The tourist who last week became famous for driving all the way to Siglufjörður, North Iceland, looking for Laugavegur, was fooled again Friday by his GPS, Vísir reports. You might have thought his five-hour-detour would diminish his belief in the GPS, but technology is technology, and in it we trust. So, when the now world-famous 28-year-old Noel Santillan from New Jersey decided to go to the Blue Lagoon, he put his trust in technology again. As he told Vísir, “I was going to the Blue Lagoon, relied on the GPS, and it led me to the wrong place. I ended up in an office building, walked into a meeting room, where there was a meeting in progress, and to my astonishment, there were the staff members of the Blue Lagoon. When I knocked on the door, they looked at me in surprise: What does this man want? I told them I was on my way to the Blue Lagoon, and then they asked whether I was the one who had driven all the way up north. I told them, ‘Yes,’ and then they all laughed and wanted to pose for a photo with me.”
This is a cautionary tale, a saga of what can happen when our reliance on technology becomes close to absolute and overrides even common sense. Having been to Iceland, I can relate to how our intrepid American traveler may have been led astray by GPS. However, having used GPS in a rental car to navigate Reykjavik and more remote areas of Iceland, it’s difficult to have much in the way of sympathy. Simply put, it’s not that hard to find your way around.
Laugavegur, as most anyone who’s spent any time in Rekjavik can tell you, is the main tourist area, running from near the Iceland Phallological Museum past the harbor and the central square. It’s pretty clearly marked…and anyone who can read a map should easily be able to determine where they are in relation to it. In Santillan’s defense, I suspect his biggest mistake may have been a total reliance on GPS. Icelandic landmarks can prove challenging to find due to linguistic barriers- the language has characters not found in English, f’rinstance.
Even with that in mind, you’d think common sense would take over at some point. When you’re out in the middle of the Icelandic countryside, self-preservation, if nothing else, would seem to dictate checking a map or even stopping in a village to ask for directions. English is pretty much a universal language in Iceland, so it shouldn’t have been that difficult for Santillan to determine early on that he was way off course.
GPS systems show no mercy when it comes to spelling mistakes. As a result, an American tourist headed for Hótel Frón on Laugavegur, Reykjavík, ended up on Laugarvegur, Siglufjörður, North Iceland, after a five-hour drive along icy roads through mountain passes.
The man arrived at Keflavík International Airport after a five-hour flight from the US, ready to drive what should have been less than hour, to Hótel Frón on Laugavegur, Reykjavík.
After a longer drive than he had planned for, he became suspicious and reentered the address twice, to no avail. The GPS kept insisting he continue north. Finally, after a five-hour drive, he arrived on Laugarvegur, knocked on the door of Sigurlína Káradóttir and asked her if Hótel Frón was anywhere near. “Naturally, I looked at his [booking] receipt, then looked at him and thought this was a joke,” Sigurlína told Vísir.
She said the American became a little embarrassed once she explained the mistake. Then she invited him inside, called the hotel for him to explain he wouldn’t be coming that night, and was able to postpone the booking until later in the week. After that, she booked a room for him at Sigló Hótel in Siglufjörður, where he was well received.
It turns out there’s a difference between “Laugavegur” and “Laugarvegur,” a distinction that led our intrepid traveler on a five-plus hour drive to North Iceland through some of the most remote parts of the country. Even so, Santillan should have been able to figure out at some point that he was on the right track. Somehow I managed to squire Erin around Iceland using GPS without too much difficulty. I can understand being confused due to misspellings and/or language barriers…but driving for an additional five hours?
Either Santillan doesn’t have a whole lot on the ball or just had some of the worst luck imaginable. I’ve leave it to my gentle readers to fill in the blank on that one.
