CIRCLING OTHERWORLDLY ICELAND

By Justin Chapman, Culture Honey Magazine, 10/12/2021

Perhaps because we are gluttons for punishment, my wife Mercedes and I traveled to the unspeakably beautiful island nation of Iceland when she was just a few weeks pregnant. To top off an already challenging trip, she was bedriddenly sick the entire time. But, as they say, with great beauty comes great pain.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

The timing of our journey was unfortunately non-negotiable. I was booked to attend an international conference sponsored by my Master’s in Public Diplomacy degree program at the University of Southern California. My fellow students and I had scheduled meetings with Islandic government officials to discuss the country’s “place branding” efforts.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

Iceland has been incredibly successful in projecting an image of itself to the outside world and thus drawing scores of tourists to its wild shores. And unlike some other places, Iceland—with its picturesque waterfalls, moss-covered lava rocks, bubbling geothermal hot springs, active volcanoes, enormous blue glaciers, beautiful snowscapes, adventurous spirit, and spectacular Northern Lights—lives up to the hype.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

After Iceland’s economy was hit hard by the 2008 financial crash, tourism helped the country claw its way back to solvency. Home to fewer than 350,000 people, in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of tourists visiting the country grew to more than 2 million annually.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

As Kristjan Guy Burgess, chief political advisor to former Icelandic Foreign Affairs Minister Ossur Skarphéðinsson, president of the Social Democrats, and founder and CEO of Global Center Iceland, put it, “Iceland was in the news at a time when it was very cheap and interesting to come here. So we invested in a campaign to promote and encourage tourism.”

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

It hasn’t always been easy, though. Inga Hlín Pálsdóttir, director of Promote Iceland, said that Iceland’s recent political turmoil made their job of promoting Iceland difficult. Between 2013 and 2018, there were five prime ministers, one of whom had to resign in 2016 when the Panama Papers revealed his family’s bank accounts in offshore tax havens. Another had to resign because he tried to cover up a letter of support to rehabilitate a convicted pedophile written by his father.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

In addition to its political turmoil, Iceland is also known for its progressive gender policies. When we visited, the prime minister was Katrín Jakobsdóttir of the Left Green Party, only the second woman to hold the office. Iceland is a leader in equal rights for women and the LGBTQ community. In 2017, Iceland became the first country in the world to pass a law mandating equal pay for women.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

As for Icelanders themselves, everyone we met was welcoming and friendly. In fact, Iceland was voted the friendliest country in the world, according to a poll conducted by the World Economic Forum in 2013. But while their economy relies on tourism, Icelanders’ views on tourism are more nuanced. They encourage sustainable, responsible tourism.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

Around town in Reykjavík

While our visit to Iceland took place before the pandemic, repeat visitors report that the otherworldly island of ice and fire remains as dynamic and vibrant and foreboding as ever.

“It’s hard to believe this eerily beautiful vista exists on the same planet as, say, the living room where I’ve spent the past 14 months,” award-winning journalist Jessica Fender wrote in the Fall 2021 issue of Westways Magazine. “Being anywhere else is strange and exciting at the moment. As Iceland itself grows before my eyes, the world in general suddenly feels big again.”

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

There are a number of must-see locations in Reykjavík, before venturing out to the wider, wilder countryside. Depending on when you go—we found March an ideal time to visit because while it’s still cold and icy, the roads can be manageable than the dead of winter and you have a higher likelihood of seeing the Northern Lights than in the summer—you can walk across the frozen Tjörnin lake in central Reykjavík.

There are a number of architectural delights in Reykjavík as well, such as the glass honeycomb Harpa Concert Hall adjacent to the harbor.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland

As a fan of punk rock, I enjoyed visiting the Icelandic Punk Museum (Pönksafn Islands), featuring the history of Icelandic punk (such as Björk’s punk roots) in a repurposed underground public toilet.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland

Ring Road trip

After my meetings with government officials, we were free to explore the rest of the country. Most tourists visit a handful of destinations within a short drive from the capital, but Mercedes and I decided to venture beyond the beaten path. We rented a camper van with a heater in the back and drove the Ring Road around the entire island, stopping at designated campgrounds each night. This, of course, presented its own set of challenges. (Make sure you shell out for windshield insurance, as little rocks get kicked up on country roads and crack your windshield all the time, a lesson we later learned the hard way).

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

We did, however, visit some well-worn sites in the Golden Circle, a popular route that includes Þingvellir National Park, Geysir geothermal area, and Gullfoss waterfall, which are all worth a visit. In Þingvellir, you’ll see Alþing, the site of Iceland’s original national parliament from the 10th to 18th centuries. Founded in the year 930, Alþing is the oldest surviving parliament in the world, now housed in a beautiful old building in Reykjavík. The outdoor parliament area in Þingvellir, situated on dramatic rock cliffs, overlooks a beautiful rift valley created by two tectonic plates and the Almannagjá fault.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

In Geysir, the Strokkur geyser erupts every 15 minutes, shooting hot water 30 feet into the air. 

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

Around this area is where we saw the most beautiful long-haired Icelandic horses, one of which tried to eat my sweater. Also nearby we discovered the Secret Lagoon, the oldest pool in the country. Known to the locals as Gamla Laugin, it was established in 1891 at Hverahólmi, a geothermal area near Flúðir, and maintains its 100° Fahrenheit temperature all year round. With fewer people than the Blue Lagoon and tucked away in a rural area with geothermal activity, geysers, and rising mist on the terrain surrounding the lagoon, this one felt especially special.

Gullfoss in the Hvítá river canyon is likewise a beautiful view, but while most tourists stop there and head back to Reykjavík, there’s so much more to see beyond the Golden Circle, including many more breathtaking waterfalls as you drive east around Iceland’s southern shore. Those include Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss, the two biggest waterfalls in Iceland at 197 feet. We slept at a campground near Skógafoss and severe winds rocked our camper van back and forth all night. It can feel at times like Iceland is trying to kill you.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

Also on the southern coast of Iceland is Seljavallalaug, an outdoor pool built in 1923, and Reynisfjara, a stunning black sand beach with a dramatic series of basalt columns and smooth jet black pebbles.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

As you continue driving along the Ring Road, you’ll pass through miles and miles of moss-covered lava rock fields, a mindblowing moonscape known as Eldhraun that was featured in a music video for the Sigur Rós song “Glósóli.” The Icelandic, Radiohead-esque, post-rock band makes for a perfect atmospheric soundtrack on your Icelandic road trip.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

On Iceland’s southeastern shore, we walked around Diamond Beach, located by the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. Huge chunks of ice are scattered across the black sand beach, and even bigger chunks of the glacier float around like sea monsters in the gloomy lagoon.

Completing the circle

Most tourists, if they’ve ventured beyond the Golden Circle, stop here and turn back for Reykjavík, but Mercedes and I were determined to drive around the entire island, even though we only had a few days to do so. If you’re visiting anywhere from October to March, you must check road conditions and weather forecasts before you plan to continue on here. These roads are no joke. Black ice, wind, steep roadside cliffs with no guardrails, sudden blind curves, tight lanes, unpaved roads, and endless scenery distractions make for a treacherous trek.

While the number of sites to see in the northeast, north, and northwest areas of the island do thin out, there are still places indescribably more beautiful than many on earth: blanketed by snow, rural, vast. 

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

For example, Dettifoss on the northern side of Iceland is the second biggest waterfall in Europe, after Rhine Falls in Switzerland. (Iceland is sort of a hybrid European/North American country, as it sits on the tectonic plate boundary of Eurasia and North America—though it feels more European than North American). We also saw a herd of wild reindeer around this area.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

As you approach Lake Mývatn on the northern side of Iceland, you first pass through the Námafjall Geothermal Area, also known as Hverir, where smoking fumaroles and boiling mud pots steam and bubble out of the earth, making you feel like you’re on another planet. Huge plumes of multi-colored smoke scattered across the landscape gives it the feel of an alien warzone. I got too close to the sulphur-smelling smoke and breathed some in, which made me lightheaded.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

On the other side of the hill is Lake Mývatn, which is where we saw the most brilliant display of aurora borealis. The Northern Lights were, hands down, the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life (until that was blown out of the water by the birth of my daughter Sienna). The swirls of color dancing around the sky are pure magic. Mercedes set up her camera on a tripod and captured these stunning images. You have to set your camera to a slower shutter speed to get good images, and you have to get away from the light pollution of the city in order to see them in the first place, provided the night sky is not blocked by clouds.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

Next we arrived in Akureyri, the second biggest city after Reykjavík. The Eyjafjörðurin fjord juts into the middle of the town, a body of water you have to drive around. Here is where the Einstök Brewery is located. Excellent beer, but the brewery itself was underwhelming, as it was a drab, featureless building that appeared to be off-limits to the public.

 

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

By the time we got back to Reykjavík to drop off our camper van, rocks from the road had chipped a couple of spots on the windshield. Unfortunately for us, we hadn’t opted for the more expensive windshield insurance at the beginning of our trip. The rental company, of course, noticed these cracks and said our options were to pay them €200 now or wait to get the exact amount later. Knowing that these kinds of fixes can be as cheap as $15, we chose to wait. For whatever reason, they never charged us for the repairs.

Circling Otherworldly Iceland, Photo Credit: Mercedes Blackehart

In season two of "Well Read," host and journalist Justin Chapman provides analysis on news, politics, arts, and culture and interviews special guests. Featuring segments by Senior Influencer Correspondent, @BradtheInfluencer, and Senior Toddler Correspondent, Sienna. Justin also provides recommendations for good reads in each episode.

In Episode Seventeen, Justin interviews Giles Milton, author of Checkmate in Berlin: The Cold War Showdown that Shaped the Modern World. Learn more about Milton's work at gilesmilton.com.

You can watch "Well Read" on YouTube or on PasadenaMedia.org's TV channels (32 on Charter Spectrum and 99 on AT&T U-verse in LA County) or streaming apps (FireStick, Apple TV, Roku, etc.).

Learn more at justindouglaschapman.com and sign up for my email newsletter at justinchapman.substack.com/subscribe.

Congressman Adam Schiff to Discuss His New Book Midnight in Washington at Vroman’s Event Next Month

Long-time Trump foil Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Pasadena), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, is out with a new book Oct. 12 called Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could, which he’ll discuss at a Vroman’s Bookstore event on Oct. 16 at Pasadena Presbyterian Church

By Justin Chapman, Pasadena Now, 9/29/21

Long-time Trump foil Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Pasadena), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, is out with a new book October 12 called Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could. The book is a “vital inside account of American democracy in its darkest hour, and a warning that the forces of autocracy unleashed by Trump remain as potent as ever,” according to the book’s publisher, Penguin Random House.

Vroman’s Bookstore will host Schiff at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16, for a discussion on the book at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Blvd. He will be joined in conversation by actor Jason Alexander, known best for his role as George Costanza in the TV show “Seinfeld.”

On Tuesday, House Democrats introduced the Protecting Our Democracy Act, a sweeping package of reforms co-sponsored by Schiff and designed to “strengthen America’s democratic institutions against future presidents, regardless of political party, who seek to abuse the power of their office for corrupt purposes,” according to a press release released by Schiff’s office. The bill, the release states, will “restore the government’s system of checks and balances, strengthen accountability and transparency and protect America’s elections from foreign interference.”

“While Donald Trump is no longer president, the fault lines he exposed in the foundation of our democracy remain — ready for a future unethical president to exploit,” Schiff said. “These weaknesses continue to erode the American people’s trust in our democratic institutions and the norms that are essential to a functioning democracy. As Congress pursues its mission to strengthen and protect our democracy for future generations, these reforms will help ensure that we can keep our cherished republic.”

Schiff led the first impeachment trial against Trump in early 2020 after the House voted to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on Dec. 18, 2019, for his political pressure on Ukraine. Trump threatened to withhold congressionally appropriated military aid to Ukraine—as that country fought a hot war with Russia — until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a criminal investigation into the son of Trump’s likely opponent in the upcoming 2020 election, Joe Biden, a classic quid pro quo.

“[Trump] has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again,” Schiff, who served as a federal prosecutor and a California state senator before his election to Congress, told the Senate during the impeachment trial. “He has compromised our elections, and he will do so again. You can’t trust this president to do the right thing. Not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country. What are the odds if left in office that he will continue trying to cheat? I will tell you: 100 percent.”

The Republican-led Senate voted to acquit Trump, but Schiff’s words were prescient. Trump went on to lose the 2020 election to Biden but launched a relentless campaign baselessly alleging voter fraud and a rigged election, which continues to this day. Trump exerted enormous pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification of Biden’s Electoral College votes on Jan. 6 in Congress and send the slates of electors back to several swing states.

At a rally in front of the Ellipse near the White House on the morning of Jan. 6, Trump told his supporters that he hoped Pence was “going to do the right thing. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people.”

Constitutional scholars agree that Pence did not have that power. Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa wrote in their new book “Peril,” published Sept. 21, that former Republican Vice President and fellow Hoosier Dan Quayle told Pence, “You have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away. I… know what the law is. You listen to the parliamentarian. That’s all you do. You have no power [to change the election].”

At the end of his Jan. 6 speech, Trump said, “Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country. After this, we’re going to walk down — and I’ll be there with you — we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.”

His supporters did just that, and when they reached the Capitol Building they overran police with weapons such as bear mace and flag poles, killed one officer, broke into the building carrying Confederate and Trump flags, caused $1.5 million in damage, wandered onto the Senate floor, rifled through senators’ desks, tried to break into the House chamber, erected a noose, and chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”

As Secret Service agents whisked Pence away to safety in the building, rioters came within seconds of intercepting the vice president. Trump never called Pence or asked about his safety during the riot, according to several accounts.

The insurrectionists had interrupted Congress as it was in the process of certifying Biden’s win. It took hours for the National Guard and other reinforcements to get approval to take back the Capitol Building, but once they did, Congress reconvened the same night and certified Biden as the next president of the United States. One week later, the House voted to impeach Trump a second time for incitement of insurrection, making him the only president in history to be impeached twice. The Republican-led Senate again voted to acquit him, though seven Republicans joined Democrats in voting to convict him, compared to one Republican during the first impeachment trial.

In Midnight in Washington, Schiff argues that the “Trump presidency has so weakened our institutions and compromised the Republican Party that the peril will last for years, requiring unprecedented vigilance against the growing and dangerous appeal of authoritarianism,” according to the publisher. Schiff “chronicles step by step just how our democracy was put at such risk, and traces his own path to meeting the crisis — from serious prosecutor, to congressman with an expertise in national security and a reputation for bipartisanship, to liberal lightning rod, scourge of the right, and archenemy of a president. Schiff takes us inside his team of impeachment managers and their desperate defense of the constitution amid the rise of a distinctly American brand of autocracy.”

Advocates of democracy have praised the book.

“If there is still an American democracy 50 years from now, historians will be very grateful for this highly personal and deeply informed guide to one of its greatest crises,” said Timothy Snyder, the author of “On Tyranny” and a scholar who studies the rise of authoritarianism around the world.

“When American democracy faced a near-death experience, Adam Schiff served as an able guardian, protecting our nation from enemies foreign and domestic,” said Stacey Abrams, founder of Fair Fight Action, which combats voter suppression in Georgia. “Schiff not only provides riveting details in this compelling account, he delivers a much-needed warning about the threats facing America from within and an urgent how-to guide for preserving our nation.”

According to the publisher, “Schiff’s fight for democracy is one of the great dramas of our time, told by the man who became the president’s principal antagonist. It is a story that began with Trump but does not end with him, taking us through the disastrous culmination of the presidency and Schiff’s account of January 6, 2021, and how the anti-democratic forces Trump unleashed continue to define his party, making the future of democracy in America more uncertain than ever.”

Schiff has represented portions of Pasadena in the House of Representatives since 2000, when he unseated Republican incumbent James Rogan in what was then the most expensive House race in history. In a foreshadowing of the politics to come, Rogan did not concede on election night, even after it became clear that Schiff had won and declared victory at the Pasadena Hilton. Rogan served as a House impeachment manager during former President Bill Clinton’s trial.

Tickets for the Vroman’s event on Oct. 16 are $36 and come with a copy of Midnight in Washington. Vaccinations and masks are required for all attendees.

In season two of "Well Read," host and journalist Justin Chapman provides analysis on news, politics, arts, and culture and interviews special guests. Featuring segments by Senior Influencer Correspondent, @BradtheInfluencer, and Senior Toddler Correspondent, Sienna. Justin also provides recommendations for good reads in each episode.

In Episode Sixteen, Justin interviews Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy. You can find the book at vromansbookstore.com and bookshop.org. Learn more about Sebba's work at annesebba.com.

You can watch "Well Read" on YouTube or on PasadenaMedia.org's TV channels (32 on Charter Spectrum and 99 on AT&T U-verse in LA County) or streaming apps (FireStick, Apple TV, Roku, etc.).

Learn more at justindouglaschapman.com and sign up for my email newsletter at justinchapman.substack.com/subscribe.