Summary 9
Study Abroad / Iceland
Hafnarfjordur

During the independent travel weekend, I and two other girls decided to visit the small town Hafnarfjordur. Hafnarfjordur is about a ten minute drive from Reykjavik, the capital city of Iceland. I was first attracted to Hafnarfjordur because of the hidden world. Though the hidden people live all over Iceland, Hafnarfjordur is considered the capital for the Hidden World.

When we first arrived in Hafnarfjordur, Baldur, the owner of the guesthouse we were staying at, picked us up at the bus stop and gave us a personal tour around Hafnarfjordur. I thought it was very nice of Baldur to pick us up at the bus stop, and I believe it says a lot about the Icelandic Culture. Icelanders seem to always be more than willing to help out another person and that is very hard to come by nowadays. Usually I would be concerned about getting rides from strangers; however, Iceland is very different from the States. Iceland is much safer than the States, and people here offer rides out of kindness and not for a hidden agenda. Baldur took us to a small mountain that looked out on all of Hafnarfjordur, the sights were beautiful. I later found out, by way of the Hidden World Tour, that the small mountain we were standing on was the home of the royal hidden people.

I enjoyed many of the normal tourist events while in Hafnarfjordur, but the small town has much more to offer than tourism. Actually the town is not a very tourist orientated place, but that is what made me love the small town all the more. My friends and I first enjoyed the Hidden World Tour where we learned about the elves, hidden people, and trolls etc. We were also able to visit a museum that dealt with the history of Hafnarfjordur. Hafnarfjordur started out as a fishing community, so it was a very important town to Iceland during earlier times. We were also able to visit “Sigga’s House;” Sigga was a very prominent woman to the feminist movement in Iceland. She was a very encouraging figure for other women, and she pushed women to exceed the normal stereotypical standards for women.

During the time we stayed in Hafnarfjordur there was a gospel festival going on in our back yard. The gospel festival had the most impact on me during my visit because I felt like I had stepped back into the ’50s. Many people from Hafnarfjordur and other various small communities came together for the festival. There was of course a gospel concert every night, and others formed groups to play soccer or frisbee. Everyone one was getting along great, and people who did not know each other had no problem talking to each other. The entire festival was a great experience that demonstrated a close community.

I loved my time in Hafnarfjordur and three days and two nights was not enough time.

Entry 1: June 17, 2008

I visited a Holy Communion service today. The service was announced by nine rings of the church bell. Once everyone had entered the church the service was started by the singing of a gathering prayer. Then everyone gathered around the holy water and anointed each other on the head in the shape of a cross. We then proceeded to sing hymns, read psalms, and have a quick sermon. After the prayers we proceeded to partake in communion.

After the Communion service I was left with a few questions, so I had a conversation with an Icelandic lady who is training to become a priest here in Iceland. Even though our conversation started talking about the communion service it quickly turned to a discussion of elves that live in rocks.

Before coming to Iceland I had thought that the Icelandic people were a little crazy for believing elves, but when I got here I realized that there is more to the elves than meets the eye. I wanted to understand the fascination of Icelandic culture with the hidden world, so I tried to look at the belief in the hidden world from a non-judgmental point of view, and I found that I love the hidden world. The question is not why people believe in elves, but why people do not believe in them. What damage is done by not believing in something that either does or does not exist? Think about it, the time in everyone’s life in which we contain the most innocence and are the happiest is childhood. What do we believe in when we are children? We believe in elves, fairies, and Santa Claus. So whether or not the hidden world exists, it doesn’t matter. For those who believe, the hidden world is there for an escape out of this world. And maybe, just maybe the fantasy of a different world brings back innocence and allows for happiness. So who’s crazy now?