Lea Gestsdóttir, an Icelandic guide, was traveling in South Africa with friends earlier this week when they decided to visit Swaziland. Her traveling companions, who are from France and the Netherlands, did not experience any problems at the border but she had to wait as officials were reportedly baffled by her passport, claiming that it was not valid.
Lea had to pay for a visa and was told to go to the department of immigration the following day where she was met by an immigration official who had never heard of Iceland. “It was like in the movies. I tried pointing out Iceland for them on the map but we had a lot of trouble understanding each other. They didn’t seem to believe that Iceland existed at all,” she told ruv.is.
In the end, she had to pay for a visa to travel back into South Africa.
Lea says she is sure that she will soon be able to laugh about the situation. “This was nothing serious. Just Iceland discovering Swaziland and Swaziland discovering Iceland.”
