The return of the blog: May 2009

Sunday, May 31, 2009

A day in May

Summer is coming!
This week there were incredible temperatures of up to 12 degrees celsius at least, no kidding! Naaaah.... well actually it was even a bit warmer than that, there was even a day where I was sweating wie ein Baer um die Eier, so it must have culminated to 15 at least.. :D

I was lucky enough to be off, and on Wednesday I (at last) took some time to go and walk around Glymur, the highest waterfall in Iceland. To get there, you have to drive along Hvalfjörður, which incidentally is also incredibly beautiful, especially at the moment and in the sunshine.

Glymur takes some finding (it did for me anyway...) I suspect the savvy people of this wonderful country of having enough wit to want to keep boring tourists off their best plates-bandes.. but it was well worth looking for, especially as I had been meaning to go there forever. Forever since I've been here. Yup.

The said waterfall drops about 200m and really is pretty impressive.

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

In fact, I think it has become one of my favourite places here, but maybe I'm a little biased by the fact that the day was so gorgeous, that there were so many flowers, bumbles bees, summer fragrances and birds nesting in the cliffs around the waterfall, AND that I had all this beauty to myself.

It Was warm, but let me tell you the water was pretty fresh..

As perceived by the snow on the surrounding mountains.

The choir I joined recently is going to Mývatn in the north of Iceland next week-end.. we were just checking the weather today with a friend, and, well, it's supposed to snow around there and then. It'll certainly make camping more interesting :D

Here's a link to the choir gathering

http://www.korastefna.is/

And more specifically to the programme. If anyone is interested in coming... :o)

http://korastefna.is/skrar/myndir/2009/plakat2009.jpg

Hvalfjörður, as seen from Glymur

Glymur, the actual waterfall

And the water I waded through at the top of it to switch sides.. Maaaan was it invigorating. To not say slightly fresh..

Yup, that's probably where the water comes from, so you can imagine.

Lucky it didn't come out in blocks, hihi.

Last year at this time (beginning of May in fact) there was a big earthquake in Iceland; 6,1 on Richter scale..

The last few days there have been a few more, in fact last night and today, the strongest 4,9 on Richter's scale http://en.vedur.is/#tab=skjalftar

I didn't feel either of them. Last night I might have been sleeping (a rare occurrence) and today I was diving in Kleifravatn, which is actually not that far from where the epicentre was. Kind of glad the lake didn't turn into a massive syphon and swallow us up.. :/ (who said dramatic?) but statistically there is a fair chance there will be a biggie soon if the Earth keeps on moving like that.. Wait and see..

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

An almost Midsummernight's rant

Icelanders like to celebrate. Really.

A few weeks ago, I was walking back from work when I noticed the flags were flying half-mast. It was a few days after the earthquake that caused so many deaths in Italy, so I thought it was probably to honour that (I’m still suffering the after effects of 9/11 when we got to observe 3 minutes´ silence for the victims, and still rather awed by the fact that for everything and everywhere else in the world it’s only ever 1 minute.) Anyway. There I was wandering and wondering, when I perceived human presence at some short distance. And so proceeded towards it to ask.

The answer it gave me was far from the hypothesis I had come up with; and slightly surprised and perturbed I was -in the same way that I’m slightly surprised and perturbed when I see a priest blessing a public building on its opening- to find out that it was for Good Friday.
(My surprise stemming from the fact that being agnostic, it seemed a little excessive to me to be giving out such a demonstration of faith in a country I thought was lay. )

Since I thought THAT was a little strange, the next time I saw a flag actually UP, I searched in myself for what I thought might be as exotic an explanation as the latter.
And since the date coincided with the Eurovision first semi-finals, I assumed that’s what “we” were celebrating.
Wrong again! (duuuuuuuuuuuuut)
It was for Mister President’s birthday.

Mr. President's car, as seen parked in front of my favourite cafe on Laugavegur. Notice the number plate. Prime Minister is number 2.

But still, I think it is crazily suspicious that both events were on the same day. Don’t you?
Maybe Iceland bribed the Evróvisjón organization board so it would be on the same day, so the flags could fly l’air de rien.

Because you have to know that Icelanders like the Eurovision SO MUCH that nobody talks of anything else for WEEKS before and after it.

In actual fact, even I watched it this year, for the first time ever.
And damn, ever since I have, these songs I’d never have been caught dead listening to just a few weeks ago keep popping in and out of my head.. And they’re addictive as well!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!! But more about this later.

Lately, Óskar and I were discussing the fact that a certain number of unusual (or should I say extra-ordinary) events took place in Icelandic history since I arrived; it’s almost eerie. I’m not sure how related these two facts are, but nonetheless, here’s a short list starting from my arrival in March, check it out

April: it stops snowing
May: an earthquake measuring 6,1 on Richter’s scale hits in Selfoss
June: 2 polar bears stranded in the North. Neither survives
July: hottest month in Iceland in the last zillion years (temperatures rise to 28 degrees celsius)
August: Iceland won the Silver medal for handball at the Olympics (a first timer)
September/October: Kreppa time! Collapse of the economy followed by recession
November: it gets darker and darker all the time
December: Christmas on the 24th, AND there's a year change!!
January: The peaceful demonstrations which had been going on since October mute into what would later be dubbed “Saucepan Revolution”. First time teargas is used again in a demonstration since 1949! (dad and I got gased, yay!)
February: Conservative government overthrown/ Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir head of the new interim left-wing government. Incidentally (as if that was relevant for politics) she’s also the first openly gay head of government in the world. (in modern history, anyway)
March: well, give it a rest, i can’t remember.
April: elections on the 26th. The centre-left coalition wins the election, becoming the first left-wing government in about 20 years (17 if remember correctly, which I may not.) But still a long time.
And soon, a referendum will be held to find out whether the Icelanders are pro or contra starting negotiations to enter the EU.

Personnally, I hope they don’t, but that’s only me. And anyone who wishes to discuss it with me is welcome to do so around a cup of coffee or a beer rather than online. :o)

Anyway back to the Eurovision, because that’s what’s really interesting, yo..
Iceland actually came 2nd out of 42 in the competition!!!! Which is kinda cool ‘cause it means despite UK and loads of other countries bad-mouthing Iceland and accusing it of terrorism because of the economical crisis, they went beyond their différends to vote for what they decided was *quality* music. Incroyable!! Magnifique!! Excitement!! Nestbest í heimi!!

So this Jóhanna, J. Gudrun Jónsdóttir, 19 years of age and pretty cute, is a massive star here now. She performed the best piece of marketing ever (I think) by saying she didn’t wish for the first place, because Iceland would go totally bankrupt if it had to organize the next Evrovisjón, which kind of means “well guys, even if I’m second, don’t care, it means I win”. Which she did. Vá. So this is it, we get to hear that song a million times a day. And here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcrbiRi9kDM

“Is it true?”
Yes, I’m afraid so.

But..but.....don’t you think it’s also eerie that suddenly, not one but two Johannas become prominent almost at the same time?

This country definitely has something, must be the water.
And oh, yeah.
It doesn’t get dark anymore!! (official sunrise 03:56, sundown 22:53, but there’s always a shimmer, yay!!!!!) These pics were taken at 4 this morning. Kewl!!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Spring

If anyone is still wondering what the hell I’m still doing here, I’d just tell them it’s worth it to stay just to observe the passing of the seasons, the ever-changing light and the sharp contrasts in...well....just about everything really. Brightness, colour, temperature..
All right now, THAT might have been an overstatement.. It’s as pissy and cold as ever.. :D

By the by, this is the result of last week's election, if you don't know about it yet, the left won. Whatever they're going to be able to do with the country and the catastrophical state the economy is in right now is anybody's guess, but good luck to them anyway..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/26/iceland-election-government

There is a particular something in the air here at springtime, a special smell that comes from the trees around town; because yes, there ARE a few, at least 3 of them.
Still haven’t figured out what kind of tree it is, or else I forgot, hvaðeina.
Anyway, it started smelling springy about 4 days ago!
And the daffodils are almost out in the garden!
AND I don’t care if they've been out for 2 months everywhere else in the world!
I bet they’re over already, when ours are just starting, so there!

My friend Flo came to visit this week; we went round most of the highlights, but there are still tons left for his next visit, hehehe :o)