Quick Note on Northern Lights

Recently I got to see the northern lights, and they were every bit as magical as I had hoped. I’d seen the northern lights once before, but they weren’t very bright, and since I was in downtown Reykjavík, the artificial lighting detracted from their magnificence. This time, I was able to see them under a darker sky and to take pictures. At about 8 pm one day last week, I went outside because I heard the northern lights would be out. Initially, I couldn’t see anything, and I was disappointed. Suddenly, I spotted a green glow hiding behind the room of a building. It turned out to be what I was hoping for! I wandered down to the harbour and I was able to see the northern lights much better. They were a pale greenish glow that glided slowly across the night sky. The northern lights can’t be properly explained until you see them in person – there’s nothing quite like them. I stayed out for an hour just watching the northern lights dance above my head. I saw them two nights ago as well, although I didn’t get to take a picture. Winter is long and cold in Iceland, but the darkness brings out the northern lights, which is one great advantage of the season.

Visit to Vestmannaeyjar

I’m really far behind on my blogging, but I’ll try to post when I can. Everything is moving so fast here that it’s hard to keep up. I have less than a month left in Iceland this semester – in fact, less than three weeks– and I’m trying to make each one count. I’ll be back in January, but almost all of my friends will be gone, so we’re trying to make the most of our remaining time.

Two weeks ago, I went on a trip to Vestmannaeyjar (the Westman Islands) off the southern coast of Iceland. A couple of friends and I packed into a car bright and early, and headed down to the port to Vestmannaeyjar. On the way, we stopped by a waterfall. The seasons have definitely changed, and the waterfall was very icy. . The strong winds had blown the falling water all over the surroundings, so all the grass and rocks around the waterfall were frozen. It was hard to reach because the rocks were so slippery, but this was one of the tallest waterfalls I’ve seen and it was worth the perilous walk. 

I enjoyed the ferry to Heimaey (the main island, and the only populated one), although some of the other people onboard got seasick. As we approached Heimaey, we went outside to watch. The islands have dramatic high peaks and sharp cliffs with sheep grazing at improbable heights. Back in the 1970s, the volcano on Heimaey erupted, and the entire island was evacuated. Fortunately, people came back and island life returned to normal. Still, forty years later, a huge portion of the island is covered in lava rocks from the explosion. 

The cliffs of Heimaey

Heimaey from the lava field

After arriving at the harbour, we headed up to the lava area which covers perhaps a third of the island. There are no buildings here, just rocks. They’ve placed some road signs to mark where streets used to be before the eruption, which was a spooky reminder of the island’s past. It’s hard to believe that below where I stood, there used to be houses, and today there’s nothing but barren rock.

We walked around the town for a while. Vestmannaeyjar is quite isolated, and we didn’t see too many people outside, but it seems like a pleasant town. We spent a large portion of the afternoon at the local pool and hot pots. Despite its size, Heimaey had a really nice pool, and three excellent hot pots. The best part was the slide. When I told Icelanders at my university that I was going to Vestmannaeyjar, they all told me I had to try the slide at the pool. Well, they were right! When we got there, the water slide was turned off. We asked the pool attendant if he could turn it on, and he told us that he could, but the water in the outside pool was a brisk 9 degrees. We didn’t let that stop us – the slide was turned on and we all went down it. At the bottom of the slide there was a trampoline-like section where you could stand up or bounce. We weren’t very good at standing up, but a local boy had no problem, so I guess it takes practice. I knew going down the slide would be chilly, and it was. The water in the pool was so freezing cold that each of us gasped from shock when we landed. We had to run out of the pool as fast as possible and jump into the hot pot to warm up. It was so much fun that we each went a total of eleven times (except the girls, who are clearly more sane that the rest of us)! Normally Icelandic pools are very strict about the use of cell phones and cameras, but the attendant let us bring out our cameras and take pictures of the slide because we liked it so much. I highly recommend the pool at Vestmannaeyjar, especially the slide! 

The slide at the pool

After that, we took the ferry back and went downtown for some delicious sushi. Perfect day!

Iceland Airwaves

It's been an eternity since I've updated, but that's because I've been doing all sorts of exciting things. Fortunately, I don't have any major projects due this coming week, so I'm able to relax a bit today. We currently have snow in Reykjavik and it's beginning to feel like Christmas. Icelanders began the Christmas celebrations back in late October, and by now the grocery store is full of Christmas-themed products and many houses have Christmas lights up. Today the sun came out after an absence of about a week, so I took a walk up to Perlan. There were great views of the city and it was happily less windy than normal. I'm not sure we'll get another nice day before the end of the year, so I made sure to spend all afternoon outside.

Now then, backing up two weeks, Reykjavik recently hosted the Iceland Airwaves music festival! Iceland Airwaves is a busy time in Reykjavik, and thousands of people come from Iceland and abroad to listen to music in a variety of venues over a few days. I was visited by my brother and we had a jam-packed week. We got to hear lots of music, both on-venue and off-venue. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see all the bands we wanted to see. There was a free Of Monsters And Men show that we waited an hour and a half in line to see, but we never got in. I liked best going to shows at Harpa, the new concert hall, because we could wait in line indoors :p. Some of the music was a little too experimental for me, but I liked some of the bands, like Tilbury and Samaris.

The greatest part was of course the Sigur Rós concert we attended on Sunday night. Sigur Rós is one of our favourite bands, and we saw them live this past summer in Montreal, so I knew they'd be great. Sigur Rós played in a big arena I've never been to before, and their show was just as spectacular as last time. It was extra special to see Sigur Rós play in their home country - I believe it was their first show here in 4 years, so it was a big deal! We had a great time at Aiwaves.

I must mention that the week of Iceland Airwaves, Reykjavik experienced crazy wind. It's been windy here before, but this was a real Icelandic gale that was the strongest that's occurred while I've been here. Apparently the winds were even stronger than Hurricane Sandy. It was hard to walk outside without being blown into a street, and we had to cover our faces to prevent leaves and rocks from flying into our eyes. By the harbour, the roads were washed by the waves, and a roof blew off a building on Laugavegur. Pretty intense.

I was happy that my brother was able to bring me a suitcase full of Canadian products. I'm doing pretty well despite the lack of Tim Hortons here, but I was still craving a pumpkin pie. My family sent over pumpkin puree, and lots of other stuff too, like Halloween candy, clothes and games. I was very pleased! I made a pumpkin pie a few nights ago with 3 friends from Germany, Austria and Italy, and although they were hesitant to eat pumpkin at first, they liked it a lot more than expected. I thought it was delicious, and since I have some more pumpkin left, I'm planning on making another pie with my American friend for American Thanksgiving.

Sam and I had a crazy time at the Hallgrímskirkja, the main cathedral downtown and a tourist attraction. We went into the cathedral at around 4:45 in the afternoon. Tourists can take an elevator to the top of the cathedral where there are great views of the city. I wasn't sure if we could still go up the tower at that point in the day, but the woman working in the gift shop told me the cathedral was still open, so we went up to the top. We spent about 20 minutes taking pictures up there, then decided to leave. We took the elevator down to the first floor, but when the door opened, something was wrong: the building was pitch black, and no one else was in sight. As we stepped out of the elevator, an alarm began blaring at a trillion decibels. We tried to go out the front door, but it was locked shut. They had closed the Hallgrímskirkja for the day - we were trapped inside!

Sam and I tried going to another floor, but we had no luck. At the top of the tower, there was an emergency exit, but it was inconveniently locked, and the emergency phone was missing -_-. I spent several minutes frantically trying to decide which friend I should call to help us break out of the Hallgrímskirkja before we went back down to the first floor and felt around in the darkness for an alternate exit. The alarm just kept ringing but clearly the Icelandic authorities weren't very concerned about us since no one had come yet to investigate. At last, Sam found a door to the outside world and we ran through it into the brisk outside air. We were free at last! It was truly a nervewracking experience and we had to get delicious frozen yogurt to calm our nerves.

We also went on a trip to Þórsmörk (Thor's Valley) through the international office of the University of Iceland. The trip was great - we visited a part of Iceland I've never seen before. It was very rugged terrain, and we travelled in a vehicle that could drive through rivers. We visited Eyjafjallajökull, which erupted two years ago, and the glacier there was impressive. Afterwards, our group visited a section of the valley wedged between very tall mountains on either side. It was one of the most memorable places I've seen in Iceland. We had a great week!

At the edge of Eyjafjallajökull

Inside Þórsmörk 

East Fjords, Part 2

Now for the second part of the East Fjords trip! On Sunday we woke up in Eskifjörður and were greeted by an incredible sunrise. Eskifjörður is a very isolated, tiny place, but it seems like a nice town, and was one of my favourites that we visited. It was very much winter already in this part of Iceland – the mountains and the valleys were covered in white snow, which made traveling the rural roads an interesting experience. We barely saw any other vehicles, except when half a dozen buses traveling in the opposite direction randomly passed us all at once.

Eskifjörður 

We went on a hike beside the lake Lagarfljót to see Hengifoss, one of the tallest waterfalls in the country. We saw two waterfalls, and I enjoyed it, although to be honest, Icelandic waterfalls begin to lose their charm once you’ve seen several dozen of them in a single weekend. We met some French Canadians who had recently arrived to work at the Aluminum plant in nearby Reyðarfjörður. I asked them if they missed Tim Hortons yet and we shared a hearty laugh, much to the confusion of the Europeans.

One of the waterfalls we saw.

After the hike we drove to Seyðisfjörður, a tiny town on one of the fjords. It was a tough drive through a snow-covered mountain pass. We took a walk around the town while a few of us drove further out along the fjord. Seyðisfjörður only has a few hundred people and life here can barely be compared to in Reykjavík. The only place that seemed to be open was a gas station, and we crossed the entire town in a short amount of time. It felt a lot more isolated here than in the other towns, and I’m not sure I could live in such a small, dark, cold place. I can definitely understand why the rural populations of Iceland are mostly in decline as people move to Reykjavík. Nonetheless, there was a beautiful sunset, and though it sounds strange for October, after nightfall the town was a perfect Christmas scene.

The road to Seyðisfjörður

Seyðisfjörður at sunset

We stayed that night in Egilsstaðir, the largest town in Eastern Iceland with a massive population of…slightly over 2000 people. :P Again, we stayed in a great spot, and we woke up early with a long drive back to Reykjavík ahead of us. We passed even more snowy valleys, and saw some of the most breathtaking views of the whole trip. Outside of the windswept mountains, the weather was great, and I took massive amounts of pictures. Our soundtrack for the trip was Pirates of the Caribbean, plus a strange 15-minute medley called “The Macarena Christmas” I somehow acquired years ago for when it was snowy. It was a looong drive and we didn’t stop until the afternoon, when we visited Skaftafell Park to see Svartifoss waterfall. I was feeling a bit blasé about waterfalls, but this one was great! It was surrounded by basalt columns, which were long hexagonal or rectangular strands of rock hanging down. Also, it’s a small country: I ran into one of my friends from Reykjavík here.

Driving through the mountains.

Svartifoss waterfall.

After that, we had a short stop at the beach at Vík to see more basalt columns and some caves. The beach at Vík is famous for its black sand, and the columns here were more impressive than at the waterfall. We then had a couple more hours of nonstop driving until we finally returned home to Reykjavík. It was strange to come back to civilization after being away from the city for so long, and although I was happy to be back, it was a fantastic weekend.

East Fjords, Part 1

It’s been a while since I've written anything, but that’s because I haven’t had time to sit down and think for five minutes. Finally, things have settled down (temporarily), so I’m getting caught up! Aside from constant school projects, the two main events in the past two weeks have been my trip to the East Fjords and my brother Sam visiting for Iceland Airwaves.

Last Friday, I headed out east with eight other people from a bunch of countries: Austria, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Spain, and another from Canada. We went to Bónus and stocked up on groceries, then drove out to Kirkjubæjarklaustur for the first night. We left around 5, and the sun was already setting, so we didn't get to see too much that day, although we did stop by a big waterfall which was conveniently lit up. We stayed in two cabins in the countryside which were great. I’m so glad I brought Apples to Apples from home – we played it that night, and it’s always a hit whenever it gets played. There was lots of snow outside, and we were able to have a fast-paced snowball fight! It was surprising to me because Reykjavík has barely had any snow, yet the countryside is already covered in a white layer. Most of it melted by morning, though.

Our cabin

In the morning we left Kirkjubæjarklaustur and began the long drive to the east coast. I saw vast parts of Iceland I've never seen before. As I've already said several times, Iceland is breathtakingly beautiful, and the area we passed on Saturday was no exception. Because there were almost no trees, I could see for miles at any given moment, and there was a constant backdrop of snow-capped mountains. At home I have a book about Iceland with a strange title – “When You Travel in Iceland You See a Lot of Water.” After having crossed the country I can understand the title: we were constantly crossing rivers, the ocean was always nearby, and there were waterfalls cascading down the mountains. Plus, it rained on and off while we were driving. It’s a wet place!

The countryside around Kirkjubæjarklaustur

We drove by Eyjafjallajökull, the glacier whose volcano was responsible for the infamous 2010 eruption. We kept driving until we reached Svínafellsjökull, an arm of Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Iceland and Europe. Here we got out and walked along the edge of the glacier, although we didn't walk on the glacier itself. It’s interesting how different glaciers look up close. Far away, they look like clean white sheets, but up close, their texture and composition are completely different – there’s more dirt and jagged sections. Vatnajökull covers over 8% of Iceland, and we kept seeing it in the background all day. It’s a big glacier!

One item of interest I brought on the trip was…my snuggie! I know how embarrassing it is to own a Snuggie but I enjoy it and it proved to be a big hit with everyone on the trip. Snuggies don’t seem to be as well-known in Europe, but most people wound up wearing the Snuggie at one point or another – in the cabins, while driving, and while standing by the ocean. We even brought the Snuggie when we went to the glacier! I have some ridiculous pictures involving the Snuggie in exotic Icelandic locales.

At the edge of Vatnajökull

The next stop we made was at Jökulsárlón – the Glacier Lagoon. This lagoon is full of icebergs that have broken off of Vatnajökull’s edges and are drifting out to sea. We climbed onto one of the icebergs, which was slippery but memorable. The lagoon was unlike anywhere I’d been before, and it was a stunning sight that I really enjoyed. We drove onward to Höfn and quickly replenished our food stocks before finally reaching the East Fjords. Suddenly the landscape became very dramatic, and we were on a road clinging to the edge of a cliff beside the ocean. We saw a lot of fallen rocks on the road, and I can’t imagine trying to navigate this part of Iceland in the dead of winter. Fortunately for us, it wasn't too snowy when we passed, and the views were fantastic.

Jökulsárlón

The road along one of the fjords.

However, in the late afternoon Iceland turned back into a winter wonderland. We drove into the night and it was dark and cold when we arrived at Eskifjörður. Again, we stayed in two cabins on the fringe of the town. There was a hot tub fashioned out of a boat, along with a sauna. We enjoyed jumping out of the hot tub into the snow, then running into the sauna to warm up once we were covered in snow. It was great!

One of the cottages

The hot tub facing the fjord

I realize this entry is getting very long, so I’ll split the rest of the trip into another post. :P

I don't have much to report. It seems like I have a ton of schoolwork all of a sudden, and I'm spending almost all my free time at the library trying to catch up. :s I'm still enjoying it here, though, even as the weather gets colder. Tjörnin, the pond in the city centre, froze over the other day. I spent a few moments watching the ducks land on the ice. It was funny because they skidded, flailing their legs wildly as they slid along the ice, before finally plopping into the water. I'm not a fan of the swans, though. They look elegant but they're so noisy and always gang up on the poor ducks.

For October, the bar Faktory is hosting free concerts at least once a week, so I've been going there on Wednesdays. I think they're hosting some Airwaves events there, too. Everyone is excited about Airwaves, even the people without tickets, because there will be so much happening in Reykjavik that week! I'm looking forward to it.

Tomorrow I'm leaving on a trip out east! Friday night we're driving to Kirkjubæjarklaustur (don't even try to figure out how to pronounce it). Then we'll be heading to the East Fjords and staying in Eskifjörður for a night. Finally, we'll go to Egilsstaðir and see the Hengifoss waterfall. I'm really looking forward to it! I've never been to that part of Iceland before and I expect it'll be very different from "cosmopolitan" Reykjavik.

The main thing that happened in the past week was my whale-watching trip! ESN, the Erasmus Student Network, was able to get us discount tickets for a whale-watching tour this weekend, so on Saturday I went to the harbour with three of my friends and we boarded a boat to go see some whales.

I was sceptical about our chances of seeing a whale, and for the first little while, we didn't see anything besides a solitary fishing boat in the distance. Eventually, though, we started to see a couple of whales! The whales were hard to spot. They only surfaced for a few seconds before vanishing back into the water, so if you weren't quick and attentive, you wouldn't catch them. Altogether we saw about 15 or so. I was pleased that we were able to see some, but I wouldn't have paid full price for the tour, because the sightings were so sporadic. Still, I enjoyed seeing some whales.

One other thing I did this week was visit one of the Reykjavik pools for the first time. The city has a number of different pools (all geothermally heated, I believe) and on Thursday I went to one near the Hallgrímskirkja with some friends. The pool was nice, but the best part was the hot tub outside. It's quite a contrast to have the frigid Icelandic air and the warm water, and I liked it a lot. I'm hoping to go back.

Here are a couple of whale pictures. The whales are the black blobs in the water. It was tough to get a good picture!

Some Weekend Photos

It's nearly impossible to narrow down my pictures to just a couple, but here are some of my favourites. The first set of pics is from Esja:

These pictures are from the Klambragil river expedition:

This is the river we bathed in. It was great.

 And here is a picture from the entrance of the cave:

This weekend was one of the best I've had in a long time. Friday I woke up bright and early to climb Esja, the mountain across the bay from Reykjavik. I headed out on a bus with a Canadian guy and a Swedish guy all the way out to the foot of the mountain, then our hike began!

There was a trail up to the top which we had planned to take, but all the signage was in Icelandic so we got confused and kind of wandered off the main trail. :p Whenever I turned to look around, the view was breathtaking, and it just got better and better as we climbed higher. We couldn't have asked for better weather, too.

Eventually we made it up to the snowy peak of Esja, where it was considerably colder than down below. It was an arduous trek, and it took about 3 hours to get up to the top. Once we got there, we kept walking until we reach the opposite side of Esja and looked out towards the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. It was strange how distances were distorted on Esja - when it looked like just a couple of minutes to reach the next cairn, it wound up taking a half hour or so. Eventually, we climbed back down. Our legs had turned to jello by this point but we made it, about 5 hours after we had begun the climb.

It's impossible to do the Esja hike justice in words or photos, but the experience was quintessentially Icelandic - shades of fall colours; the tiny buildings of Reykjavik down below; snow, rock, and the ocean; vast, open spaces as far as the eye can see. I really enjoyed it and I'm so glad I was able to climb Esja before winter sets in.

Later on Friday I got to make poutine again!! I went to my German friend's place and then we made poutine and some kind of Germanic potato dish for our group. This time the poutine turned out much better than the last time and it was delicious. Then I introduced Apples to Apples - it was like Thanksgiving all over again, but with other people! We also played some Scandinavian card game about numbers which I actually enjoyed a lot.

Then yesterday was incredible. Five of us - two Germans, me and two other Canadians - rented a car and explored around the Reykjanes peninsula and beyond. There were two main attractions we visited: the Klambragil River and Raufarhólshellir cave.

First up was the river. We drove out past a town called Hveragerði and into the mountains. Then we had a hike of around an hour before we reached the hot springs area. This place was awesome - I've seen hot springs in Iceland before, but it's always strange to see water bubbling out of the ground and steam rising up all across a field. We came to a river called Klambragil in a valley. Klambragil is warm - its hot water comes from the geothermal pools. We put on our bathing suits and laid down in the river. It felt great - the air was cold, but the water was toasty and very relaxing. We sat in the river for two and a half hours before we realized that we needed to keep moving. The river bath made us all mellow. I've never done anything like it before, and it was a surreal, fantastic experience.

After that, we hiked back and drove to Raufarhólshellir cave. Last time I went into a cave, there were thirty of us including an experienced guide, but today it was just the five of us, so I was hoping the cave wouldn't collapse, and luckily it didn't! It was a lot like the last cave I visited, since it was rocky and pitch-black on the inside. However, we went deeper into this cave than I did the last time. Caves are strange places, and it was creepy when we turned out our lights because all I could see was blackness and all I could hear was water dripping. I like it a lot, but it's always a relief to emerge into fresh air at the end.

After that, the sun was setting soon. We hurried to the shore at Strandakirkja where the waves were enormous. Then we went to Krýsuvík where we saw more hot springs, but these ones are way too hot for taking a bath. By now it was about 6:30 pm and the sun had set, so we settled into the car and drove back home. I was absolutely exhausted when I got home and I had a nice long sleep for the first time in a while. Iceland is full of beautiful places and I'm so grateful that I'm getting to do these amazing things!

It's the start of my long weekend! I don't have class tomorrow or on Monday, so I have a 4 day weekend to enjoy. I thought about going away for a short trip but ultimately it didn't work out. That's probably a good thing - I really need to get caught up on my readings.

This past weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving. My friends from around the world came over Sunday night and I made them a classic Canadian dish: poutine! The poutine wasn't as good as at home, but I still thought it tasted great, and my friends enjoyed it too. After that we had cake and ice cream and played one of my favourite games, Apples to Apples. I had a lot of fun and I was happy to share something from home with my friends here.

On a related note, I spoke to a girl on Tuesday who said that pumpkin had just come into the grocery store that day. Grr!

Tuesday was an exciting day in Reykjavik because of the lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower and the LennonOno Grant for Peace ceremony. As I understand it, Yoko Ono has a foundation which awards a prize to a small number of people based on their efforts to bring peace to the world. This year, Lady Gaga was getting an award from the foundation, so both Lady Gaga and Yoko Ono were in Iceland this week! 

I didn't get to go to the award ceremony, but I did go to the lighting of the Peace Tower. The Imagine Peace Tower is on the island of Viðey just off the coast of Reykjavik. Yoko Ono had it built to honour John Lennon a couple of years ago, and every year, the tower is lit up between Lennon's birthday (October 9) and the day he died (December 8). Tuesday night I took the ferry to Viðey and saw the lighting ceremony. I got to hear Yoko Ono speak, which was pretty thrilling. The tower is quite impressive - it shoots beams of light straight upwards. It was a pain getting home, since the ferry isn't equipped to move such a large number of people, and it took hours to get off the island. It was definitely worth going though. When I got home I could see the light streaming upwards, and it was a great view.

 Here's Yoko Ono at the ceremony on Viðey.

 The Imagine Peace Tower after the lights went on.

 It's not a great picture, but see that beam of light in the sky? That's the Peace Tower from far away.

While I'm adding pictures, here's a shot of a great rainbow I saw today!

Today the quest for pumpkin continued. I emailed the Canadian embassy about where to find pumpkin and they said my best bet was a store called Kostur in the town of Kopavogur, south of Reykjavik. This afternoon, my friend and I headed out to try to find Kostur. We had lots of time, so we decided to walk. It was an interesting trip - after passing by Perlan, we got lost in the woods and wound up in a huge graveyard which was a little spooky. After that, we eventually made it to Kopavogur, which is a lot less tourist-oriented than central Reykjavik. It was mostly apartment buildings and suburban sprawl. We randomly came across a frozen yogurt shop, where we got some delicious yogurt. Fortunately, I had a map of the area on hand, and we were able to find Kostur after about 2 hours of walking.

Kostur immediately reminded me of Costco. It was much smaller than Costco at home, but it had the same layout, the same types of products, and even some of the same brands. I was able to find a lot of products I hadn't yet found elsewhere in Reykjavik, like edamame, alfredo sauce, and Canadian cereals. Sadly, there was no pumpkin, and I have concluded that there is no pumpkin anywhere in this country. However, I was able to find the ingredients for poutine, so I will still be able to make some Canadian food!

I had an epiphany and I have decided not to make a pie tomorrow. I was going to make a sweet potato pie as a substitute, but they don't seem to have premade pie crusts here, and I don't feel like making a pie crust tomorrow because I've never done it before. Also, I'm hiking up Esja tomorrow morning, so I will be on a tight schedule to get back in time for dinner. I'll buy a cake or something similar, and once pumpkin arrives around Halloween I will make some delicious pumpkin pie.

Right now I'm looking forward to climbing Esja, it should be great!

This is at Kostur. It was great, I may need to go back someday!

Thanksgiving's on its way! In Iceland they don't have Canadian Thanksgiving, of course, but I still want to celebrate. I invited my friends over to make some pumpkin pie this weekend and they're all excited - most of them have never even tried pumpkin. I can't imagine not growing up with pumpkin pie, it's such a staple of my holidays.

The problem now is that pumpkin is extremely hard to come across in Iceland, and I'm questioning whether it exists anywhere in the country. First I went to Bonus, but they didn't have any. Then I went to Kronan, which is a different grocery store, but they didn't have any either. An Icelandic person I know recommended I try Hagkaup, so then I walked to Hagkaup, which is out near Seltjarnarnes. I asked an employee at the store if they had pumpkin but she looked at me like I had two heads. She said they may have some at Halloween, but not now. It's looking grim!

I emailed the Canadian embassy, asking if they can help me find some pumpkin. (I tried visiting the embassy this afternoon but they're only open from 9 to 12 - those lazy Canadians!) It's a long shot but the quest to find some pumpkin has stolen half a day from me and I will not rest until I have acquired pumpkin!

P.S. Here's a couple of nice Iceland-related pictures I've taken lately.

Mmm...Japanese Food

Not a whole lot has happened since I last posted. I am here for school after all, not just a vacation, so I've spent some time doing ordinary schoolwork.  My classes are going really well. I worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the Icelandic education system, and although there is a lot of reading, I don't spend as many hours in class as I would in Ottawa so it's not bad. Icelandic is a killer language but now I can say a few simple phrases and I feel like I'm learning a lot! Soon I'll have this crazy declension system under my belt.
On Thursday I went for sushi and it was delicious. Based on a recommendation from a friend who lived in Iceland last year, I went to Sushibarinn on Laugavegur with some of my friends. They had some stuff I can't get at home, like horse nigiri and whale rolls. While I avoided those exotic dishes, I was thrilled to discover that they had edamame, which is one of my favourite foods at home but I haven't seen it at any grocery stores. Here's a picture of my food:

The next night, my floor had a sushi party! I went to Kringlan (the shopping mall) with my friend and we stocked up on all sorts of Japanese food-related things: seaweed, rolling mats, soy sauce, chopsticks, and so on. We also have two massive bags of sushi rice on our floor now. I've only made sushi once before, so it was all quite new to me, but fortunately I had lots of Japanese students on hand to guide me :) My first roll turned out kinda iffy, but my second one looked better. There was lots of delicious Japanese food and it was a great way to bring our floor together.

One Month Later...

I left for Iceland a month ago today. It's strange - it feels like I haven't been here very long, yet I feel like I've crammed a lot into this short time. It's definitely moved into fall here. The leaves have turned to shades of orange and are beginning to fall off the trees. There aren't many trees here so the fall won't be as impressive as a Canadian fall, but I still enjoy this season. The days have gotten a lot shorter since I got here. The sun now sets around 2 1/2 hours earlier than in mid-August. There isn't any snow here in Reykjavik yet, but I'm sure it's on its way soon!

Yesterday I saw the President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, and I didn't even realize it! I was walking on the university campus when I saw someone who looks like Ólafur exiting the main building. No one else was paying any attention to him, so I thought it must have just been someone who looked similar. I later found out that it actually WAS the President of Iceland! None of the Icelanders were excited to have the President in their vicinity. If this was the US, or even Canada, the country's leader would be surrounded by police on all sides and everyone would be watching. It was another reminder of how small Iceland really is.

I must comment here on Icelandic phonebooks. Normally I would never pick up a phonebook but Icelandic phonebooks are really strange. The entire population of the country is listed in alphabetical order...by first name. They don't really use surnames here, even for authority figures (If an Icelander spoke to the President he'd call him Ólafur, not Mr. Grímsson). I don't understand how you'd ever find the number of the person you're looking for, because there are always dozens of people with the same name. The number of Jón Jónssons runs into the hundreds. I tried looking up the phone number of the Prime Minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, but there were over a dozen people with that exact name in Reykjavik alone.

Tonight I'm having Icelandic sushi for the first time - can't wait, Japanese food is my favourite :D

It's been a busy couple of days, but I don't really have much news. I got sick after last weekend - I'm not sure of the exact cause, but there's something going around in Reykjavik. I got hit pretty bad and yesterday I lost my voice. I went to the pharmacy (apótek) and got some medicine, so hopefully I can get back to normal soon.

Learning Icelandic is proving to be a challenge. I enjoy the language, but it's not easy to learn because it has so many complicated rules that I'm not used to. Here's a graphic I created to illustrate my point. This chart compares all the Icelandic variants of the word 'two' with the English words for 'two':

Icelandic has about a dozen variants for every English word and while the system makes sense I don't fully understand it yet. I am learning lots of interesting words and now I'm able to understand bits and pieces of Icelandic writing. I do like Icelandic a lot so I will keep learning.

The only notable thing that happened recently is that I saw the northern lights! I was out at a bar with one of my friends waiting for our other friend. She called me and said "I'm by the harbour. Look for The Northern Light." I thought she was saying she was saying she was at a bar called The Northern Light, so we walked around the harbour looking for a bar. Eventually we found her and she pointed at the sky and then I realized what was going on. I didn't see the northern lights for very long but it was impressive. I saw a bright green glow in the sky and above me there was a ribbon of light which was not as strong. I unfortunately didn't get any good pictures, but I will keep an eye out for this from now on!

Pictures from the ESN Glacier Trip

There are lots of rivers in Iceland.

Watching Icelanders herd sheep.

Near Stykkisholmur.

A view of Stykkisholmur.

The hot springs. Don't get too close - the water is very warm and stinks of sulphur.

Approaching the Langjokull glacier.

This is the view from the glacier. It was white all around.

A mountain near the edge of Langjokull.

Entering the cave.

A rainbow over Hallmundarhraun lava field.

Another view of Hallmundarhraun.

This is a classic Iceland landscape.

Hraunfossar falls (with another rainbow).