Sirkus in the Sun

I finally got some shots from the 17th of June, our Icelandic National Holiday. This is from the backyard at Sirkus, a favorite and very Bohemian bar on Klapparstigur at Laugavegur. Taking pictures there is extremely frowned-upon at night, but since this was such a uniquely sunny and joyous day, I thought one photo wouldn't do any harm.

(Picture-taking at Kaffibarinn is also banned...the reason at both these bars is that everyone, even the celebs who frequent these spots, are guaranteed a reasonably anonymous night of pleasure without any nasty pictoral evidence floating about the next day.)

Anyway, I decided to escape the suburban masses that converge on our little downtown each major holiday by slipping into the gated Sirkus backyard and having a beer in the sun. Perfect move on my part!

There's a running joke here that the one thing we can count on each year is rain on the 17th of June. Regardless of the weather, though, Icelanders pour out onto the streets in slickers and hats to watch parades and listen to speeches and hear bands play on outdoor stages. This year there was a collective national amazement at the fact that the sky was cloudless and blue...take into consideration also that the last time the weather was this good (15 celsius, and windless) on June 17th, we had a fairly major earthquake. I don't know about everyone else, but I was definitely thinking the whole good weather thing was a little dubious...

Nothing happened to shake the joy of the day, though. I received my award (along with the school) at a very nice ceremony, went and sat at Sirkus with my handsome man, hosted a great midnight sun party in our backyard, then went with everyone back to Sirkus for a bit of seriously fun late-night dancing. All in all a wonderful way to celebrate a great life in a good land.