Johnny’s Journeys: Iceland in the Sun — one decade’s worth of visits

For more than a decade, I’ve been FM4’s reisender Reporter, known for the long-running FM4 Morning Show column „Johnny’s Journeys“. One place I’ve kept returning to is the small island nation of Iceland, to the point that it’s almost become a running gag. But what’s the appeal of this frozen rock in the North Atlantic? I thought I’d do my best to finally answer this question.

Sometimes I feel a little regret: If I hadn’t developed this unhealthy fixation on this admittedly beautiful, but very small, island nation located in the northern sea between Scandinavia and Greenland, I could have used the same time and money to visit so many other places!

On the other hand, I have yet to find another country where you can order „fish soup“ at any restaurant, and it will be so consistently delicious. And there is something undeniably special about the smell of sulphur that wafts out of the country’s taps whenever the water runs hot.

And maybe you don’t get it, but between those delicious strips of dried fish with salted butter, and the ubiquitous chocolate liquorice you find everywhere, I can nearly forgive how absurdly overpriced everything is.

I feel like I’m not selling this properly. Okay, let me try something else.

Iceland: the country where I came for a casual visit, and suddenly a volcano erupted, grounding all international flights. Iceland: the country where I went to a concert venue and saw Björk, but she was merely in the audience and not performing. Iceland: the country where the friendly historian/tour guide who showed me around on one occasion, later became President.

Hm. I’m still not sure if I’m selling this properly.

Well, what if we do it like this? For a special hour on the FM4 Homebase Parade, I have invited numerous Icelanders to join me and talk music, literature, food, politics, mythology, and of course the ever-present risk of a volcano erupting. These Icelanders will be live in the FM4 studios, and will politely do their best to answer my questions and tell some good stories.

I will also introduce you to some Icelanders over who cannot join us live, but have had the misfortune of finding themselves in front of my microphone on any of my 13+ trips to Iceland over the past decade. These include Reykjavik’s former comedian mayor Jón Gnarr, the current First Lady Eliza Reid, author and former presidential candidate Andri Magnason, a seismologist, a sea monsterologist, a high priest of the Old Religion, and a renowned poet and chanter of the traditional poetry style Ríma.

Naturally, we will also gossip about Björk.

All of this and more, on FM4’s Homebase Parade, 12th of August, from 9pm till 10pm, and then available on the FM4 Player.