Lazy sunday with fake blueberries

This time I'm trying to make a shorter post since the last was quite long and else I might forget again half of the things I want to write about. No, I'm not becoming old. :P
After a couple of weekends travelling around I had the chance again to spent the whole weekend in Reykjavík and just calm down again for a while. This week's highlights were definitely the concert on Thursday night by Árstiđir, an Icelandic folk band who are one of the best live bands I have ever seen. They were incredibly energetic, dynamic and in total harmony with each other. The music made you want to move, to run, to jump, to go as fast as possible, to feel live in each pore of your body. The band members were quite cool, they were making jokes of each other and just drinking wine in the breaks of the songs. It was actually a rehearsal, so that might explain the relaxed atmosphere. One of my favourite jokes was when the violin player came to play for one song the piano and concluded after playing that one song to the pianist: "Playing the piano is so easy! You just touch a key and you get sound. But a violin is much more delicate and needs lots of practice. You even can put your beer somewhere while playing!"
Pianist replies: "I've got another joke. Why does the violin player stand outside his house in the rain? Because he can't find the key and never knows when to get in." And 1-0 to the pianist! :D
The rest of the week went rather calmly, what I actually enjoy a lot for the moment.
I watched the ice hockey Sweden-Finland game with a bunch of other people in the student bar. And just had a lovely Sunday today with a feeling of peace and happiness. I got to sleep in and went to the center with a housemate just to hang out. Bought more wool for my sweater and a pattern, we went to a nice new café, to the harbour and we just enjoyed the bright sun warming our faces. It was a windstill day so we actually just sat a while in a park and enjoyed the sun embracing us, we didn't even get cold. One of the greatest feelings in the world.
At home then I decided to make muffins of the disgusting blueberries I had bought a while ago, or at least I thought they were blueberries. As the muffins were in the oven I finally bothered to check the word on the package of the berries and it turns out they were crowberries!  Never tasted them before. According to wikipedia they are super berries with lots of vitamin C and antioxidants, and the Sami and Inuit eat them a lot.....but they are just freaking bitter and tasteless. Lesson learned, bother to translate what you are actually putting in your mouth, especially if it tastes bad.  :D The muffins are hiding the taste a bit of the berries.....
The rest was then just knitting. :)
It seems that once again I wrote more than I had planned...

Let's end this Sunday with some beautiful Icelandic music! Since I didn't really take pictures in the last few days....

Hattivatti and lost in Borgarnes

Finally a post again! And this is going to be a long one since I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks and a lot has happened in the meanwhile, so prepare yourself mentally. ;)

The things I have been up to:

I went on Tuesday a week ago to the Búri Caves, a lava tunnel somewhere in South Iceland. They said people with knee problems shouldn't come, I thought "How bad can it be? Plus I'm officially without knee problems according to the doctor.". Well.....it was fucking hell. The beginning was pretty, we came into the cave and everything was covered in ice stalagmites and stalactites (know the difference between those two? ;)). It looked exactly like I was surrounded by hundreds of hattivatti/hattifatteners. And since the stalagmites and stalactites were out of ice you can of course conclude that the rocks down there were all covered in pure ice. So almost half of the journey had to be done crawling over those or sliding down with your butt. After a certain time period that felt like forever we finally came to an area only covered in gigantic rocks, so we climbed over them. Then again after a while we finally came into the actual lava tunnel. It was quite impressive to see and to walk there where the lava had once been flowing, we saw melted stones and the tracks of the lava in the walls. As a reward for this whole trip my right knee was pretty much only blue and hurting a lot. And I found some really pretty bruises on my butt too. :D

Since my camera wouldn't take any pictures in the absolut darkness here is a picture of hattivatti:

After that my next adventure started with finally going to the doctor last week on Thursday. A constant sore throat and a nasty cough had been bugging me for already 3 weeks, and after taking a look into my mouth and seeing my tonsils I figured it might be a good idea. Going to a doctor here in Iceland is easy, you just go to our health care center before 4pm if you want to see someone right away. When I got into the health care center I was confronted with signs in only Icelandic and a bunch of arrows showing into all possible directions. Two really old Icelandic women chitchatting with each other saw my confusion and one came over and started talking in Iceland:

Old nice lady: *says something in Icelandic*

Confused me: Ég tala ekki íslensku. 

Old nice lady: Doctor?

Confused me: Já!

Old nice lady shoved me into the floor to my right. :D

After getting myself registered into the system and waiting for 45min I finally saw a doctor, she saw a clear case of tonsillitis ("Usually we have to test for the bacteria. But you've had this for over 3 weeks, I hear your voice and see your tonsils. We don't have to test you." her words) and prescribed me antibiotics. Here they just send an electronic prescription to all the pharmacies and you can pick it up anywhere you want to. 

So way to go me, I haven't been even two months here and already my forth week of being sick, of course I get all the funny diseases when going abroad. ;) And I know now that I'm slightly allergic to penicillin. I've got a really pretty red itchy rash on my right leg, with the remaining bruises it looks so incredibly sexy. :D (sorry no pictures of that one coming)

Next on last week's list was the arrival of two friends from Finland! Weeee! We went out to eat in Fish and Chips by the harbour in the evening and I really enjoyed the food, excellent fish and salad. :)  The next morning I was once again time to hit the road, this time to Snaefellsness. We had rented a cottage there close by to Grundarfjörđur. The drive to there was lovely, we came over the mountains so those were as always stunning, literally iceblue water....like in a different world. The evening we spent in the cottage with the best curry I've ever had, Finnish pancakes by me and when the Finns from the cottage right next to us came hang out later on we saw finally some northern lights! The most beautiful so far. Since we're in the middle of nowhere we could see them without any other lights and it was amazing. They were green, pink, a bit of red and dancing so fast! It was a great show. :) The next day we took a drive around the whole Snaefellsness peninsula, climbed up the carter Saxhóll and just enjoyed the untouched nature. Plus I managed to get us for a short time lost in Borgarnes...something you have to manage, get yourself lost in a town of 1700 people. :D  But we got to see a nice sunset, so it was worth getting lost. 

Tuesday we did the Golden Circle, for my friends from Finland quite amazing, I already find other spots in Iceland way more beautiful. But I purchased a great road atlas of whole Iceland! It's kinda ridiculous how excited I am about a road atlas...but it's awesome! Really!

And in case if you are wondering "Man, she always writes about her trips etc but not much about school, does she do anything there?". The answer is: Well...I'm somewhat behind but still going to classes and handing in essays somewhat on time. I made a new record: Writing a 5 page essay within 3 hours on the day it was due.

Next you have a picture of my lopapeysa, or the start of it. Every other human being would choose a neutral color like black, white or grey but of course I am the one again with the weird taste and chose turquoise. It's not like you can spot me already many kilometers way when wearing my purple outdoor jacket....

This is my lopi so far, proof that I am actually knitting it! :)

Icelandic boys running around naked

To make it all clear again: I am not coming right now back to Finland. I will be staying in Iceland until mid-May (happily) but I will also return then happily to Finland in the spring. :)
In the past few days Iceland has been on its best behaviour and shown its beautiful sides. On Wednesday I had the great pleasure of seeing the Icelandic musician Ásgeir Trausti live for free in a bar in Reykjavík. I really like his music and right now he wasn't supposed to have any concerts in Iceland for the whole spring but he was suddenly here! Why? Don't know! One of my housemate's girlfriend just send me a message suddenly about it during the day and we left with the whole gang from the house in the evening. It was a beautiful small concert (not many people and lasted only 30min) and great seeing the artist from so close by. And yes, he really can sing like you hear him on the CDs. :)  And I didn't scream like a stupid fangirl, I'm very proud of myself!
On Friday night I was on a pubcrawl but ended up admiring suddenly the northern lights over the town. Seeing them for the second time in my life and first time in Iceland. I was chasing them with one of my housemates first down to the harbour (too much light) and then back up a few hills. They were pretty though not always that clearly visible. I'm actually going to try to see them again tonight. :)
It seems like I don't really get to sleep in here on the weekends because we had another trip! This time it was hiking in the Þingvellir National Park. In Þingvellir we have the first and oldest parliament, Alþingi, of the world. There the Vikings gathered, discussed, quarrelled and chopped each others heads off. There was also a little pond between the stone walls and apparently women who were unfaithful were drowned there, last one in 1746 I think..... At this place Iceland declared independence too from Denmark in 1944, so throughout history it has been an important place for the Icelanders. It's also a village. It has a church and 5 houses. We got incredibly lucky with the weather. It was around +2°C, clear blue sky and hardly any wind. The nice lady at the visitor center gave us a free map of the main hiking trails since we were the only idiots hiking there in the winter season it seems. She probably didn't want to feel responsible in case we would have gotten lost. The trails were party frozen or covered in snow but then we just walked right next to them, so no bigger problem at all (except on the way back...there was a lot of ice). It was just great hiking there, looking at the lake, the mountains the blue blue sky, feeling the sun on your skin. Untouched nature in its purest form. :)

 

 

At the end of our hiking trail we came to the old remains of a former farm. There were only rocks left anymore. But since there had been a farm once the grounds there were grass and it was just great lying on the hill, in the warm grass and letting the sun shine on your face. It felt like summer! I really wish we could have stayed there longer but our plan was to find Hrúnalaug, a natural thermal pool about 1 hour drive from the park. We did eventually find it after first thinking were lost after finding ourselves in the middle of nowhere surrounded by really shabby looking Icelandic farms. But we didn't give up and found it! There were a bunch of Icelandic teenagers fixing to leave the pool when we got there so we got a free show off an Icelandic teenage boy running around completely naked around the pool! For whatever reason! They finally left, we got changed into our bathing suits and I believe the expression of pure joy on our faces when entering the water was priceless. It felt like heaven, sitting in the warm water, watching the sun go down over you, no other souls around (except for the hidden people) and just relaxing. :)
Getting out of the water into the cold was then again a pain in the ass....

After that we headed home, grabbed some Domino's pizza and a good night's sleep.
In case you are wondering how my lopapeysa (sweater) is going: I bought the wool for the body today! And practiced the basic knitting again, so next week I'll get down to business. Pictures to proof the ordeal will be uploaded of course.

And to make people happy, I've been having my personal little party all day with this song:

Confession of a globetrotter

I seem to have caused some confusion on Facebook today with selling my return ticket from the 20th of May, so let's make a few things straight. :)
I'm selling the ticket because I'll be coming back already a few days earlier (contract ends plus other obligations waiting on the mainland). But really people, stop believing that I plan on staying here forever. Because I am not.
What I want to do is to return to Turku. Please don't get me wrong, I love Reykjavík and Iceland. The Icelanders are a lovely bunch of people and I have to dedicate an entire post later only to their craziness. I don't regret coming here but Iceland has taught me one beautiful and painful thing: I love my life in Finland because I do have for the first time in forever a settled down life. I have friends I have known for more than only 6 months, I've lived in one apartment for more than a year, I've been working at the same job for almost a year and will continue there, and I'm actually on my way on finishing an university degree. I miss things from there. I miss you, my friends. Sorry for being such a clown all the time and never showing/saying that out loud. But now you know, if I'm pulling jokes again that means actually "I love you". Like right now. :D
I miss my tiny apartment even though on the last few days there all I wanted to do was to burn it down. I miss my workplace with the endless laughs and my mental breakdowns in the freezers. I miss  the university with it's shitty buildings but wonderful corners to sit down with friends between classes and have a cup of tea. I miss the tiny city of Turku with its beautiful river, even though you constantly have to fear that you'll run into your exes around the next corner and take a jump into the river. I miss  my bike with which I could just get anywhere I wanted anytime and run late anyway all the time.
So, I've come to the point where I actually have to admit: Turku has become my home. Probably not for the next 60 years but for right now it's my home to which I'll more than happily return after my wonderful adventure here in Iceland. :)

Sorry, I'm coming back, you'll have to deal with me for a couple more years. :P
Maailman toisella puolen, mutta tulen takaisin :)

Almost gone with the wind

Last week was rather quiet since I caught the flue or a rather unpleasant cold, as you probably figured out from my latest blog where I was just feeling sorry for myself. I had fever, muscle pains, knee pains, a running nose, couch, stiff neck, etc. you name it. On Tuesday I crawled then to the nearest pharmacy I knew and asked the clerk there to give me strongest couch medicine they have. He gave me some random bottle with just Icelandic on it. But hey, if a handsome Icelandic guy tells you to drink from a bottle of whose content you have no clue 3-5 times a day, then you'll of course do as he says. ;) (that stuff is actually pretty good)
Fortunately I didn't die as opposed to my wish last Monday and I do feel much better though I'm still coughing like a 90-year old who smoked for 100 years.
So last week was really uneventful since I didn't go to class until Wednesday and I only have two classes on Wednesdays (of which one I skipped) and one on Thursdays. Fridays are always off. Wooo! But I got to read a lot and watch Scrubs. That's always good.
It snowed on Thursday and everything was pretty for 3 hours, then the snow had already melted again and turned into ice on the streets. But on Thursdays the Lebowski Bar in town has a Movie-Quiz going on and I went there with a few housemates and other people I know. You had to guess a bunch of different movies from just seeing a small scene or part of the movie poster etc. It was great fun and I'll definitely go there again! Though I definitely knew way too many movies there and made me worry about my social life history. :D And my throat felt after an evening at the bar like the Sahara itself....
Friday I and two other exchange students had been invited for dinner at my mentor's and her boyfriend's place. The food was incredibly good with sweet potatoes, some Mexican cheese, mushrooms, and other things I had no idea what they were but they were delicious! And it was an overall a fun evening. I hit the jackpot with my mentor I'd say. :)

Saturday my housemates and I hit the road again. This time to the south of Iceland. Luckily we got the day where was a big storm warning and that storm was actually real. So strong wind all the time but it was a fun experience. We went first so Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall. It's one of the best known waterfalls in Iceland and it's truly beautiful. One special thing about it is that you can actually walk behind it. It's funny how none of us thought that you could actually get wet when going behind a waterfall but after we were soaking wet it made perfectly sense. Thank god, I had my waterproof outdoor clothes on (though I put them on so I wouldn't get cold...).
Our next stop was Skógafoss. Another waterfall! Iceland is kinda full of waterfalls. It's situated by the cliffs of the former coastline. So you can walk there where hundreds of years ago used to be only the Atlantic. It's as well one of the biggest ones and legend says that the first Viking settler Þrasi Þórólfsson hid a treasure behind it but nobody so far has found that treasure. There was a staircase going besides the waterfall up the cliffs and from up there you had a magnificent view over the landscapes. And nothing for anybody who's scared of heights. But I am scared of heights and I went up there because I'm just dumb like that! But it was worth it. :) You see the wast emptiness of the land and the untouched nature. Since there are no trees anywhere in sight you can see incredibly far and it gives you some kind of respect to your surroundings. Next we came to Dyrhólaey, the place everybody always sees on the postcards and travel books from Iceland. It's with the famous cliffs and rock formations right by the Atlantic. And I have to say it was breathtaking! Not only because the wind was going probably something like 30m/s, tried to push you off the cliffs (literally) and made it impossible to open the car door on certain moments. But because it is so incredibly beautiful especially if there is a storm going and the waves of the Atlantic or so big and powerful. You have there nature in its purest form. The colors, the smells, the sounds...everything is just unbelievable. A place I can highly recommend and will have to come back to! After this we went to Vík and looked at the black beaches there and the Reynisdrangar. The famous rock formations of which is said that those were actually two trolls dragging a three-masted ship to land but then the sun came up and they turned into stone. Because trolls turn into stone when touched by the sunlight. As the final stop we went to a huge lavafield and you can't even see the volcano who caused it because it's so far away. So that eruption back in the 18th century was quite a big one. Good thing I wasn't back then in Iceland.
(text continues after pictures)

 
    

 

And now something for a good laugh: One of my housemates and I decided on knitting our own lopapeysas (Icelandic sweaters)! We should start this weekend. Looking at the instructions I feel more like "Good lord, why the hell did I ever think this could be remotely easy?!". But now it's out there and I have to do it! I have to proof to you, my anonymous readers, that I will actually finish this plan of mine.

I think this was all for day. I should write more because here's so much to tell and I really do enjoy writing this here. Yay or nay? :)
Are you done laughing yet?