Alex Robertson Textor

Akureyri

In late March I visited Akureyri, Iceland's second city, on a research trip. I found a city quiet—well, except for the runtur, which made me feel as if I was floating in a ring of engine noise until 3 am—and majestic, framed by snowy mountains. Akureyri felt cloistered, as if everything of note was happening not just out of sight but also hidden away.

I was happy to hop about on the surface. One night I booked a tour to see the Northern Lights. The skies cooperated rather undramatically but the tour was worthwhile. My other big tourist act was to visit the Mývatn Nature Baths. But mostly I just tried to absorb the place. It was a really enjoyable week.

Here, some shards of Akureyri:

View from the Ring Road bridge south of the city.

Ravens passing over the Akureyrarkirkja.

Street sign.

Manitoba: More on the New Icelandic Migration

I got some interesting responses to my post a couple of weeks ago on the expected migration of Icelanders to Manitoba over the next many months. At that point, there was buzz but little action. Now things are moving. Nancy Allan, Manitoba's Immigration Minister, spent most of this past week in Iceland hammering out a deal to lure work-hungry Icelanders in. See Mia Rabson's story in the Winnipeg Free Press (from last weekend) here. Iceland Review reports that a declaration of intent between Manitoba and Iceland was signed on Thursday, with the first public informational meeting about employment in Manitoba scheduled in Iceland on March 13.

Allan's visit has come under criticism from Aboriginal leader Dean Fontaine, who has advocated bringing more First Nations people into employment in the province; from other quarters, there have been complaints that Manitoba should be focused on recruiting workers from Canadian provinces hurt particularly badly by the recession. 

Another Icelandic Migration to Manitoba?

Some attention—though truth be told not as much as I'd have anticipated—has been devoted to the coming economic migration from Iceland. (Migrants to the country have already begun to depart in huge numbers. The BBC reported back in October about the exodus of Polish citizens, who have comprised the largest group of foreigners in the country many times over.) On a Monocle podcast a few editions ago, editors discussed where Iceland's economic migrants might be heading, suggesting that due to cultural links and the right of free movement, the Nordic countries were the obvious recipients.

But what about a possible migration westward? In yesterday's Globe and Mail, Patrick White writes a fascinating piece on the expected migration of Icelandic citizens ("...a trickle, not quite a torrent" in the words of Atli Ásmundsson, Iceland's consul-general in Winnipeg) to Gimli, Manitoba, a city of about 6000 north of Winnipeg. Gimli is the epicenter of Icelandic Canadian culture, and as such would be an obvious destination for economic migrants from Iceland.

But would savvy exiles from Reykjavík find cultural satisfaction in Gimli? Winnipeg, I dare to wager, would be a better fit. I'm a huge fan of the sorely underappreciated city, and have sung its praises in print. Winnipeg is a very creative place with loads of artists and other experimental types and an interesting ethnic and cultural mix. A modest influx would inject a distinctively Icelandic dose of creativity into the local scene, providing yet another dimension to a dynamic city already full of surprises.

Weekend: Iceland, More Cartagena, Cheap Caribbean, London Embassies, Alesha Dixon

Sarah Lyall's piece on Iceland in the New York Times yesterday documents the fall-out from Iceland's spectacular financial crash. It quotes an Icelandic woman named Hronn Helgadottir who points out that she can no longer afford to travel. She describes a recent trip to Amsterdam, purchased before the krona's collapse, during which she and her husband kept a very tight budget. From the article:

They ate as cheaply as they could and bought nothing. “It was strange to stand in a store and look at a bag or a pair of shoes and see that they cost 100,000 kronur, when last year they cost only 40,000,” she said.

What's remarkable about this description is how it matches my own experience as a visitor to Ms. Helgadottir's Iceland. On both of my visits (in 2001 and again in 2004) the general cost index was terrifying. I ate enormous hotel breakfasts in order to stave off hunger until the afternoon and kept to an extremely parsimonious budget. Hot dogs and supermarket items saved me. I harbor no Schadenfreude in sharing this—it's ironic, in other words, but not funny.

Elsewhere in the Times: a feature on dining in Cartagena by Danielle Pergament—there's that increased attention to Colombia again!—and a round-up of Caribbean hotels and venues by Austin Considine. The latter is weak on affordable hotels, though two shine through: Sea Cliff Cottages in Dominica (from $90 in high season) and Virgin Islands Campground on Water Island in the U.S. Virgin Islands (from $75 in high season).

The FT online carried an interesting piece by Rob Blackburn on Friday on the ambassadors at small embassies in London. It profiles the missions of Andorra, Eritrea, Fiji, Malawi, and Montenegro. The most surprising revelation within is that Andorrans apparently need visas to study and work in the UK.

Lastly, I'm happy to see that a song by Alesha Dixon, one of my favorite gossip column fixtures from this past summer in London, has entered the UK top ten. "The Boy Does Nothing" is at Number Eight this week. Bubblegum fun.

Weekend over and out.