Þetta reddast...

One thing I was very surprised to notice, when I came to Iceland the first time, was how extremely similar to Cubans Icelanders seemed to be, at least in my world view.
Example :

 A Cuban

An Icelander

So what ? How  that?

Well for one, I've never seen so many people eating pineapple (on pizzas, mostly) as here in Iceland but that's not the point.

I suppose the first thing that strikes people upon arrival is not commonly a resemblance with the Caribbean.

Fair enough, Iceland is an island, consequently surrounded by sea and fish and stuff, and people here do what people on islands do. 

And we do grow bananas here (at least 5 of them a year, making Iceland, the largest banana producing country in geographical Europe (yes my dear !) but that's pretty much where the resemblance stops : mostly, Icelanders are not usually internationally renowned for swinging their hips to the sound of salsa through tropical nights.
Although I guess we do have the local equivalent of swinging through the night drinking opal or brennivín by the gallon to the sound of eighties hits. And if you want to add a bit of spice, you can say under the northern lights – which incidentally have been very active recently, since it's the Equinox …...

So let me explain.

There is a certain je ne sais quoi, here, a trait of character one could call carelessness, if one decided to see it in an only-negative light.

But if you look at it positively, you see a beautifully dynamic streek that makes everything or anything possible.

It is so much part of life that Icelanders have coined an expression for it : « Þetta reddast » , which roughly translates as « it will work out, somehow or other ».

Understand :

« Whatever I do, it'll be ok in the end, so I'm not actually going to bother putting chances on my side by doing anything particular about it »

or «  I have better things to spend time on, so I'll just fix that in the first way possible and hopefully it'll work out somehow or other »

And the fact is, it usually does !

For a big-scale example, see the eruption in Heimaey in the Vestmann Islands in 1973 : the lava flow that was devastating the island, and threatening to close the harbour – one of the most important fishing harbours in Iceland, and only means of subsistance for the 5000 inhabitants- was stopped by pumping sea water on it, and the inhabitants thus saved part of their town and their means for survival !

In Cuba, the « Þetta reddast » was illustrated to me by more basic examples, such as mending a flat tire with a chewing gum, a screwdriver and a condom; or judging by the state of most windows, using what looks like toothpaste for putty.

Apparently I'm not the only one who noticed these similarities, though : see Alda's description of what she calls the southerners of northern Europe in her delightful, clever, witty, very informative  blog the iceland weather report)

But the reason why I'm writing about it today is because I was served with a perfect example of this yesterday, illustrated by this photo I took.

What's this, you may reasonably enquire ?

This, Mesdames et Messieurs, is a house or rather, a skál, which can mean either “bowl”, “cheers” or mountain hut, depending on what sentence you use the word in, but let's stick to the subject.

In fact, it's the new mountain hut that is to replace Baldvinsskáli, which really was in dire need of replacement.

Just above Skógar, is the volcano Eyjafjalljökull (yep, that one) 

and an extremely popular hike leaves from Skógar going all the way to Landmannalaugar, through the national park of Þorsmörk and across the Fimmvörðuháls pass, where the new craters are. 

 

Anyway.

When you leave from Skógar, after a few hours' walking, you get to Baldvinsskáli  ; a first mountain hut at 920 m where you can sit around and have a rest before carrying on upwards towards the pass at 1100 m.

Recently though, the skál was becoming more and more derelict. Scabby, smelly, the kind of place people were (unfortunately ! Shame on them!) beginning to leave their garbage rather than taking it away with them as one should do .

When I was there last year, already it was so dirty that the weather allowing, we decided to rest outside rather than in.

And a friend who was there a few weeks ago picknicking inside, weather oblige, heard the door open and a tourist saying « there's a body inside! – oh wait, no, it's moving !»

Says it all, really.

So today, the institution in charge, Ferðafélag Íslands if I'm not mistaken, took a further step towards replacing it. 

Bravo.

And so the new mountain hut, was brought on wheels to Skógar , already built, to be taken up on the last leg of its trip, to an altitude of 920 m along a narrow mountain dirt road which considering the rain at this time of year, is very muddy and squishy.

Hence the photo.

Fact is, the blessed souls in the fluorescent gear started at the bottom of the road around 8 am. And by 5.20 pm when I took the picture, they had come no further than about 200 meters.

Now, really I don't want to sound bitchy, was that really the simplest solution (one could come up with) ?

- Considering that we are at sea level, that the road which leads up to Baldvinsskáli is a dirt road, that shoots upwards to 920 m on a very short distance, and is therefore steap, and currently extremely rocky, muddy, wet and soft.

- Considering the weight of such a house, and its width, and the fact that just at the beginning of the road, there are two gates NOT large enough to let a truck carrying a house through,

…. could there not have been a better way to go about it ?

Was it really that necessary to bring the house pre-built ?

Sure, it had to be constructed at some point anyway, but would it not have been just as simple, say, to take the pieces up to the pass and build the house there ?

Maybe the people from FI didn't want to spend to much time on the pass; the weather is unpredictable, and not so brilliant at this time of year.

When I took the picture at 5.20 p.m, a.i 9 hours after they'd started, the second “unpassable » gate still lay ahead. When I looked again at 11 pm and they'd gotten through at last.

15 hours to get through a whole 200 meters !

Without any irony now, I have to salute their tenacity. Surely they got the best foretaste ever of what Sisyphus is spending the eternity doing and I will think about them in awe (well, maybe I'll laugh a bit too....) each time I have a sandwich in the new clean skal.

The weather was extremely wet today, and despite everything, the guys gave their best to make things work out somehow. But I can't stop myself from thinking it might have made their life easier if someone had taken 5 minutes to sit down and think it all out.

But hey, it all worked out in the end and the result is all that counts.

Þetta reddast