And so I found my Island...

I often said this is the place I want to be if I come back to Europe, and so it's true, it seems.
I just spent a few days in the Westfjords with Einar, and to be honest I can hardly imagine anything nicer than living there.Isafjordur is so layed back it almost felt stressful to be back in Reykjavik (c'est dire!!)A bunch of decomplexed children taking an outdoor folk dance lesson on a nice summer's day..Found on a front door. "Here live..." I really like the idea! :o)

Very peaceful, loads of birdlife.A bunch of harlequin ducks (I think...)

Semi-wild mammals... :o)
Although it must be quite hard in the winter.. it's encased in a fjord (hence the name!) and so far north there are times in the winter when the town hardly sees the light, and is even sometimes cut off from the outside world I believe.. good opportunity for knitting and playing chess! :o) Dynjandi

We flew back on Saturday evening, as Einar was to catch his plane back toSvíþjóð and I was theoretically supposed to take part in the Blue Lagoon Challenge, which is a yearly bicycle race that goes 60 km from Hafnafjordur to the Blue Lagoon on gravel and road between (what feels like) mountains and lava fields.Gardar, from IFHK, again went to a lot of trouble to find me a bike and help me, so thanx to him and also to Katrin, whose bike I ended up using for the competition.

I ended up 250th out of 313, completing the course in 3 hours and 36 minutes. Not brilliant, but I'm happy: it was a first, I'm not used to mountain bikes and rather shy of gravel roads generally, and after all, I'd only slept one hour. Also, i'm not even sure I'd ever cycled so long with only about 10 to 15 minutes' break..
Hope I can do it again next year, to compare! :o)

Anyway, the ride was beautiful, light, magic. Obviously I didn't stop to take pics, 'cause well; it was a race after all! :D

This is what the profile of the race looks like
And this the road taken

I'm on pic 240 here:
And 134 to 136 here


Very glad to be here again, singing, swimming, knitting, cycling! :o)

Going to the pool now, but before that, want to wish my little bro Benjamin good luck, as he's starting his Baccalauréat exams tomorrow!!! (WHAAAAAAT???? 18 and nearly out of school already???!!)
:D

Inspired by Iceland

Iceland has suffered quite a few blows over the past two years... the latest is a corollary of the volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajökull.. tourists are scared for their own safety and a lot of flights, hotel reservations and so on have been cancelled, leaving a lot of companies up sh... creek without a paddle.
Personnally I'm selfishly quite happy about the fact that there will probably be loads less people hanging around this summer. On the other hand, it's baaaaaaaaaad for the local economy and the locals full stop.

This video project was made by "inspired by Iceland" to try and convince people to come here, 'cause it's not that baaaaaaaaaaaaad after all! :o)

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

Tilbaka á Íslandi

After about a month and a half in France, I decided since I was in Europe I most definitely had to hop back to this country I've been missing since I left it, j'ai nommé, Iceland! So I hopped in a plane and got here on Thursday.
I have several reasons for being here, one of them being to clear my head and regroup and think stuff over after what happened to Flo, and another reason being I just felt it that way. I know I'm not finished with this country.

I used to think if I came back to Europe, I would most certainly chose to come and live here. Things are looking a little different now, but I still think the country holds its place in my future! (and anyway, I'd said I would come back to take it over and make it my kingdom, so, yeah, be prepared, Icelanders!) :o)
I am very glad to find out that my mediocre Icelandic is still hanging there.
I hitch hiked from the airport to RVK, the weather was fine and I had no kronur :o) and didn't feel like asking anyone to pick me up from Kef.
15 minutes hitchwalking and no one picked me up. Put my thumb down, turned my back and someone stopped, and we spoke mostly Is till HAFNAFJORDUR!!!!! Crazy!!! (bounce bounce, I was happy!!!) (the guy didn't know what hit him)
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Since I left, they started publishing the "Little Prince" again in Icelandic (you couldn't find it anywhere last year) so I borrowed it off the library (aaaaaaaaah, sigh of joy) and am now reading my first real book in icelandic (apart from other kiddies' books, einmitt!)
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My first night here I slept at IFHK , the wonderful Reykjavik bicycle club (cheers, Mr. Gardens!)

On the 13th there's the annual Bláalónskeppnin, a 60 km race from RVK to the Blue Lagoon.
Twice I missed it (work) and never thought I'd be here this year to make it.

Mr Gardens convinced me it was a good idea to participate (though with my current physical state it'll probably take me 7 years and I'll finish crawling, if alive) so all I need to do now is get a bike and a helmet, and off we go.

As usual, bike rides are part of my every day life & pleasures..
Again, many thanks to the guys from IFHK who are always so helpful and welcoming and managed to procure me this one on my FIRST day!!!!

Thanx to that, I can go and hang around Seltjanarnes... .... and check out the birds, yay!
Kria!!!!!
I'm so happy to see and hear these damned birds again!!!
And eider ducks..

And yeah, other than that, well... I'm in Iceland, so I started knitting again, hehehe :o)
Take over the world with a needle and ball of yarn, they said!!!