Blogs from Iceland, Europe - page 89

At last some free time. Lectures in the morning, but the whole afternoon off. Today was a unique day in Reykjavík. Fine and warm (possibly the warmest day of the year), with the city Marathon on, and the Reykjavík summer festival on. Nice of them to put all this on for us! It would appear that every single person in Iceland attended. There were people everywhere, thousands and thousands of people, with events and performances on every corner, and half a dozen big stages set up around the city centre. We saw the kids marathon around the lake (Tjornin). We saw minute chess – where the moves fly so fast it is impossible to keep track. The queue for the bottle shop was twenty deep (gonna be some sore heads tomorrow morning for sure). Bands galore, ... read more

Off on a two day bus tour of the south of Iceland. First stop is in the mountain range outside of Reykjavik, where there are yet more steam vents – literally hundreds of them. They are used for power, but they are also used to pipe hot water to Reykjavík for heating and bathing. Most Icelanders’ hot water is piped straight out of the ground. Even travelling dozens of kilometers it is still scaldingly hot! Next is Þingvellir ('ll' is prnounced 'tl', and the letter þ is a soft "th". So it's prnounced thingvetlir. þingvellir is a special place for two reasons. It has been the home of Icelandic democracy since the 900's, the original parliament, where it remained until almost 1800. It is also the point at which the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates ... read more

A bus day. Starting with a very quick tour of the city (the city isn’t huge and big buses aren’t allowed in the tight inner-city streets). A stop at the imposing and austere Hallgrimmskirkja. It is the tallest building in Iceland and dominates the city landscape. Lutherans aren’t exactly renowned for having fun and this shows both on the inside and the outside. We pass myriad monuments to Icelanders – it doesn’t take much for them to drop a statue or devote a building in memorial to citizens who in other countries would be otherwise forgotten. After the city tour, we head out to the Reykjanes pensinsula, back towards the international airport at Keflavík. For the record the consonant combination 'fl' is pronounced 'pl' in Icelandic. So it is pronounced Keplavik. You are starting to sound ... read more

We went to a waterfall. It was the biggest in Europe. There was another one. It was kind of little. We climbed rocks. It was fun. We went to a volcanoe. I had water in it. It was fun. We went to a lava field. There was a lot of rocks. It was fun. - Sofia Journal Entry Aug 14, 2012 This morning we did not get up to early, but took off for some other really cool places. Daddy had told me that our 2 days in Myvatn would be filled with lots of places that had cool landscapes or seemed like it was from a different planet, just like yesterday, and he was right. Our first stop were to see two incredible waterfalls. Daddy decided that we would see it from the "better" side ... read more

Some menus from our trip.... From the Reykyavikur restaurant "Fiskfélagið" = "The Fish Company" Rock salted beer glazed salmon & langoustine salad, fennel jam, frozen cucumber, Icelandic kryddbrauth (rye bread) Grilled beef rib eye and pork cheek, sweet onion jam, pepper sauce, bearnaise paste and fries Blueberry skyr mousse & blueberry muffin with caramelised almond, yoghurt skyr paste and home made marshmallow (skyr is a cultured cheese sort of halfway between mascarpone and yoghurt) From the Greenlandic buffet: Sashimi of Greenlandic halibut Greenlandic shrimp (very small but very tasty; when unpeeled almost universally pregnant) Dried fish (no thanks - like chewing on a rubber tyre but not as nice) Sushi with shrimp (yum) Smoked whale (looks like dark prosciutto) Salted scallops Halibut terrine Mussels Mattak (whale blubber) Seal soup (for... read more