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inscrutable horse
May 20, 2010

Parsing sage, rotating time



Gambrinus posted:

I'm flying in from New York on 4th September and planning on staying for a week or so before going to the Faeroe islands. What should I do in Iceland for a week? I could do with a break from pubs and that. I don't speak a word of the language either, is this something I can get away with, or should

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

inscrutable horse fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Sep 2, 2013

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Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

caberham posted:

I want to come to Iceland, but it's a bit too far from Hong Kong for a weekend trip :smith:
Yeah, been looking at it from the other side tryin' to maybe go to HK and drat if it ain't one hell of a journey. Maybe come Christmas, some year. :smith:

caberham posted:

Awesome pictures by the way, can you tell me more about this muscian - Ólafur Arnalds ?

I just know he's Icelandic and playing in Hong Kong. Is the music going to sound like EVE online :iiam:

http://www.ticketflap.com/en/events/100/
Nah, I don't know him personally or his current music. I think I may have attended a concert when he was in Celestine? Don't know a lot of people from Mosfellsbær anyhow. He sounds nice though! As for EVE, only guys I know there are on the tech end so I wouldn't know either, sorry~

dor1 posted:

Faxi í Tungufljóti
Takk félagi.

muscat_gummy posted:

I'm going to Iceland in early November with my SO!

Do you have any Icelandic literature and poetry to recommend that hasn't been translated into English? I really fell in love with the stuff and tried to learn to read Icelandic a few years back. (Went ok but then I got distracted by life.) Unfortunately I was limited to what has been translated into English because you can't get reasonably priced books in Icelandic in Texas, apparently. Not that I've found. My Icelandic reading materials were newspapers and some fairy tales I found online. So I was going to bring back some Laxness, but wanted to know if there are any other classics or good modern novels you'd recommend?
Ho hum. Now, I'm mostly not a fan of the most popular form of Icelandic novel, the "Nordic Crime" book, but I can ask for good recommendations there from my ma and others that do read those, iffin ya want.

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

Buuuutttt, if you want "classics", then I'd say that "Djöflaeyjan", the aforementioned "Englar Alheimsins" and "101 Reykjavík" are all modern "Classics", with older works I'd recommend being "Piltur og Stúlka", "Salka Valka" and "Dalalíf" (With a side-order of "Tíminn og Vatnið".) For stuff out today, eh, not so good on that.

muscat_gummy posted:

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

inscrutable horse posted:

Not to steal DP's thunder, but if you have any questions about the Faroe Islands, feel free to ask. I don't know if there are any others around, so I'll happily take the mantle of resident Faroese goon.
There's more than enough room in this thread for our cousins in the Faroes. Be my guest.

luminalflux
May 27, 2005



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

Shy
Mar 20, 2010

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

inscrutable horse
May 20, 2010

Parsing sage, rotating time



Shy posted:

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

Our languages are quite close, and anyone from the Faroes who isn't illiterate should be able to read Icelandic with only minor difficulties. However, when it comes to the spoken Icelandic, it gets rather embarrassing. We should be able to understand the Icelanders, but usually we just end up speaking English. Us Faroe Islanders like to excuse our lack of understanding, with that Icelanders speak too fast and slur their speech, but the blame lies squarely on our educational system. According to the national curriculum, we are supposed to learn Icelandic alongside Faroese, but this just doesn't happen. I'm one of the few people who actually had those mythical classes, and that was one lesson back in 4th grade. So in short: We should understand each other, but unfortunately, we usually don't.

On the other hand, if your question was more metaphorical, and you want to know if our countries are close and we understand each other; we do admire our cousins to the north, and not just because of their reputation for being so devilishly handsome. They seem to have a knack for picking themselves up after loving up royally (*cough*Icesave*cough*), and even when everything seems hopeless, they maintain this air of determined optimism - it's hard not to like someone like that. Also, anyone who gives the Danish government the metaphorical finger is automatically absolved of any sin. This is not to say, that we entirely understand how or why they do things. We like to keep up to date with current events in Iceland, and everyone here was just waiting for the Icelandic economy to crash prior to the Icesave disaster.

Still, we cheer when things go well in Iceland, and try to help however we can when things don't go well.

dxt
Mar 27, 2004
METAL DISCHARGE
Is Tyr really well known in the Faroes?

inscrutable horse
May 20, 2010

Parsing sage, rotating time



dxt posted:

Is Tyr really well known in the Faroes?

Yes, very much so. Most people will be able to sing along with "Ormurin Langi", their first hit, and I doubt there is a single person here, who can't name at least two or three tracks off the top of their heads. They've also been active since the late 90s, so they've had a long time to embed themselves deep in the national consciousness. With "Ormurin Langi", Týr pretty much kicked off a revolution in Faroese metal music, and pretty much Faroese music in general. They proved that, while the Faroes have always had a strong musical tradition, Faroese music stood a chance to be successful on the international market. Successful to such a degree, in fact, that Faroese metal bands probably outsell Faroese bands belonging to other genres.

I'm also an utter and complete Týr fanboy, if you hadn't picked that up already :black101:

inscrutable horse fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Sep 4, 2013

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

luminalflux posted:

I'm considering going to Airwaves, since at least 2 bands I love will be playing there. How swamped is the town then compared to nerdfest?
poo poo, with how big the nerdfest has been getting the last years I'd say that it is roughly about the same. You notice the people and you might even have to, gasp, wait in line in some places (insufferable! ban all tourists from our country!) but I'm guessing that the main problem would be accommodations.
And despite my nerdish temperament I dig the airwaves crowd more due to less skewed gender ratios and never having been goonswarm.

Shy posted:

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

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

And Týr is also well known in Iceland, and often after a few drinks you'll hear someone start "Ormurin Langi" because it's a drat fine drinking song. even if we usually gently caress up the words

Laverna
Mar 21, 2013


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

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

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

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

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

Laverna posted:

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

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

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

Wow, I'm really onto it with this whole going on exchange thing.
At least I've already booked my flights!
Oh, wait...
Thank Christ I check my bookmarks every now and then, because I thought this had fallen into the archives!
(Didn't I promise to go drinking with someone? And to help you pick classes? Did you already pick them?)

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

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

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


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

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

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

lllllllllllllllllll
Feb 28, 2010

Now the scene's lighting is perfect!

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

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

\/ Thank you for that elaborate answer, Deceitful Penguin.

lllllllllllllllllll fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Nov 19, 2013

Laughing Zealot
Oct 10, 2012


The story behind those four guardians is quite cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landv%C3%A6ttir#The_four_landv.C3.A6ttir_of_Iceland

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

lllllllllllllllllll posted:


May I just say you have an impressive coat of arms.
Yeah, almost makes up for a supremely lame national anthem that has terrible lyrics and no-one can sing properly unless they've had training.

lllllllllllllllllll posted:

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

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

Brand New Malaysian Wife
Apr 5, 2007
I encourage children who are bullied to kill themselves. In fact, I get off to it. Pedophilia-snuff films are the best. More abused children need to kill themselves.
I'm coming for a visit next month and I managed to rope a friend into coming too! We're ridiculously excited. :)

twerking on the railroad
Jun 23, 2007

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

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

GiantAmazonianOtter posted:

I'm coming for a visit next month and I managed to rope a friend into coming too! We're ridiculously excited. :)
Noice! Hope you get good weather.

Skeesix posted:

I have to fly from the US to Copenhagen in January and I was thinking about stopping over in Iceland for a couple of days to see the northern lights and/or Reykjavik. Good idea/Bad idea? How much would my wallet hate me?
I'd say it depends on if you can stand the weather. If you can, you get a decent look at an Icelandic winter and some post-christmas poo poo, while still getting some of the night-life and most of the cultural thangs are operating just fine.

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

Laverna
Mar 21, 2013


Deceitful Penguin posted:

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

Laverna posted:

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

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

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

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

Speaking of weather, what should I be expecting weather-wise for Iceland in the middle of winter?
Oh what. drat habit of half-finished messages, meant to send this days ago. Really sorry, it's last turn-in for assignments before exams as well as last time to really party before the exams end~

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

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

There are student places but they are assigned to students through a University run system. :ussr:
You should be fairly high up in the priorities if you applied; if not, there are always ways to find somewhere to stay.

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

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

stab
Feb 12, 2003

To you from failing hands we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high
Did your country give the men's national soccer team a hero's welcome for their near qualification for the World Cup? To get that far for a country your size is astounding....

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

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

stab posted:

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

My country has 35 million and we can even get to the final stages :sigh:
There was a bunch that were way happy but a lot more were sad as we really thought "we" had a chance. I uh, am more of a basketball man than a footie man so I wasn't overly excited but yea, Iceland is way better than you'd think considering our crazy few numbers in a bunch of things.

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

Basscop
Jun 4, 2010

Lightnin? HA! Thats a good 'un!
Now why dontcha
come o'er here and
GET

IN

MY

BELLY!!!

stab posted:

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

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

Another Icelandic goon reporting in.

The World Cup qual was absolutely the hugest sporting even we've participated in since the 2008 olympics handball team coming in second. Although i live in sweden now i can confidently say that everyone and their kviðmágur was watching Iceland - Croatia. Except for the obvious group of people united by their disdain for football.
Don't know about the hero's welcome but I think they were celebrated allright. Didn't get the falcon's medal like the handball team tho.

If DP doesn't mind i'd be more than happy to chime in and answer a few questions here and there even if me and him seem to have amazingly different views.

Also Kviðmágur is a word for someone who has slept with the same person as you. We really are that few.

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011
Sure, representing a plurality of opinions on Iceland is cool. I know some of the other Icelanders here are reading but don't post, for some reason, but I say go ahead and chime in wherever. And yea, in many ways I stray from the ideal type of the Icelander, for better or for worse.

Kitsch!
Jul 27, 2006

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

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

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

Kitsch! posted:

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

Part of me would like to stay in hotel in the city, plus it looks like there's some good rates out there and I like the independence to do whatever I want. However, I was also looking at AirBnB.com which seems to have some private room offerings from some Reykjavik residents (mostly families). For the record, I've never traveled outside of North America (Canada and US) but it'd be interesting to experience Christmas in Iceland (albeit alone if I do end up traveling).
I'm, not exactly sure what your question is? If you're asking what you can do here over the Christmas, then there's the usual christmas sales, cultural stuff and lots of family things, with a lot of drinking and partying culminating in the new year, which is simply spectacular, where we blow up a shitload of fireworks.

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

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

Kitsch!
Jul 27, 2006

God made Adam and Eve, not Fluffy and Eve.

Deceitful Penguin posted:

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

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

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

Apologies for the vagueness; I was doing a bit of multitasking on my phone in the midst of typing that. You're correct about my question, regarding what to do at Christmastime. Thinking about it more, I think I'd prefer to lodge in a hotel, especially since the interests of someone like me (mid 20s) might not be the same as a couple with kids. That's not a bad thing, but I wouldn't want to feel like I'm intruding on a family holiday. (edit: honestly I think I fall into the nerdy, socially awkward goon stereotype, to put it succinctly) :unsmith:

I'm tentatively planning to stay through Saturday/Sunday (28th/29th). There's a flight that gets back to Seattle (my local airport) at around 5pm Sunday which gives me a little bit of time to recover for work on Monday. Unfortunately I couldn't stay until New Year's, though that sounds great.

Kitsch! fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Nov 30, 2013

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011
Pffff, goony foreigners are a cultural staple for Icelanders and I'm sure that they would show you the Yule spirit, by giving you Jólaglögg (somewhat, but not totally unlike your eggnogg), malt & appelsín, hangikjöt and letting you light up a few fireworks. A shame you'll miss the new year but you'll still be able see some good stuff, depending on the weather; there's regular tourist staples like the golden circle, cultural things around the city, drinking like a mofo or maybe you can meet up with me and that guy I promised to take out for a drink. (If he remembers it, who knows at this point, wait was that you? I'll take you out anyway, but maybe just for some food and a bit of drinking)

Kitsch!
Jul 27, 2006

God made Adam and Eve, not Fluffy and Eve.
Ah that sounds great then. Doing a lot of things last minute (flight, accommodations, etc.) but coming together nicely. Looking at staying at this place (http://www.hotelodinsve.is/) as it's not too expensive/within my budget and was recommended by a couple sources.

I'm not too fond of American-style eggnog (homemade or store-bought) but maybe Jólaglögg will change my mind :)

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011
Yea, that's a good location, if nothing else. Haven't really stayed at hotels in Iceland, I got family all over so I've never had to. Jólaglögg is very different from eggnog so you may get lucky and dig glögg, I'll see about getting you some if ya wanna meet up. Having a local around to show ya poo poo is a really different experience than just going alone. ;)

Skeleton Jelly
Jul 1, 2011

Kids in the street drinking wine, on the sidewalk.
Saving the plans that we made, 'till its night time.
Give me your glass, its your last, you're too wasted.
Or get me one too, 'cause I'm due any tasting.
If glögg in Iceland is anything like in rest of the Nordic countries, it really doesn't have anything to do with eggnog (besides possible alcohol content and being a Christmas drink) and is a lot more closer to the German glühwein. Absolutely delicious, anyways.

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

Skeleton Jelly posted:

If glögg in Iceland is anything like in rest of the Nordic countries, it really doesn't have anything to do with eggnog (besides possible alcohol content and being a Christmas drink) and is a lot more closer to the German glühwein. Absolutely delicious, anyways.
Probably, gods know that we probably didn't invent it ourselves, although we may have adapted it.

Deep Winter
Mar 26, 2010
I want to pop in and mention that I, too, love SigurRos, but it's been done. So, instead ill ask how similar is Icelandic and "Hopelandic"

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

Deep Winter posted:

I want to pop in and mention that I, too, love SigurRos, but it's been done. So, instead ill ask how similar is Icelandic and "Hopelandic"
Vonlenska is just him adding Icelandic sounding gibberish with occasional Icelandic words into it. I personally like it better when it was just plain Icelandic lyrics or such gems as: "I don't remember the lyrics, but that doesn't matter, because we're in France where nobody understand anythings" but it's still good music.

ookuwagata
Aug 26, 2007

I love you this much!
As far as I can tell, there's still no Iceland thread in T&T.

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

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

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

ookuwagata posted:

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

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

On a non-tourism note, what do Icelanders think of Skyrim?
I keep wondering if I should ask the mods to toss this one there, seeing as that's mostly what I'm answering these days. :v:

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

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

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

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

ookuwagata
Aug 26, 2007

I love you this much!

Deceitful Penguin posted:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deep State of Mind
Jul 30, 2006

"It was a busy day. I do not remember it all. In the morning, I thought I had lost my wallet. Then we went swimming and either overthrew a government or started a pro-American radio station. I can't really remember."
Fun Shoe
I want to see the Icelandest picture and the Icelandest YouTube video.

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

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

ookuwagata posted:

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

Funnily enough, the Dragonborn expansion of Skyrim is situated in Solstheim, and the southern half of the island is basically ashlands.
Well, yeah, if you go on a gravel road you have to slow the hell down and take the turns easy, but they exaggerate the dangers for the very good reason that it's on those roads that most tourists die. Just be safe.

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

Bloodnose posted:

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

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

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

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

Another suggestion was this video of the Mayor of Reykjavík and possibly the most popular Icelandic politician since President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

Deep State of Mind
Jul 30, 2006

"It was a busy day. I do not remember it all. In the morning, I thought I had lost my wallet. Then we went swimming and either overthrew a government or started a pro-American radio station. I can't really remember."
Fun Shoe

Deceitful Penguin posted:

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



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


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

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011

Bloodnose posted:

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


Nice videos too. I'll have to watch that hour and a half long movie later. Some of them have more views than there are people in your country which is tricky.
Nah, we built houses out of perishables; turf and rocks with some wood mostly. poo poo didn't really last and no-one really had the money for anything other than wooden houses, which also don't last very well when you have to import everything.

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

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Cessna
Feb 20, 2013

KHABAHBLOOOM

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



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

Cessna fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Dec 17, 2013

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