A SONG OF LOVE AND ICE
It’s expensive and cold – but LGBTIQ visitors can’t get enough of Iceland.
It’s expensive and cold – but LGBTIQ visitors can’t get enough of Iceland.
Adecade after its financial crash and its long dormant volcanoes erupted, grounding air traffic, Iceland remains the coolest hotspot on the planet. You’ll often hear Iceland described as “breathtaking” and “beguiling”. These are not overstatements. It’s a magical place of volcanoes seeping lava, icy glacial waterfalls, and photogenic steaming geysers and hot springs. In folklore it’s renowned as the land of trolls, of elven sagas, and Thor. Musically is has produced internationally acclaimed acts like Björk, Sigur Rós and Ásgeir.
Part of Iceland’s current popularity, however, is thanks to the cross-generational appeal of Game Of Thrones, which filmed many of the north-of-the-Wall scenes in the country’s remote wildernesses.
That Iceland is such a popular destination is remarkable for two reasons.
Firstly, its history is not glamorous. This tiny North Atlantic island nation has eked out a hard-bitten existence on a barren lunarscape for 2,000 years. The population is barely 350,000 who, considering its proximity to the Arctic Circle, have 50 words for snow. Icelandic itself is an Old Norse language that has changed very little in a thousand years, mainly due to its geographic isolation and the locals’ determination to preserve their culture.
Secondly, Iceland is almost prohibitively expensive, but this hasn’t stopped around two million visitor every year.
It is, however, a very safe country and one which can genuinely boast being a world leader in LGBTIQ rights. The Icelanders elected the world’s first openly gay head of government when Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir became Prime
Minister in 2009. It was a critical time for the nation after the worldwide financial crisis of 2008. Iceland was particularly hard hit because of country’s banks’ malpractice. Thanks to Sigurðardóttir’s leadership Iceland averted a potential economic calamity.
Then, in 2010 and 2011, volcanic eruptions grounded hundreds of aircraft across the Northern Hemisphere for days. This turned out to work in Iceland’s favour, tempting intrepid travellers with a tantalising reason to visit.
The kind of experience visitors enjoy depends on the time of year they choose to visit. Winter is the time of the Aurora Borealis, those mesmerising dancing lights in the sky otherwise known as the Northern Lights. Then there’s the Golden Circle day trip route of the Gullfoss Waterfall and the geothermal area in Haukadalur containing those spouting geysers. For geography buffs, it’s the critical point where you can visibly detect the division of two tectonic plates, the American and Eurasian, parting at a pace of two centimetres per year.
In spring and summer, a hot Icelandic tip is a South Shore trip to Skogafoss Waterfall, famous not only because you can walk behind it for a truly spectacular selfie, but also because it was used as a stunning location in the first episode of the final Game Of Thrones.
As you’d expect, numerous travel companies offer Game Of Thrones tours to bus you around the many locations used in the snowy show.
And, not surprisingly, Iceland has been voted “the world’s most Instagrammable country”.
Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, meanwhile, is awe-inspiring for hiking at any time of the year. Our hunky and super-friendly blond tour guide, Robert from Troll Expeditions, demonstrated a “Viking push-up” for us on top of the blue/green ice. It involves sipping a stream of fresh water while using your hiking axe to hold as you lower yourself down – don’t try this at home, kids!
You may recognise this site from Batman Begins, Tomb Raider and two James Bond movies. It just happens to be up the road from Reynisfjara, the sweeping, romanticyet-dangerous black sand beach formed by centuries of lava flows into the wild, windswept ocean.
Busy all year round and justifiably so is the natural geothermal spa, The Blue Lagoon. Bathing in these hot, volcanic waters is something everybody and every body needs to do at least once in their lives. The seaweed mask and lava scrub are optional but highly recommended. Bears On Ice, a major gay event that took place in August/September this year, included a day’s pampering at the Blue Lagoon
Iceland elected the world’s first openly gay head of government when Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir became Prime Minister in 2009.
as part of its program.
Visitors will spend most of their time in Reykjavík, the northern most capital city in the world. Two-thirds of the Icelandic population lives there (including Björk, Jónsi from Sigur Rós and John Grant) and it has a big-town feel.
With a Parliament building sitting just up the road from the country’s first H&M store (which, strangely has more security), Reykjavik is cute, a little kitsch, but with its views of snowy peaks in the distance, undeniably stunning.
It’s here, too, you can investigate the gay nightlife, though that’s essentially one venue: Kiki Queer Bar. The night we stumbled in there were gay boys and their gal pals, drag queens in rubber raincoats chatting with lesbian hikers and everyone slow dancing to Madonna’s sexy Latin hit Medellín – once the tables were removed to create a dance floor.
Reykjavik is also the HQ of Pink Iceland, a travel company founded by three gay friends, Eva Marie, Birna and Hannes in 2011.
Originally working out of the local LGBT Centre, they have become not just the premiere place for gay travellers to book Icelandic tours, but the leaders in organising destination weddings (gay and straight) on the island. To get to know the city and its LGBTIQ appeal better, Pink Iceland offer visitors a bi-weekly gay city walk and happy hour starting at their offices in the heart of hipster downtown.
The city has several gay-friendly accommodation options, but the best might just be the harbour-side Exeter Hotel. Designed in cool minimalist Scandi chic it has an impressive sauna/gym area, a restaurant/bar (Le Kock!) and its own bakery (Deig) serving up salted caramel donuts, which alone are almost worth the trip to Rekjkavik.
Perched on the water’s edge, the hotel is perfectly positioned for guests to leap onto a ship and head out to sea for some whale watching. We took a tour with Elding, one of the first companies to ally themselves with LGBTIQ travel companies and heavily involved in marine conservation.
However, Iceland is one of only three countries in the world that still allows whale hunting and the primary reason is not cultural – it’s to feed tourists who mistakenly believe it is traditional food here. It’s not, so hopefully at some point soon this sad state of affairs will change and tourists will choose not to eat it.
We saw five humpbacks and one minke on our afternoon excursion. These magnificent sea mammals deserve better from a country priding itself on being environmentally conscious and at the leading edge of conservation/preservation of our fragile ecosystems.
Lastly, do make a point of visiting The Icelandic Phallological Museum. Yes, it’s a whole museum dedicated to curating examples of the penises of every mammal on Earth. It’s not tucked discreetly away; it’s situated on Reykjavik’s main shopping street. Their motto, emblazoned across the merchandise in the gift shop, “it’s all about dicks”.
Game on, Iceland!
The night we stumbled in there were gay boys, their gal pals, drag queens and lesbian hikers slow dancing to Madonna.