No Rest for the Wicked

A small quick (as if my posts were ever small) post about this week.

The big highlight: Seeing Björk, Patti Smith, Lykke Li, Of Monsters and Men live on Tuesday! That was an experience. Björk opened the whole show and she was fantastic, great and awkward. Patti Smith was by my own and everyone's opinion the true star of that evening. She really rocked that stage and was just amazing! Unfortunately she only played 4 songs I could have listened to her longer. Lykke Li was good too, but nothing compared to Patti Smith. Of Monsters and Men did disappoint us with only playing 2 songs while all the other bands played 3-5 songs! But they were good nevertheless. Between the big shots we had smaller Icelandic bands as Mammút, Samaris, Highlands and Retro Stefson. Retro Stefson was the last one and the singer just took the stage to his own and the audience. Even if you don't like their music, go see them live, they put so much energy into it and you can see how they enjoy it. And all of the stars from that evening came to the stage during their last song and they had a big fun party on stage. That's not something you see everyday. :) 

The concert was actually a fundraiser for saving Icelandic nature since politicians are being politicians here and planning on destroying some unique nature here for building a powerplant and putting it all under water. For energy that Iceland doesn't even need. Hello, greed...

Monday I went after class with some classmates to Yo Yo's ice cream parlour. I think I found heaven or that's what heaven hopefully looks like. You can make your own ice cream cup! You take a cup and just put all of the ice cream flavors you want in it (you do it all on your own), then you have a huge choice of cookie and chocolate pieces, smarties, fruits and sauces that you can spice it up with.  

Chocolate and orange ice cream with kiwis, smarties, Oreos and and chocolate sauce.

So you can completely on your own decide what your ice cream cup is going to be like! Best part, if the price goes over 799ISK you don't pay more than 799ISK, so just fill it all up!  This is going to be so bad for my hips and pocketbook... :D

Yesterday I was with one of my housemates swimming in the oldest public pool in Reykjavík, Sundholl. It's really close to where we live. And it's truly the oldest, it feels like you went back in time to the 1930s when entering it. They still have the same lockers and everything, nothing much seems to have changed. I actually swum for the first time in years since my surgery about 10 laps and after that we hang out in the hot tubs outside where you also got a water massage to your back and feet. I actually used it for my right knee since I ran the day before and the muscles were hard again, so I had a nice massage from the water hose and everything was fine. :) The way we described content-selfs when coming out: "Soft". That was really the best way to describe it, happy and soft.

My big achievement this week: I ran 10min non-stop on the treadmill on the speed of 8.5km/h! I know it's really slow for you guys but for me it's a huge achievement, especially the 10 minutes. It feels great...and I'm in fucking pain but it's worth it. :D

And last here's Lykke Li's newest song, we were the first one's to hear it Tuesday night.

Blood on the pavement

It's sunday again in beautiful, windy and quite rainy Reykjavík.

My friends and I ended up cancelling our planned trip for this weekend again since the weather really is not our friend at the moment. We've been experiencing the classical Icelandic weather: It literally, and I am not exaggerating with this, changes every 10 minutes! Today as an example we've had sun, rainstorm, sun, hale, snowstorm, sun, cloudy, hale etc. But next weekend we'll hopefully finally get our chance to go! :)

Thursday I was with a housemate and friend at a cozy concert at Café Rosenberg, the main band playing was Hymnalaya. It's a band of approximately 8 members and the instruments go from piano, violin to drum and tuba. They were great on stage and played really well together. Actually just all the Icelanders here seem to talented musicians and finding a band playing at any given evening during the week is not a problem at all. 

For making up that we had to cancel our weekend trip again we decided to rent a car for Friday and went to Hverargerđi, about an hour drive away from Reykjavík. We hiked up a mountain there for taking a bath in the famous hot rivers. There are just hot springs coming up from the mountain and they are forming a small river where you can easily just lay around and enjoy the nature in it's purest form. Snowy mountains around you, the grey sky above you, the warm water hugging your body and lots of sand in the bikini...But it was truly enjoyable. The hike was a lot of fun, just in the snow covered mountains and suddenly seeing some green field (real green) with grass growing because it was surrounded by many big hot springs. Those were just bubbling dangerously and blessing us with the sweet smell of rotten eggs. It was like a scene from another planet, only things you actually see on TV usually but here they are real. 

After the hike we drove to Selfoss where we had great pasta and some of the best cake I've ever had in my life. From there we continued to see the volcanic crater Keriđ. It was mainly covered in snow so we couldn't see the famous turquoise and red colors of the earth in it. And unfortunately there won't be a next time because Iceland started since yesterday now charging tourists a small fee for the main natural sights (geysir, gulfoss etc.) here. I sort of don't want to pay for that, so I'll just have to come after the closing hours and climb over the fence as we did on Friday. ;)

Saturday was spent hanging out with a friend in coffee places and walking around. In the evening we had the great plan of finally going out partying since be both hadn't been able to do it for being sick here a lot. And this is how the embarrassing story of me starts on the attempt of going out. I was excited about the night and when I left the house to go downtown I was just happily walking down the street and...fell. Like on the gif below....I'm just minding my own business, walking of course very gracefully as you can see below and fall! Thank goodness nobody else was there to witness this special moment in my life and I had a good laugh at myself. My knee unfortunately didn't like this stunt at all and I knew I just had killed my hopes of being able to dance that night. Good start, eh? :D Oh, and I wasn't even wearing high heels.

My friend and I then pretty much spent walking from one place to another hoping to find something fun but somehow we were never really fully satisfied with what we saw in the bars (mainly techno playing this time). And it was pouring outside. So we just walked around the center, got almost in between two fist fights (there were literally beating each other's faces bloody with their bare fists) happening only 2m away from us and were laughing at our luck for not finding anything we liked on the night we actually really wanted to go party. :) We decided to give it a try again another night since there were long lines for everything by now, 2am, and we didn't like the idea of standing outside in the pouring rain. We had fun anyways.
Today I woke up to realising how much junk I actually have here with me and have to get that stuff back home in exactly two months. I came here with a full suitcase! How the heck am I supposed to manage that?! Why do I own things? So what do you do when panic kicks in? Meet friends and have sushi! We went to this one place here where it was served on the train system so you had constantly delicious sushi pieces moving in front of your eyes, like in heaven! A small plate of those sushi plates cost between 230-490ISK, so very good prized. There was even chocolate pudding as desert!
This was for this week. I'm already waiting for Tuesday since then the big concert with Björk and the others will be and Friday we'll hopefully get on our long awaited road trip. :)

Oh March, thou are a heartless bitch...

Warning: This is not going to be a fun read.
I'm already half way done. Only 2 months and 1 week are left, of that only 4 more weeks of university. Time has flown by so quickly and March is only enhancing the feeling that time is rushing past you and leaves you wondering what happened to the past weeks, months and especially years. I have to confess: I hate the month of March. I've been dreading this month for the past 5 years now and each year I can feel my powerless towards time becoming greater. The clock keeps on ticking, the seasons keep on changing, times goes on. It doesn't matter if we like it or not. It goes on, inevitably. During March I wish I could stop time, just make the clocks stop or even rewind them. Because there are things in the past you wish had never happened or at least that time didn't keep on moving so mercilessly so it wouldn't feel like the gap is getting any wider than it already is. It's the desperate attempt of believing that it never happened, the disbelief to the fact that the world really keeps on turning no matter what happens and who is left behind. And with that the guilt for those who keep on running with the clock grows.
I don't think I would want to stay forever in Iceland though I absolutely love it but right now I wish I had so much more time to be here. So many more trips I want to do. So many more moments I just want to gaze at the city from the roof top or be amazed by this unique nature. But seen from the positive side: It gives me a great reason to come back again many times and explore more of this astonishing country! :)
What I've been up to lately: A friend from Finland/Germany came to see me and we've been mainly in Reykjavík because Iceland decided to be on its worst manner and give as snowstorms during the past weekend! So our South-trip had to be cancelled and had the pleasure of fighting my way to class and back home on Monday in a heavy rainstorm, including heavy rain and heavy wind combined (only idiots would try to use an umbrella then)...Wet jeans for the win! Today we went to the National Museum of Iceland and I loved it. It was very interesting to hear about Iceland's history and they had also an exhibition of female Icelandic photographers from many centuries. I definitely have to go the Photography Museum here and check them out more. Oh yes, during the weekend we also celebrated a friend's birthday/women's-day and were at the Reykjavík Folk Festival. Both things were great fun and got to hear different types of Icelandic folk music. On Monday we celebrated a housemate's birthday with tacos and pizza (don't ask).
Oh, and I still have been sick and went to the doctor and tests but they couldn't find anything! No virus, no bacteria, no nothing. Advice from the doctor: "Just rest and drink a lot of tea and hot chocolate". Permission to drink lots of hot chocolate, yea! :D And I got at least to see an Icelandic hospital from the inside.
That's pretty much it. Sorry, I've been pretty boring lately but content. Though definitely ready to get out of the city again. I start to get itchy feet if I stay more than one weekend in the capital. Hopefully our next weekend trip will work out. Or you'll just find me driving through a snowstorm anyway stubbornly because I just want to get out of the city and end up stuck at a cottage in the middle of nowhere for a couple of days. :D (let's not hope so)

Thor! He's teeny tiny!

Spank that ass!

Let's start with the bad news first:
- My tonsillitis seems to come back for a second round. Throat hurts again and a cough is starting...I will try to fight it with house remedies over the weekend, if it doesn't help then we'll have another visit to the doctor.
- We had beautiful spring last week, warm sunny weather (+5°C even), everything was good. I woke up this morning and everything was covered in snow and it keeps on snowing right now. Farewell spring, hello winter!

What I forgot to mention in my last post was that I had been to a movie theater here. It was the one from the university but everybody seems to use it. I watched August: Osage County with one of my housemates who I dragged in there. In the beginning it was fun just to watch the commercials and most of the time have no idea what they are trying to advertise. And Icelanders now how movie theater should be built: Everyone can rest their arms on their sides because there is actually enough space for two arms to be right next to each other, you don't have to fight with your neighbour about them. They also have intermissions during movies here, something I only know from Switzerland.

This weeks has started in the most awesome way for Icelandic children. On Monday it was Bolludag. It means like Bun/Cream puff day. It's a tradition that the children wake their parents early in the morning shouting "bollu, bollu, bollu" and spank them on their ass. They even make Bun day paddles at school that they decorate so they can spank people with a pretty paddle on their asses. Each time the child manages to spank someone's ass they actually get one of those traditional cream buns they sell on this special day. I find that rather weird. :D But hey, you get to spank people once a year and get even rewarded for it! Oh yea, the cream buns are really similar to the laskiaispullat in Finland, also filled with cream and jam. But the bun is different and it's covered in chocolate.

the soup with bullas :)

On Tuesday the fun continues for the children, it's officially Sprengidag, which means Bursting Day. You eat a traditional and really salty pea-sheep soup. They came up with that because it's the last chance to eat meat before the fasting begins. But on sprengidag you have all the children running around and throwing around those tiny ball explosives that all children love. Plus at the end of the evening some have a few fingers less on their hands... I went last night to an ESN event where they served this pea-sheep soup and bollus. The bollus are great. ;) And then had a lovely time over real strawberry tea (there where real dried strawberries!) with a friend in Tiu Dropar. :)
The fun is still not over for the children. I don't know the name of this day today but today the children have to dress up, sing songs to strangers and receive candy. It's like Halloween in the US or that Easter thing in Finland. So this week must have been great so far for all the children here.
Last night I actually became the proud owner of a ticket to a concert here in two weeks where in one evening Björk, Of Monsters and Men, Lykke Li, Patti Smith, Samaris and other Icelandic bands will perform. I am excited!
And this is actually it for today! You find a picture of my sleeve I've started knitting and African Icelandic pop music by Retro Stefson. 

The existential question: Where are we?!

It's 2am, so perfect time to write a new blogpost, right?
This week was "study week" which meant I only had one class this week and didn't study one bit...this week could have actually been called "coffeehouse week" since I was out for tea/hot chocolate a lot this week.
Tuesday I went on a little adventure with one of my housemates. We decided to climb up to mount Esja, a mountain really close to Reykjavík, reachable by bus in 45 minutes and idiotproof to go up to. Well, not idiotproof enough for us! We actually managed to get lost. The first 200-300m we were going with the path, then the path was covered in ice, we climbed over the ice field and were suddenly left without a path. No path anywhere in sight we said "Nah, we know where we are. There it goes down, there it goes up. So let's just go straight up!" So we were just climbing up in the middle of nowhere of Esja and wondering where that freaking path had gone to since we didn't see it anywhere. Mind, the ground here consists of lava rocks, this means that the stones are all the time moving underneath your feet/rolling away. Though we did have a good laugh while going up, we took it with some humour (my knee didn't find it funny at all afterwards). We are probably the first people in history to get lost on the idiotproof Esja mountain and lose the path. :D
The mountain had it's share of fun as well actually. It always made us believe, that we only have to conquer that hill right above us and then we'll be on top. Nopes, there was always a new hill after the previous one...Suddenly we saw two black dots walking on top of one of the hills, like across it, so we figured there must be some kind of top. We decided to follow where they were walking and then did eventually get to the top. From there we had an amazing view over the Reykjanes peninsula and nearby mountains. But the two black dots/other hikers were nowhere in sight, and there seemed to be only one way down, and for that they would have needed to pass us. So where were they? In Iceland they believe that the elves will help the lost ones who deserve it. ;)
After a lunch break on the top we decided to get down and of course didn't find the path again! So what did we once again do? "We already come up just right through the mountain, we can do the same thing when going down!" That included a fun slide on a small ice field on our butts and suddenly with new surroundings that didn't look at all like the way we had come up. We were lost again. :D But there was only one way down and we saw the street where the bus had dropped us off, so it was all safe. After a while of climbing down we suddenly saw people to our right about 300m away just walking...seemingly on a path. We hiked over there and had finally a solid boring path underneath our feet. Again a good laugh how we managed to miss it on our way up AND down. Though we got the answer to that further more down. At the ice field we should have had climbed up to our right but we went straight over it. So we were actually over the path and didn't see it anymore. That's the story of how we got lost on Esja and had a hilarious time. :)
   

Thursday night we got an amazing show of northern lights. In the past two-three weeks we've been able to see them actually almost each night, even in Reykjavík but on Thursday we had the most colorful ones. And at the weirdest time. I was just by chance looking out of window around 8:20pm in case there might be northern lights though would have never imagined any being there and the sky was just green and red! Red and green colors were dancing above our head and just being absolutely great. We were as well lucky that they stayed right over our house so we're right under the northern lights and it was really one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life so far. And they stayed for almost 1 hour. So, yes, quite impressive. Sadly I have no pictures of that since my camera couldn't care less about them...
The next day I had a wonderful lunch with two friends at one of my favorite places here and we made a small mini-trip the Grotta lighthouse in Reykjavík. It's in Seltjanarnes, on the other side of city just surrounded by the Atlantic. It's the really nice area of this town too, big houses, with a straight view to the ocean...that ain't cheap. Unfortunately the tide had already risen again and we weren't able to walk anymore to the lighthouse from shore. But it was a breathtaking view seeing the wild waves hitting the rocks on the shore and the water rise. Plus there were two crazy Icelanders, one just surfing and one windsurfing! It's only +4°C outside! So let's go surfing in the Atlantic! And I thought we Finns were crazy with that kind of stuff. I will have to go back though so I can actually walk to the lighthouse then. :)
Oh, and I got into a staring contest with an Icelandic saleswoman today. She just kept talking in Icelandic to me, I was most of the time able to respond in Icelandic (Já, Nei takk) but even when I had to say eventually "Sorry, what?", she just repeated everything in Icelandic and smiled at me happily. :D She even wished me a nice day in Icelandic with a great big smile....I don't know if she thought I was a really confused Icelander who came up with slow answers or if she was just bitching at me. :D
Rest of the time I've been utterly lazy, reading, knitting, youtube, going out for tea, staring at the sky, buying a lot of cds, sending postcards... Enjoying life. ;)  (boohoo, tomorrow I have to sit down and get down to business)

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! :)