Arrived in Iceland
Nov. 5th, 2003 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenak´Twas a long journey (mostly because of three hours in between connecting flights in Copenhagen, but I arrived in Iceland, greeted by a rainbow as we descended from the clouds, and the golden light of dusk. You’ll have excuse the florid language; arriving in the country of the Edda brings that out in me.
Anyway, the landscape so far (which is between the airport and Rejkvavik) reminds me, oddly enough, more of Africa than of Alaska – that “when Earth was born” sensation. I was greeted by my local contact No.1, Ulric Artursson, whom I met with my Aged Parents years ago when Mum decided to learn cross country skiing. (Yours truly is an Alpine-only kinda girl.) Ulric is multilingual, used to be an architect till he caught the travelling bug in a big way, and now he teaches skiing in Austria and a couple of other places to justify living abroad most of the year. Right now, he’s here and will take me along on a tour to the geysirs tomorrow which he’s doing for a bunch of English-speaking tourists.
Arriving in town (which comes across as a strange mixture of all kinds of European styles and American ones, none very old, but then I haven’t seen much yet), we were met by local contact No.2, who’s German and the guy writing the cheque for my stay here. Younger than I expected (you know you’re aging when you think the director of a cultural institution looks boyish), very nice, and he took me to the most fabulous apartment which he has rented for me. It has a magnificent view over Rejkjavik, a CD player, a DVD player, and, I kid you not, a jakuzzi. In which I’ll gratefully hop once I’ve done catching up with my mail.
Two last thoughts:
1) Ulric told me the house where Gorbachev and Reagan met to held their breakthrough summit is haunted, which is why nobody wants to stay there. A comment on international relations?
2) Reading up a bit on the Vikings en route, the thought struck me they’re the obvious inspiration for all the Sci Fi warrior races, the Klingons, the Luxans, etc. Well, except for the Fremen of Dune fame, who are modelled on the Arabs, which in turn reminds me I caught the first two episodes of Children of Dune on TV recently. Frank Herbert’s idea of the Fremen turning against their imperial liberator and overlord from abroad, err, off-planet via bombs and assassination attempts suddenly acquires a strange relevance…
Anyway, the landscape so far (which is between the airport and Rejkvavik) reminds me, oddly enough, more of Africa than of Alaska – that “when Earth was born” sensation. I was greeted by my local contact No.1, Ulric Artursson, whom I met with my Aged Parents years ago when Mum decided to learn cross country skiing. (Yours truly is an Alpine-only kinda girl.) Ulric is multilingual, used to be an architect till he caught the travelling bug in a big way, and now he teaches skiing in Austria and a couple of other places to justify living abroad most of the year. Right now, he’s here and will take me along on a tour to the geysirs tomorrow which he’s doing for a bunch of English-speaking tourists.
Arriving in town (which comes across as a strange mixture of all kinds of European styles and American ones, none very old, but then I haven’t seen much yet), we were met by local contact No.2, who’s German and the guy writing the cheque for my stay here. Younger than I expected (you know you’re aging when you think the director of a cultural institution looks boyish), very nice, and he took me to the most fabulous apartment which he has rented for me. It has a magnificent view over Rejkjavik, a CD player, a DVD player, and, I kid you not, a jakuzzi. In which I’ll gratefully hop once I’ve done catching up with my mail.
Two last thoughts:
1) Ulric told me the house where Gorbachev and Reagan met to held their breakthrough summit is haunted, which is why nobody wants to stay there. A comment on international relations?
2) Reading up a bit on the Vikings en route, the thought struck me they’re the obvious inspiration for all the Sci Fi warrior races, the Klingons, the Luxans, etc. Well, except for the Fremen of Dune fame, who are modelled on the Arabs, which in turn reminds me I caught the first two episodes of Children of Dune on TV recently. Frank Herbert’s idea of the Fremen turning against their imperial liberator and overlord from abroad, err, off-planet via bombs and assassination attempts suddenly acquires a strange relevance…
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Date: 2003-11-05 11:18 am (UTC)No camera....
Date: 2003-11-05 10:33 pm (UTC)Dune
Date: 2003-11-05 01:02 pm (UTC)Your “when Earth was born” comment on Island reminds me of quite a lot of Neil Gaiman's use of the Nordic mythology in Sandman and American Gods *g*
P.S. Your copy of "Life of the Party" is on its way :-)
Re: Dune
Date: 2003-11-05 10:32 pm (UTC)David Lynch's adaption, though flawed (the ending!) was the better one if we're talking about the original novel. But to my amazement the TV adaption did get quite good with the sequels.
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Date: 2003-11-05 02:44 pm (UTC)Do you know whether Iceland still follows the old system of surnames where your surname is your father's name +dottr or +sson, and thus each generation has a different surname? I believe it was still the case as recently as the 1950s, but I wondered if it had been killed by modern society.
Also, the Vikings are very cool, and indeed are often employed as the archetypal "honourable barbarian warriors". I hope you have a chance to see some of the cool Viking stuff while you're there!
Yes, they still follow the old system.
Date: 2003-11-05 10:29 pm (UTC)Green with envy! (Nah, not really, life is good right now.)
Date: 2003-11-05 03:13 pm (UTC)Seen any strange old one-eyed men recently? ;-)
Re: Green with envy! (Nah, not really, life is good right now.)
Date: 2003-11-05 10:30 pm (UTC)No one-eyed men who try to con me yet, but then I just had a quick walk outside to stretch my legs last evening. Today is the day with the excursion...
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Date: 2003-11-06 05:27 am (UTC)"From the fury of the Klingons/Luxans the good Lord deliver us" might quite easily have been a prayer in their respective galaxies. As you say it's obvious when you think about it that the Vikings are the inspiration but it hadn't occurred to me. The Vikings were great traders and explorers too so maybe there's a bit of them in the Ferengi as well *g*.
Still completely green with envy over Iceland. I shall soon be in that other area settled by the Vikings - Lincolnshire - but sadly there will be no DVD player, no jacuzzi and even more importantly no computer.
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Date: 2003-11-06 06:03 am (UTC)~~June