My Brother the Traveler in Iceland

Iceland  -  April 8.1969 - Tuesday

I am taking a bus from the airport to Reykjavik. During the journey I am talking with a young German. He speaks excellent German. Several years he works as a bricklayer in Toronto, Canada. He  talks about the living standards in America only in superlatives and suports it by racional examples. He tells me that the opportunity I have now, I shouldn‘t let go specially when I go to California, where it should be the best.

At about 2 AM we are in the Loftleidir hotel near Raykjavik. Almost everyone stays in it, because they registered and paid ahead of time for full board and some program. Only I, that young German and a Dutch married couple did not. This hotel is out of the question specially for me. It is expensive (from $12 up). That German urges me to go to a less expensive hotel, Vik or Salvation Army. It seems to me like a waste of money. It's almost morning.

Hotel personal shows me where to get a drink of water. I smoke a cigarette, then sit a while, finally I lie down across several chairs. It's about 3:30 when I fall asleep.

I wake up quite refreshed at 6:30. There is light outside, but it's raining cats and dogs and dark clouds are rolling close to ground. Well, it will be a beautiful day in this weather.

A young man showed up at about 7 AM. He asked the staff something in English and then sat down opposite me. Later he lay down on the chairs and slept.

After waking up he starts talking to me and gives me some information. He lived in the Salvation Army hotel and strongly recommends it. He shows me on the map, where it is located. A breakfast costs 65 Icelandic crowns there. He tells me not to walk there. It's apparently far. Well, I'm a good walker, though I must carry almost 30 kg luggage. He gives me a guide book in English about Iceland. He visited geysers and waterfalls with a local tourist office (it cost about 800 crowns). I think, I will manage it cheaper by local buses.  It is unlikely that a trip will take place now. It‘s the winter season and virtually no tourists.

Meanwhile it stopped raining and the sun has come out. Around 10 AM I start walking.

After almost an hour walk with many rest stops (the suitcase is heavy) I am at Salvation Army. A girl in reception gives me a blank stare on my question in English, if I can get a room. But there is a young man here who translates. After appearance of a uniformed member of the corps I get a room 208 on the second floor. Most likely there are many rooms available. It‘s about 11 AM.

My room is about 3x2 m with a comfortable bed, a table, an easy chair, a sink with cold and hot water smelling like rotten eggs, a mirror and a buit-in closet with hangers. Next to the window is a radiator of central heating (heating by steam from earth). I am happy. The price is 250 crowns and that is reasonable even for me.

During my walk through the city between 12 and 5PM,  I found the following: Reykjavik with its 70,000 people that is about 1/3 of the population of the whole island, lies at a bay on gentle hills. On the other side of the bay and to the north and east I saw some snowcapped mountains. The old part of the town at the harbor seems like outskirts now, often built from corrugated iron. The streets are narrow, paved by asphalt with poor surface. There is a Parliament building (about 62-65 members),  an administrative building and a theater in various places. The city is decorated with numerous statues. The more distant locations from the center are partly covered with very nice family houses while at another place new apartment houses are growing up reminding me a neighborhood of our panel houses. At this time  roads are muddy. It‘s wet and cold. There are many churches in Reykjavik. Everywhere in the city one can see modern shops like anywhere else in Europe.

There is quite a lot of cars in the streets. Most of them are Skodas from Czechoslovakia (specially MB1000, also Spartak and even Škoda1200 here and there), followed by VW and boxed-like Jeeps. No many trees are here. One can see some in gardens and then few in several places around the city. Their growth is stunted. A pond full of ducks and swans fed by children. On a hill above the city there are tanks with steam or hot water coming from a distance from sources in the ground. The public transportation is by buses. Some of the streets in the city center are one-way. There are many traffic lights for cars and pedestrians.

After 5 PM I go to "Café Trod," where the German should be. Really, he is here. He is talking with an Australian. I join them. That Australian is working for a year for a transport company. By now he is fed up with it and wants to go somewhere else. Where?  He doesn‘t know yet. Soon he leaves. I order coffee for 25 crowns. It's good for three cups with milk. Later, following the German’s example, I order 1/3 of a liter milk for 18 crowns. There are mostly young people here. Older customers are exception. Majority are girls 15-17 years old and a couple of young men.

About 35 years old Yugoslavs and one Italian sit next to our table. After a while the Italian moves to our table under the pretense of looking for some people from ships. He wants to leave. In Germany, where he lived 5 years, he met a Icelandic girl, who told him, he could find a good job on Iceland. He came with her, but didn‘t find a job. He is a waiter, but he would fish. He has been living with this girl for 6 months and she suports him. Oddly enough, nobody has anything against their living together not even her parents.  He is, however, dissatisfied with the situation. He has no money and wants to leave. In reality there is  unemployment here now, because there are few fish in the sea. Allegedly, the enormous Russian fleet contributs to it, as the Iceland small ships can’t compete with it. On the top of it, a year ago Icelandic crown dropped from 25 crowns per $1 to 89 crowns. So they are experiencing a crisis here with no escape at this time. He also talks about the people on Iceland. They don’t steal and there are no criminals here. Icelanders are peaceful in nature. Although there may not drink in restaurants except some wine, there's a lot of drunks. Everyone ordering Coca-Cola pulls a bottle of whisky from his pocket. I saw it in this restaurant, too. The local girls looks pretty good and they are soon mature. So they often become 15 years old unwed mothers. Nothing is done about it by the society and apparently even the parents don‘t take it tragically. Only the girls have hard life.

It is interesting that on Iceland everybody after five years of residence can get the citizenship. At that time his name is changed according to the Icelandic tradition which is derived from the name of his or her father. Icelandic language is actually old Norwegian.

This way we talk in German untill 10 PM.

April 9.2015 - Wednesday

At 8:45 AM I am at the bus station. I buy a ticket to Selfoss. It costs 95 crowns. I pick up a postcard for 7 crowns and at a post office a stamp for 9 crowns to airmail it to Europe.

They are only a few people on the bus to Selfoss which left at 9 PM. The ride should take about 1.5 hour. The coutryside, we drive through, looks quite sad. Nowhere a tree or grass. Little snow on the lava surface reminds me a freshly ploughed field. Later, bleak hills look like moonscape. The road is bad. Asphalt ends early and the gravel surface is full of potholes with water in them. Soon the windows are completely muddy mainly on the left side, where I sit and I can’t see through them. Intermitently it rains, hails or snows. The clouds reach almost  the ground. They are clusters of black or brown fog. A strong wind is blowing. The only evidence that a human foot ever stepped here are the high voltage wires stretched across the landscape. Nothing else, except an occassional road sign that seems almost pointless. Well, there is a completely abandoned gas station in the area where you can buy Pepsi-Cola and that is posted on a big sign.

Going down the eastern side of the hills I see the village of Hveragerdi from which steam is rising in many places. Coming closer we see numerous greenhouses. Steam from volcanic depth is used to heat the greenhouses.

Driving here took exactly one hour. Some passengers disembarked, some came on board. In several stops the driver delivered mail and packages.

Under a high mountains range we continue driving for about half an hour to Selfoss, where rain is pouring from the open skys. My umbrella turns in wind and my hands are freezing soon. In several shops I try to ask, where is the local waterfall. “Foss“ means “waterfall.“ Nobody speaks English, only in a small hotel a chubby girl, speaking poor English like me, says that in fact there is no waterfall here,  perhaps just a little one below the bridge. This news doesn‘t upset me, on the contrary, if Iceland is like that, then I must get to know it from it‘s side. I make a couple of shots with my camera. Then I decide that I would not wait nearly two hours for the next bus, but I would try to hitch-hike back to Reykjavik. I saw few cars going on the road. Hopefully some more will go.

I wave a truck and it stops. I show the driver on the map that I want to go to Hveragerdi. I can not pronounce the name. In Icelandic it sounds a little different.

We have nothing to say to each other, because we both know that we wouldn't understand. So we drive in silence, just squeaking wheels on the road and banging of flying stones from pavement into the car undercarriage and radio-music. This and many other cars are equipped with two-way radio. Sometimes I hear a voice, but the driver does not react.

I leave the truck in Hveragerdi. In wind and hail storm I take photos of greenhouses and the bubbling and steaming water from the bowels of the Earth. Steam that sometimes envelops me smells strongly as rotten eggs (hydrogen sulphide).

I hitch-hike another truck 10 minutes before 12. We drive again in silence. The driver saw me taking pictures  through the car window and stoppes on the top of a hill for me to take photos. We reach Reykjavik just after one hour drive.

I walk through the western part of the city between nice family houses. Before 2 PM I buy two slides films for my still camera and a chocolate (25.10 crowns). Then I go to the same restaurant as yesterday and have a cup of coffee.

After about half an hour the German comes. Later on we sit with two Yugoslavs. They are already 10 years on Iceland. One of them wants to return home when the situation improves in Yugoslavia. Also one Italian sat down to us. He lives here for 15 years and is married to a Icelandic girl. Eventually the yesterday's jobless Italian shows up and his girl, too. She says that a two-day strike will take place throughout Reykjavik. To my question whether someone pays their loss of earnings, she says that when the strike is short as this one, then not, but for longer strikes they would get support. The strike is to raise the lowest wages.

At seven o'clock, the company breaks up. Still another hour I am talking with the German who gives me more information. By the way, he is 21 years old today, though I thought he was older. Then he points out that the Icelandic currency cannot be exchanged outside Iceland. He is so good that he exchanges my 270 Icelandic crowns for 3$.  I have kept 75 crowns I need for the bus to the airport. At eight o'clock we say Good Bye to each other. He is convinced that I will stay in America. I am not. I go to Salvation Army hotel for my luggage. Then with this burden I walk to the hotel Lefleidir where after 9 PM. While I am waiting for the bus to the airport which goes after midnight, I am writing my daily notes.

State of my finances: $ 395; 227 Swiss Franks