Iceland

[zante]

Reykjavik
Lapdancing in Iceland
I have only been to two clubs in Reykjavik, Iceland (Club Vegas, Fri 18 and Club7, Sat 19 Feb) and generalisations must therefore be taken with a pinch of salt. Incidentally these are the two clubs in Iceland that have a Web site. The Club Vegas site seems to be down at the moment and Club 7s site appears to be in need of updating.
Before
Before embarking on my trip I sought information, but anything detailed was only available on www.stripclublist.com. A lot of things mentioned there puzzled me prior to my trip, not least the constant, almost weekly, re-rating of the clubs without any substantial addition with regard to comments from either customers or dancers.
www.stripclublist.com lists nine clubs, seven of which are in Reykjavik. (1 is listed in Akureyri and one in Keflavik, although one girl told me there were altogether 7 (?!) clubs in Keflavik, which houses the US military.) One club (Club Vegas) was given a 10 out of 10 shortly before I left for Iceland, all the other clubs were given ratings around the '3' mark, but fluctuating. Except for Thorscafe, which I never saw and was listed as topless only, all the clubs had their dances classified as 'nude' and that the cost would be $42-43 (about #30!!!). Admission was listed at $15 and drinks at $10. As I had read remarks about various clubs by North American girls I had expected to find them there in large numbers, but that was not the case.

After
The mystery surrounding all this was quickly resolved. Although equipped with a streetmap of Reykjavik and the club's addresses I decided very much on the spur of the moment. In the city centre four clubs can be seen within five minutes walking distance. Two of them (Club Vegas, which is based in a sort of shopping mall, and Club Odal advertise themselves heavily from the street). Two others (Club Maxim and Club7) are very discreet and unknowing passers-by might never guess the true character of those places.
Admission to a club is 1,000 Kronur. Public damces on stage went on all the time. Private dances are paid for in Islandic Kronur or by credit card without any extra handling charge. (Iceland is the only country I know of where people pay for just one bottle of beer in a pub by credit card!) One girl suggested I could probably pay in #, but I did not try to do so. The dances are basically fullbody contact lapdances, lasting each 6 mins and performed in veiled off VIP lounges. All the girls told me that I could touch them, without me having to ask. But they all set different limits. Touching buttocks was no problem. Only two out of six girls actively encouraged touching of the breasts. The others told me, that I could not or gently removed my hands. Dances at Club Vegas cost 3,000 Kronur, at Club7 3,500 Kronur (#1 is slightly more than 100 Kronur). Payment is not directly to the girl, but to a male attendant at a counter next to the veiled VIP lounges. When you book the lady, he types in her name into the till. It was possible to book more than one dance in advance. If you book 3 at a time at Club Vegas, which I did not, you get 20 instead of 18 minutes. All the girls seem to use alarms that alert them by beeping to the end of their dances. If you wanted a second dance straightaway you had to go back to the till and pay for it first. You are allowed to stay on while the girls get dressed. In fact when on one occasion I left straight after the dance the girl stopped me and enquired if did not like her dance.

Club Vegas has only 2 VIP lounges and I felt slightly uncomfortable as the attendant was sitting just outside. I felt there was more privacy at Club 7, where the till was placed further away. However, at no time did an attendant check on what went on in the VIP lounges.

The other thing about Icelandic lapdancing clubs is that they also double as hostess bars. Every time you buy a girl a drink she either gets a ticket (Club Vegas) or they write down her name (Club7). Whilst I stuck to bottled Icelandic beer for 500 Kronur, the girls drinks varied from 1,000 to 2,000 Kronur.

The girls originated mainly from Eastern Europe and Sweden. I saw no Icelandic dancers. But considering that Rteykjavik is an overgrown village, who wants to do lapdances for ex-school mates? A real shame, as Icelandic women must rank amongst the most beautiful in the world. Just think of Sweden and all that beauty concentrated in one small place. However, there seemed to be plenty of sexually frustrated young Icelandic males around, who were watching the free stage dances without patronising the girls or the clubs very much. That was a bit in contrast to what one girl told me, namely that the clintele is very much consisting of high-salaried Icelandic fishermen (I wonder if it resembles oil-rich Aberdeen?). In general, the dancers were very young, mainly in their early twenties. The girls seemed to stick with fellow-dancers from their own countries, especially the Hungarian and Swedish girls. Otherwise there seemed intense competition between the girls. Each time I had a girl on my table, who either went to the toilet or did her stage dance, another girl jumped at the opportunity in order to persuade me to have a dance by her. At least once at Club Vegas two girls had an argument in front of me.

With its top-rating I had to try Club Vegas, where I stayed from 10 pm to 1am. A new management had just taken over a week before I went there. It has the look of a glamorous London lapdancing club with plenty of space. The nine girls were most of the time matched by an equal number of men. I was rather surprised at one time when a girl was on stage and a customer came up and touched her buttocks without anyone interfering. As I left, about 20 Icelandic youth entered as it did not close until 3am. As mentioned above, Club Vegas advertises itself on the high street and has pictures of the girls displayed inside the shopping mall. There was one Australian girl (ex-FYEO, ex-Venus) and one Swedish (also at Browns).

Club 7 was very discreet. If it were not for a glimmer of light escaping outside I would have assumed it was closed. But as soon as I touched the door handle it was unlocked from the inside. The club's interior is more like a collection of lounges, giving it a slightly salon-like appearance. But I must stress that it was only a lapdancing club. Apart from chairs at tables the place was full of settees for intimacy in a semi-private atmosphere. I stayed from half ten until five when the club finally closed. Both at one am and three am a large number of Islandic males in their early twenties arrived. One curious incident occurred at four in the morning when a flowergirl appeared and sold red roses!

Apart from the fact that Club7 was slightly more expensive than Club Vegas I cannot say that the extensive difference in the rating on www.stripclublist.com is anywhere near justified. I would give both of them a seven out of ten, the full rating being denied as I am not convinced that the girls really made an awful lot of money. Somehow I felt, only the ones I patronised did so.

Hubert