"The greatest is best seen from the distance" - once and quite rightly a famous Russian poet said. Last week my very good friend from quite distanced Russia was visiting Iceland for the first time in her life. Being quite an experienced traveler and having seen most of Europe and beyond, she shared her thoughts and impressions about Iceland before and after.
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...most of all I was impressed by the nature - unique, virgin, untouched and severe. I have seen Gullfoss, Geysir, all the touristic routes, I was hiking in the mountains, but the most beautifully striking place for me became Reykjanesviti. I never thought there are places so completely remote and secluded in this world, where one simply unites with the nature.
...in Russia we deprive ourselves of many things, including a simple smile. Icelanders struck me as very friendly nation, in a narrow street a complete strangers will greet you.
...people take pride that they are Icelanders. The country itself has a rather limited history compared to Russia or other big European nations; it had less than a million of population in all its history, and, nonetheless, Icelanders take pride in the smallest detail, which could easily have been left unnoticed. People take pride in the place they were born.
...the thing which struck me most was that this is a society which is fundamentally different not only from Russians, but more or less from the Europeans in general. This is a small society, everyone knows each other, the telephone book is organized by the first names, and they treat each other as one big family, where everyone is a relative - and they actually are. Even the language, as we know, reflecting the realities of life, devised a word, which defines male relatives frændi and female relatives frænka, not to go into detail of cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles and so on - it is just one family.
...I have to mention the language and the concept of Linguistic Purism in Iceland. Many countries have the policy of preserving their language, but in Iceland they have special list of the Icelandic names, which you can name a child, anything else has to be approved by a special linguistic committee. Once again, they value their heritage and identity.
...and everyone speaks English. France, for example, has the policy of protecting the language as well, they also create French equivalents for the new words. At that people learn and speak English very reluctantly. Icelanders are not afraid to go beyond - to enter globalization and keep their national identity.
...I was also surprised by rather high social standards of living in Iceland. Maybe because we have a stereotype of well-off Norway and hardly expect anything of a small nation in the North Atlantic.
...feminism is obviously not a bad issue, especially in Iceland. In Russia a man considers it beyond his self-esteem to help the woman with cooking and with a baby. Probably it is not even the fault of men, as women themselves consider proper to work, make career, and take care of the family, children, cooking and a husband. A man has to work and make money, a woman stays at home. It was very surprising to see otherwise.
...the same as the baby in the family: in Russia when a child is born a mother falls out of life for 2-3 years completely: no parties, no friends, no travel. Here life just goes on and the quality of life doesn't change much.
...the concept of Icelandic family with many marriages, all kinds of spouses, kids from all sides is another point of astonishment - it is so far out of the Russian culture. We are more traditional - of course infidelity happens and rather often these days, but men very rarely leave families. The ones which do keep hardly any contact with their children.
...Reykjavik struck me as having rather plain architecture - simple and unsophisticated. Reykjavik can not be compared with French, Italian or most of European cities, where "every stone breathes history", or even with St. Petersburg, where every house is an architectural masterpiece. Here houses are simple, plain, primitive and functional. But it goes together with the nature: severe, minimalistic, plain.
...my perception of the museums is defined by the Russian museums - you have to spend days in the Tretyakov Gallery, weeks in the Hermitage. Once again we are so proud we have so much to show, that we drown foreigners in our culture. Here, the National Museum of Iceland is fascinating in combination of simplicity, functionality, importance and interest it arises and the questions it answers. The paradox is - there's no La Gioconda in Þjóðminjsafn, but still it is the one of most interesting museums I have ever visited.
...Russians know very little about Iceland. Of course it depends on the education but in general many people hardly make any difference between Iceland, Ireland or Greenland. Of course, they realise these are completely different countries, but in conceptual understanding "it is all somewhere there". The stereotypes include: volcano in 2010, snow and Bjork - her last name is not possible to pronounce even by people with the linguistic education. The older generation know Reykjavik as the meeting place of Gorbachev and Reagan.
...Icelanders are very active. There's a lot to do: hiking, swimming, horse-riding, music, skiing, even dancing tango. One of the paradoxes for me was that skating rinks are indoor, swimming pools are outdoor. This is shocking to me, but when I mentioned this to Icelanders, they were completely surprised, explaining that it would be too cold to skate outside.
...Icelanders take life easy and it is shown in everything. Hiking in the mountains may be quite a dangerous thing but people just go. Children are not over-treated with medicine, massages and over-care and running naked in frost and wind in the outdoor swimming-pools. Museums are not overloaded with information, but simply showing the life itself. And I can go on with many examples.
...to me Iceland is a country where Scandinavian minimalism and functionality genuinely combine with breathtaking severe beauty of the nature, easy-going and warm attitudes of Icelanders and all these make it truly unique land, a small polished piece of lava - a beautiful gem of the North Atlantic.
My dear friend went back to Russia leaving me alone with the thoughts of gratitude for this unique opportunity of being able to live in both countries, share both cultures, enjoy both worlds the difference of which is so sharply defined by the distance.
Copyright © 2013 by Olga Johannesson
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...most of all I was impressed by the nature - unique, virgin, untouched and severe. I have seen Gullfoss, Geysir, all the touristic routes, I was hiking in the mountains, but the most beautifully striking place for me became Reykjanesviti. I never thought there are places so completely remote and secluded in this world, where one simply unites with the nature.
...in Russia we deprive ourselves of many things, including a simple smile. Icelanders struck me as very friendly nation, in a narrow street a complete strangers will greet you.
...people take pride that they are Icelanders. The country itself has a rather limited history compared to Russia or other big European nations; it had less than a million of population in all its history, and, nonetheless, Icelanders take pride in the smallest detail, which could easily have been left unnoticed. People take pride in the place they were born.
...the thing which struck me most was that this is a society which is fundamentally different not only from Russians, but more or less from the Europeans in general. This is a small society, everyone knows each other, the telephone book is organized by the first names, and they treat each other as one big family, where everyone is a relative - and they actually are. Even the language, as we know, reflecting the realities of life, devised a word, which defines male relatives frændi and female relatives frænka, not to go into detail of cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles and so on - it is just one family.
...I have to mention the language and the concept of Linguistic Purism in Iceland. Many countries have the policy of preserving their language, but in Iceland they have special list of the Icelandic names, which you can name a child, anything else has to be approved by a special linguistic committee. Once again, they value their heritage and identity.
...and everyone speaks English. France, for example, has the policy of protecting the language as well, they also create French equivalents for the new words. At that people learn and speak English very reluctantly. Icelanders are not afraid to go beyond - to enter globalization and keep their national identity.
...I was also surprised by rather high social standards of living in Iceland. Maybe because we have a stereotype of well-off Norway and hardly expect anything of a small nation in the North Atlantic.
...feminism is obviously not a bad issue, especially in Iceland. In Russia a man considers it beyond his self-esteem to help the woman with cooking and with a baby. Probably it is not even the fault of men, as women themselves consider proper to work, make career, and take care of the family, children, cooking and a husband. A man has to work and make money, a woman stays at home. It was very surprising to see otherwise.
...the same as the baby in the family: in Russia when a child is born a mother falls out of life for 2-3 years completely: no parties, no friends, no travel. Here life just goes on and the quality of life doesn't change much.
...the concept of Icelandic family with many marriages, all kinds of spouses, kids from all sides is another point of astonishment - it is so far out of the Russian culture. We are more traditional - of course infidelity happens and rather often these days, but men very rarely leave families. The ones which do keep hardly any contact with their children.
...Reykjavik struck me as having rather plain architecture - simple and unsophisticated. Reykjavik can not be compared with French, Italian or most of European cities, where "every stone breathes history", or even with St. Petersburg, where every house is an architectural masterpiece. Here houses are simple, plain, primitive and functional. But it goes together with the nature: severe, minimalistic, plain.
...my perception of the museums is defined by the Russian museums - you have to spend days in the Tretyakov Gallery, weeks in the Hermitage. Once again we are so proud we have so much to show, that we drown foreigners in our culture. Here, the National Museum of Iceland is fascinating in combination of simplicity, functionality, importance and interest it arises and the questions it answers. The paradox is - there's no La Gioconda in Þjóðminjsafn, but still it is the one of most interesting museums I have ever visited.
...Russians know very little about Iceland. Of course it depends on the education but in general many people hardly make any difference between Iceland, Ireland or Greenland. Of course, they realise these are completely different countries, but in conceptual understanding "it is all somewhere there". The stereotypes include: volcano in 2010, snow and Bjork - her last name is not possible to pronounce even by people with the linguistic education. The older generation know Reykjavik as the meeting place of Gorbachev and Reagan.
...Icelanders are very active. There's a lot to do: hiking, swimming, horse-riding, music, skiing, even dancing tango. One of the paradoxes for me was that skating rinks are indoor, swimming pools are outdoor. This is shocking to me, but when I mentioned this to Icelanders, they were completely surprised, explaining that it would be too cold to skate outside.
...Icelanders take life easy and it is shown in everything. Hiking in the mountains may be quite a dangerous thing but people just go. Children are not over-treated with medicine, massages and over-care and running naked in frost and wind in the outdoor swimming-pools. Museums are not overloaded with information, but simply showing the life itself. And I can go on with many examples.
...to me Iceland is a country where Scandinavian minimalism and functionality genuinely combine with breathtaking severe beauty of the nature, easy-going and warm attitudes of Icelanders and all these make it truly unique land, a small polished piece of lava - a beautiful gem of the North Atlantic.
Copyright © 2013 by Olga Johannesson
