In Iceland. Social Democrat Johanna takes the helm in the wake of the collapse of the Independence Party-led coalition.
Showing posts with label Iceland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iceland. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, March 31, 2008
Iceland v. Uzbekistan
Being able to hit the ATM is one of the great blessings of modern travel. No longer do travelers have to spend a lot of time waiting in bank lines at home waiting to buy travelers checks and abroad waiting to cash them for a fat commission. Now, banks are happy to take the commission with no middle man.
Iceland, however, has taken electronic transactions to a whole new level. It was the first time I ever visited a country without hitting the ATM or changing any money. Instead, it all went on the credit card. No charge is too small--even hot dog vendors on the street take credit.
The only time I ever wished I had any change was when I wanted to hit the soda machine. I imagine that hiccup will soon pass. I saw my first soda machine that takes credit cards while waiting for my luggage in the Miami airport a few weeks ago.
Uzbekistan lies on the other extreme from Iceland. Except in a few international hotels, credit cards cannot be used anywhere and I didn't see any ATM machine anywhere in the country. Visitors have to bring dollars to exchange and hold on to exchange receipts if they want to exchange it back.
And not just any cash. Unless the dollar bills are in mint condition, Uzbeks won't take them for the excellent reason that other Uzbeks won't take them. And you better have the latest version of each note. Unlike Americans, Uzbeks actually check for forgeries. This is not unique to Uzbekistan but common in cash-based societies.
Once you've changed your money in Uzbekistan, you get a large pile of money. Coins don't exist and the largest note (1000 sum) was worth around $0.75 when I was there. However, it is difficult to figure out what to do with the wads of cash--you get around twenty-seven 1000 sum notes for $20.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Lost in the Lava Tube
The Blue LagoonJet lag from flying from the east coast of the U.S. to Iceland ought to be terrible. The difference in time between Annapolis and Reykjavik was only four hours when I went. The flight is too short to sleep much even if you can sleep on planes so you have to begin your new day in Iceland just as your old one in the U.S. ends.
However, I didn't have any problem. The bright sun and bracing Icelandic wind (umbrellas are a clear sign of tourists as they are useless if it's raining) kept me wide awake despite the lack of sleep. Unlike I when I went to Madrid, I didn't make the mistake of trying to visit an art museum--the ultimate soporific--and just stuck with coffee and walking around.
Iceland has a population of around 300,000 and is the sort of place where everyone claims to know everyone else. Even if that is an exaggeration, there are usually only two or three degrees of separation instead of the six claimed for the rest of the world.
Still, it was a bit of a surprise when two people came up and said hello with a look of recognition on the streets of Reykjavik. It turned out it was two nice Americans from the Embassy who had seen a picture in advance of my visit. However, that never happened to me in any other country!
Despite the small population, I still managed to take a wrong turn. On Saturday, I took a tour of a lava tube. March isn't exactly high season in Iceland so the only two people on the tour were a Finnish woman and myself.
Tourists hoping to encounter Icelanders in the form of tour guides may end up disappointed. My tour guide was a Canadian expatriate. A Polish man was driving one of the other vans.
There are a lot of immigrants in Iceland--one of the locals working for the American Embassy is originally from Bosnia. (Side note: do you know many people who can speak Bosnian, English, and Icelandic?) Strong economic growth is drawing immigrants to Iceland and literally changing the face of this heretofore homogeneous island.
Historically, Iceland was so homogeneous that it was considered the ideal place for genetic research. deCode genetics has the genetic records of everyone in Iceland. Genetic analysis has already indicated the accuracy of the Icelandic sagas about the settlement of the island.
Today, about seven percent of Iceland's population are immigrants. When I visited Iceland around sixteen years ago, I can't recall seeing a single nonwhite face but seeing a black person on the streets of Reykjavik is not so rare anymore.
Much like Ireland but even more so, Icelanders are still getting used to the idea of immigration into their tight knit formerly-poor-but-now-rich island country. Incorporating newcomers is still a relatively new idea--as is hearing Icelandic in a foreign accent.
My genial Canadian tourguide took us inside a lava tube. Water seeping in through the entrance created amazing temporary stalactites (or is it stalagmites?) in the form of icicles dripping down from the ceiling and even connecting to the floor on occasion.
When the guide directed us to go on our own to the other exit, we figured it had to be tourist proof or he wouldn't let us go on our own. Wrong. Caves are confusing places and we somehow managed not to go the right way.
When one is lost in a cave, one's first thought is that this is not a good time to panic. The cave is small, the guide knows it well, and will come find us. (The second thought is that this is an excellent time to panic.)
Eventually, about 90 minutes after we entered the cave as it turned out, we ran into the guide hunting for us just as we finally figured out the route back to the entrance. "All's well that ends well" though we were both mighty glad to see the light coming from the entrance.
On the ride over, the guide told us how only one drunk tourist and one who spoke no English got lost and were quickly found among the hundreds he had taken through the lava tube. Well, he now has to double his count of lost tourists. (No pre-caving alcohol here and I speak good Englush.)
Needless to say, the Blue Lagoon, a wonderfully hot bathing mudhole made out of the runoff from a geothermal power plant, was extremely welcome relaxation at the end of the day. It has become one of Iceland's major tourist attractions since it is a lot of fun and located between Reykjavik and the airport.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Urban Iceland
Reykjavik at SunsetThe last time I visited Iceland, I spent almost no time in Reykjavik, the capital, and lots traveling around rural areas of the island. Recently, I traveled back to talk about the upcoming U.S. elections. I spent most of my time in Reykjavik and got a view of urban Iceland this time. Here are some random thoughts on one of Europe's most interesting countries:
Expensive
Reykjavik may be the most expensive capital city in the world, outpacing even its Nordic rival of Oslo, Norway. Remember that virtually everything has to be imported across the Nordic Sea and the country has a standard VAT rate of 24.5%.
The staggering prices make it hard for an American traveling on the weak dollar to drown their sorrows. I saw ordinary glasses of wine going for $32 per glass (not bottle) and a beer usually sold for around $10. It is far cheaper to buy hardcover editions of books by Icelandic authors in the United States than to buy paperback ones in Iceland.
Finding dinner for less than $50 was tough, though I did find a marvelous place by the harbor where you could point to the fresh catch, including whale, and they'd cook it for you. I had some of the largest and best scallops of my life for around $21--not a bad deal even in America.
Icelanders really love their cars--I can tell because the number of them had clearly increased since my last visit some 16 years ago and they are willing to fill up the tank at several multiples of the U.S. price for gas.
Declining US Influence
In retrospect, American influence could only decline from the period after World War II. We had established a military base at Keflavik, where the major international airport is located, and the presence of thousands of U.S. soldiers brought American culture and dollars in large dollops to the then-relatively isolated and poor Iceland.
Icelanders are no longer isolated or poor. No Icelander in 1940 or 1950 would have believe how wealthy Iceland--now home to two of the world's billionaires--would become by 2008. Despite the comparatively harsh conditions of their climate, they have built one of the most successful and connected countries on the planet. In addition to regular air connections via Icelandair, Icelanders are avid consumers of cell phones and the internet, easily outpacing Americans on both counts.
The base at Keflavik was always controversial in Iceland, NATO's only member without its own standing army. However, the Icelandic government never asked the Americans to leave. In the end, Iceland was surprised when the U.S. closed the base in 2006 and mourned the loss of jobs.
The former base location now serves as a source of cheaper housing (yup, it's expensive too), albeit with a longish and expensive commute (don't forget the price of gas) to Reykjavik. Icelanders also enjoy that they don't have to pass through a foreign military base to enter or to leave the country's major airport.
The U.S. still maintains the largest foreign embassy in Iceland. Nonetheless, the twelve Americans still constitute the smallest American embassy in Europe.
Rising EU Influence
Iceland falls increasingly within the orbit of the European Union. Iceland is a member of the European Economic Space (EES) so it already has adopted three-quarters of EU laws and regulations and already contributes to EU cohesion funds. It is also a member of the Schengen zone, permitting free movement among participating European nations.
Historically, the desire to protect its exclusive fishing rights around the island to continue to subsidize farmers heavily precluded serious consideration of an EU application. Moreover, it took Iceland until 1944 to achieve its independence from Denmark, so giving up sovereignty remains a sensitive topic.
Nonetheless, Iceland increasingly thinks about the advantages of joining the EU. The Icelandic krona is a small and volatile currency--it varied from 66 to 70 kronur to the U.S. dollar while I was there. Icelanders would like to adopt the Euro in the hopes of better containing currency fluctuations and inflation but have been told unequivocally that they would need to join the EU to do so.
Despite sitting astride North America and Europe, Iceland is culturally closer to Europe. Iceland retains close linguistic and cultural ties with the Nordic countries. Though the tie with Denmark was severed in 1944, all Icelanders continue to learn Danish is school and many still spend time studying in Copenhagen.
Just before my arrival in Iceland, a poll showed that 55 percent of Icelanders support joining the EU--the first time any poll showed majority support for the idea. However, the current government--as shotgun marriage between the right-wing Independence Party and the left-wing Social Democratic Alliance (SDA)--has agreed not to apply for EU membership during this parliament, so don't expect a quick application.
However, the SDA may choose to make joining the EU the center of its platform in the hopes of forming the anchor of the next government. It will be interesting to see if the SDA can use the EU question to overturn the usual dominance of the Independence Party which is divided over this question.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
