Day 6 - Reykjavik

Today was a nicely well-rounded day. I saw some architecture, participated in some cultural experiences and met some young Icelanders.

It occurs to me that I ought to be sharing some information about the other students on the trip, since I am only one of eighteen. This bit of trivia ought to be pretty important: 16 out of 18 of us know another language other than English. Between the eighteen of us, we represent English, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, French, Spanish and German. Most of the people who know these languages have lived/currently live in their respective countries of origin. I wonder about how our increased knowledge and interest in other countries, cultures and languages influences how we travel to and view other countries.

I like to think that in our group, we are "smart tourists". For one, we are all seasoned travelers who have traveled internationally. To know a language is to know something about its associated culture. Language fluency relies heavily upon knowing not only what to say but when and why to say it. Since the majority of us is familiar with another language, we are also somewhat knowledgeable of another country's culture. I believe that we are better able to perceive cultural differences between us and the countries we are visiting on this trip. We are also better at reflecting and thinking critically about our experiences, rather than take them at face value. I'll be expanding more upon these thoughts as I share more of my individual experiences and explain why they are unique for me as "Catherine" and me as "tourist".

Since Day 6 was a Saturday, we only visited one building, Alvar Aalto's Nordic House. On the way there with two other members of the group, Lindsay and Nico, we found ourselves lost. We flagged down a woman walking her baby in a stroller. We attempted to explain in English where we wished to go, but she seemed confused by the name "Nordic House". We had been reminded before that most of the Icelanders living in Reykjavik knew a few European languages, so Nico translated our request in German. The woman brightened up immediately at being able to understand our problem and quickly pointed at the building right across the street and wished us a pleasant stay in Iceland (or so she said in German).

Starting with what happened first, we all met up at Alvar Aalto's Nordic House at the south end of Tjörnin Lake. The Nordic House was designed by Aalto later in his life and, to use the words of my professor Pablo, is a "greatest hits" of Aalto's design moves. The Nordic House is a multipurpose building whose main components feature and small restaurant, assembly hall and library.

I was drawn particularly to the library. I tend to seek out libraries anyway, being an avid reader. I found the Nordic House library to be, by design, warm and welcoming. The stacks were staggered such that they appeared to be unfolding before me, beckoning me to enter.

 The steps near the center of the photograph lead down a half-flight to more stacks and little reading nooks. Although all of the lights were on, the daylight streamed into the space, washing the spines of the books in a pleasant pale yellow glow. The railing in the image becomes the stacks for the lower section of the library, which is entirely open to the entire space.

There is a curious relationship of the upper, outer stacks to the inner, lower stacks. The staggering and angling creates pockets for a few people to cluster around a single stack. Only two or three people can comfortably occupy this space at a time, which makes for an intimate experience.

The main image is a loose axonometric view of the key relationships of the library stacks. You can see how Aalto angled the stacks to create points of tension, where opposite stacks are closer, and areas of release, where the stacks move away from each other. At the top right of the page, a quick section shows the relationship of the lower stacks to the higher ones. The plan diagram simplifies the tension-release relationship between the upper and lower stacks.

I tried my shot at a photo-interior elevation. It's a first attempt, so it's a bit sloppy, but there isn't much I can do to clean it up, and it was a valuable learning experience. I started at one end of the library, facing one wall. I snapped a photo, took one step to the side, snapped a photo, and kept doing that until I reached the other side.  I positioned myself so that I would have to walk down the stairs into the central lower stacks, and that's where things got a little fuzzy in terms of alignment.

Let me know what you think. I'll do more of these when I think it's appropriate. It can be a useful tool for understanding a space in terms of a variety of different relationships.

After studying the Nordic House, we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Now that we had been in Reykjavik for a few days, we were better able to anticipate and appreciate our surroundings. Most Icelanders in Reykjavik speak English quite well, and seem to enjoy certain phrases. I saw this sign on a main street in Reykjavik and wondered if the store did good business:

A small group of us stopped at a grocery store, not because we were looking for anything in particular, but to explore and discover differences in Icelandic food culture. I noticed right away what is special about Iceland's grocery stores. Can you tell what's unusual about this photo?

All of the price tags in the store were digital! It must save a bundle on paper and allow for more efficient price-changing. They must run off the super-cheap electricity made by the geothermal plant!

A staple of Icelandic food culture is Skyr, Iceland's own brand of yogurt. Skyr is positively fantastic. It's a bit heavier than standard American yogurt, but in the sense that it's more filling.  It's made with better ingredients and is supposed to be very good for you. It's a common dessert option at restaurants with berries or pie. I miss Skyr the most of any food I had in Iceland.

We were lucky enough to spend our first weekend in Europe during the finals for Eurovision. For those who don't know, Eurovision is akin to American Idol, for the entire continent of Europe. Each country sends a song (and a band/singer to sing it) to a competition. There are qualifying rounds, two semifinals and a final round. The rule is: you aren't allowed to vote for your own country. Lindsay and I caught some of the semifinals a few days before, but this night was the final round where the countries that survived the first elimination round competed for Eurovision glory.

The competition is held in the country that won the previous year, which meant that Oslo, Norway, hosted the 2010 competition. I'm still a bit bummed that we couldn't have been in Oslo earlier, for the Eurovision competition, but Icelanders are fiercely proud of their country and it wasn't difficult to find a bar with a rowdy bunch of Icelanders rooting for their country. We all cheered along with them, happy to be a part of something that is intended to unite Europeans in the friendly spirit of competition.

Of course, it isn't difficult to understand that many of the songs are political, or at least severely vetted before being submitted for entry. Also, some of the voting trends displayed by certain countries were blatantly political. Still, it was a fun cultural experience, even if Iceland didn't score very well (they didn't even break top 15 when I thought their song deserved top 3).


I'll leave you with a photo of us in our finery ready to hit the town for some Eurovision fun!