She Made a Difference

Sometimes it seems as if I'm always saying goodbye.

This is truly a sad day.

Yesterday Auður Ösp, creator and proprietor of I ♥ Reykjavík, announced the closure of her popular Icelandic tourism web site. Another casualty of Covid-19, her business vanished in a single day when restrictions went into effect in March. She had been soldiering on and when the restrictions were partially lifted last month some work began trickling in again. Now that they have been re-tightened she has decided to finally throw in the towel. She is still young enough to pursue a different career with advantage of having run a successful business for many years.

It is also another final chapter of an era in my life. In the sixteen years since I began following her (and other Icelandic bloggers) in 2004 there have been several “revolutions” in the internet. Blogs, once trendy, now seem to be an anachronism from a bygone age (which is also a good description of me)—quaint and naive—replaced by Facebook, Twitter, ruthless commercial web sites and depressing news feeds. One constant throughout these often bewildering changes has been, for me at least, Auður’s openness and integrity in promoting Iceland in both nature and culture. The seeds she has planted with her various on-line and personal efforts have grown into beautiful flowers appreciated by thousands around the world. The discovery of Icelandic culture has been one of the best things to happen to me in my life; many of those discoveries  were triggered by her writing.

I still have a gift card for I ♥ Reykjavík that I won’t be able to use. I told her to donate the money to a worthwhile Icelandic cause; Iceland has given me so much that I can never repay the debt. Given the current realities, it seems that I won’t be returning to Iceland anytime soon and I’m getting to an age where foreign travel is becoming more intimidating.

Good luck Auður, in all you do, you have made my world a better place.



Image: I ♥ Reykjavík