Reykjavik 411

Thanks to FARK for this interesting little website. The Icelandic Tourism Board has set up a page of fun facts about their tiny island nation. Here are some excerpts:

Surveys show that despite their obsession with modern technology, as many as 80% of Icelanders believe in the existence of elves. Even today, roads have been rerouted and building plans redesigned or abandoned to avoid disturbing rocks where elves are said to live.

It'd be easy to goof on Bjork's homeland for something like this. But don't forget that, right here in America, 77% of adults believe in angels. Don't believe me? Check out the story right here. Here's one Americans touching story:

"Yes, I absolutely believe in angels. I met one," said Catherine Forbes, 72, of Derby, Kan.

After the death of her husband, Forbes decided to take a trip to Jerusalem and the Holy Land with a friend in 1953. They got lost and became nervous while trying to navigate through the Dallas airport.

"All of a sudden, the nicest voice I ever heard said, 'May I help you.' I turned around and saw a clean-cut young man, just the most handsome, beautiful man. He picked up my luggage and showed me where to go and which people I was to be traveling with. I turned around to thank him, and he had absolutely disappeared," she said.

First off, it's absolutely fantastic that this woman made a trip to Jerusalem and got lost...in the Dallas airport. If she can't handle an international terminal with signs EVERYWHERE, how is she planning to navigate one of the world's oldest cities, a complex labyrinth of ruins, temples and people speaking foreign languages?

And, may I also ask, why are angels always so beautiful? Isn't the mythology (oh, excuse me, religion...) that God created them first? So, if he'd already created all these beautiful humanoid creatures, and then he wanted to make some more, why would he make a bunch of ugly trolls to populate his new planet? Is that how people think of themselves? Leftover mutated angel parts?

But I digress.

I think it's kind of cute that Icelandic people believe in elves. The article doesn't specify what type of elf they believe in, but I'll assume it's a fairy-like spirte elf that might live under a rock, as opposed to, say, a group of elves living in a tree baking cookies.

And you know what else is kind of sad? If you type "elf" into Google, of all the thousands of references that could come up, the first 5 results all relate to the Will Ferrell movie of the same name.

Here's another note from the Tourism Board, about traditional Icelandic delicacies:

And for those with nerves of steel and stomachs of iron, the menu for the Thorri midwinter feast (January/February) is a real challenge. Delicacies there include some quite indelicate cuts of meat, including boiled sheep's head (on the bone or pressed), ram's testicles pickled in whey, and loin bags. But what really sorts the men out from the boys is rotten shark, cured by burying, washed down with a well-deserved shot of Black Death schnapps.

Mmmmmmmm.........

Loin bags? What's a loin bag? I mean, yes, it sounds delicious. But it couldn't be...what it sounds like. There's only one external part of an animal that could be referred to reasonably as a "bag," and I sure don't want to eat it.

I also like that it's not the loin bags that sorts out the men from the boys. It's the rotten shark. Both boys and men alike enjoy a nice Icelandic loin bag.

I Goolged the term "loin bags," and of course, the first 5 responses were about the Will Ferrell movie of the same name.

No, I'm just kidding. There basically were no responses, save for references back to the original Icelandic travel website. But based on their description, I'm thinking it's not an actual scrotal sack as I had originally imagined, but some sort of pouch made out of ram intestines or organs or some such disgusting thing like that. Gross.