{"id":4567,"date":"2012-08-06T21:41:23","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T01:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=4567"},"modified":"2018-08-03T22:08:24","modified_gmt":"2018-08-04T02:08:24","slug":"monday-august-6-2012-countdown-to-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=4567","title":{"rendered":"Monday, August 6, 2012 \u2014 Countdown to Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"

In about three weeks, I\u2019ll be land\u00ading at Keflavik Air\u00adport, in Ice\u00adland. While I do have some pre-set appoint\u00adments, for the most part, I\u2019ll be explor\u00ading that inter\u00adest\u00ading coun\u00adtry in my usu\u00adal unplanned, eccen\u00adtric way. I must cram as much expe\u00adri\u00adence as I can into a mere ten days \u2015 not much time, con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00ading how much that coun\u00adtry has fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00aded me over the years, and how much I\u2019ve read about it. But read\u00ading about a place, no mat\u00adter how thor\u00adough\u00adly, is no sub\u00adsti\u00adtute for walk\u00ading in it, talk\u00ading to its peo\u00adple, get\u00adting the smell of the air and the lay of the land. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>I usu\u00adal\u00adly trav\u00adel light, car\u00adry\u00ading only a small back\u00adpack which con\u00adtains a change of clothes, a pup-tent, a few gen\u00ader\u00adal-pur\u00adpose tools, some books and note\u00adbooks. I\u2019m most inter\u00adest\u00aded in how ordi\u00adnary Ice\u00adlanders live their lives. As I usu\u00adal\u00adly do, I\u2019ll seek out the unspec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar and unof\u00adfi\u00adcial, the streets and lanes and bits of coun\u00adtry that tourists sel\u00addom care about. I always want to see the dark cor\u00adners, the social prob\u00adlems, the blem\u00adish\u00ades as much as the admirable and the pic\u00adturesque. I will try to speak to as many Ice\u00adlanders as I can, and of every kind \u2015 young and old, rich and poor, town and coun\u00adtry, fish\u00ader\u00admen, farm\u00aders, stu\u00addents, busi\u00adness peo\u00adple, aca\u00add\u00ade\u00admics, any\u00adone. My inter\u00adests are social, his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal, polit\u00adi\u00adcal, and lit\u00ader\u00adary, in the main, but film, art, music, nat\u00adur\u00adal his\u00adto\u00adry, agri\u00adcul\u00adture, fish\u00aderies, archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy, geol\u00ado\u00adgy and ecol\u00ado\u00adgy also demand my atten\u00adtion. I am eager to meet experts and enthu\u00adsi\u00adasts in all these sub\u00adjects. As a for\u00admer shep\u00adherd, I am par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly eager to meet Ice\u00adlandic sheep\u00admen. It would also be nice to encounter some of the famous Ice\u00adlandic ponies. Ice\u00adlandic writ\u00aders, of course, would be par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly delight\u00adful to meet, espe\u00adcial\u00adly any of the county\u2019s fine mys\u00adtery writers.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Ice\u00adland holds some par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar inter\u00adest for a Cana\u00addi\u00adan like myself. The two coun\u00adtries have some unusu\u00adal links. Dur\u00ading the nine\u00adteenth cen\u00adtu\u00adry, Ice\u00adlandic migrants to Cana\u00adda were grant\u00aded the spe\u00adcial priv\u00adi\u00adlege of set\u00adting up a \u201cstate with\u00adin a state\u201d in West\u00adern Cana\u00adda. Before it was absorbed into the Province of Man\u00adi\u00adto\u00adba, Ice\u00adlanders had a self-gov\u00adern\u00ading, semi-autonomous \u201crepub\u00adlic\u201d with its own Allth\u00ading<\/em>, mod\u00adeled on the Ice\u00adlandic Free State of the Mid\u00addle Ages. Ice\u00adland is the only Euro\u00adpean coun\u00adtry that actu\u00adal\u00adly sent a greater num\u00adber of its emi\u00adgrants to Cana\u00adda than to the Unit\u00aded States. The town of Gim\u00adli, in Man\u00adi\u00adto\u00adba, still pre\u00adserves many Ice\u00adlandic tra\u00addi\u00adtions. There are about 90,000 Cana\u00addi\u00adans of Ice\u00adlandic descent \u2015 equal to a quar\u00adter of the pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion of Ice\u00adland itself. And of course, Ice\u00adlanders were the first Euro\u00adpeans known to have set foot on Cana\u00addi\u00adan soil. The first Ice\u00adlandic-Cana\u00addi\u00adan, Snor\u00adri \u00deorfinns\u00adson, was born a thou\u00adsand years ago! (almost exact\u00adly, if the date of 1012 attest\u00aded in the Sagas is correct).<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My prin\u00adci\u00adpal area of his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal study and writ\u00ading is the ori\u00adgins of democ\u00adra\u00adcy, and small scale demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic insti\u00adtu\u00adtions. Ice\u00adland, with its medieval par\u00adlia\u00adment, looms large in this study. I will of course want to vis\u00adit the \u00deingvel\u00adlir, like any tourist would, but it will have a spe\u00adcial import for my stud\u00adies. Iceland\u2018s mod\u00adern con\u00adsti\u00adtu\u00adtion is of equal inter\u00adest to me. The cur\u00adrent admin\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtion, which emerged after the finan\u00adcial cri\u00adsis of 2008, deserves some atten\u00adtion. Hope\u00adful\u00adly, I will meet some\u00adone who knows its work\u00adings. I\u2018ve read much about the caus\u00ades and results of that finan\u00adcial cri\u00adsis, and this, too, must be explored in situ<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While much of my time will doubt\u00adless be spent in Reyk\u00adjav\u00edk, I\u2019ll try to get out into the coun\u00adtry as much as pos\u00adsi\u00adble. My hitch-hik\u00ading thumb, much used over the years, is always ready to bring me to some new adven\u00adtures. Which reminds me: to qual\u00adi\u00adfy as a cer\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adable life of adven\u00adture, it must include some con\u00adtact with a live vol\u00adcano. My child\u00adhood imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion put great stock in vol\u00adcanos, along with dinosaurs, emp\u00adty dune deserts, and out\u00ader space. Molten lava is just one of those things I expect\u00aded to encounter in a well-lived grown-up life, and Ice\u00adland offers the oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adty of mak\u00ading that come out right. <\/span><\/p>\n

My old\u00ader broth\u00ader tells me that my fas\u00adci\u00adna\u00adtion with pale\u00adon\u00adtol\u00adogy began when, as a child, I was ter\u00adri\u00adfied by the dinosaurs in the film Jour\u00adney to the Cen\u00adter of the Earth<\/em>. In that film, I prob\u00ada\u00adbly first heard the Ice\u00adlandic lan\u00adguage spo\u00adken, by the char\u00adac\u00adter Hans (por\u00adtrayed by P\u00e9tur R\u00f6gn\u00advalds\u00adson) who was much more inter\u00adest\u00ading than the dimwit\u00adted hero played by Pat Boone. Along with James Mason and Arlene Dahl, they descend into the crater of Sn\u00e6fell\u00adsj\u00f6kull, and find their way to the \u201ccen\u00adter of the Earth\u201d amid much Hol\u00adly\u00adwood con\u00adfu\u00adsion about how the world is struc\u00adtured. The orig\u00adi\u00adnal Jules Verne nov\u00adel used nine\u00adteenth-cen\u00adtu\u00adry sci\u00adence, but Verne did not make such absurd goofs. The book was a favourite of my ear\u00adly read\u00ading in French. With its promi\u00adnent place in my child\u00adhood men\u00adtal fur\u00adni\u00adture, I would love to vis\u00adit Sn\u00e6fellsj\u00f6kull.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>

\u201c<\/span>Jour\u00adney to the Cen\u00adter of the Earth\u201d, with mus\u00adcu\u00adlar P\u00e9tur R\u00f6gn\u00advalds\u00adson on the right.<\/p><\/div>\n

So, the mask of my offi\u00adcial pur\u00adpose, all very seri\u00adous and aca\u00add\u00ade\u00adm\u00adic, comes away. My motive for the trip is real\u00adly pure fun. The count\u00addown begins to anoth\u00ader adventure. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In about three weeks, I\u2019ll be land\u00ading at Keflavik Air\u00adport, in Ice\u00adland. While I do have some pre-set appoint\u00adments, for the most part, I\u2019ll be explor\u00ading that inter\u00adest\u00ading coun\u00adtry in my usu\u00adal unplanned, eccen\u00adtric way. I must cram as much expe\u00adri\u00adence as \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,932],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-ao-blog-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4567"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4796,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567\/revisions\/4796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}