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On Life in Iceland

Monday, July 30th, 2007

Okay so I´ve been in Iceland far too long to not have blogged about it yet.  The reality is that the minute I stepped off the plane I´ve been working my ass off rafting and kayaking down the East and West Glacial Rivers near the north coast of this strange island.  I´ve been writing, just not typing.  Time to play catch up.

Iceland is amazing on so many levels.  First of all, this was one of the last places on Earth for people to find.  The first settlers from Norway came about 1100 years ago, although there is talk of some Celtic monks who stuck to a tiny island in the south.  Supposedly the Celts came in 870 but there is no hard evidence of their life there.  We do know that the first boat loads to hit the island consisted of about 400 hardcore Vikings, a point I´m reminded of everytime I go rafting and hear the battlecry, or pick up a beer.  Viking is the top seller and a bargain at about $8 bucks a can.

 
For the next 1000 years or so the Iclandic folks had a pretty tough time of it.  They could hardly have guessed at the time that all the birch forests on the island had taken a loooooooong time to grow in the volcanic terrain and windy climate.  So they cut them all down.  The trees still haven´t grown back.  I´m sure they noticed the lava spewing volcanos and boiling geysers pretty fast as they were running for their lives down the hillside.  These Vikings had settled one of the world´s largest hotspots, essentially one big volcano between the American and European tectonic plates, perched at the tip top of the north Atlantic ridge.  This is a long way of saying ‘Iceland goes boom.’ 

For most of the populated history of Iceland poverty has been the state of things.  They ate a lot of sheep and fish when not drinking through the dark winters.  Yes dark.  Iceland isn´t actually all that cold despite the name.  Average January temperatures are about the same as London. 

There were famines, and civil wars, volcanoes and more famines.  Iceland really didn´t come into its own until 1944 when it gained independence from Denmark and really started to prosper.  World War II treated Iceland really well.  The US airbase at Keflavik is now the International airport which started a healthy flow of money into the country that seems to have never stopped.  The country is now one of the richest per capita in Europe and is just barely behind Norway as one of the world´s most expensive travel destinations.  It´s a good thing I´m working here.

Although I haven´t been very successful yet, before I leave I´m hoping to get out of this little valley and explore a bit.  The scenery here is amazing and most aptly described as desolately beautiful, and with a population of 300,000 you´re sure to have the view to yourself.

The Vasa Museum

Monday, July 30th, 2007

I´m a sucker for history museums and the Vasa Museum is one of the most interesting  to which I´ve been.  There is nothing better than turning up in a new country and heading to the museum to get a bearing on the culture and mutual heritage of the people.  In Stockholm the Vasa Museum takes you back 350 years into the Sweden of the past, all under the omnipresent shadow of a very, very old boat.

The Vasa was finished in 1628 and was one the of the first big war ships to have two gundecks.  King Gustav II wanted the Vasa to be grand, adorned with brightly painted sculptures and armed to the teeth with 64 cannons.  Unfortunately all its gunpower and beauty never stuck neither fear nor awe into any enemy as it met a hasty death.

The Vasa set sail on August 10, 1628 and immediately started to keel over.  They righted her just before the water reached the gun ports but twenty minutes later another stiff wind caught her sails and she couldn´t be saved.  Into Stockholm bay the Vasa sank to remain lost until 1956. 

Anders Franzen had been searching for the Vasa since 1953 and finally one lucky day pulled up his lead probe and saw oak.  Over the course of the next seven years divers, historians, and salvagers worked tirelessly to bring the ship back to the surface.  In 1961 the Vasa sailed again having been miraculously preserved in the mud and less salty Baltic Sea waters.  In saltier water woodworms would have devoured the ship centuries ago, but not here.

Once again this massive ship, albeit structurally flawed, can be admired in nearly all her glory.  Even the sculptures remain intact, some even with traces of their original paint.

So why did she sink?  Basically the Vasa should be been a bit wider but the balast was the ultimate cause of her sinking.  They used round stone balast which rolled to one side in the first breeze and put the boat´s center of balance off for the rest of its short life.  I don´t know if there´s a moral here?  The locals might say don´t hire a Dutchman for a job the Swedes could do better, even though they probably couldn´t have.

Stockholm, Sweden

Thursday, July 26th, 2007
In 1969 my Mom and Aunt Janet flew to Europe, bought a VW bug, and toured around for a while. I´ve listened to the stories throughout my life and since childhood have wanted to see those places. Stockholm ... [Continue reading this entry]

Torun, Poland

Monday, July 9th, 2007
For my last stop in Poland I head northwest toward the Baltic Sea but stop halfway in the beautiful little town of Torun, part preserved Gothic town and part university town.  If you´ve ever dreamed of studying in arched nooks ... [Continue reading this entry]

Kayaking in Poland: I´m sunk

Monday, July 9th, 2007
 
My buddy Lech grew up in the half rural, half Warsaw bedroom community of Sochaczew.  We spend the Summer Solstice weekend near here kayaking an unrunable river, the raging Rawka.  When the 12 of us ... [Continue reading this entry]

Europe: A different travel scene and a night out in Krakov

Monday, July 9th, 2007
I think Midori, one of the many Japanese travelers I met in "the ´stans" said it best: "Central Asia is for dreamers."  The healthy sprinkling of people I met in ... [Continue reading this entry]

Oh woe is Warsaw

Monday, July 9th, 2007
Poland´s had a rough century and nowhere are the scars more visible than in Warsaw.  The town was reduced to a bombed out shell by the Germans, then rebuilt by the communists and now capitalists to form the schitzophrenic city ... [Continue reading this entry]

Boycotting Russia

Monday, July 9th, 2007
Russia pisses me off. Not in a red commie kind of way, but a Putin´s an asshole and their visa requirements are a fucking joke kind of way. My original plan was to hop a train to Moscow ... [Continue reading this entry]

Show me the money/Leaving Asia

Sunday, July 1st, 2007
Okay, okay, I know this rather long blog is called Danny in Asia, but as of today I´m no longer in Asia proper and have jumped over Russia and landed in Poland, my first time in Europe.  All the flights ... [Continue reading this entry]

$40 Pigeon lunch, Uzbekistan

Sunday, July 1st, 2007
My last day in Uzbekistan squeaks by without police run-ins, but I´m not spared from a little excitement at lunch.  Jeff, an Ohioan staying at the same guesthouse as me head off to old town to find a place to ... [Continue reading this entry]