Letters
FYI – San Francisco Chronicle has a piece (or two) on Iceland in yesterday’s edition, including a para singing the praises of the Grapevine. Excerpt from John Flinn’s San
REYKJAVÍK BAGEL COMPANY
Now, then. To finish the reviews, quite shortly: There was the bagel place. It does serve fine bagels, in a bagel-like environment, the standard one – the bagel industry seems [&
TVEIR FISKAR
And finally, the exquisite Tveir fiskar, the expensive one, this week, where everybody seemed to be speaking French. Great fish. Great chocolate soufflé. Sophisticated waiters, ye
Reykjavík City Hostel: Green, Budget, Easy to Use
The Reykjavík City Hostel hostel is neatly located in the Laugardalur valley (“Hot Spring Valley”), the sports and recreation area of the town of Reykjavík. Next door you’l
Paul Gill: Friend of the Earth or Braying Ass? You Be the Judge
As you might remember, in Issue 7 of Grapevine we interviewed Ólafur Páll Sigurðsson, one of many people who protest the building of the Kárahnjúkar dam project. We gave him [
Putting the G8 into Perspective
This year’s G8 Gleneagles summit became an unusually high-publicity event for Britons. One obvious reason is that it was held in Britain, but another is that it convinced celebra
Bi All Means
What do Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, Eleanor Roosevelt, Angelina Jolie, Drew Barrymore, Keanu Reeves, Marlon Brando, David Bowie, Pete Townshend and Ani DiFranco have in common? A
The Consequence of Gender Inequity
The dirty secret of the great Icelandic holiday Verslunarmannahelgi (Merchants’ Holiday) is that while many young Icelanders manage to only hurt themselves over a hard weekend of
The Seals
This all started a week ago, when I was told about the unique farm of Hindisvík. According to sources, there was a group of scientists studying this farm where seals […]
IT BEGINS WITH A RESIGNATION:
The dining dead. It’s a phrase I heard in a movie. A young man looked at his girlfriend as they were having dinner in a fancy restaurant and remarked shocked […]
The Iceberg
After an hour of photographing, I was welcomed back to the boat, though we had to stop again as Helvítis got out to stand in the shallows and take a […]
Safe… If Guilty
I had a master plan: I had long been interested in city planning for Reykjavík, as modern urban living solutions have become more and more of a draw for tourists, […]
The Royal Treatment at Nordica Spa
Located at Hotel Nordica, Nordica Spa offers a full range of massages, beauty treatments and aromatherapy to the frazzled business person, sightseeing-weary traveller, or deadline-
Alþingishúsið (Parliament House):Redefining Open as Closed
The House of Parliament, the working place of the oldest of its kind in the world, is open for public, claims my shabby guide book. And the locals agree: “I’ve […]
Buy Shit
Milk This is pretty straightforward stuff, to a point. There’s the standard milk trinity of whole (nýmjólk), low-fat (léttmjólk), both 55 ISK per litre, and skim (undanrenna
The Fourth Newspaper in Reykjavík Gains a Readership
Are you on downtime? Today is Friday and you don’t come out again until Monday. We are looking into the possibility of coming out with a weekend paper this summer […]
Firing on Reykjavík
“I thought someone was setting off fireworks somewhere,” a friend told me. “I would’ve never guessed a Russian Destroyer was in Reykjavík harbour firing a cannon.” But i
Come, Thou Divine Mistake!:
Despite its name, Verslunarmannahelgin, Merchants’ weekend, is not really like Christmas. It dates back to around 1900 as a benevolent gesture of merchants to their employees, wh