Akureyri

Akureyri, Iceland's "capital of the north" is a friendly town for two reasons: first, it is one of the rare places in this country that doesn't have any special Icelandic characters in its name -- so everyone, even me typing this on my old laptop from Australia with a plain English keyboard layout, can spell it correctly without needing to copy & paste the word from Wikipedia. Second, it's a friendly town because its red traffic lights are heart-shaped. Yes, really, I'm not kidding you. When you stop at a red light in Akureyri, you feel as if the intersection stopped you to tell you she was in love with you.

I used a free evening to pamper myself with a good dinner. I couldn't resist the Thai restaurant at the main corner as they had my favourite dish, Pad Thai. I love Pad Thai. Afterwards I went across the street to the cinema and saw a movie. My friend Marek from Germany had advised me to go to a cinema when I'm in Iceland. They show American films with the original soundtrack and Icelandic subtitles, so it's fine if you know English. The film was not bad, a Spielberg sci-fi flick called "Super 8".

The next morning I visited Akureyri's botanical garden. You can tell that Icelanders love literature and poetry because they put up poems in parks. On weatherproof plates in nice print. I like that. Poetry belongs more often outdoors, not in books but right in locations that allow the reader to feel what the poet had felt when writing it. It is inspirational. I think we Germans should put more Goethe and Schiller works into our parks too.

Konrad was here in Akureyri for several days, 24-27 July 1858. I found this photo of Akureyri from 1885, taken 27 years later. There was no Thai restaurant then, no cinema and no university. But there was a port, as it is today. The oldest house in town is Laxdalshús, it's from 1795.

Another important old house is Nonnahús. It is the house in which the Icelandic writer Jón Sveinsson, better known as Nonni, grew up. For those of you who have not heard of him, he is something like Astrid Lindgren is for Sweden. Germans might perhaps best know him from the TV series Nonni und Manni, a German-Icelandic co-production that debuted on Christmas 1988. (I'm sorry I have not yet seen it myself, but I will try to get it on DVD.)

Next to Nonnahús is a church from 1846 and the town museum. They had a special exhibition about elves and huldufólk, this was of course something interesting. The huldufólk or "hidden people" are thought to live underground, in mountains, under rocks etc. They look like normal people, except that they don't wear modern clothes but dress in the style of Icelandic wear from the 19th century. They are said to be beautiful with noble appearance. From time to time they get in contact with humans, for example to seek help when giving birth. If they are helped, they usually reward the person generously, but if they are treated badly there will be dire consequences. The exhibition showed various artefacts that are thought to have come from huldufólk, such as pieces of fine embroidered cloth (see photo). Konrad had described the folklore of elves and huldufólk in his book Isländische Volkssagen der Gegenwart (1860). It is now in print again and available from bookshops such as Amazon.