As a kid I thought airports were the most romantic places in the world. Now, while other airports destroy my jet-setting romanticism, Keflavík aptly revives it.
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A young man armed with a knife threatened the clerk of Sunnubúd, a small family-run store in the Hlídar neighborhood in Reykjavík, on Sunday, demanding money from the cash register. The thief got away with the money and police are looking for him.
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Click on the picture to observe how to prepare a traditional Icelandic meal of roe and liver (hrogn og lifur). At this time of year, egg pouches are harvested from female fish, mainly cod and haddock, and sold in fish stores around the country along with the liver. The egg pouches may not look appetizing; just remember that caviar is fish eggs too.
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Fjallabyggd (“Mountain Settlement”) is a skier’s dream. Its slopes are perfect for slaloming and there are also tracks for telemark skiing. Winter sporting enthusiasts can also go ice skating or rent snowmobiles. In summer, Fjallabyggd turns into a paradise for hikers. Read this special promotion about one of Iceland’s best hidden gems.
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According to a telephone conversation between Wakao Hanaoka, a Greenpeace representative in Japan, and the director of Asian Trading Co. Ltd. in Japan, the main importer of whale meat from Iceland, the company will not buy any whale meat from Iceland this year.
Whaling in Iceland. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
In the conversation, the director allegedly stated that the Japanese don’t consume much whale meat anymore and the younger generations are not interested in it. The annual consumption of whale meat in Japan is around 4,000 tons, he added.
Icelandic daily Fréttabladid has a recording of the conversation, which took place on May 7.
Kristján Loftsson, the managing director of Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf., told the newspaper that there are plans to export to Japan the meat from all 150 fin whales, for which quota was issued this year, at least 6,000 tons.
Last year Hvalur exported around 80 tons of fin whale meat to Japan through Asian Trading. “People can debate endlessly about how much the Japanese eat every year,” Loftsson told Fréttabladid.
According to Loftsson, the price of whale meat has decreased because of the economic situation in Japan, but he is not concerned that there is no market for it. “People are not just thinking about this year but about the long term. It is expensive to get things started again after such a long time.”
Loftsson said that he had spoken with the director of Asian Trading and that he had denied having had the aforementioned conversation with Greenpeace’s Hanaoka. “If the conversation was with him, then it is something that Greenpeace has fabricated. They work like that,” Loftsson stated.
However, the individual Greenpeace claims is the director of Asian Trading has confirmed his identity with Fréttabladid, although he would not make any comments and remains anonymous throughout the newspaper’s article.
Some Greenpeace representatives, including Hanaoka, are currently in Iceland and met with Icelandic authorities yesterday. “The reason for us being here is to show the authorities that there is no market for whale meat in Japan,” Hanaoka explained.
Click here to read more about whaling in Iceland.
New subscribers to the quarterly Iceland Review magazine will receive the photography book Puffins, which contains a wealth of information about this colorful bird, as a gift. Additionally, all subscribers will enter a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to Iceland Review. The new issue will be out next week!
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When I first heard of the photographic book Legend by Fiann Paul, portraying people dressed in Viking-style in Icelandic landscapes, I imagined it would depict scenes from Norse mythology. However, the idea with the book is to tell a story of how “The Seeker” finds “The Legend” and it feels like a wishy-washy self-help book.
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Fresh back from Brazil, where she was one of 28 international judges at the ‘Cup of Excellence’ awards, Kaffitár founder and owner Adalheidur Hédinsdóttir sat down with Atlantica’s Mica Allan in Kaffitár’s Bankastraeti cafe to talk about her passion and delight: coffee.
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“Lucy” is a video and music installation by Dodda Maggý (1981), the 15th artist to exhibit in Reykjavík Art Museum’s D-gallery project in the Hafnarhús exhibition hall. In “Lucy” the artist explores the idea of the “acousmetre,” a film character portrayed only by voice, never in body, omniscient and ubiquitous.
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