Newfoundland, the beginning (again) dubbed "you learn you learn.."

Last day in Iceland seemed to be never-ending.. First I was supposed to leave on the 16th, then the 17th, then found out on the 16th at 11.30am that I was going to leave 8 hours later (please bear in mind that I being I, I had not really started to pack my stuff for moving out by then. Well, yeah, you know.. :D ), then 3 hours later the ship was delayed again and we were going to leave on the 17th after all, but when?? Cut a long story short, it went on like that for 2 days, with me in a state of tension rarely witnessed before, leading to some very shitspeedy packing, but that's ok, I take the entire responsibility for it.
Today, i was actually pondering making a list of all the useless things I have with me, just for a laugh. I bet I could gain at least 2 km/hour if I emptied my bags. (found a jar of sundried tomatoes and my climbing shoes in there this morning.. Oh yeah, and did I mention half a ton of wool? :o) anyway..)

Leaving Iceland proved much more of an ordeal than I thought it would, and that's saying a lot!

I remember Chrissi's words (Danke vielmal, btw..) when i told her my bike was ggod to go. Quote "your bike is fine, means there'll be something wrong with the boat"
Oh. And guess what?
I am grieved to say she was right! (bloody German!) (no offence) (as you all know)

Indeed, after 13 hours voyage on a pretty rough sea, the crew found a stowaway (no kidding), so we had to turn back to RVK. Apparently the freighters, or at least the shipping companies have to pay humongous fines (5000 bucks a day if I'm not mistaken) if a stowaway is brought to the country he intended to get in, so it seems it was worth spending the time and the gas turning back so close to Iceland.
The poor guy must have been really cold. I won't tell you all the things that went through my head, reflecting on that event, not here. But my conclusion was, to cut it short - once again- that I am damn lucky to have been born where I was born, and that maybe I should remember it more often.
Getting ready to leave Reykjavik, the first time.
A last view of Videy (or so I thought..) The sea was pretty rough, but there was time to play between the running up and down 4 flights of stairs to write down the details (latitude, longitude, weather forecast etc) and take the samples of water from the engine room and condition them in their specific environments. Mum's scarf, finished at last.. my mum can probably boast having the first red lettlopi scarf started in the icelandic Summer and finished across the northern Atlantic on a cargo ship! (without being too specific of course :D )
Captain K., the koolest kaptain ever..
Some people on the ship were rather sceptical at the idea of anyone biking in Newfoundland.. mostly the words that recurred between fits of insane laughter were "rain", "barren", "strong headwinds" and so on. Well ok, indeed, when we got to sunny Newfoundland (see below) I kind of started wondering what I had got myself into.
But hell, you only live once, right?
Welcome to sunny Newfoundland!! Who said bleak?? :D
So the bike came off the boat, and me, and after I had proceeded to take all the air OUT of the front tire by trying to pump air INTO it and then found an air machine to pump it up again, I left the Reykjafoss and its crew and left the premises without going through customs. Despite the weather (gruesome) I was totally exhilarated at being on the move again and couldn't wipe the smile off my face. And it IS rather good that it lasted til my first puncture the next morning after hardly 25 km. I daresay the bike IS too heavy. On the other hand it was one son of a gun of a piece of glass, since it even went through the protective plastic thing I have between the inner tube and the tire. Anyway. I am pondering the buying of more resistant tires and the ditching of half my stuff (you learn, you learn..)
Anyway, the gods were with me, as Kevin (employed at the shipthing garage) who had blown up my tire the evening previous, happened to go past me 3 minutes after it popped, with his pick-up, and gave me a ride to the closest garage where we fixed it. THANKYOU!! (pfeww, that would have been close to annoying!)
Back on le bike I rode about 50 km to the closest hot food I could find, in an Irving station.
By then, it was absolutely tipping down, I was frozen to the bone and there was no visibility so I decided to hitch a ride to St John's, 80 km further, after eating THIS. (...)
Now I remember some things I didn't totally agree with in Canada, and that would be the "cuisine" in some places. THIS is supposed to be a hot roasted turkey sandwich. Yup. Shameless. It is, in fact, a few slobs of turkey in between two slices of "fresh" white sandwich bread, besmudged with gravy. Oh yeah, and I forgot the 3 bits of canned vegetable. Roll on. (barf)

Cut a long story short, Steve, an ex-hippie converted into a hardcore believer picked me up in his almost 50 year old Mercury (many many thanx to him, he was moving house and STILL made room for me AND the bags AND the bike IN his car, where a few people with pick-up vans were all going the other way (cough) and took me to Paradise (ca ne s'invente pas) a suburb of St John's, where he was going to his friend Zita's who immediately offered to put me up for the night. Which was great, cause I got all my shit dry. And found out that my front paniers are not waterproof. (you learn, you learn, number 2)
Anyway, I'm in and around St John's now, for a few days. This is the harbour. The Jean Charcot is here at the mo. And apparently Khadafi will be on Tuesday as well :o/ , that is tomorrow. Wonder how that will go.


Mountain ash, known as "dogberry" in Newfoundland. Apparently it is sign of a harsh Winter when the berries are low on the tree, and they are this year..

I took off for a walk along the East coast trail today, am staying with some friends in Torbay for the next few nights.. surprising how much it looks like Brittany in some ways because of the stone.. but there are blueberries all over!! :o)
Exceptional weather today, after so many days of rain and drear.. Not quite sure what my plans are yet, but anyway, more stories from Terra Nova coming soon.. Sjaumst! :o)

Last night in Iceland

Well, once again, a lot has happened since last time I wrote.. You can judge how much by how little I've been writing actually, too busy just DOING stuff.
So, I finished work just a little over a month ago; Flo my sister came and went (this is a picture of one of the highlights of her stay, says it all really...), I finished my diving course at last (and went diving in Silfra, one of the coolest places (no pun intended, though true!) for diving here.

Tonight is a bizarre night, the last one here -theoretically at least- after almost 18 months, since I am supposed to leave tomorrow day.

Ale moved two weeks ago, and Chrissi and Phil, the last bastion of my original core of flatmates left this morning with the bunny to catch the ferry back to Germany and I didn't feel like staying home. So I'm not :o)
I have loved life in this house so much I really can't be bothered to stay there to suck the leftovers, it's not the same without the others.

Hljomalind is also closing down :o(
Dunno the details, but quote the capitalistic fatcats are abusing their power and the cafe will shut, as the tennants are being evicted.
Damned sjit.. Made for some awesome partying though.. in fact these last few weeks were pretty heavy on that since we were all leaving.

Phil, Donald, EdEd, Chrissi, Donald the bagpipe player..
I decided to take my bike over to Canada (sorry Alice..)

The boys at the cycling club more than helped me fix it so it's in a good shape for leaving..
Cheers guys!!

Check them out at www.fjallahjolaklubburinn.is

Then I had to deal with all the crap accumulated in my room, and those who saw it will recognize it was not the easiest feat. I made it Chrissi!!! :o) It's all empty now!!
Alice and I posing with the Icelandic jumpers we knitted ourselves (and so proud we still tell everyone about it until they're so bored their eyes drop out)

My bike as it looks now..
I haven't weighed it, don't dare, it's so heavy I wonder how long it'll take before I have my first flat tire..And this is the Reykjafoss, where we will be tomorrow.
The crossing to Newfoundland is supposed to take about 5 to 6 days, so more about that later..

Bye!!!

Knitting

For those who followed, after mum told me at Christmas that i was not to leave her house or the country before I had learned to knit, and tied me down to a chair with threads of yarn, and forced me to watch and learn and knit and watch and learn and knit, I returned to this peaceful country unscathed.. or so i thought!!

In retrospect, it seems like some part of me must have been receptive to this incredibly terrible maternal drill (hello mummy, I love you, wave wave! :o) )... because when Alice's mum and aunt came in June, we went to the Westfjords, and this uncontrollable urge to put our hands back on the wool took hold of us.. Not a day passed without us talking about stitches, needles sizes and balls -of yarn- colours and patterns, and lopi here, and lopi there, lopi bloody everywhere!! :o)

Alice is still hooked, on a boat somewhere to the West of Iceland, knitting through the night, and here I am in front of the computer, partly knitting, partly staring in absolute awe at some masterpieces of lopi and non-lopi knitting I've found on the web.

Lopi:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/lopapeysur/

http://www.helloyarn.com/freepatterns.htm

Pretty awesome, not?

And look at the colours on these!! I totally love the design, they are so beautiful!!http://www.helloyarn.com/fiddleheadmittens.htm

This lady also makes such cool stuff! Seems like her site hasn't been updated for a while, but there's enough on there to keep me fed for some time..

http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/

I'm incredibly impressed at what one can do with wool, and am totally looking forward to learning more about it.. in fact, I sort of wish i had more hands, and maybe bigger storage in my brain as well!

So far I've made a brown scarf for Alice, a blue one for Sylvain, and am currently playing on a red one for mum. As you have probably figured, this one is the blue one, and it's a so-called basket pattern, copied from the beautiful orange scarf I bought in Huaraz in Peru. (if only the lady who sold it me knew what she started!! :o) ) I have just bought another 10000000 ton of wool and am planning to take over the world hum *cough* , I mean knit my way across the ocean to Newfoundland.

Knitting scarves is nice, but I'm looking for something a little more exciting now.. upcoming projects are leg warmers and my first lopapeysu, after the first disastrous try Alice and I made in June :o)

Hiiiiiiii, I'm so excited!!!!!!

Águst

It's a little hard to condense the last month or so in one small sheepish post.
Loads of things have been going on recently, including a lot of rain, a lot of sunshine, a couple of trips down the South coast, mum's visit :o) ....
Lots of visits at home generally.. for some reason mostly Germans.. (in fact it feels almost like a total German invasion, I hate to say.. there are 6 at the mo, only Ale and I representing the latin part of Europe (yeah, especially me) )
Some days I'm almost losing count as to how many people live in our house.. on a renting basis I believe there are 5 of us at the moment, + 2 girlfriends, a rabbit, the occasional couchsurfer, and it seems at least a visit for each flatmate the past 4 weeks. Which leeds to pretty funny situations like some CSer turning up and asking how many people live there, me totally unable to actually answer, and him asking if it's some sort of guesthouse we have there. Actually, I was beginning to wonder.

I like having people round, but sometimes it gets a little trying to turn up at home and ALWAYS have someone new around, specially when one doesn't feel like making conversation or hanging out in ones' sitting-room in anything else than a t-shirt and underwear. Ah well.

Mum on the beach in Vík. Conveniently it did not rain whilst we were outside, and when it did, we had the sense to go and be favourable to the waining Icelandic economy by consuming large amounts of cake and gallons of coffee in the local hangout, Halldor's cafe.. Yum.. :o)
Flower power in the botanical garden!
Look at this beautiful Icelandic cardy! Although I've started knitting recently, i'm not quite up to those standards YET.. However, it's coming on.. just went and bought me half a ton of icelandic wool so I can knit my way across the Atlantic when I leave..
Bog cotton. Grows in bogs. You get your feet wet! :Þ
Our buddies from the Vestmann Islands.Vík again..
Sergeant Pepper's lonely heart sitting on a volcano..

It's my last working week this week, only 4 and a half nights to go.

I can't say I'm too sad to be leaving.. this job has had its good sides (like, a week off every other week.. there's nothing like liking a job for the non-working areas it offers ;o) )but has also taken its toll on my general health, I think.. fucked up sleeping pattern, crazy hours, eating badly (well, that goes with my general lack of discipline..)

It's always a little strange and exciting to move on; and it's definitely time for me to do it now.. I came here with a one-way ticket and no idea how long I was going to stay, and I daresay 17 months is long enough to stay static for someone who had originally decided to remain nomadic until further notice upon arriving.. Well.. there's nowt like changing your mind, it just proves how flexible and morally superior one is :Þ

So that's it. After 497 days (WHAT???!) I'm finishing work here on Monday, 8 am.. My sister is arriving at KEF at 9.30 for almost 2 weeks, and then I'm on a roll from there until I leave; not sure quite what the exact date will be, but somewhere between 10 and 15th September..

Ooooofffff...

Something tells me it's going to be a little messy, as usual. In fact, it totally reminds me of last time I moved out of a place I'd been living for a long time, back in the days when I was living with JM in Rennes. Incidentally, my sis had also come to visit and left 3 days before I was due to move out on December the 30th, of all convenient days.. Baader-Meinhof? This time, Flo is leaving on the August 28th, and as far as I know, we have to be out of the house by September 1st. I still have no idea whatsoever what I'm going to do with my stuff, if I should just dump/burn it or keep it here as some kind of mental token that i WILL some day come back, oh yes. Like I did with my bike in Chile. Like my climbing shoes that remained in Canada for quite some time until they were sent to me (Thanx Andrée and Daniel!) .. :Þ (man, now that I think of it, i really wonder what i'm going to find in my boxes in Louis' parents' loft!!)

Ah well. First things first. I'm off to cast on another few stitches.. :o)

Moremixedstuffpicsblarant

After Mývatn and Sylvain's visit at the beginning of and mid-June, I went up North with Alice and her mum and aunt.

Mostly we stayed in the Westfjords and knitted with great glee and pleasure, all the more so as the weather was - let's face it- utterly revolting.

EXCEPT- and that's when we were lucky, on the night we decided to go and check out the midnight sun next to Hofsós.

Midday sun and fun, oh yeah!

Eiders chilling (there were seals also, but harder to photograph)

Yummy trout we fished with a net.

Well, in fact, it took 3 nets to get 4 trout, and only one of the nets belonged to the person we were with, the others belonged to some neighbours who couldn't be bothered to come and collect their one fish each, and so nicely gave them to us (so we had one each, yay!)

Anyway, it really got me thinking.. we're so lucky to have a broad range and multiplicity of food on offer; just think of the poor buggers who only had fish to eat or could only count on themselves/their skills to feed their entire family in the old days.

If you have, say 8 kids to feed and all you find in your fishing net on a cold morning is 1 fish, what dismay..

Always time to play for Emma..

J'ai nommé LE Midnight SunLeaving from Hofsós en route to the Westfjords, the car had a panic attack.

Or rather gave us one. At any rate, we had to wait for a couple of hours in the delightful carpark of Blönduos service station, whilst somebody was rooting through the engine and checking the brakes.

Once again I have to admire the flexibility and layed-backedness (I hate generalizing, but it's often so) of the people here.. somehow it's a bit like in South-America (Alice and her mum even say it's a little like Africa).. you sort of think things will never work out, but somehow, they always (mostly) (!) do.

This was Saturday afternoon at 5 you understand.

And had the nice man not promptly answered "yes no worries I'll be here in 10 minutes" when he was in fact off work, and consequently helped us fix the brakes, we would have been in deep sjit, and probably have visited Blönduos until Monday.

And it's not like in France or other countries where the automatic response to a simple question or demand is mostly greeted by a resounding "no" or "ah ben non, ca va pas être possible!"

+ at least, if it doesn't work, it always leaves space for hope, and that's half the job done.. :o)

Anyway. It also allowed us (at least Alice and I) to start developping our knitting skills on the said car park. Fun! (wait til I tell you about how I knitch-hiked back home!) :D

A pretty door, somewhere on Ísafjörður

A view from behind our orlofshús in Suðavík

Back in the "pretty-door village", somewhere else in the pits..

If there is another thing I really enjoy and love about this country, it's the randomness and practically constant presence of art in any form (and sometimes also quality, but let's hush on that one..)

Back in Reykjavík (a month later already.. WHAAAAAT???) I went cycling the other day and took a bunch of pics on the way.Around Gufunes, on the way to Grafavogur, on the outskirts of Reykjavík.. the cycling track goes through there, all the way to Mossfellsbær. It's really nice, and there are even trees, yay!!

In RVK
Again on the way to Grafavogur, from the bike path

On the way back from cycling, around 11pm, beautiful sundown as seen from Sæbraut.

Totally unrelated now: for a long while, I'd been thinking about shaving my head again..

Since I can't really do it yet because I have to look so beautifully corporate in order to do my job properly, I settled on having a normal haircut. So today at last I did.. got my first haircut since I shaved my head in Panama 2 years ago.

It has led me to spend a very narcissistic evening looking at hairy and less hairy pictures... :Þ

Here are just the before and after..

Above: this afternoon at 2.30

Under: this afternoon at 4. :D