..

Une petite promenade a vélo en sortant du travail ce matin. Il faisait tellement beau.. malgré la neige au sol qui incite a la prudence quand on roule sans clous, c'était trop tentant..

Un beau contraste entre ce ciel tellement foncé d'un cote, et le ciel bleu clair, tellement ensoleillé de l'autre...
C'est si calme le dimanche matin apres les festivités du week-end.. tout le monde dort et on dirait que la ville ne se réveille réellement qu'apres-midi..
On sent que le printemps est pour bientot.. la seve monte, chez les bipedes comme chez les plantes. Il y a des crocus dans le jardin, qui percent a travers la neige et il fait jour de plus en plus tot. Je n'en finis d'ailleurs pas de m'émerveiller de la vitesse a laquelle le jour regagne son terrain sur la nuit. En ce sens, c'est chouette de travailler la nuit pour observer le phenomene, et d'avoir comme cadeau de sortie de travail (en ce moment) un beau lever de soleil.
Ca y est, le jour commence a poindre vers 6h30 et il fait encore jour quand je commence le travail a 20.00.

Les Islandais sont tres doués pour se stationner bizarrement, surtout le week-end (on trouve des epaves de voitures garées n'importe ou le dimanche matin, sur les bas-cotes, les trottoirs, ou carrement sur des terre-pleins au milieu de la route..) Ceci dit, la, ca bat tous les records ;o)

Evidemment, je rigole..

Ce bateau garé n'importe comment, la, c'est le Gorch Fock, voilier-école de la marine allemande.. si je me souviens bien, d'ailleurs, c'est la-dessus que le proprio de l'hotel pour lequel j'avais "bossé" en Équateur, ainsi que le cuisinier, avaient fait leurs armes, pour ainsi dire..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorch_Fock_(1933)

Il est beau, hein..? J'aimerais bien le voir sous voile.

Ásmundur Sveinsson Museum

The said Á.Sveinsson is an Icelandic (dead) (but not stuffed) artist you can learn more about here courtesy of Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81smundur_Sveinsson

I'm getting to love that site more and more, because of the precious time it allows me to spend not searching for stuff I afterwards don't have to explain. So read it yourself if you will! :D

But yeah, just a few words. The museum is set in a small white sort of rectangularish house not far from Nordica. It is very bright and minimalist inside the building, the architecture and sleekness of which I really like. I also like the works of that artist very much. I'm not necessarily into sculpture usually but I really like the textures and material he uses (wood + metal, essentially)+ they are full of humour, and Mr. Sculptor looks like a total wacko, sort of Charlie Chaplin mâtiné d'un crazy Hitler en Charentaises.. Chweet.

Eruption is the name of this one


Well, since I've been here for a year now, a year and 5 days exactly, I decided to celebrate that "anniversary" with a little road trip to Snæfellsness, place I've already been to last year but really wished to go back to, because I love the glacier (which I still have never been to, it's always good to keep some stuff for later, not only between one's teeth) and just because.

The first adventure consisted in getting Alice's car stuck in litterally no snow, and feeling pathetic on the side of the road.

In actual fact, I didn't look pathetic at all, as immediately I sprang into action and started shovelling the snow away from behind the wheels and bespreading the afore-mentionned with little lava pebbles to give the tyres some ground to wheel away on.

I didn't even have time to test the absolute genius of my handling of the situation, as after aproximatively 2 minutes I was there (didn't even have time to get cold or pissed off) a knight in shining Range Rover stopped by the side of the road, jumped out, whipped out a rope and pulled me out in no time. Fortunate for me, but rather very unfortunate for tourist's reputation in Iceland... To say that I was embarrassed is an understatement.

I don't usually blatantly lie, but when the guy after noticing rather insultingly fast that I was definitely foreign and stating "ha! you don't speak Icelandic!", asked if I had been in Iceland long, I just answered... "hum, well, no, not really.. " *blushes*

After getting unstuck, I laughed and drove off into the not yet sunset, towards my next stop, Bjarnarhöfn, where one can admire the beautifulitude of the oldest wooden church in Iceland.

That's the one.
Apparently there are sharks over there as well, 'cause when I left, I bumped into an old grandpa (again in a Range) who was dragging two 2 metre long sharks in his trailer. Funny thing to take on a casual ride you'd say, but no, he was actually taking them to the farm, where I think somebody was going to prepare them into that revolting shark-O-mix they dare call food here. (sorry fellows, I still can't relate to the pleasure of eating squares of fish that would be toxic if they weren't left to rot until they taste like piss..)
Anyway, grandpa was fun to talk to, AND in Icelandic dans le texte.. *happy!*

Drove off to Hellissandur in screaming wind, the car was barely stable, and me neither as I'd hardly slept the night previous. Really wanted to stop in Grundarfjörður, in order to climb up Kirkjufell on Friday, but the wind was so strong I figured it wasn't even worth the try. Not suicidal. And it'll be a good excuse to drag Florian up there when he comes.

Stayed at Katja and Jón's in Hellissandur, from CS as well. Friday we went for a bike ride with Katja, and that's where I decided officially, mark my wordsI will NOT, EVER, go around Iceland on a bike. (unless I change my mind about it ;o) )

Christ!

Soft Jesus!

Crazy sjit!

Twice I was just blown off to the side of the road, and that's without luggage!! Yikes.

However, it was really nice, and fun. We cycled to this lighthouse in Öndverðarnes. Lighthouses are called "viti", and apparently it's so windy here that they are generically called "helvítis" as a joke, the latter word being a beautiful pun and meaning hell, basically.

I was really lucky with the weather though, as most of the time when I went walking it was sunny, then conveniently started raining as soon as I got back into the car.. :D

Sunshine out

Laugarbrekka

http://www.nat.is/travelguideeng/plofin_laugarbrekka.htm

where Guðridur Þorbjarnardóttir was born. And who was she?

Apparently the beautiful mum of the first white offspring born on the American continent, and a heck of an adventurous woman traveller. (Respect!!)

And of course, all Icelanders descend from her (...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0r%C3%AD%C3%B0r_%C3%9Eorbjarnard%C3%B3ttir

Rain in.

Cute weather on the way back.

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention, it was Spring day!!

:D

Sunshine ueber Alles!!

This week has been the most splendid week of the year so far.. sun sun sun every day. It's still pretty cold and especially windy (yo, so the bike's not moving, I'm no masochist!!) but there is a definite feeling of Spring in the air.. this week end I noticed the first crocus has come out in our garden!! :o) And I'm really looking forward to seeing some daffodils!!Since it was also luckily my week off, I spent most of it (when I was not lying around in hotpots in the pool) generally enjoying the sunshine and walking around the environs of Reykjavik pretty much every day..
Not much to say that can't be summed up in a few photos and words, including but not excluding : fresh, beautiful, happy, sore and muscles! :o)

A beautiful view of Reykjavik and Esjan, as seen from Perlan. Did I mention I also have a view on Esjan from my room? :o)

The Pearl and the tipi.

Reykjavik "woods", Öskjuhlið. SOME of the trees are actually bigger than I.

Friday I went walking next to Keilir (the cone)

I wanted to go up it, but somehow must have turned off at the wrong place and found myself faced with having to cross a snowed up lava field to get there, so I decided on avoiding breaking all my legs alone in the snow miles from nowhere and no one and phoneless, and went up the opposite "mountain"The day was incredibly clear and the view absolutely stunning. It's been like that all week (did I mention before maybe?)

That incredible Icelandic light is back. Energy is bursting from everywhere, vá!

Just look at these little mosses peeping out!! :o)and paws..

On the way back I stopped in Garður, which is actually not at all on the way back but in the absolute opposite direction. However, I went there, and this is the old lighthouse, which it seems did not stop countless ships from wrecking there.. amongst which a few Breton boats by the way..

This photo is not the clearest, but I really love the brightness of it, it really shows how absolutely "bjart" it can be here. And I love the snowy mountains in the background.. it looks quite polar! :o)

And a graffito I especially like in Reykjavik.. Icelanders are such skalds..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skald

In two weeks (well actually 10 days now) I'll have been here a full year already.. how time flies.. I remember in June I was talking about Gummizeit, the elasticity of time.. I mean, I've always thought iof time as elastic, but here it is even more, it seems..

Maybe it has to do with the way my life feels divided into two neat and VERY different (*looking for word*) well, let's say periods, what with the nightjob and all, working every other week.

It's almost as if real life was between parentheses for a week out of two.. probably why it feels like time goes twice as fast.

At least I hope it's that, 'cause if I start feeling like time is running out at my age, I'll most definitely have to reincarnate to finish everything I want to do.

I'll just have to hope I don't come back as a slug.. ;o)