YT blows the whistle

Well dear readers, no doubt you’ll be pleased to know that I called up the health department this morning and reported the errant restaurant featured in the last blog instalment. And while I had the clerk – who incidentally was extremely grateful – on the blower, I also reported a separate incident that I didn’t blog about at the time but which, as it happens, disgusted me even more than the Eldsmiðjan incident.

Here it is: during that whale watching tour a couple of weeks ago, AAH decided she was hungry, and since there was a canteen on board I decided to get her something to eat. There was a fair number of people who evidently had the same idea and the service was excruciatingly slow, so I had a good opportunity to stand there and observe the two girls [around 15 years old] who were working. The canteen was made up of a bar with a small counter behind it, no more than a couple of metres long and maybe half a metre wide. In that tiny space the two girls did everything: grilled sandwiches and hot dogs, served them, took people’s money and gave back change using a rudimentary petty cash box. For the hot dogs, they removed them from the package, stuck them in the grill thingy, took out the bun, held it in their palm, put on the condiments, then removed the hot dog from the grill with their fingers, stuck it in the bun and handed over to the customer, sans napkin or anything else. Then took payment and gave change. Then turned to serve the next person, took a slice of ham from a package, assembled a ham and cheese sandwich, stuck it in the grill... all with their bare hands, all without once washing.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, what really grossed me out... and you may want to stop reading now if you’re squeamish... be forewarned... last chance... was that one of the girls had a runny nose. She actually had snot coming out of one of her nostrils and on reflex she went to wipe her nose with the back of her hand repeatedly, but changed her mind just before she got there – probably remembering where she was. [Or else she was aware of YT’s evil-eye glare.] So her nose just kept leaking. And she kept serving the hot dogs and grilled sandwiches. While YT stood there and waited and repeated a silent mantra, over and over, please let the other girl be the one to serve me, please let the other girl.... In the end it was the other girl – don’t know what I would have done if it had not been – which was slightly more reassuring, but not very much.

Eventually AAH got her hot dog and wolfed it down without concern [being blissfully unaware of what YT had observed] while YT decided after about a millisecond of deliberation to give the food a pass. Happily since then AAH has not come down with any life-threatening illnesses [a strong constitution, no doubt], yet realizing that others might not be so lucky, YT went ahead this morning and blew the whistle for the common good. Call me a snitch if you will if you shall if you must, but as Auður pointed out in the comments yesterday, constructive bitching is much better than gratuitous bitching.

So – tourists! If you happen to come to Iceland and take the Elding whale watching tour, and observe that the two 15-year olds in the canteen are wearing plastic gloves and hair nets while grilling your sandwich and duck out every few minutes to blow their noses, thoroughly washing their hands afterwards, please inform YT and I shall amend this little review pronto.

MEANWHILE I WOULDN’T WANT TO BE WHALE WATCHING TODAY...
Because it’s pretty windy at the moment, meaning that one’s feeling of nausea would need no prompting from the canteen workers. Winds are from the east at 10-15 m/s with intermittent sunny spells and temps currently at 11°C. Sunrise was at 04.53 and sunset due for 21.58.