Iceland Lessons Learned (And Not Learned)

Sulfur | OCDs | NASA Recruiting

I'm not sure if it's the tourist or the locals, or both, but Iceland is the ancestral home of the cargo pant.  I'm not saying they reach of a one-to-one ratio with jeans, but it's closer than I've witnessed anywhere else.  The streets of Reykjavik are pretty much a non-stop outdoor wear add.  People walk by in North Face, Columbia, 66 North, and Cintamani jackets (the last two are Iceland made outdoor wear brands). 

One hallmark of being in Iceland is turning on hot water and getting a whiff of sulfur.  It doesn't happen everywhere, but if it does you can be sure that the building your in is fed hot water form a geothermal source.

Restaurants.  There are two cultural things to know about restaurants in Iceland.  One, water will be provided one of two ways.  There will either be glasses located on a central table with a communal water jug.  You are expected to help your self.  This is common in cafes.  The other common way water is provided is a carafe of water on your table so you can help yourself.  I am quite fond of the carafe method being I consume a lot of water while eating and this relieves the waiter/waitress from keeping up with me.   Two, you are pretty much expected to find the register and pay there.  We've only had one check brought to our table while eating in Iceland.

Another hallmark of Iceland that I shall not miss is the doors.  Door are routed here on three or four sides so that they can lay on top of the door frame.  The result is when the door is closed it protrudes out form the frame about half an inch.  As someone who is used to doors laying flush with the door frame this weirds me out and sets off all sorts of OCD alarms.  I find it very disconcerting.  I wonder if it's a design feature left over from before modern weather stripping.

Iceland had a weird prohibition.  You'll read about bits and pieces of it and they won't make any damn sense. You'll eventually figure out that they had a short American-style prohibition.  Then for some reason wine and spirits were OK but beer wasn't.  Beer wasn't OK until 1989!  The Wikipedia page for Icelandic Prohibition gives some historical reasons for the weirdness.  This pamphlet I found in a cafe is also illuminating.

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Speaking of that pamphlet, it also had this great advertisement for a night-club in Reykjavik called Nasa.  Dawn and I never visited it.  If we ever figure out what our space program is doing and need to start hiring young engineers, I think NASA could just use this ad and their college recruiting would be taken care of.

That page also has fun facts about Iceland's national liquor, which is caraway schnapps.  Here's the thing that confuses me.  If they put the skull and crossbones label on Brennivin in 1915 during prohibition, why were they selling the stuff?  Seems like the skull and crossbones rules out medicinal purposes.  I wonder if this all boils down to a case of "I don't think that word means what you think it means."