Ethics or Common Sense?

It has been widely written over recent years that many of the worlds natural and built wonders are to be closed to tourists by governments for preservation purposes. One of these publications was in the extremely well known New York Times which posted an article "52 places to go in 2014"
Go look at number 30.
Icelandic Highlands. This article boosted the Icelandic tourism industry, with well over double the population of Iceland having visited the isolated island from the beginning of this year.

"If you ever want to see Iceland in all of its famously raw natural beauty, go now" 

The above quote is the end to the short paragraph written by US journalist, Danielle Pergament and although it caused heat within the Icelandic Ministry of the Environment it reeks of ethical truth. The constant visits from rich ignorant tourists trying to find a place for the best photo or the best place to smoke a joint is causing this degradation of magnificent places all over the world.

Icelandic Highlands, as Pictured in New York Times

These highlands share the current state of danger with thousands of landscapes and monuments all around our glorious earth. Maybe there are too many of them, and that's why so many of us take them for granted? Who knows what writing about this will do, probably nothing, but it's up to the rest of us to spread the awareness, much like many others are trying to do. Don't ruin these fantastic places for the rest of us, no one likes that guy. As I keep saying, Iceland is a beautiful place, yet so misrepresented.


Until Next Time,  

Chai Latte,

Max :)

One With The Crowd

As a young boy I lived in Canberra, a city of 240,000 so the move to what is essentially Melbourne's CBD came as a rude shock to me. The bright lights, the people, constant sound of trams and cars, the people, the size of shopping centers oh and did I mention the people?
How does a city have so many people, we are everywhere!
Now lets look at Iceland's statistics, a population of 290,000, 130,000 square kilometers of isolation, ranked number 5 in countries with the lowest population densities.
Unless you are in the capital, it's not likely you are in a town with over 3,000 people in the near vicinity.
I'm lucky enough to have recently met a girl who traveled to Iceland over the break, only half way through writing this post and if I were to quote her "It's hauntingly empty" She told me of her adventures where there was no one on the roads except them, and tried to describe to me the experience of absolute silence, something I have never experienced.








The above picture shows something that not many countries posses, one that inspires many travelers. Coming back to a city like Melbourne is said to be one of the greatest shocks that a traveler can experience, often because it is completely unexpected.

Me? I can't wait to get over there and experience absolute silence, I wonder what it sounds like...

Well, until next week

Chai Latte,
Max:)

Ps. Thanks to my new friend Liza for helping me out with this one!

Its All In A Name

Thats it isn't it?

Iceland. Oh wait no this is Antartica

 Much like a child at school, who sees a name for the first time that isn't the typical John or Jack and wonders where this strange name came from.. For me it was a boy called Nisitha, and I never built up the courage to ask him. So whats the first thing you think of when you think of Iceland, the first thing that comes in to your mind, Ice. It's no being mean or racist or anti-iceland, it's just how it is...

Legend says that the natives named Iceland as it is to make it seem an undesirable destination for anyone to want to conquer or visit, and instead pushed them towards the more desirable "Greenland". And wow, it worked! I surveyed a group of my brothers 12 year old friends asking them which they would prefer to visit, Greenland or Iceland. Of the 27 surveyed, 21 said they would go to Greenland, 4 said they would travel to Iceland and and 2 simply didn't care.

However now days there seems to be an obsession over such places, and Iceland has really taken advantage of this fact. Just have a look at their tourism page to get a glimpse of what they are offering to tourists. It is far from the icey nature that everyone expects, and more lakes and beautiful scenery.

So I am suppose to say how this misrepresentation could be challenged, well they already are.
 As soon as one does a Google search on Iceland they are quick to realise, well S*%t, I was wrong about this place. I've already alluded to this false image of Iceland previously, so read my above posts for more information!

Until next time!

Chai Latte

Max :)

Fjallkonan

                                                The Lady Of The Mountain

"Konumyndin á að tákna Ísland, því hefur hún ískórónu á höfði, sem eldar gjósa upp úr..."

.......................................................

"The picture of the women is to represent Iceland, because she has a crown of ice on her head, from which fire erupts..."

Even though I did it last week, I'm not going to try and pronounce this one, and this painting doesn't quite allow for my usual light hearted nature, so pls bare with me :)

 The lady of the mountain, a symbolic image that represents not only Iceland as a pure nation but what they strive to be.  Stories claim that she is the female incarnation of Iceland, an unattainable woman, symbolizing the desire for independence of Iceland.

Finally, 1944 they achieved independence and this goal, and the lady was satisfied.

Iceland as a lady was first expressed through a poem Ofsjónir við jarðarför Lovísu drottningar,  

and has since then become a symbol for Icelandic poetry. It was not an Icelandic native who first put to creating a visual image of the lady, but a German in an English translation of an Icelandic book of poetry.

"Þetta átti svo sem að vera symbolum (tákn) bókmenntalandsins og sögulandsins okkar"

..........................................................

 "This is indended as a symbol of our literary land and our historical land"

It was not uncommon at all for European countries to represent their country with a woman to express purity, and to express the history of place.

Does Australia have such a figure of the land? Or was Julia the closest thing we will get to that? I know the history of Australia is rich, but the foreign nature of these places are so intriguing it makes this giant island seem a bit dull. 

Anyway, until next week!

Chai latte :)

Max

Icespy An Icon!

So did half the world though...

The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, April 2010

Iceland, a country forced into a stereotype from the moment it was named, much like Greenland, famous for green-ness and Poland, which is of course famous for poles. Everyone has gone through the shock when they discover that Iceland is “greener” than its neighbour Greenland, and Greenland is “icier” than Iceland and many a 12 year old have dazzled friends with this piece of intellectual gold. 

Iceland isn’t exactly a country you would see on CNNN making global headlines and with a population of only just over 300,000, you wouldn't expect it to do so. However, in April 2010, the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, ( it’s a volcano, I still don’t know how to pronounce it after this guy’s help) Iceland’s eerie landscape was noticed world-wide, as dark clouds of glassy ash spread thousands of kilometers overseas to cause the highest blockage of air traffic across Northern Europe since WWII. Not what you want your beloved home land to be known for is it,

“The Viking bastards that let their volcano mess up my travels.”

Still, as far as Iceland making an impact on the world in the last 50 years (probably more), this is pretty much it. But in a pain in the bum point of view for the Icelandic population, total evacuation numbers were about 500… This obviously brought the country to a stand-still (Not really, just in case the implied sarcasm didn’t punch you in the face) but the settling ash did have a significant impact on some farms, with areas of ash being too thick to continue farming there.

Here’s a video of the eruptions, and would you look at that, music by my favorite thing to come out of Iceland, Jonsi anyone?

Chai latte!

Max

PS. I've been trying so hard to say it and this is where I'm at right now