Sourdough Breathalysers & Racist Racists

Protests in front of Parliament

A protest took place in Austurvöllur in front of Iceland’s parliament this Saturday. “We are not racists,” said the organiser of the protest, Sigfús Aðalsteinsson. One of the speakers at the protest was musician Brynjar Barkarson, son-in-law of Iceland’s former longtime minister, MP and chairman of the Independence Party, Bjarni Benediktsson. The protests were then protested by another group of protesters claiming to be there to protest racism. This resulted in some minor physical confrontations between the groups. The aforementioned Brynjar, a member of a band called ClubDub, saw his band’s shows be cancelled earlier this month after saying the following on social media: “The problem is people from the third world and they embrace Islam. These are bloodsuckers who have no respect for our customs and culture. They have come to suck the system dry, rape and mouth off.” A comment which also puts the statement “we are not racists” into question.

Weather warning in June

After the warmest May in memory, June started by putting us all in our place by reminding us that sure, the calendar says it’s summer, but the gods of weather will pour down on us puny Icelanders (and you, visiting tourists) weather that fits any late fall with strong winds, near-freezing temperatures and snow in the north and east of the island.

On June 5, the rescue team was called out to assist farmers at Hnjúkur in Skíðadalur, where around 100 lambs needed to be brought down due to the storm. The Dalvík Search and Rescue Team, working with local farmers, helped recover most of the flock from the mountains, but as of June 6, seventeen sheep and lambs were missing. According to the owner, no animals have been found dead so far.

This illustrates the ongoing abusive relationship Icelanders have with the weather. Let us pray the rest of the month won’t treat us like this.

Reykjavík’s swimming pools see longer opening hours

From June 1, 2025 swimming pools in Reykjavík will be open until 22:00 in the evenings through August 31, adding a welcome hour to the hot tub soaking of the many pool fans of Reykjavík. The pools had historically been open until 22:00, but those hours were cut by the city in April 2024 in order to save money. Since it is estimated that the extra hour will cost the city just seven million ISK, keeping the pools open for the extra hour for a whole year would cost 28 million ISK. A puny amount of money in a city of almost 150,000 inhabitants.

Sourdough bread and drunk driving

An Icelander in his early 40s was stopped by the police in the last week of May while driving in Akureyri. A breathalyser test indicated that the man was under the influence of alcohol, yet the man claimed to have never drunk alcohol in his life. After an argument with the police officer who conducted the breathalyser, the man was allowed to rinse his mouth of the sourdough sandwich he had been consuming. The subsequent test showed that he had not been drinking, and according to the driver this annoyed the police officer somewhat. This is news to most — if not all — lovers of a good sourdough sandwich, who have until now remained unaware that their consumption puts them at odds with breathalysers.