Being a (occasionally raw) vegan in Iceland

When I left Copenhagen for the first time to go to Iceland, I packed a lot of vegan snacks and food.

On tourist guides, you read the most awful things about Icelandic food. I don't know if those rumors are true, but I wish I didn't know about it.

Being a vegan, I was aghast. I thought I would seriously resort to eating wild berries and probably die of food poisoning (side note: this didn't stop me at all from being over excited when I boarded the plane).

Upon my arrival in Reykjavík, I was surprised overjoyed to find a raw vegan restaurant on Laugavegur. I couldn't ask for anything better, really. The food was amazing and the place is cozy and awesome. I suspect Jónsi from Sigur Rós has something to do with it, but I can't know for sure.

Here's a pic of my magnificent lunch:

My meal: raw sesame burger with bulgur and chutney, and banana cake. Yummieessss

Other than that, though, I was afraid not to find anything edible (well, for my herbivore habits) anywhere else, especially during tours in the wild.

I was wrong once more.

At Gullfoss I was treated with an amazing vegan tomato soup, while Bonus (the unmistakable supermarket with a pig as a logo) has a surprisingly wide range of vegan products. There's also a vegan/bio grocery store on Laugavegur and a vegetarian and vegan friendly restaurant next door to the shop.

I mean. What more could I ask for, really?

Classic touristy thing: the view from Hallgrímskirkja

One of the best things to do while in Reykjavík is to go to the top of the famous and beautiful Hallgrímskirkja. You can reach it using the stairs (bad idea) or an elevator. They will ask you to pay a small fee to go up; believe me, it's well worth it. 

The top of the church offers a 360° view of the capital. As you can see from my picture, the eye can wander to as far as the bay and the mountains. It is absolutely breath taking, and in a sunny and clear day you'll have the chance to take incredible pictures that will make your friends really jealous (warning: they may want to insult you after seeing your stunning shots!).

It's also very windy up there, which only adds to the freedom feeling. And to those who are horribly afraid of heights (like me) not to worry: the fences are tall and there are no holes through which you can fall down. 

It's a win/win situation. 

Whale watching is good for you!! (unless you had breakfast, then you should think about not going)

Whale watching is one of the most amazing things I've ever done (no matter that I really, seriously love whales - I think anyone would be emotionally involved in this experience).

I did it in the summer of 2012.

Here is my blog entry of that day:

In other news: today we went whale watching It’s been the most amazing experience of my life! I literally cried of joy - well, before throwing up at least. Anyway, we were extremely lucky (our guide said it was like we won the lottery) because we saw 2 minke whales feeding very close to the boat, and a pod of 8 dolphins. I can’t really describe the emotion! Just some advice if you plan to go whale watching: don’t have breakfast before it. No seriously, don’t.

And here's a picture of what you actually have to wear when you go whale watching with Elding in July:

Yes, it was that cold.

Trying to write down my feelings during the tour is clearly impossible. You can not describe the feeling you get when this enourmous animal looks at you from the waves. You can hear it breath. You can actually smell it.
Whales are so curious they come close to the boat and play. They are as big as a bus and they want to play. The emotions are incredible.

Elding, being the awesome company that it is, posted a video and a recap of our tour. Here it is, with a link to their website:

Tour at 0900

Report from Hafsúlan:

What a great morning in Faxaflói Bay! We started the tour at Akurey to watch thousands of Puffins. It is great to see how good the colony doing at the moment and we hope more and more to have young birds on the island in this autum. Once we were further out in the bay we spotted something in a great distance, some splashes and a black back, this turned out to be two lunge feeding Minke Whales! What a great moment out in a calm bay! Both of them surfaced close to the boat and we could see small fish jumping while the Whales were lunge feeding not more than 10 meter away. Once we all ahd a great look at the Minke Whales feeding hehaviour we headed into another area as there was a second boat coming and we did not want to disturb the whales. Not more than five minutes later we found a Pod of 10 to 15 White Beaked Dolphins. Again a nice surprise. They came close to the boat and we saw their whole bodies under the surface, before we decided to head back towards land. On the way back we spotted 4 other Minke Whales in different directions that we just looked at while passing by. Amazing start into the day for all on board!!!

Photos and video taken by engineer Guðmundur Geir

There is really no way to describe the Midnight Sun

This is Reykjavik at 2 in the morning in July..which means GLORIOUS MIDNIGHT SUN :)

Money and elves and stuff

That’s right - don’t throw your money in the water. Meaning: don’t throw it here, you have to throw it in the next creek. There’s a particular creek in Þingvellir that is said to be populated by elves (like 99% of Iceland, I must say). If you throw them money, they bless you with luck. Our guide wasn’t sure about why they want money though, because a) they don’t need it and b) they don’t pick it up. He guessed maybe they like the sparkles of the coins hit by sunshine. So, since the elves don’t pick up the money, Icelanders do it for them (?!), and with the money they raise they fix the path through Þingvellir. And the elves seem happy about that, so the tourists don’t go stomping on their houses. Pretty neat, uh?

Paintings and weird things on the walls

The first thing you notice when you arrive in Iceland’s cool (see what I did there?) capital is the amazing amount of street art and colour around its streets.

Sure, there are lots of colourful homes and fences - but it’s not just that. 

People get creative in Iceland. It seems to me that people love art and literally living among art, so that pictures are not just to be seen in museums, but can decorate the entire city! This thought inspires me a lot - I’ve been in awe during all my holiday in Reykjavik. Everywhere I turned, there was a great mural, graffiti, or even knitted artworks decorating trees! Like this:

Talking about decorating trees in a creative way…

Moreover, art is used as advertisement by little shops - and it’s so much better than those huge blueprints we have here! Here’s an example - this mural advertises a company that fixes computers:

The artistic installation are a world apart. There are huge artworks made of glass or some kind of sequin that move with every gust of wind and sparkle like fairy powder on top of buildings:

And then there are huge masterpieces that remind you of modern time science fiction:

My thought when I came back home was: what if we did the same in our grey and boring cities? Suddenly a realization came to me: here, it would be impossible. Even if the city council gave its permission (and I don’t think they would, honestly, because for some reason they like their concrete), people would run around with spray cans and write stupid slogans all over the murals. Or they would add inappropriate male apparatus to pretty much anything (yeah..you know what I’m talking about). This doesn’t seem to happen in Iceland - or at least, I haven’t seen one mural ruined by mindless “sprayers”. I’ve been under the impression that most people respect stuff in Iceland. Want to set long chairs on Laugavegur for people to sit? Sure, no problem.

In general, Icelandic people proved to be very respectful towards things and people alike:  when I was lost alone in Reykjavik I had at least 7 people anxious to help me - and that isn’t something that  happened a lot during my travels in other Countries!  

People just seem genuinely happy about the murals, and the city council actually encourages this kind of things - as you can read here.

Walking the streets of Reykjavik is like being in one of those cool kids’ museums they have in Germany, where kids can look at art but also experiment and draw and live their creative impulse. I felt like I was perfectly allowed to take a pencil and draw pretty stuff wherever I wanted (I don’t know ifthis is actually legal, so don’t do it). Honestly, I just wanted to run through the colourful streets like I was 6.

Talking about young artists: I spent a night in Leynibúðin’s bar on Laugavegur. i understand it is some sort of young designers collective, active in the fashion area. Besides the brilliant DJ set they had, I had the chance to show my little art notebook to people there. They showed me their work, too, and we talked about street art for about 3 hours. It’s something that had never happened to me. 

So if you are an art enthusiast like me, Iceland is definitely the place to be. And don’t forget to visit the local bars and collectives of young designers and artists - there you can see art at work and meet interesting people who get excited hearing your latin-sounding name! 

Maybe I have a romantic and unrealistic idea of Iceland. Unfortunately I’m not naive enough to believe that there is a place where everyone is respectful and kind. But coming from a Country (Switzerland) where people is horribly rude to each other, my holidays in Reykjavik felt like a huge breath of fresh air!