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
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