Friday, November 30, 2007

Akureyri and Mytvatn!

Yesterday was my last day of class, yahoo! Last Sunday I flew to Akureyri, which is the second-biggest city in Iceland and is at the southern part of a fjord in the north.


This is Helgi the Lean: the first permanent inhabitant of Eyjafjordur, the fjord on which Akureyri sits.

This is looking out through the fjord to the ocean.

Some interesting buildings:

After two days in Akureyri, I too the bus 99km to the east to a village called Reykjalid which is on the Lake Myvatn. Myvatn means "midge" - the tiny bugs that invade the lake and village all summer. I stayed here:

I was the only guest! The owner checked me in and then set me up with a huge carafe of coffee and told me he and his wife would be back in the morning to make breakfast for me! I had the whole place to myself! He gave me a corner room on the second floor with views of the lake. This is the on the first day:

And the next day after it snowed all night:


The first day I hiked across a lava field:

And then took this road...

to what I thought were the Myvatn Nature Baths....

...but turned out to be a factory. So I walked back to the hotel, had another cup of coffee and settled in for the night at about 4pm. It was pretty dark, and in a village of 210 people in the low-season of tourism, not a single restaurant or business was open! The next day, I had a beautiful breakfast, all laid out just for me. The hotel owner told me Max, the Estonian maintenance man would drive me to the Myvatn Nature Baths anytime, and so that's how I spent my second day in Reykjalid.

It was so luxurious! I had the whole complex to myself; again no tourists at this time of year and the locals don't hit the baths until after work. These baths were really different than the Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik. The waters in Myvatn are full of sulfur and not silica. So while the scent takes a little getting used to, my hair wasn't ruined by silica for the next week. At Myvatn, I enjoyed the mountain views, the falling snow and a better sense of actually being outside in the middle of nowhere. The Blue Lagoon is fantastic, but much more commercial and there aren't any views of mountains or landscape.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Here are some photos from a long, gray walk I took last weekend:

First, some kitty footprints I always walk by on my way to the ocean.

Here is the coastal path I walked along. It was a pretty wet day!

The biggest cormorant ever! Just kidding, it's a sculpture.

I ended up coming upon a beach that closed for the winter in mid-September.

So I relaxed on the big lawn chairs.

I got to a kind of forest and found this little guy. Rabbits aren't native to Iceland and this one was probably a pet someone let loose. He let me get pretty close.

Some WW2 bunkers, apparently.

A cat on top of a theatre.

The sun eventually came out.

Icelandic Parliament:

A church next to the Parliament.

Cafe Paris (with the black awning) where I had a coffee. One of my favourite places to read a book for a couple of hours.

The view from Cafe Paris; a busy little intersection. The red building is a big post office.


Oh! And fyi, tomorrow the sun will rise at 10:11 AM and set at 4:14 PM. Yowzers! If you're dying to further develop your SAD symptoms, come visit me! I'm only here for 4 more weeks!


Friday, November 16, 2007

Last weekend I walked to Selfjarnarnes which is a kind of suburb of Reykjavik:

It has an offshore island accessible only at low-tide which is where the light house is.

A modern turf-roofed house.

I was really looking for Rauða Ljónið (Red Lion) which is supposed to be the largest pub in the world, but I couldn't find it!

Friday, November 9, 2007

This and that

I haven't much to report lately. I've been doing a lot of school work and even started studying for my exams! I've never started this far in advance, but I'm getting a little anxious. I'm also planning a quick trip to a northern city called Akureyri, so stayed tuned.

I've been reading a couple of blog written by Icelanders. Icecook is about Icelandic recipes and food culture, and The Iceland Weather Report is about Icelandic popular culture and where I usually find out about current events in Iceland, considering I can't (or don't even try really) read the local newspapers. One recent entry in the Weather Report is about how a group of Hell's Angels tried to unsuccessfully get past immigration, not for the first time, at Keflavik airport. Apparently there is already an established motorcycle gang here (with their headquarters behind an unnamed university residence) who is not part of the Hells Angels, but are desperately trying. So far Icelandic police have kept the Hell's Angels from even getting into Iceland, which keeps the local gang from officially joining their club.

On a totally un-Iceland-related note, I found a great recipe website called SOS Cuisine. Once you've registered and chosen your province, it will give you tons of information and recipes about and using fruit and vegetables in season in your area. If you shop at the main grocery chains, you can also use this site to see the prices of these seasonal fruits and vegetables.

Anywhoo, here's a little trick, courtesy of my friend Sean, I'm including just because I've got nothing else to report.

The rules:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you’re cool

Opening Credits: "'Popplagið" - Sigur Rós
First Day At School: "Get To The Table On Time" - M. Ward
Falling In Love: "Dans les Rues de Paris" - Powersolo
Fight Song: "Baby Cool" - Oliver North Boy Choir
Prom: "Wishbone" - Architecture in Helsinki
Life's OK: "Mad World" - Gary Jules - what the?!
Mental Breakdown: "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" - Neil Young
Driving: "The Gulag Orkestar" - Beirut
Flashback: "On Our Way" - Yo La Tengo
Getting Back Together: "If It Smashes Down" - My Morning Jacket
Wedding: "Riddle of the Chamberlain" - Helium - this is AWFUL! I don't even know where this song came from!?
Birth of Child: "I Believe in You" - Neil Young
Final Battle: "Ikke Rigtig I Mit Hoved" - The Sterling - blech, this if off an Airwaves cd, gotta get rid of that stuff
Death Scene: "Happiness Writes White" - Harvey Danger
Funeral Song: "They Were Kings" - Going Out With The Heavy Trash
End Credits: "Samskeyti" - Sigur Rós

Neato! I started and ended with a Sigur Rós song.
Popplagið means pop song, and Samskeyti means seam or joint.

And without further ado...
Sigur Rós's Samskeyti

Saturday, November 3, 2007

I walked along the waterfront today to find Jon Gunnar Arnason's The Sun Voyager. And here it is:




iPod what?!