Crazy in Iceland

I was informed that some crazy Rapture-type preacher in the US predicted that the end of the world would begin with earthquakes at precisely 18:00.  Amusingly enough, guess when we had our volcano start spewing ash…

The world is grey and visibility is bad.  The airports have been shutdown, but I was still able to take the bus to work.

Things that I learned on the driving test:

1. Petrol fires are put out with blankets.  (Not the lack of the important word “fire” before blanket)
2. You are supposed to stop at a stoplight that is yellow and red simultaneously.  (I’ve never seen this in Reykjavík)
3. In a rotary, if you are on the outside and are not exiting on the next outlet, you must signal left.  (I think this is a new EU rule.)
4. It is bad to keep your right hand on the shifter, it may break the transmission.  (Unlikely, but the bigger issue is that the roads are bad enough with strong winds that you need to keep both hands on the wheel.)
5. Driving testers find it interesting if you can keep a conversation with them while taking the test.
6. You get to drive tractors with the standard (B) license.

Apparently one of the other driving instructors had the same car as I was testing in burst into flames.  The three of us (him, my instructor, and I) spent some time trying to surmise what had happened.  My current instinct says that he had corrosion somewhere interesting on his diesel engin that was slowly coating the inside of the engine compartment with oil mist that then ignited when the seal was completely gone.

I passed the test partially to my instructor who said not to overthink the questions.

The Official Icelandic designation for this symbol is "Thunderbox Toilet"

Getting a driver’s license in Iceland is a little tricky.  The written test here is famous for trick questions, even in the original Icelandic.  Things don’t get much better in the English version.

To make matters worse, you can’t just go to the Driving Office, fill out a form and take your test.  Instead, the procedure goes something like this:

1. You find someone who took an driving class in English and get his sample tests
2. You study like mad and stare at the ‘Traffic Signs of Iceland ‘ packet from the driving office
   1. As added fun, you can’t reasonably print out the PDF without doing some additional cut and pasting.
3. You call the Umferðarstofa(Traffic Directorate) which informs you that you have to go to Sýslumaðurinn in Kopavogur Dalvegur 18 and “surrender your license”.  (This is wrong.) Oh, and they close at interesting times some days.
4. You’ll also need a picture (35x45mm)
5. If you have glasses or contacts, you’ll need an eye exam.   This means a trip to the doctor.  If you’re new to the country and not on social services, this means spending another 5000 ISK.
6. They also tell you that you need to get a driving instructor to use his car for the test, but are not allowed to refer one for you.  You get to pick one from a driving school or Ökukennarafélag Íslands (Association of Driving Instructors) at  http://aka.is
7. You get to call a bunch of strangers and see if you can beg time in their special instruction car at approximately 7000 ISK per hour.
8. They tell you that it’s a good idea to take a lesson in their car first, as the testers are very strict.  This lesson costs around 7000 ISK.
9. The actual driving test at the Traffic directorate is an additional 7000 ISK.
10. After visiting the Sýslamaðurinn, they tell you that if you want anything other than a temporary license, they need to find out when you first got your license.  American licenses don´t have when they were first issued, so you need a “Letter of Verification”
11. If you have moved between states, it gets worse : you need to make it absolutely clear that you want the original issue date.  They will probably get it wrong; you will then need to call them and have them resend the letter.
12. You can’t schedule your test until you’ve dropped all of this stuff off.
13. You wait 2-3 days.
14. Schedule a written test with Frumherji, the company that takes care of car inspections and testing.  The cost is 2300 ISK
15. You will almost certainly fail on your first attempt.
    1. You are allowed 2 wrong answers in section one, and 5 more in section two.  (and get to use any spares from section one in section 2 for a total of 7).
    2. Note that each question has 1,2, or 3 boxes possible to be checked, and each incorrect box is counted.
    3. To make matters worse, there are some questionable translations and rules that current drivers don’t know and/or follow.
16. Schedule another test for the following week.
17. Discover from a colleague that apparently the way to practice is to use the online practice test and go through every last question in the entire database.  Unfortunately it is only in Icelandic, of course.
18. Panic.
19. Realize that google translate is your friend.
20. (Shrug shoulders)
21. Profit!