Dedicated

Note: technical difficulties! Some of our photos are dropping out, which makes me sad (I'll not point fingers, but it might be a Picasa issue...) I'm fixing it as we speak.
We'll leave our armchair-architectural opinions at the door and just note that many of you who have taken the trip to Geysir and Gullfoss (live webcam!) via Laugarvatn have passed by this church at Úthlíð. It was consecrated in 2006 in memory of Ágústa Ólafsdóttir by her husband Björn Sigurðsson and as such has charming sentimental value that may make up for its (for me) shockingly out of place appearance in the heart of Iceland's historical Saga territory.

I jumped out of our car to take a picture while Óðinn, being an inquisitive five year old, decided, against my strict council, to see if he could take a run around the interior (literally.) Before I knew it I had followed him in and was actually comforted by how warm and comfortable the church is, with a large portrait of Ágústa on the south wall and a colorful modern tableau of Mary, Baby Jesus and a content-looking cow above the altar (painted by the architect, Gísli Sigurðsson, former journalist and brother of Björn) all framed with that natural wood so common in summer houses around the countryside. Before my little klifurmús could climb the final ladder up the bell tower, I was able to snap a few more pictures, have a short moment of silence, and gather him back out into the car. I'm glad he dared to try the door and entreat me to join him inside. Now I have much more respect for a building I would have simply written off as a roadside oddity otherwise.

Macro

Once again, the secret world of our often very barren island shows through in macro. Here, an incredibly well-designed creature, only a centimeter in size, rests on a tiny bloom. This close to the arctic, far from the giant sequoias of California and the lush tropical flora of more southerly volcanic islands (which, beneath their foliage are surprisingly similar to ours) it's small things that hint at Nature's tenacity. Sit, while here, and let your eyes begin to decipher the seemingly endless expanses of low growth that just greens the hillsides of Iceland. You'll soon discover that, almost fractally, what you see is a microcosm of diversity, though sometimes mere millimeters in size.

Moors

It seems fair to warn you, dear reader, friend of Iceland, and/or potential visitor that on your travels out to the countryside you will be seeing quite a bit of this: stark moors, plus barren arctic deserts capped by grey skies. And it may very well be windy to boot. A huge swath of land between Fljótsdalshérað in the east and Akureryi in the north is, frankly, discouraging and mind-numbing tundra-scape. Some people love it, and some pretend to, but I'm pretty sure the majority of us find ourselves wondering how long we'd survive if our cars died and no one ever passed by that way again (sometimes you can go a good fifteen, twenty minutes without seeing another car, even in high traffic summer.) 

So be warned: always let your hotel/guesthouse/the internet in general (tweets! fb!) know where you're going and when while you are traveling the countryside here, bring some good happy tunes with you (an iPod jack or CDs for your rental car is a must: there's no-to-poor radio reception for great stretches of the main highway!) and plenty of chocolate, snacks and water. Anything to keep you alert, awake and  in a good traveling mood. The sameness of the landscape can mesmerize and you want to be sure to stay focused and on the road! Your destination is most probably an amazing natural wonder, well worth journeying to. Just be prepared for lots of "nothing" in between.

Or you can just do like Jon Bon Jovi * just did yesterday, and rent a helicopter to take you about ; ) 

*This link shows you just how "imperfect" google Translate still is with Icelandic. We're working on it!

Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out .

Dogs

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Christian Henkel

Yes, you can go on a dogsledding adventure here in Iceland! On a glacier in the summer time! I haven't done it myself, but I have been to the top of Langjökull glacier on a snowmobile and what you get from there are stunning views out over southwest Iceland, into the highlands interior and out to the Atlantic beyond. The sledding companies also offer dog trolley excursions to places like Surtshellir, which is a fantastic and cave/lava tube that has been used and written about and visited since the first settlement era in the 9th century. You can still see remnants of very old encampments up on the ledges lining the tube, as well as little ice elves that populate the cave floor. Here's a sweet song by our internationally acclaimed sigur rós from the stunningly beautiful documentary Heima played on a marimba made out of slate/scree in Surtshellir.   

Christian, a resident of Berlin, has been sharing his photos of Iceland on our facebook page wall (which you are all welcome, and encouraged to do : ) and so I asked if I could use one them. It was difficult choosing one from among his many excellent shots but this one seemed most in tune with the Iceland Eyes vibe.  

Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out : )

Perspective

A little bit of comic relief: I looked out my living room window this morning and this is what I saw. Momentarily boggling, for sure ~.^

Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out .

Done

Some things take time to finish, like the new building at corner of Lækjargata and Austurstræti (right there on this amazing interactive map of our pretty city.) It replicates the one that burned down in 2007, which was one of the oldest in our city. (From the picture in the last link you can see that the new building was raised up a whole level, which actually suites the sightline just fine.) We're all happy to see this corner, which anyone who has visited Reykjavík will have passed by at least once, looking fine and shiny again.

In my response to a reader's comment in the last post, I put myself in the awkward position of having to back my words up with action and find something slightly unique relating to Iceland to present to visitors. And here it is: just about as random and bizarre a connection as you could imagine between Iceland and California. Thanks to a local woman, another FBI manhunt is done.

On an artistic note, please treat yourself to some true beauty by watching part 1 of the latest Weird Girls Project video, this time set to the evocative Love the Earth score by Imogen Heap. Producer, Concept Artist and Artistic Director Kitty Von-Sometime has once again created a work of art (be sure to view it full screen and then watch more of her work offered in the Vimeo menu, with soundtracks by some of Iceland's best musicians.)

Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out : )

Nesstofa

Seltjarnarnes is one of my favorite spots to go for an easy seaside stroll (or midnight golf) as well as for an almost guaranteed great photo or two. This shot, taken at midnight on a lovely June evening, is of Nesstofa, a 1760's fusion of Danish architectural expertise and Icelandic esthetics. It currently houses the Medical History Museum of Iceland and has recently been the focus of an archeological investigation.

For anyone coming here I highly recommend you pick up a copy of the very popular 25 Beautiful Walks of the Greater Reykjavik Area, which I had the pleasure to translate into English, and which includes a wonderful and detailed description of the nature and history of this area (and the website selling it online, nammi.is, is pretty cool itself, though of course you can also find it in all bookstores here on the island.)

Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out : )

History

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Matthew Marteinsson

Matthew, who hails from Vancouver, was the first winner of our Facebook Win a Print from Iceland Eyes contest (he chose this image, Dreams, and says he's quite happy with his prize.) When he sent me his mailing info I couldn't help but notice that his last name was definitely Icelandic, so I asked him about it. Turns out, he's got connections to our island. He replied:

Yes my family traces back to Iceland. My great-grand father moved to Canada around the turn of the century. As far as I know they came from northern Iceland and he was a Lutheran minister. Of course when they came to Canada they moved to Gimli ["the heart of New Iceland" in Canada] where my grand father was born. I've been to Iceland twice so far. Both times during [music festival Iceland] Airwaves. I still want to come during the summer to try and find the farm the family came from. My dad has a painting of the farm which has the name of the area on it.

He shared some of his pictures from his last visit here with me and I invited him to be a guest photographer. When we'd chosen a photo he wrote:

I found what I had figured out from the painting I grew up with. It had the mountain from this site on it and had Svartárkot and Bardardalur written on it. I hope to come back some time and get up to there.

[This shot] was from the first day of my second trip to Iceland during Airwaves. With my great-grandfather coming from Iceland I've always had a calling to visit. Like it was in my blood. Each time I've been I try to get as off the beaten path as I can. I always want to find the little hidden spots that will really stay with me. This old boat seemed like it must have some wonderful tales to tell.

Thank you Matthew for sharing a bit of your history with us. It's a pleasure to meet another long-lost cousin ; )

Just so you know, our Facebook and Twitter pages are chock full of many more cool and interesting links that don't make it to the blog. So do drop by, and keep your eyes open for our contests where you can win prints of your favorite shots and maybe even a book or two!

Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out : )

Elves

Strolling along Laugavegur on Friday, I came across a performance piece, Hásálfar, gracefully presented by a trio of artists: performer Sandra Gísladóttir, dancer María Þórdís Ólafsdóttir and electronic musician Viktor Birgisson, who now go by the name Samaris. They are part of an ongoing Creative Summer Groups production by Hitt Húsið, the Cultural and Information Center for Young People, deftly managed by incorrigible Ása Hauksóttir, an artist who has seemingly single-handedly advocated for the youth of our Smoke City for years now. Aside from the entrancing music and subtle artistic display of the trio, what caught my attention was the nature of the material they were performing: their objective is to reanimate the classic Icelandic elves tales in modern dress, to "intertwine folk stories with today's modern society."

What specifically got my attention, though, is the location they performed at: the newly renovated edge of a triangle, where the Nike store used to be, that I dreamt years ago was the location of an Elves Hall. Synchronicity in action.

I received an email today from Sara, who is coming to Iceland in September, asking a classic and important question: what to pack for her trip. The answer is a little bit of everything. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for a more detailed answer, and read this post for a few more hints.

While looking for these posts (using the blogger search box in the top left corner) I ran across a post with links to some important info for visitors. I'll post them again for you here:

Where to Get Good Coffee, Drinking Water, Driving in Iceland, What to Wear (see end of post), Quality Fleece, Taking Care of Your Silver Jewelry, Swimming Pools, The High Cost of Alcohol, Pizza, Reykjavik with Kids, Buying Groceries, Places of Historical Interest.

Read and enjoy!

Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Five new views in all. Use the blue tab at the top of the view page to check them all out : )

Sentiment

Why, of course you can!

Knit-graffiti left at the top of Skólavörðurstígur by an intrepid, and sentimental, tourist.

(Have you tried Dynamic Viewing yet? Use the blue tab at the top of the view page for five amazing new views.)

Nap

A tourist takes a shady break on a bench in a tiny park right by Hallgrímskirkja. There used to be a house on the lot, a ramshackle cottage that was torn down a few years ago and replaced by roll-a-lawn. I pass this lot almost every day (a wall of the college where I teach is in the background) and certainly did not expect it to stay empty and green for as long as it has. With the addition of of a couple of arty sheep silhouettes and a bench, it's now a proper park-ette, though as is only visitors take advantage of its idyll.

Was the land bequeathed to the city, I wonder? Is there some green benefactor purposed with sprinkling small gardens about town? Nice thought, and with the same healthy benefit as our pop-up Heart Park, which I wrote about in 2009, and again last year when street artists took it over with urban style (note that the brick wall in the first link is the 'canvas' in the second ; )

Grass, trees, some benches and art...has there ever been a better combination to soothe a city's soul?

Sjómenn

One more photo from Arnarstapi, on the Snæfell Peninsula, and this one in honor of our seafaring men and women of the last millennia-plus on National Seafarer's Day, or Sjómannadagur. Iceland Eyes offers great thanks for their courage and sacrifice throughout this country's history. (And not least to my father, Þórir Pálsson Roff {Thor Roff in the States} who served a four year tour of duty in the U.S. Navy on the USS Great Sitkin 1960-64, with some excellent stories to share for it : )

Thinking of sailing to/around Iceland? Every summer we get scores of intrepid sailors visiting our harbours in their fancy yachts and sloops. If so, visit the Icelandic Maritime Administration site for info. And be sure to be here in time for the Sail Húsavík Nordic Coastal Cultural Festival 2011. They've got some very lovely boats set to attend.)

Stapafell

This chalet near the seaside town of Hellnar just below Snæfellsjökull nicely mirrors the near-perfect natural pyramid of Stapafell Mountain, which in my eyes is an often-overlooked magical companion to the gorgeous glacier above it. Bárður, the guardian half-ogre/half human of the region, calls this special place his home.

Wondering how one recognizes an ogre? Here's a read about our Bárður in English by Ármann Jakobsson, a renowned local writer and professor of Icelandic (and the brother of our outgoing Minister of Education, Science and Culture, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, who is off on maternity leave.)

Note: the chalet has a yin yang symbol over it's door, but I have no idea who owns it....very curious.

Snæfellsjökull

Even with a little digital compact, the Snæfellsjökull glacier* and it's volcanic mountain are easy to glorify. Blessed in many minds as a source of energetic and spiritual power, as well as being the start point for a journey to the center of the earth according to Jules Verne's fiction, this mountain is very special indeed.

*This link takes you to a very nice, informative PDF of the Snæfellsjökull National Park

Farm

Very happy children frolic on slick hay bales at a farm in Mosfellsdalur, a verdant valley that connects Mosfellsbær, just outside of Reykjavik, with the ever-popular Þingvellir,* where the Eurasian and North American continental plates endlessly diverge.

For the more literary-minded, Mosfellsdalur is the seat of Halldór Laxness territory and one of the original settlement sites in Iceland from as early as 874, as cited by the Landnámabók, or The Book of Settlement. For the archaeologists among us, here's a nice paper from UCLA on Viking-age excavations in the area.

But none of those fancy things mattered today. The kids just played, fed the new-born lambs, held tiny bunnies and puppies and kittens, petted tolerant horses and a very grandmotherly hen, ate hot dogs and cookies and got as dirty-muddy as they wanted to. Despite even the rain, it was a perfect day.

*Thingvellir

Ash

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GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Ben Hall

Ben writes: There is nothing worse than building your hopes up on a planned event so that it's almost impossible to stop blinking with excitement, only to have your plans shattered by a most untimely eruption of a 'nearby' volcano. Mother Nature obviously does not care about my plans to go back home to Scotland for my favourite festival... So when I heard that she had blasted some of her angry dust high into the air and forced Keflavik airport to close, it made sense to try driving as close as possible to Grimsvötn to give it the proverbial 'finger'. Naturally, ironically, the volcano won that challenge as well, but we did get as far as Vik, and before beginning the trip back to Reykjavik we took in the beauty of Reynisfjara beach. To see the black sand and the amazing rock formations with the thick ash cloud of the volcano blocking out the sun was something I will not forget in a hurry... Which is pretty much what I think of Iceland on a whole. Totally unforgettable.


When not dashing out to enjoy the follies of nature and capture gorgeous photos in the process, Ben (who also created a brilliant electro track for our volcano: play loud ; ) works as a Quality Assurance Tester at Iceland's innovative and award-winning CCP Games.


(Here's a very cool video of our eruption with music by sigur rós : )  

Forest

An easy day walk around Reykjavik, out from the city center, is an absolute must for visitors to get a true feeling for how peaceful and safe it is here. Here's an article I wrote for Packed magazine (page 35) describing a lovely walk, including the ethereal Öskjuhlíð forest pictured here.

Serenity

An adventurer at rest.

Sea

~°~ For a dear friend: the beautiful sea at Arnarstapi ~°~

Road

Those of you who have been here to Reykjavik might, or who live here will, recognize this spot on Hverfisgata, just in front of the National Theater. The stones in the center of the road are columnar basalt, found frequently here in Iceland and in many other places, including at the Devils Postpile National Park near Mammoth Lake, California and other volcanic hotspots around the world.

Hverfisgata, or Neighborhood Road, which runs parallel to Laugavegur, the main shopping street in Reykjavik, was named in 1898 and has, since the turn of the 20th century been a main thoroughfare into the heart of the city. It runs through the so-called Skuggahverfi and I was told that it was once slated to be a kind of grand residential row, in the style of other large cities. Many of the apartments on this now-rundown street are amazingly spacious and impressive on the inside, with super-high ceilings and late-Victorian architectural flourishes. The idea never took, though, and by and large the street just became the easiest way to get downtown, with a steady stream of cars and busses dirtying the now-decaying facades. It's the dirty cousin to Laugavegur, but hopefully when our city gets back on its feet it will get some of the attention it deserves.

(Wondering about real estate in Iceland? Lots of foreign entities have been snatching up killer properties here recently, so here's a New York Times article you can read if you're interested in riding out future sea level rising in style  : )