10 posts tagged “iceland”
I thought I'd take a little time out from talking about my non-eventful life to show you some of my favourite children's books. I may or may not have mentioned that I collect them - I love the illustrations. Started off with some favourites from my own childhood and then found some amazing ones in Japan. Now I'm trying to get at least one in every country I visit.
Another book from Japan - I got this from the studio ghibli museum near Tokyo and it's one of my better souveniers. full of fun pop-ups and pull out bits.
I found this book in a shop called crayon house (i think) in harajuku - best kid's book shop in the world - go check it out. anyway i couldn't resist because i remember having a really well-read battered version of this when i was little. this one is in japanese obviously but i think the original is german or something. i can't remember the english title and it's bugging me. anyway it's about highwaymen who kidnap a little girl but she makes them see the error of their ways. it's kind of creepy but in a good way!
I really want to build up my international collection. I bought a couple in china but i was disappointed with the selection there overall. Of course I'll be picking up some in Denmark and Thailand. Also I've been dying to get my hands on some books by a norwegian illustrator called Svein Nyhus so I'll definitely be hunting out some of his books when I'm in oslo. happy sigh!
Well I thought I'd better get some of my thoughts down before i forget all about it...
We arrived in Reykjavik on a drizzly, wet, cloudy day. I was a bit disspointed we couldn't see anything on the plane coming down because the view of Iceland from the air is what made me want to go there in the first place.
Anyway the first few days in Reykjavik we stayed in the Salvation Army hostel (great location but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it - there's one kitchen for the whole building of about 100. It seats about 4 people and i was convinced I was going to get listeria or something because they never cleaned it...).
We spent our first few days just wandering around. The main shopping
street in Reyjavik is a lovely mixture of boutique clothes shops, art galleries and cafe bars and there's so much pretty graffiti everywhere! (see my flickr set). Everyone seems to know each other and there's a real artistic/laid-back vibe going on. We went up the tower in Hallgrímskirkja church (and accidentally didn't pay, oops) which gives you a great view of the city. We spent a lot of time in coffee shops and book shops - free coffee refills in most places which i'm not used to! My caffeine habit needs regular feeding.... The book shops are all wonderful too. i spent hours and hours just browsing. They all have an amazing selection of art and design books and magazines. I pissed myself laughing at "ignore us" by Hugleikur Dagsson - you need to have a twisted sense of humour but if you do, it's the funniest thing ever - trust me - you *have* to get a copy!
We did go out on the Friday night to sample the famous nightlife but really it's not much different to what you'd see in Newcastle on a friday or saturday night (except the people are prettier and there are more pissed 13 year olds). I much prefer the coffee bars to the bars/pubs in england though. We didn't go in any of the clubs so I can't comment on those.
Before leaving Reykjavik we went on a tour of the golden circle (we were going to do it without a tour but it would be difficult to fit everything in as a lot of the buses had stopped running with it being the end of the tourist season). The tour took us to an implosion crater (fascinating - i wish we'd had more time to explore); a greenhouse called Eden (very uninteresting - blatant attempt to trawl us all through the gift shop); Gulfoss waterfall (pretty amazing - we got soaked by the spray and Ian insisted on standing right on the edge of every slippery cliff he could find); Geysir area (again pretty amazing, but full of japanese tourists!); and Þingvellir national park, which didn't sound that interesting when I first heard about it but actually it's fascinating - the birthplace of the Icelandic parliment in 930 AD. Picture the place full of vikings listening to the law being shouted at them! It's also right in the middle of the mid-atlantic fault - you can literally see the edges of the techtonic plates where the earth has been ripped apart. Magma has come up to fill the gap so you can walk down it but the whole thing is riddled with fissures that go hundereds of metres deep. just looking at the rock is amazing - it's all creased up.
Our original plan was to bus around the entire island from Reykjavik, clockwise, stopping off at various points along the way. However this plan was sabotaged when I realised most of the buses stopped on the 31st of August. So we went with plan B - travel along the south coast to Skaftafell national park, back to Reykjavik for a couple of days, bus up north to Akureyri, back to Reykjavik to catch our flight. Not the most obvious of travel plans but the best we could do under the circumstances.
On the bus to Skaftafell we got to see the most amazing scenery - the south coast is beautiful and we travelled through lava fields with nothing to see for miles. The thing about Iceland is that it has geography unlike anything I've ever seen - I'm used to flat fields and rolling hills whereas in iceland there are these lava fields which are basically piles of jagged rocks and no trees. very weird. We stopped at Vik for a couple of hours which has amazing coal black beaches and basalt columns in the sea.
The next morning we set off on the Skaftafellsheiði loop which is a 5 hour hike past the Svartifoss waterfall, up 2 peaks with an optional detour to the kristinartindar summit (1126m). after going off the main trail I scrambled up the scree to get *nearly* to the summit. I must admit, the views were worth it but it nearly killed me! Ian of course decided to *run* up the final few hundred metres. There's an amazing view of the glacier from the top - you can't get any idea of the scale from the photos. The way back down was very pretty but I was just desperate to get back because I was dying for the toilet!
Our second big hike was to the glacial lake in Morsárdalur (doesn't that sound like something out of lord of the rings?), which is basically a track along the base of the mountain we hiked up the day before. Unfortunately the weather decided to turn on us at this point and we were soon hiking in pouring rain and gale force winds - fun! By the time we got to the lake with floating icebergs, I really did feel like I was in the arctic...
After Skaftafell, we headed back to Reykjavik, spent a day wandering around shops and museums (modern art gallery and saga museum) and went for a night out with a couple of americans who were sharing our dorm room in the youth hostel. This was a fun night - we witnessed a bar brawl and Ian nearly got in one himself after managing to upset the table next to us. My favourite bar was definitely Dillon, which is a rock bar on Laugavegur (main street) - great music and atmosphere. After hotdogs in the town square we didn't get back till 4am and had to catch the bus to Akureyri the next morning at 8.30am. We only just made it - oopsie!
Akureyri is the second biggest town in Iceland but compared to Reykjavik it is *tiny*. We spent most of our time here sitting in coffee shops watching the world go by (which is not a bad way to spend an afternoon). Like Reykjavik, there's a definite arty vibe here. I was most taken by the flowers painted on a hill! Despite our stretched finances, we decided to do another day tour to lake Mývatn which was definitely worth the money. We visited the pseudo craters, godafoss waterfall, lava formations (which the locals claim are trolls turned to stone when the sun came up), Viti (hell) explosion crater, the bubbling sulphur pits near the geothermal powerstation and caves with natural hot water which used to be a local secret bathing place until the water got too hot. They also bake bread in the earth round here because it's so warm. Our tour guide was a real character and had lots of stories to tell.
Went to the Blue Lagoon, which is really a must if you're visiting Iceland. It really is like something out of a scifi film - bright blue pool in the middle of a lava field with nothing else for miles around. The water was gorgeous and warm of course and there are pots of silica mud to use as face packs. We had amazing clear blue skies on this day and this made for some pretty amazing photos with the steam rising up from the water.
Things you should know about Iceland:
- The hot water stinks of sulphur (rotten eggs)
- Everything is very very very expensive!
- the Cintamani store on Laugavegur, Reykjavik has free coffee and internet access!
- you shouldn't upset people by shouting "Welcome to iceland!" after witnessing a bar fight
- the hotdogs are very tasty
- everyone is way cooler than you
I had to get up at 4am to catch the bus to catch the flight leaving Reyjavik. our connecting flight from london was delayed and we didn't get back till after midnight. I didn't sleep well last night and so i didn't get up till about lunchtime today. Basking in the glory of having broadband back after 6 months without.... downloading episodes of project runnway - I'm dying t to catch up. i'm just enjoying sitting looking at photos, reading blogs and drinking the wine i took from the plane.
i bought my mum some blue lagoon moisturiser in keflavik airport and of course wasn't allowed this through security in gatwick so we went on an epic mission to buy envelopes and find somewhere to post it home (the postboxes in the airport are too thin for anything thicker than a letter)
I should be saving money to pay off my trip which was mainly funded by credit card but instead since i got back I've managed to subscribe to 3 magazines. Backlash from the fact that every bookshop in iceland has an amazing selection of art and design related mags but they're all imported and cost somewhere between £10 and £25 each. There are also some shoes i badly want... and gracia has a 20% off coupon for office next week. I try so hard not to be a consumer whore *sigh*
Randomness: things I like - vanilla mint lipbalm, black coffee, patchouli incense, vintage shot glasses, foreign childrens books, francesca lia block books, pink wine, greek yogurt with honey, second-hand book shops, wandering streets I don't know, sudden downpours, maryjanes, candy corn, autumn leaves, guitar strings, cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese and listening to jack johnson on sunday mornings.
I'm going to go watch a dvd and knit. i can't wait to finish my jumper - it's in my favourite shade of green and is the softest silk/wool. I finished it once already but the pattern was wrong so I had to rip it all back. It's time to start something new.
I'm back. Updates soon
Highlights included me driving a 4X4... blindfolded (this is funny because i don't and can't drive and scared the hell out of the other 3 people sitting in the car with me by nearly reversing into a tree); discovering that I am truly excellent at shooting things and that i should change career direction to something that involves sniping; and running around in the mud.
i leave for iceland the day after tomorrow. cats have been shipped off to my mums and i miss them already. i am so very very excited. think i'll start packing tonight so i won't forget my camera again like i did when i went to china... i'm sure there is still so much to do but i just can't think.
must go wash off mud... finish up freelance work... put stuff to pack in a pile... drink raspberry vodka...
I dyed my hair. It's not been red for quite some time. my roots are kind of neon but i think i like it anyway. yes, i have missed red. Hair dye makes everything better... well, hair dye and wine...
Long weekend but i have no real plans. moped around most of yesterday, fretting about things that exist only in my head as usual. My mum just got back from australia so i think we're going to go out for dinner and to see a film to celebrate our birthday (we share the same birthday but i didn't do anything and she was on a plane so this weekend seems a good time to make up for that). Then I may go see james's band on monday, dependent on who else is going.
Only 2 weeks until I go to iceland. eee! still need to buy loads of stuff, most importantly some walking boots so i can wear them in before we go. I've been getting off the metro a few stops early and walking home from work - i did used to walk so much and i do miss it. it gives me time to think.
Anyway, on with the remainder of my sunday. hopefully ebay will be cooperating later today and i can actually make some money....
Went out last night with my friends from work. We met at simon's first for some drinks and a fab dinner cooked mainly by pete (but i contributed my veggie and haloumi kebabs), then off to see james's band play. I annoyed everyone by taking too many photos, and got some videos of the band playing too. i decided i should take my camera out more because i've been hardly using it recently and i need to figure out all the settings and stuff so i can try to take some decent photos in iceland - probably take my holga there too.
Anyway, a fun night was had by all. i need more fun nights. Somehow i didn't get home until after 3. can't quite figure that out because we got a taxi after the pub closed (which can't have been that late) and then i did go over to my brothers for a bit but i didn't think i was there that long. oh well...
my cursor keeps vanishing on this window and it's really annoying. i can't see where i'm typing, arghghghgh!
so Ian says he will teach me to climb. I'd really like to have a go, despite having spent most of my life avoiding anything to do with climbing... i did want to have a go when we were in kalymnos but then chickened out or couldn't be bothered or something. the thing is i don't want people watching me! so i would never go to one of those indoor climbing walls. i can't really see the attraction of them anyway - what's the point, there's nothing at the top!
Well i got up really late and i suppose i'd better go do something useful now. like doing lots of freelance so i actually have some money to pay for accommdation in iceland (£18.50 each for sleeping bag accommodation in a hostel dorm room? ouch). I'm also planning to put a bunch of stuff up on ebay tomorrow including my velvet minuet blythe doll and a bunch of japanese craft books that i don't absolutely have to keep (i buy too many in japan). neeeeeed money!
more photos at my flickr page
I booked the plane tickets! So I am finally going to Iceland after so many years of wanting to. It's always been 2nd on the list of places i want to visit after japan since I landed there en route to canada i think, and i've been to japan twice now so i think it's time to start working down the list :)
I would really like to do a side trip to Greenland while I'm there, but it would be so expensive. The cheapest day trip I found was £200 and it isn't any cheaper to just buy flights. So unless I manage to make a lot of money this month somehow (and my brother does too for that matter) I think it's not realistic. Nevermind. In my searches I found lots of polar bear spotting tours which is definitely something i plan to do in the future. i love polar bears!
In other news, I am totally knackered. Work is really busy at the moment and i've just been staring at the screen and concentrating so much that i keep getting headaches by the end of the day. give me some staff damnit! *sob*. and then i've been out with friends for 2 nights in a row. it's nice to have a night just to relax by myself... and i think the cats miss me :p
I signed up for my next year of japanese class today. we're doing GCSE now! It'll be nice to have an actual qualification... and hoping that the pressure of a proper exam at the end of it will bring out my overacheiving tendencies. I got 90+% in the exams that we did in first year because it was a proper university module and we were told off if we didn't do our homework. last year i totally slacked off and i think i know even less than i did.... well that's probably not true but my reading and writing have definitely degraded. i'm looking forward to working towards something. I really want to be able to have a conversation solely in japanese in a years time
And my brother has finally got in touch with his boss and we can go on holiday! hurray! Iceland here we come. i will be booking flights asap. Also thinking of going away for the weekend of my birthday if i can find a really cheap flight somewhere. just don't want to be here.... possible trip to thailand in the future too. i'm never going to afford all this.
