Icelanders at the spouting hot spring Geysir repeatedly tried to tell a group of thirty or so tourist to leave an off limits, dangerous area, as this video comedian Margrét Erla Maack posted on Facebook shows:
Diverging from the path is strictly forbidden and hazardous, but despite an abundance of signs telling people not to step over the ropes, and repeated warnings from locals, no heed was paid by the tourists.
“Bitch”
Margrét was one of the people who tried to tell the tourists to get back, but she says nobody listened.
“Every Icelander there was basically doing volunteer work, trying to get the tourists to come back to the path,” Margrét told Grapevine. “But they just rolled their eyes and called me a bitch, so then I thought “well, then you can just burn.”
Similar stories
In the comments to her post, many other Icelanders shared stories of trying to warn tourists of potential danger, without success. One poster says that just two days ago, she ran after a woman who had started to wade into the very dangerous Reynisfjara on the south coast–where a number of people have died in recent years.
While another claims to have seen children walk up to Geysir’s 80°C hot water, and that in response she had scolded the parents for putting their kids in danger.
No, we don’t hate tourists
Before we get a repeat of the literal shit storm this article produced. We have nothing against tourists, they bring currency to the country and have had a positive impact on everything from the availability of cultural events, to food culture.
But nature is fragile, dangerous and needs to be respected. So everybody, just follow instructions, paths, listen to the locals and don’t shit everywhere, and everybody can get along just fine.
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!
