics involves backstabbing
and calculated public relations—the dark side of creativity. Hopefully,
when he leaves office, he will reveal what goes on behind those closed
doors and change the face of Icelandic politics permanently. a

Pole to Pole
by MiCA Allan
Photo by Páll stefánsson

Mica Allan met with the enigmatic Icelandic born, New Zealand based singer,
Hera Hjartardóttir, and chatted about parallel universes, Elvis
impersonators and soaking in a bath tub of red wine.
Mica Allan: You hail from Iceland and moved to New Zealand with
your family when you were a teenager. How has that affected you, living
in two such different but similar island nations yet at the other end
of the world from one other?
Hera Hjartardóttir: Oh, it’s had a huge effect, I think if I hadn’t
grown up in New Zealand, I’d be a different person. There are so many
things that are so different and so many things that are the same. New
Zealand is such a relaxed and lovely country, it has more of a picnic
mentality, it’s coming here but people are very busy in Iceland. I’d love
to see a parallel universe and to see if I’d have grown up in Iceland what
kind of music I’d be making.
MA: You write your own songs, and there is a real wisdom and poignancy
to them and yet you are only 27. Where does that come from?
HH: Life experience and I really love the kind of music that tells a story.
My music’s inspired by things in life.
MA: Your songs explore a woman who tries in vain to stop buying
shoes from the internet, an old boyfriend turning up and “biting you in
the ass” and a girl viewed as immaculate but who actually goes to bed
with her make up on and drinks coke for breakfast. Where do you get
your inspiration from for these stories?
HH: A lot of these are true stories. I found a nice looking pair of
shoes on the internet and they were actually plastic and hideous.
“Immaculate out” is about the girl who’s afraid to leave the house
without make up on and never lets anyone see who she really is. Yeah,
it was good to get that one out, I need to get things out of my system,
that’s why I write.
MA: What is your natural instinct, to write lyrics in Icelandic or
English?
HH: Probably English, I started in English but before that I wrote
poetry in Icelandic. When I came to Iceland people said, “Oh, you
have to release an Icelandic album” and I stomped my foot down and
said, “I don’t live in Iceland” but then all of a sudden all of these songs
started coming in Icelandic and I was really enjoying it. I then released
an album of all Icelandic songs. I still enjoy singing in Icelandic and I
translate the songs a bit before I sing them in New Zealand. I like to
sing the old traditional songs, too, things that mean something from
my past. I’ve been singing a couple of songs that my grandmas sang to
me, so it feels really good to do them.
MA: Your video “The Devil and Me” contains real photographs from
your childhood and you dedicated your album Live at Als to your grandmother.
How much has your family influenced you as a musician?
HH: So, so much. There’s no one else in my family who is a musician
but they’ve always been really supportive. When I was really young and
starting to write poetry, they took me out to bars and I’d do open mike
nights and be performing with drag queens and Elvis impersonators. I
was this 13-year-old girl doing live poetry and it was quite rough but it
was the best school I could have possibly gone to. When I started writing
songs my dad set up the computer at home and got all the software
to record my first album and we had a friend in the music industry who
came and helped mix it. So my parents are the reason that it’s felt so
easy as they’ve always supported me. Of course my grandma, she was
awesome, she passed away about four years ago and she always used
to sing to me. She taught me everything, really.
MA: I loved the song and video “Feel so Good” which featured one of
your beloved cats. Can you tell me a little bit about the background to
the song and the video, in particular—it looked like you were having
the time of your life making that!
HH: It was so much fun, the song came when I was feeling a bit naughty,
and it’s about things that feel really good. We really wanted to fill a
bathtub of kittens but it’s hard to get that many kittens, so we decided
to fill a bathtub of red wine and be drinking water from a wine glass
in the bath, and other things like be covered in puppies and smashing
a TV. It was just all the things we could think of that would be fun to
do but that are slightly wrong.
MA: Can you give me a hint about what people can look forward to
with your new album?
HH: It’s going to have both Icelandic and English songs, but mostly
English, and the album has a kind of countryish vibe. It’s been two
years since the last album, which is too long, and I’ve got far too many
songs for it but it’s already here in my head! a
More information about all
things Hera can be found on
herasings.com

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52 atlantica

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gear for the icy adventure, such as safety helmets, overalls, gloves and boots.
The company will take you to see the most exciting views on Vatnajökull glacier
depending on the chosen tour, with professional mountain guides who know the
glacier like the back of their hands. Driving over the vast glacier is surely one of
the greatest adventures to be experienced in Iceland.
Glacierjeeps operate from Vagnsstadir in Sudursveit, under the glacier, and you
need to book in advance. Glacierjeeps.is
Jewel of the North
Mountain dwellers of the Himalayas believe in a legendary jewel that can fulfill all
one’s wishes. In the ancient language of Sanskrit, this jewel is called Cintamani.
Although the Icelandic clothier Cintamani borrows its moniker from the Himalayan
myth, the outfitter uses its own backyard with Iceland’s extreme weather
conditions as a laboratory to ensure its garments meet the toughest standards.
From baby fleeces to a new line of cold weather footwear to triple-layer jackets fit
for Everest expeditions, Cintamani sets out to design the highest quality outdoor
clothing for the worst possible conditions.
The label has become a favorite among Icelanders, who wear it with pride. For
the locals, being dressed to face Iceland’s serious cold means Cintamani, Dress
Code Iceland. Chances are you won’t stroll down a street in Reykjavík without
noticing the tattoo-like, fiery bright logo on someone’s shoulder that says it all:
Cintamani.
Check out Iceland’s first line of defense against the cold at the Cintamani Center
for Adventure at Laugavegur 11, any sporting goods shops in Iceland, or online at
cintamani.is.
54 atlantica

a
iceland
Special promotion
Treat Yourself to Blue Lagoon Skin Care
The geothermal seawater of the Blue Lagoon is renowned worldwide for its healing
powers. Its three active elements—minerals, silica and algae—cleanse, boost
and nourish your skin in a unique way, giving it a healthy and youthful glow. Not
surprisingly, Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Awards selected the Blue Lagoon as
the world’s best Medical / Thermal spa and named it one of the ten best spas in
the world. Bring the unique spa experience to your own bathroom with the Blue
Lagoon skin care range, based on patent-pending exclusive active ingredients. It is
available at the Blue Lagoon, in Reykjavík’s city center and at Keflavík International
Airport. Make sure to pick up the Blue Lagoon Silica Mud Mask, harvested directly
from its natural source, the geothermal seawater. The silica mud is the base for all
Blue Lagoon products and treatments. The Blue Lagoon skin care range is also
available at bluelagoon.com
Luxury in the Country
Hotel Rangá, situated just 100 kilometers from Reykjavík, is Iceland’s only 4-star
luxury lodge. But don’t take our word for it: the hotel was recently runner-up as “best
wedding destination” in a competition run on Europe’s largest morning TV program
and it’s Iceland’s only member of the prestigious “Special Hotels of the World” chain.
Those looking for an indulgent retreat enjoy Hotel Rangá because of its proximity to
nature, its gourmet restaurant and the popular outdoor hot tubs. This July, the hotel
will open a new restaurant, kitchen, lounge, bar, massage area and meeting facilities.
It will also open a new wing, bringing the total room count to 52. Six upstairs suites
will represent all the continents in the “World Pavilion”. Each suite will be furnished
with the finest fittings available from South America, Australia, Africa, Asia and North
America, like giant cedar from Canada, cherry wood from Japan and ebony from Africa.
This variety is what makes the hotel popular with locals and visitors to Iceland
alike. hotelranga.is
A Scaled Friend for Life
It is water resistant, stronger than animal leather and incredibly fashionable. We are talking about
the fish leather Hulda Kristinsdóttir uses for her refined HULD Design bags and accessories. The
fish leather is processed in a factory in Saudárkrókur town and is a by-product of the Icelandic fish
industry which aims at utilizing every last bit of fish taken out of the water. Kristinsdóttir mainly
uses three types of fish leather for her hip designs: perch, salmon and wolf-fish. Some of the hides
are used with their natural colors but others are colored to suit her artistic taste. Kristinsdóttir’s
designs can be purchased at Embla, the store she runs on Skólavördustígur 4. She used to be one of
the finest dressmakers in Iceland but says she got tired of it and wanted to try her hand at something
else. She learned the craft of bag making in London and has since been working on her own design
line. “I chose fish leather because it is so Icelandic and there’s simply no stronger leather available,”
she says.
All her bags are named after her female friends and relatives and bear strong Icelandic names. The
only accessories in her line that bear a male name are her extraordinary key wallets. “I thought it
needed a bit of a stronger name and called it Gissi,” she muses.
Her bags and accessories are so well made that they make perfect scaled friends for life.
.
56 atlantica

tHEGOLdEN
CIRCLE...
If you want to explore the famous Golden Circle, Reykjavik Excursions is
your ideal partner.
Reykjavik Excursions offer a grand selection of Golden Circle tours for those
who want to see the best of Iceland, pricing from 8.600 ISK.
The well known Golden Circle mainly consists of 3 sites: Geysir geothermal
field where hot springs are in abundance, geysers explode and pools of
mud bubble. Geysir was the original spouting hot spring – all the others
around the world are named after it. Gullfoss, the queen of Icelandic
waterfalls hardly fails to impress, whether in full flood during the spring
thaw or frozen and almost still in the depths of winter. It tumbles 32m into
a steep-sided canyon kicking up a sheer wall of spray in the process. Last
but not least Þingvellir national park, where Iceland´s most important
historic events have taken place as well as being a designated UNESCO
World Heritage Site. The best spot for an overview is from a popular
lookout point on top of Almannagjá fissure from where the mountain view
is spectacular.
For those who want some extra excitement during the Golden Circle tour a
one hour snowmobile ride on Langjökull is an ideal addition.
All Reykjavik Excursions tours are guided by professional guides.
More information on www.re.is

a Iceland
Special promotion
Eat, Meat & Fish
Reykjavík’s chefs know how to feed their people. Here is a guide to the vie gourmande in the capital and beyond.
Dill Opened in 2009, Dill restaurant of the
Nordic House may have just celebrated its
first birthday, but it already sits atop the
mountain as one of the most interesting
and exciting restaurants in town. Led by
chef-sommelier duo Gunnar Gíslason and
Ólafur Ólafsson, Dill excels in the modern,
local flavors of New Nordic Food. Everything
from the cutlery to the sommelier’s suit is
of Nordic origin; you won’t even find olive
oil in this kitchen. In the daytime Dill serves
relaxed brasserie style lunch and coffee, in
the evening there is a 7 course set finedining
menu, including champagne and
coffee. Fried plaice with the namesake Dill,
artichokes with seaweed, smoked haddock
and blue mussels, and to finish an almond
cake with cinnamon cream… Is your mouth
watering yet? And what better setting than
the Nordic House, designed by renowned
Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and located in
the Vatnsmýri plains, the view over downtown
Reykjavik is simply breathtaking.
552 1522. dillrestaurant.is
Fish Market Take the sophistication of
New York and pair it with the elegance of
Paris and the trendiness of Tokyo, and you
have the formula for Fish Market’s unbeatable
atmosphere. Match that with its equally
spectacular haute cuisine with an Asian flair
and you have the recipe for a restaurant
that’s here to stay. The crown jewel of its
kitchen is the nine-course tasting menu
whose highlights include miso-marinated
black cod served with tiger prawns and
apricots, king crab with chili and lemongrass,
and arguably the most tender quail on the
planet complemented by a delicate barbeque
sauce. The restaurant has also earned
a well-deserved reputation for its sushi and
sashimi, as fresh as it is elegant. Located in
the heart of downtown, no detail is spared.
Tea lights illuminate the soft, rich furnishings,
and highlights of bamboo and Asian
flora create a trendy atmosphere to which
the city’s glitterati come flocking. Save room
for the sorbet: green tea, lychee and blood
orange. The perfect scoops are almost too
beautiful to eat. 578 8877. fishmarket.is
Fjalakötturinn With a delicious selection
of appetizers (crunchy shredded
crab, foamy scallop and fennel broth, and
slithers of smoked duck breast with sweet
onion paste and cinnamon toast) to get you
started, the mellow jazz-infused atmosphere
of Fjalakötturinn’s dining room is a warm
setting to have your taste buds tickled in
style. While Fjalakötturinn is by no means
a cheap meal, it is fantastic value given the
care and attention poured into each dish
by the restaurant’s chefs Haukur Gröndal
and Gunnar Thór Sigthórsson. And the new
menu is full of delightful surprises; perfectly
textured lobster with lime and cucumber
broth, astonishing blood-pudding with hazelnut
puree, variations on the classic lamb
steak and salmon fillet, excellent venison
with carrot crème-brûlée, and a mouth-watering
selection of chocolate deserts (the restaurant’s
trademark Chocolate in 6 Different
Ways). The palate is constantly satisfied and
surprised, and with a carefully selected wine
list (winner of a Wine Spectator Award) each
dish finds a harmonious accompaniment.
This is imaginative, technically flawless Nordic
cuisine at its best.
514 6060. fjalakotturinn.is
Fjörubordid Lobster. That’s what the
dining experience at Fjörubordid (The Seashore)
is all about, where Icelandic lobster,
or langoustine, is served delicately grilled
and drizzled with melted herb butter and a
spritz of lemon. As a starter, its flavor infuses
the delicate creaminess of the lobster soup,
the self-proclaimed ‘Best in the Republic of
Iceland.’ Although you can also find a tender
lamb filet or vegetable-filled puff pastry
on the main course menu, lobster is what
makes this seaside cozy eatery in the village
of Stokkseyri, 60 kilometers from Reykjavík,
so popular with locals and visitors alike. 483
1550. fjorubordid.is
Geysir Bistro & Bar Housed in the same
building as the Tourist Information Center
and sitting directly above The Seafood Cellar,
Geysir Bistro and Bar is an airy, spacious pitstop
for a hearty, unpretentious meal. While
Geysir makes no claims of being a gastronomic
eatery, the menu offers a satisfying array
of fish and meat dishes, burgers and sandwiches
and an inventive selection of starters
using high-quality local produce. With swift
and attentive service, generous portions
and a well-conceived wine list, Geysir is the
perfect venue for a dinner among friends or
for a couple looking to break away from the
kitchen and treat themselves to a burn-free,
mess-free, washing-up-free evening out. 517
4300. geysirbistrobar.is
Hótel Rangá You could start with the
seafood soup, laden with chunks of fresh
salmon, monkfish and prawns. Maybe you’ll
sip some of the hotel’s own-label beer,
Hrammur. Then you could try Hótel Rangá’s
take on the surf and turf, featuring scallops
drizzled in lobster oil and Icelandic mountain
lamb. But whatever you do, leave room
for the chocolate and skyr cake, a signature
concoction of rich chocolate and velvety skyrbased
cheesecake for which locals are happy
to drive the 100 kilometers from Reykjavík to
taste. After your gourmet meal, do like the
King of Sweden on his visit and enjoy a drink
in one of the hotel’s outdoor hotpots. Then
sit back, relax and start planning your next
trip to this luxurious enclave in south Iceland.
487 5700. hotelranga.is
(Continues on pg. 60) »
58 atlantica

ANTON&BERGUR
Icelandic tasting experience
at LAVA Restaurant – Blue Lagoon
www.bluelagoon.com
www.fjalakotturinn.is
New Nordic Cuisine
in the heart of the city
Fjalakötturinn | Aðalstræti 16 | 101 Reykjavík | Tel. 514 6060 | Fax 514 6030

a iceland
Special promotion
Eat, Meat & Fish
» (Continued from pg. 58)
Humarhúsid From its perch in a historical
timber house on the hill overlooking
bustling Laekjargata, the haute cuisine
kitchen of Humarhúsid (The Lobster
House) brings you its namesake in every
delectable form: bisque, pan fried and
grilled. The menu offers up a host of other
local ingredients prepared to highlight
delicate, complex flavors, including arctic
char, smoked eel, lamb and reindeer. Enjoy
the candlelit dining room decorated with
antique furniture and accent pieces that
speak to the house’s historical provenance.
A romantic evening begins with a glass
of Veuve Clicquot, creamy lobster soup,
followed by beef confit and the pièce de
résistance: the house’s grilled lobster tails
on the shell served with drawn garlic butter.
Add an extensive wine cellar and sinful
pistachio crème brûlée and it’s clear that
Humarhúsid brings Iceland’s best to the
fine dining table.
561 3303. humarhusid.is
Icelandic Fish & Chips The humble
cod just got trendy. Icelandic Fish & Chips,
a self-styled ‘organic bistro’ by Reykjavík’s
harbor, has garnered a loyal following since
it opened four years ago. It’s obvious what
this simple eatery, with both eat-in and
take-away service, features on its menu.
But it’s the details that make it so popular.
The fish itself, not just cod but catfish,
haddock, plaice or whatever the fisherman
has just hauled in, is battered in spelt and
barley flour and cooked in canola oil, rich in
Omega 3 fatty acids. The chips are Maldonsalted
wedges of baked potatoes, cooked in
olive oil and herbs. And instead of fat-laden
tartar sauce, patrons can choose from a variety
of skyronnaises—creamy dips made from
Icelandic skyr. Those interested in a larger
meal will enjoy both whatever rich soup of
the day is on offer (served with spelt bread
and hummus), and the whipped skyr and
berry dessert, served in a champagne flute.
This is healthy, tasty food at a good price in
a charming environment.
511 1118. fishandchips.is
Jómfrúin If Gallup was to poll Reykjavíkians
about their favorite Danish open-face
sandwich restaurant, Jómfrúin would win
hands down. Walk down Laekjargata street
at lunch, peek into Jómfrúin’s windows
and see for yourself: the restaurant that is
a little touch of Denmark is packed. “It’s
popular because of Iceland’s relationship
to Denmark,” says Jakob Jakobsson, the
restaurant’s owner, referring to Iceland’s
former status as a Danish colony. “We have
quick service, great food, and the location
is good.” Don’t take Jakobsson’s word for
it. Try it yourself, but make sure to order
the ‘H.C. Andersen’: rye bread with crisp
bacon, liver pâté, port aspic, horseradish
and the ubiquitous butter spread across
most of Jómfrúin’s open-face sandwiches.
551 0100. jomfruin.is a
THE GREAT LITTLE PHOTOBOOK
ABOUT THE BIG VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN 2010
THE PERFECT SOUVENIR FROM ICELAND
Get Páll Stefánsson’s photographs of the volcanic
eruptions that shook the world in 2010 in a neat
little book, 2010 Eruptions, (11cm x 14,5cm) to
take home with you. It could also prove a fascinating
souvenir gift for friends and family at home,
showing the natural forces of Iceland at play.
60 atlantica

Taste the freshness
of a farmer’s market
Housed in one of the city’s oldest
buildings, Fish Market uses
ingredients sourced directly from the
nation’s best farms, lakes, and sea to
create unforgettable Icelandic dishes
with a modern twist.
By the
sea and
a delicios
lobster
The LObsTer hOuse
humarhúsið
The Lobster house
takes pride in giving you the best,
with top-class cuisine and
highly praised service.
Our menu consists of a variety
of meat and fish dishes, and
lobster is our speciality.
At the Restaurant Fjöruborðið in Stokkseyri
AÐALSTRÆTI 12 | +354 578 8877
LUNCH WEEKDAYS 11:30 - 14:00
EVENINGS 18:00 - 23:30
FISHMARKET.IS
> Only 45 minutes drive from Reykjavík HumarHusið
Eyrarbraut 3, 825 Stokkseyri, Iceland · Tel. +354 483 1550
Fax. +354 483 1545 · info@fjorubordid.is · www.fjorubordid.is
amtmannsstíg 1 / 101 reykjavík / Tel: +354 561 3303
www.humarhusid@humarhusid.is

we‘ll
TAKe you
There!
Day
Tours
To all The mosT exciTing
places in icelanD
We’ll take
you there!
relaX anD enJoy your trIP!
Valid from
1 July 2010
serves
the following hotels
& guesthouses
Flybus+ includes a pick up and/or
drop off at selected hotels and
guesthouses in Reykjavík.
101 Hotel
4th floor Hotel
Cabin Hotel
Hotel Björk
Hotel Borg
FlyBuS+ pick up from selected
hotels and guesthouses:
Daily at 04:35, 05:00, 07:30*, 09:00,
schedule from
BSÍ Bus terminal in
CenterHotel Arnarhvo l
CenterHotel Klöpp
Hotel Frón
Hotel Hafnarfjörður
10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:30 and 20:30.
*29 May - 7 September 2010.
reykjavík to keflavík
International airport
Transfer from Keflavík Airport
Valid until
30 october 2010
Reykjavik Excursions • BSÍ Bus Terminal • 101 Reykjavík • +354 580 5400 • main@re.is • www.re.is
BSÍ Bus Terminal • 101 Reykjavík
580 5400
main@re.is • www.flybus.is
CenterHotel Plaza
CenterHotel Skjaldbreið
CenterHotel Þingholt
Flóki Inn
Fosshotel Barón
Fosshotel Lind
Fosshotel Suðurgata
Garður Inn
Grand Hotel Reykjavík
Guesthouse 101
Guesthouse Anna
Guesthouse Baldursbrá
Guesthouse Bolholt
Guesthouse Borgartún
Guesthouse Einholt
Guesthouse Eiríkur Rauði
Guesthouse Pávi
Guesthouse Snorri
Guesthouse Sunna
Hilton Reykjavík Nordica
Hotel Holt
Hotel Leifur Eiríksson
Hotel Metropolitan
Hotel Óðinsvé
Hotel Reykjavík
Hotel Reykjavík Centrum
Hotel Vík
Hotel Víking
Hotel Örkin
Icelandair Hotel Loftleiðir
Park Inn Ísland
Radisson Blu 1919 Hotel
Radisson Blu Hotel Saga
Reykjavík City Hostel
Reykjavík Domestic Airport
Reykjavík Downtown Hostel
Reykjavik4you Apartments
Reykjavík Municipal Ha l
Room With a View
Salvation Army
The Capital-inn
Transfer from Keflavík Airport to
most hotels and guesthouses in
Reykjavík or vice versa.
More deTAils in our
dAy Tours brochures
2500 ISk
PrIce PrIce
one Way
return
4500 ISk
We’ll Take
you There!
Book now a the reception
Book now on www.flybus.is
Day Tours To all The mosT
exciTing places in icelanD
Book now by ca ling 580 5450
In addition to thi schedule, the Flybus operates in
connection with all arriving and departing passenger
flights to/from Keflavík International Airport.
monday tuesday Wednesday thursday
04:20* 04:20* 04:20* 04:20*
04:40 04:40 04:40 04:40
05:00 05:00 05:00 05:00
05:20 05:20 05:20 05:20
05:40 05:40 05:40 05:40
06:00* 06:00* 06:00* ---
---
---
---
---
08:00* 08:00* 08:00* 08:00*
---
---
---
---
09:30 09:30 09:30 09:30
10:30 10:30 10:30 10:30
---
---
---
---
11:30 11:30 11:30 11:30
12:30 12:30 12:30 12:30
---
---
---
---
13:30 13:30 13:30 13:30
14:00 14:00 14:00 14:00
14:30 14:30 14:30 14:30
---
---
---
---
16:00* ---
--- 16:00*
---
---
---
---
21:00 21:00 21:00 21:00
22:00 22:00 22:00 22:00
23:00 23:00 23:00 23:00
*29 May - 7 September 2010.
04:20*
04:40
05:00
05:20
05:40
06:00*
---
08:00*
---
09:30
10:30
---
11:30
12:30
---
13:30
14:00
14:30
---
---
---
21:00
22:00
23:00
to BSÍ Bus Terminal or vice versa.
PrIce1950 ISk
one Way
Friday Saturday Sunday
04:20*
04:40
05:00
05:20
05:40
---
---
08:00*
---
09:30
10:30
---
11:30
12:30
---
13:30
14:00
14:30
---
---
---
21:00
22:00
23:00
PrIce 3500 ISk
return
04:20*
04:40
05:00
05:20
05:40
---
---
08:00*
---
09:30
10:30
---
11:30
12:30
---
13:30
14:00
14:30
---
---
---
21:00
22:00
23:00
We‘ll
take you
there!
Day tourS to all the moSt
eXcItIng PlaceS In IcelanD
BSÍ Bus Terminal
101 Reykjavík
580 5400
main@re.is
www.re.is
eXPerIence a
great Day WIth uS!
Discover all the magical places
not to be missed when in Iceland:
Beautiful nature, multicoloured
mountains, fertile farmlands,
stunning views, plummeting
waterfalls,natural wonders and
geological phenomena.
Book now a the reception
Book now on www.flybus.is
Book now by ca ling 580 5450
Book now on www.re.is
Book now by calling 580 5450
62 atlantica

O
Ísafjörður
experience A
greAT dAy wiTh us!
discover all the magical places
not to be missed when in iceland:
beautiful nature, multicoloured mountains,
fertile farmlands, stunning views,
plummeting waterfalls, natural wonders
Drangjökull
and geological phenomena.
Grímsey
Skjá
and
Húnaflói
Akureyri
Breiðafjörður
RE-17
Snæfellsjökull
RE-08
ILR-01
Langjökull
AG-40
SRE-44
Hofsjökull
Faxaflói
Þingvellir
Gullfoss
EL-01
Geysir
Blue Lagoon
Flybus
Reykjavík
BSÍ
ES-01
SRE-83
RE-04
RE-24
Landmannalaugar
Keflavík
Bláa
Lónið
RE-05
RE-07
D-02
SRE-06
Blue Lagoon
SRE-84
Þórsmörk
Eyjafjallajökull
Mýrdalsjökull
SRE-81
RE-15
Vík
BSÍ Bus Terminal • 101 Reykjavík
580 5400 • main@re.is • www.re.is
Travel Agen cy
Authorised by
Icelandic Tourist Board
atlantica 63

a
iceland
Facts
about
Iceland
LAND: Iceland is an island of 103,000
square kilometers (39,756 square miles) and
4,970 kilometers of coastline, making it the
16th largest island in the world. Only Madagascar,
Britain and Cuba are larger single independent
island states. The country’s highest
peak, Hvannadalshnjúkur, rises 2,110 meters
above sea level. Roughly ten percent of the
country is covered in glaciers, including Vatnajökull,
the largest in Europe. But get here
quick before the glaciers melt: Sólheimajökull,
an outlet glacier of the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap,
south Iceland, is presently retreating at a rate
of approximately 100 meters per year.
ENERGY: Because of its location on the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Iceland is a hotbed of
volcanic and geothermal activity: thirty volcanoes
have erupted in the past two centuries,
the last one Eyjafjallajökull, in the spring 2010.
Most famous and active volcano is Hekla.
Natural hot water supplies the majority of
the population with inexpensive, pollutionfree
heating.
PEOPLE: Iceland’s population is about
317,000, about six percent of which are foreignborn.
It’s growing at a rate of 2.6 percent per
year. Only 2 percent of Icelanders live in rural
areas, the rest live in urban areas, and the majority,
about 75 percent, live in the capital area of
Reykjavík. But Iceland’s population more than
doubles every year thanks to the more than
500,000 travelers who visit the country annually.
TIME: Despite its mid-Atlantic location,
Iceland observes Greenwich Mean Time yearround.
HISTORY: It is believed that the first permanent
settler in Iceland was Ingólfur Arnarson, a
Norwegian Viking who settled in A.D. 874 and
named his home Reykjavík (smoky bay) after
the steam rising from the surrounding countryside.
In 930, Icelanders founded Althingi, which
still functions as the legislative body, making it
the world’s oldest parliament. In 1262, Iceland
lost its independence to Norway and in 1380
came under Danish control with Norway. On
17 June 1944, Iceland became independent of
Denmark in a ceremony that took place at
Thingvellir, the old site of Althingi, now a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
GOVERNMENT: The country is governed by
Althingi (parliament), which sits in Reykjavík,
whose members are elected every four years.
The President is also elected every four years,
but the Prime Minister is primarily responsible
for the day-to-day politics. Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir
is Iceland’s current PM (2009) and Ólafur
Ragnar Grímsson (1996) is serving his fourth
term as president.
LANGUAGE: Icelanders are of Norse and Celtic
ancestry, and have lived for more than a millennium
far away from other countries, which has
provided geneticists with a key body of DNA. The
language, Icelandic, is close to that of literature
(the Sagas) in the 12th century. Most people can
also speak English. Icelanders maintain a patronymic
naming system, which means that someone’s
first name is followed by his or her father’s
name and the suffix ‘son’ or ‘dóttir’. For example,
Kolbrún Pálsdóttir is Kolbrún, the daughter of
Páll.
CHURCH: Church and state are not separated
in Iceland. The National Church of Iceland, a
Lutheran body, is the state church to which 85
percent of Icelanders belong.
ECONOMY: Iceland’s GDP per capita is USD
45,000. Aside from fishing and fisheries products,
the country’s other main export is aluminum,
while primary imports include machinery and
equipment, petroleum products, and food and
textiles. Less than one percent of the land is arable
(most is used for grazing) and between one and
two percent of Iceland’s population is engaged
in agriculture. Iceland produces vegetables, meat,
fish and dairy, but imports other foodstuffs. Iceland’s
currency is the Icelandic Króna (ISK).
HEALTH: Life expectancy for women is 83.0
years and 79.4 for men, one of the highest in the
world. According to The World Economic Forum,
Iceland has the best Gender Equality around
the world. a
64 atlantica

Tourist books
MATTHÍAS ÁRNI INGIMARSSON,
MORGUNBLAÐIÐ NEWSPAPER
NUMBER ONE ON THE ICELANDIC BESTSELLER LIST
FOR MORE THAN 20 WEEKS!
UPPHEIMAR
ENJOY THE BEAUTY
OF UNTAMED NATURE
Few volcanic eruptions in Iceland have made as many headlines as
the one that started in the Eyjafjalla jökull volcano in March 2010.
The volcano’s stark beauty contrasts strikingly with the sheer havoc
it has wreaked all around the world.
Ragnar Th. Sigurðsson’s stunning photos and the accompanying
text (in English and Icelandic) by Ari Trausti Guðmundsson give
an insightful and imposing view of the eruption as it unfolds.
Ragnar has won international acclaim for his work, including three
CLIO awards. His photos have for example been on the front page
of The New York Times and on the cover of National Geographic.
Ari Trausti is held in high regard for his many books and TV programs
on geology and volcanism.
AVAILABLE IN BOOKSTORES AND TOURIST SHOPS
AROUND ICELAND – AND AT KEFLAVÍK AIRPORT
www.uppheimar.is