Today a heavy cloud of hangover lies over the city of Reykjavik
Yesterday was the annual Reykjavík's Culture Day - some kind of over enthusiastic tribute to art in Iceland. Even though the day starts with the very unartistic Reykjavik Marathon it does get better as the day unfolds, down town is packed with people all day and the air is full of music and laughter and endless happiness. I was working yesterday so I didn't really get to see all that I wanted to. I did catch glimps of a play held in the "Palace Garden" Hallargarður (no there isn't any palace let alone a castle in Iceland but we like to appear grander than we really are) as I walked by, I saw some artists at work painting and sculpting, listened to a friend sing in a contest which she won and then went to see a poetry reading/concert mixed with rap and ancient viking rhyming thingies. It was really interesting and cool and fun, plus a friend of mine was playing saxofon ever so brilliantly. =0) At midnight there were fireworks and after that all hell broke lose.
As much as I love the attribute of Icelanders to do everything all the way it can at times be the quality I dislike the most. It is of course admirable to have this go-all-the-way-never-give-up-even-if-it-kills-you-attitude. I mean it's what got us where we are today: one of the most happiest nations in the world, a top ten among the richest nations per capita and a country full of overstressed workaholics . When it comes to drinking this attitude can only be described as a character flaw. When I was going home at 2am like the good little girl I am, there were drunk people everywhere. People lying on the ground or throwing up on the steps of Congress, people peeing on cars and crying on sidewalks. At the sight of the horror and the destruction that had fallen open the lively city of Reykjavík I almost made a resolve there and then to stop drinking all together and spend the rest of my live preaching sobriety.
I say almost because I used to live down town and that's just what it's like there on Saturday nights, it only struck me so hard because I was sober, there were a bit more people than usually and the average age lower than on a normal non artistic Saturday night. Next time I stay out passed midnight in the ever alive area of down town Reykjavík I'm going to be drunk, if only to excape the horror of the alchoholic and over intoxicated Icelanders.
To prevent any misunderstanding or hurtful feelings of my fellow countrymen and -women I would like to state that I am of course the typical Icelandic Viking woman myself and am therefore an over stressed workaholic with the go-all-the-way-never-give-up-even-if-it-kills-you-attitude towards life. This post is not an attempt to in any way to hurt, harm or dishonor Icelanders.
