ICELAND MAIL
THE IDEA:
I am trying to mail photos from Vancouver BC to a special restaurant in Grundafjordur, Iceland with ONLY a drawing and no address.
I hope to find out about the people who TOUCHED this envelope so far! If you upload a photo please add the DATE and LOCATION you are in, and your name. Thanks! I will follow up. (You will have to put you email addresss but it will not display)
AND / OR, please email me! I would love to celebrate your contribution! Thank you! I am: wrj (at) wrj photo {dot} com.
THE PROGRESS:
(above) Dec 22, 2022: I went to a Canada Post outlet and met this super kind staffer, but we could not find a good plan yet to get this envelope out of the country without proper addressing. I just need hand sorting, and someone to read it and be amused by the plan. 10 seconds of time, and I hope they will send it on to iceland.
(above) Jan 30, 2023: I went back to the main branch in downtown vancouver and had a most helpful rep suggest we put a notation form to HAND SORT. Awesome, no one told me THAT form even existed before. This trip finally paid off, and I sent it on its way! This rep really got this and was amused too.
(above) Jan 30, 2023: Þetta reddast!!!! Icelandic for “It will be ok”
THE RESULTS:
AWESOME!! IT ARRIVED. Feb 15, 2023. I find it so fun too that the wee note we added on to the envelope to request “hand sorting” made it WITH the envelope the whole way! We had it on with elastic, but now it was taped on. Yay Icelandic Post!!
THE SHOW:
More below, but IF YOU want to hear the hilarious preamble as to WHY this happened to begin with, I will be telling the tale (including eating horrifying Hakarl fermented fish) in my brand new Multimedia Show called IRE & ICE this week! These shows are VERY rare so catch one while you can. If 80,000 Canadians have raved about previous shows, hopefully you will like this one too (first reviews from Edmonton are super)
SHOW DATES:
– Edmonton / NAIT Shaw Theatre / Wednesday Mar 8, 2023 / 6:30 doors, 7 show
– Vancouver / Langara A130 / Thurs Mar 16 / 6:30 doors, 7 show (*added show)
– Vancouver / Langara A130 / Thurs Mar 17 / 6:30 doors, 7 show (*tix selling fast)
– Langley / KPU Auditorium / Tues Mar 21 / 6:30 doors, 7 show
Go to BUY TICKETS PAGE now
THE MAYOR:
OMG, I found out the MAYOR now nows about this on March 5, and a local journalist is doing a piece too. I will add that in here when it is up. this news only came in the morning of March 10, and I rushed photos to them this morning.
THE ICELANDIC NEWS STORY!:
Here is the story that was published on March 12! I was super jazzed by this fun bit, and VERY amused by the translation I got when I ran it through the internet… See below.
TRANSLATION (as done on the internet)
Unclaimed mail pays off lead ends.
Last summer, a cheerful traveler came from Canada and had dinner at the restaurant Bjargarstein in Grundarfroi. He had already traveled around Iceland and won a medal in the West and was very fond of the country and bjod. The man’s name is William Jans and he is a lecturer in his home country, but in the next few weeks he will be with Syningar
In Canada, he tells about his Icelandic past in words and pictures. Hédinn Sveinbjörnsson was the head farmer of Bjargarstein when William came to visit the world, and he got together like a giggle because the bathers are light and cheerful “fools”. When William Jans came home to Canada, he decided to send a self-addressed letter with pictures and explanations rather than in a traditional way and then see if the letter would pay off all the way. It was last week that the post office came with a really funny letter and put it in the mailbox at Biargarstein.
say that a very pleasant experiment has been successful and the letter has reached its end.)
Caption 1: Gudbrandur Gunnar Gardarsson and Miroslav Honek, restaurateurs at Bjargarstein, with good letters. Light).
Caption 2: Letters discussed with the formative explanations. The letter was posted on January 30 and was bvi only a little over a month on the way).
Caption 3: Old man William Jans was cheerful when he put a letter in the mail, full of love).
*Holy potatoes!… well, the word “Aringinn” means “Elder” so it is not soooo bad. At least it didnt say “þybbinn” (chubby) or “feitur” (fat)