Sour Grapes And Stuff: Issue 13

MOST AWESOME LETTER
From the perspective of a tourist, please don’t fill your beautiful city with hotels. One of the things I loved most about Reykjavik was the colorful culture. We eloped last year during Airwaves and we could not wait to take pictures around the city highlighting its natural beauty as well as human-inspired art. We spent hours outside in the cold posing with the richness of the colors and talented street art. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a city decorated with so much color. Since our departure I’ve caught wind of musical venues closing and a crackdown on street art. It was the ability to get lost wandering the city and finding secret spots of color and culture that won my heart. Admittedly, I have yet to stay in a hotel and I probably never will. My husband and I enjoy using airbnb to stay in apartments and homes tucked around the city. Coming back to a home rather than a room is the best way to experience any city. However, if the tourist industry is growing and that provides economic relief, push the hotels to the outskirts and improve city transportation. A few extra hotel shuttles would go along way to preserve the colorful quaintness of the city. I grew up in a tourist trap – a small key off the gulf coast of Florida. Business owners depend on the tourist season to survive but that doesn’t mean that the natives like the visitors. We complain about the traffic, the difficulty in getting a table at our favorite restaurant, and the general feeling in the air when it’s full of people who aren’t playing by our rules. Our experience in Iceland was fantastic – everyone we met were friendly and helpful. It didn’t seem like we were a big inconvenience to them. However, if you fill the city with hotels and take away from the life and culture of the people who make Reykjavik what it is, I have no doubt the entire culture will change – not just for the natives but for the tourists as well.
*Lindsay Levkoff
Colorado, USA
Dear Lindsay,
During this entire debate and hoo-hah over closures for hotels being opened and culture vs. tourism wars, it’s often the tourists themselves who seem to get thrown under the bus. So thank you lending your voice to those who have had very little to say about the decisions being made around here. Plus, I think a lot of us agree with you. Come back soon and get a present on us!
Love,
The Grapevine

—
Hi
I’ve been to Reykjavik this year for about 5 weeks and loved your paper which I’m missing now.
Thats the reason I’d like to ask you if there is a chance to get the paper sent to austria?
It would be a great pleasure for me to offer it to anyone here in my small little bar.
If there is a chance im willing to pay almost everything.
Yours Robert
Hi Robert,
Thanks for such a nice email! You can most definitely subscribe to our publication by going right here: grapevine.is/sub/Subscriptions. Then you can share our silly little rag with all your friends and patrons until they tire of our foolish ramblings.
Love,
The Grapevine

—
Hi.
I just read your article about these new champagne clubs. I went to the VIP Club not long ago and there were two things I was surprised you didn’t mention. The first was that when you walk up to the club there’s an iron fence that a bouncer opens and closes when you enter. The second is that I paid for a beer with my card, and I when I got home I could see that the transfer was registered to a travel company called VIP Travel. As you can see Kristján Georg Jósteinsson is the registered owner of said company.
If you use this information, I don’t want my name to be published.
Hello anonymous,
Thank you so much for your tip! Our journalist must have gone there on a slow night as the bouncer didn’t bother opening or closing a gate. In trying to conceal his identity, the journalist also paid in cash and didn’t figure out that Kristján was registered as the owner.
We encourage our readers to contact the police with their experiences of visiting champagne clubs. If there are further illegal activities taking place, it is paramount that they reach the right ears. You can also let us at the Grapevine know. Who knows, there may be a follow up article in the making.
Yours,
The Femi-communist propagandists