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6<br />
<strong>The</strong> Reykjavík <strong>Grapevine</strong><br />
Issue 13 — 2011 Do you wish he were YOUR mayor? Why/why not? We have a<br />
fully functional letters page for you to tell us all about it.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Reykjavík<br />
GRapevine<br />
Hafnarstræti 15, 101 Reykjavík<br />
www.grapevine.is<br />
grapevine@grapevine.is<br />
Published by Fröken ehf.<br />
www.froken.is<br />
Member of the Icelandic Travel Industry<br />
Association<br />
www.saf.is<br />
Printed by Landsprent ehf. in 25.000 copies.<br />
Editor:<br />
Haukur S Magnússon<br />
haukur@grapevine.is<br />
Journalists:<br />
Anna Andersen<br />
anna@grapevine.is<br />
Paul Fontaine<br />
paul@grapevine.is<br />
Editorial:<br />
+354 540 3600<br />
editor@grapevine.is<br />
advErtising:<br />
+354 540 3605<br />
ads@grapevine.is<br />
+354 40 3610<br />
PublishEr:<br />
Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson<br />
hilmar@grapevine.is<br />
+354 540 3601<br />
publisher@grapevine.is<br />
Contributing WritErs:<br />
Sigurður Kjartan<br />
Dr. Gunni<br />
Marc Vincenz<br />
Haukur Viðar Alfreðsson<br />
Egill Helgason<br />
Bob Cluness<br />
Ásgeir H. Ingólfsson<br />
Guðfinnur Sveinsson<br />
Paul Fontaine<br />
Bóas Hallgrímsson<br />
Jón Gnarr<br />
Davíð Stefánsson<br />
Magnús Sveinn Helgason<br />
Joe Shooman<br />
DeAnne Smith<br />
S. Anne Steinberg<br />
Editorial intErns:<br />
Felix Jimenez Gonzalez<br />
felix@grapevine.is<br />
Marta Bardón Moreno<br />
marta@grapevine.is<br />
Melkorka Licea<br />
melkorka@grapevine.is<br />
Natsha Nandabhiwat<br />
natsha@grapevine.is<br />
on-linE nEWs Editor<br />
Paul Fontaine<br />
paul@grapevine.is<br />
art dirECtor EmEritus:<br />
Hörður Kristbjörnsson<br />
hoddi@grapevine.is<br />
art dirECtor<br />
Sveinbjörn Pálsson<br />
sveinbjorn@sveinbjorn.com<br />
dEsign:<br />
Páll Hilmarsson<br />
pallih@kaninka.net<br />
PhotograPhErs:<br />
Julia Staples<br />
juliastaples.com<br />
Alísa Kalyanova<br />
www. alisakalyanova.com<br />
salEs dirECtor:<br />
Aðalsteinn Jörundsson<br />
adalsteinn@grapevine.is<br />
Guðmundur Rúnar Svansson<br />
grs@grapevine.is<br />
Helgi Þór Harðarson<br />
helgi@grapevine.is<br />
distribution managEr:<br />
Þórður Guðmundur Hermannsson<br />
distribution@grapevine.is<br />
ProofrEadEr:<br />
Jim Rice<br />
rElEasEs:<br />
listings@grapevine.is<br />
submissions inquiriEs:<br />
editor@grapevine.is<br />
subsCriPtion inquiriEs:<br />
+354 540 3605<br />
subscribe@grapevine.is<br />
gEnEral inquiriEs:<br />
grapevine@grapevine.is<br />
foundErs:<br />
Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson,<br />
Hörður Kristbjörnsson,<br />
Jón Trausti Sigurðarson,<br />
Oddur Óskar Kjartansson,<br />
Valur Gunnarsson<br />
<strong>The</strong> Reykjavík <strong>Grapevine</strong> is published 18 times<br />
a year by Fröken ltd. Monthly from November<br />
through April, and fortnightly from May til<br />
October. Nothing in this magazine may be<br />
reproduced in whole or in part without the<br />
written permission of the publishers. <strong>The</strong><br />
Reykjavík <strong>Grapevine</strong> is distributed around<br />
Reykjavík, Akureyri, Egilsstaðir, Seyðisfjörður,<br />
Borgarnes, Keflavík, Ísafjörður and at key<br />
locations along road #1, and all major tourist<br />
attractions and tourist information centres in<br />
the country.<br />
You may not like it, but at least it's not sponsored<br />
(no articles in the Reykjavík <strong>Grapevine</strong><br />
are pay-for articles. <strong>The</strong> opinions expressed are<br />
the writers’ own, not the advertisers’).<br />
Cover by:<br />
Bobby Breiðholt<br />
www.breidholt.com<br />
Reykjavík | Welcome to!<br />
Mayor’s Address:<br />
WELCOME TO REYKJAVÍK<br />
Dear reader,<br />
Welcome to Iceland. Whether you’re<br />
here for fun and travel or for business, I<br />
hope you’ll enjoy a good time here and<br />
will get to know some locals. I would<br />
also like to make a special request that<br />
you spend a lot of money throughout<br />
the duration of your stay. Do not save<br />
on dining and drinking. Allow yourself<br />
some luxury. You deserve it, and it is<br />
good for the economy. I ask that you do<br />
not visit the retail outlets run by the Salvation<br />
Army (Garðastræti 6, 101 Reykjavík)<br />
or the Red Cross (Laugavegur 12,<br />
101 Reykjavík). Even though they are<br />
fun shops, they are rather inexpensive.<br />
You should rather visit more expensive<br />
shops.<br />
Reykjavík | Housing<br />
A lot of tourists that visit the country<br />
wonder why it is called Iceland, because—despite<br />
what the name might<br />
indicate—it isn’t at all cold here. <strong>The</strong><br />
average temperature in Reykjavík is<br />
1°C. Nowhere in the world has better<br />
summers than Iceland. It might<br />
snow in the month of June, however.<br />
That is called ‘a spring snowfall’. July<br />
is the hottest month. When it comes<br />
around you better have a t-shirt handy,<br />
because the temperature can reach up<br />
to 20°C. Weather.com often states a<br />
temperature followed with a “feels like”<br />
temperature. When the heat in Reykjavík<br />
reaches 20°C, they will often say it<br />
“feels like” 15°C. That is probably due<br />
to something known as ‘the wind chill<br />
factor.’ No Icelander understands this.<br />
If we had this “feels like” feature in our<br />
A BOOM AND A BUST?<br />
Iceland’s housing market is picking up again<br />
Iceland too had its housing boom. As<br />
you may observe in the accompanying<br />
graph, housing prices were fairly stable<br />
between 1994 and 2000, they increased<br />
gradually between 2000 and 2004 and<br />
then BOOM, they took off between<br />
2004 and 2008. <strong>The</strong>n came the financial<br />
collapse in 2008 and prices dipped,<br />
with the index falling steadily from<br />
357.4 in January 2008 to 304.9 in January<br />
2011, but seemingly not much given<br />
the magnitude of the financial collapse.<br />
Now, contrary to <strong>The</strong> Central Bank’s<br />
400<br />
350<br />
300<br />
250<br />
200<br />
150<br />
100<br />
50<br />
Jan<br />
94<br />
Jan<br />
95<br />
Jan<br />
96<br />
Jan<br />
97<br />
predictions that prices would continue<br />
to fall through the year, prices have<br />
been steadily climbing in the capital<br />
area since January with the index peaking<br />
last month at 320.8 (not seen since<br />
March 2009). A real estate agent that<br />
the news-site Eyjan.is interviewed in<br />
July noted that there hasn’t been this<br />
much movement in the market since<br />
the crash. In other words, the housing<br />
market seems to be recovering quickly.<br />
Yet it seems strange that prices are<br />
rising as a greater number of individu-<br />
Jan<br />
98<br />
Jan<br />
99<br />
Jan<br />
00<br />
Jan<br />
01<br />
Jan<br />
02<br />
weather reporting, we would say that it<br />
“feels like” 40°C whenever the temperature<br />
reached 20°C, without exception.<br />
This demonstrates the importance of<br />
‘mentality’ and ‘attitude.’<br />
But how can it be that such a warm<br />
country came to possess such a frigid<br />
name? Yes, the explanation is simple:<br />
MISUNDERSTANDING. Ingólfur Arnarson,<br />
the first man that found Reykjavík,<br />
wasn’t on his way here at all. He<br />
was en route to the United States of<br />
America, to buy grapes and other fast<br />
food that grew wild there in those days.<br />
He was very interested in food. And<br />
also homicide. On his way he noticed a<br />
cloud of smoke ascending to the heavens<br />
from an unknown country. His curious<br />
nature got the best of him, and he<br />
changed his course and set sail to Reykjavík<br />
(Reykjavík literally means “smoky<br />
bay”!).<br />
As he disembarked his ship, he saw<br />
that the smoke was in fact steam rising<br />
from Reykjavík’s many swimming<br />
pools. He was therefore quick in tearing<br />
off the suit of armour that he had worn<br />
in case he’d encounter some Native<br />
Americans while picking grapes, and<br />
jumping into some swim trunks. After<br />
swimming a good 500 metres he sat<br />
in the hot tub and relaxed. After a fun<br />
chat with the locals he had forgotten all<br />
about America. Who needs to travel all<br />
the way to America to pick grapes when<br />
there’s a shop on Laugavegur called<br />
Vínberið (Vínberið literally means: “the<br />
grape”)? Ingólfur decided to settle here.<br />
He rented a small apartment along<br />
with his wife, Hallveig Fróðadóttir, who<br />
als are reportedly defaulting on their<br />
loans and declaring bankruptcy (which<br />
is not surprising given the rate at which<br />
loans were given out during the boom).<br />
That same real estate agent who spoke<br />
to Eyjan speculates that the Icelandic<br />
banks and the Housing Financing Fund,<br />
which own thousands of apartments in<br />
Reykjavík, may be steering prices by<br />
keeping their properties off the market.<br />
If this is the case, you have to wonder<br />
whether the strategy is sustainable<br />
given reports that the Housing Financ-<br />
Jan<br />
03<br />
Jan<br />
04<br />
Jan<br />
05<br />
Jan<br />
06<br />
Jan<br />
07<br />
many claim was the daughter of Frodo<br />
from ‘Lord Of <strong>The</strong> Rings,’ Nothing has<br />
been proven about that, however.<br />
One day Ingólfur and Hallveig were<br />
taking a stroll around town. <strong>The</strong>y were<br />
walking their dog, who was called Plútó<br />
and was a Great Dane. It was a sizzling<br />
hot summer’s day. It was long before<br />
the t-shirt was invented. <strong>The</strong>y were<br />
both dressed in full suits of armour,<br />
with swords and shields and helmets<br />
and everything. <strong>The</strong>y stopped by at Ísbúð<br />
Vesturbæjar in Hagamelur to get<br />
some ice cream and cool down. <strong>The</strong><br />
story goes that Ingólfur asked the clerk<br />
whether she knew what the country was<br />
called.<br />
She thought it was called Thule. Ingólfur<br />
felt that was a stupid name.<br />
“No country can be called Thule,”<br />
he said.<br />
Outside the ice cream shop, a crowd<br />
had gathered. <strong>The</strong>y had heard that<br />
foreign visitors were in town. A lot of<br />
those people were elves. Ingólfur then<br />
approached the crowd, raised his ice<br />
cream cone aloft and shouted:<br />
“Henceforth this country will be<br />
called Iceland, because one can get the<br />
world’s best ice cream here!”.<br />
Today we have a statue of Ingólfur.<br />
<strong>The</strong> statue depicts Ingólfur dying of<br />
heat, leaning on his dog.<br />
Don’t be a stranger, be like Ingólfur!<br />
Best regards,<br />
Jón Gnarr<br />
Mayor of Reykjavík<br />
ing Fund claimed 1069 apartments last<br />
year (three times as many as the previous<br />
year) and housing loan payments<br />
90 days past due now make up ten<br />
percent of its loaned funds. <strong>The</strong> State<br />
Treasury has been injecting cash into<br />
the Fund, but surely it’s not limitless.<br />
Speculate we can, but really only time<br />
will tell if Iceland has in fact seen the<br />
worst of the housing bust.<br />
ANNA ANDERSEN<br />
357.4<br />
Jan<br />
08<br />
Jan<br />
09<br />
Jan<br />
10<br />
Jan<br />
11