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  : )

Pizza!

More on my favorite local food: Eldsmiðjan is just, hands-down, the most awesome pizza place here in Reykjavik, with every pie hand-turned and baked in a birch-fired open stone stove. Their original location, tucked into a residential area (on Bragagata just around the corner from the Big Church) was like our private neighborhood restaurant for years, until it got too popular for comfort. They've since opened two more locations, one at Laugavegur 81 (which interestingly enough also houses an apartment hotel, L81, that I had no clue about) and one just across Suðurlandsbraut from the popular Laugardalur nature and sports area (where the hostel, main swimming pool, World Class gym, family play park, zoo, botanical gardens and camp site are located.)

The glorious creation pictured above is the now-famous N Pizza with pepperoni, jalepeno, cream cheese, pineapple, green and black olives, garlic, oregano, minus mushrooms and plus bleu cheese. Just stunning!

sidenote: Iceland Eyes has nearly tripled it's monthly visitor average! Much thanks to you all, and be sure to Like our facebook page so you can take part in our weekly contest and get a chance to win a professional print of an Iceland Eyes photo of your choice : )

Confirmation

A happy day: yesterday, another set of bright young Icelanders partook in a Lutheran-style confirmation in Hallgrímskirkja.

These days, though, more and more kids are taking part in civil, and not religious, ceremonies confirming that they are willing to enter adulthood and take on a responsible role in their society. As in many cultures across the globe, this kind of event is celebrated with big parties and many gifts, though most teens these days would never admit that the thousands of dollars worth of potential windfall is any kind of enticement to go through a good seven months of weekly confirmation classes and a long staged ceremony. But it certainly doesn't hurt : )

(As a super-proud mother, I can't resist linking to a super-cute photo of my newly confirmed girl on another of her super days : )

May

It's strange waking up on May 1st, getting ready to take my daughter to her confirmation ceremony at neighboring Hallgrímskirkja, and finding a soft, heavy blanket of snow covering the backyard. What's even odder is to hear that it only snowed in Reykjavik, and not even in many of the suburbs just miles away from the city center. This is quiet weather, though, and actually a kind break from the erratic winds and sleet we've been experiencing. In all, we are grateful that this is only a slight inconvenience, and look forward to a beautiful summer ahead!

(We have doubled the average number of visitors to Iceland Eyes this past month! Thanks to you all for stopping by, and don't forget to go ahead and Like our Facebook page so you can be part of our weekly give-aways : )

Boys

A group of young icelanders practice the art of hanging out : )

Álftanes

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Guðmann þór Bjargmundsson

This gorgeous seaside scene was taken by filmmaker and photographer Guðmann Þór, known as Mummi, out at Álftanes, a small district of about 1800 people just southwest of Reykjavik. Be sure to check out his website where you'll find many more stunning images of our lovely land.

Álftanes is an amazing place for nature walks, and has a very rich and colorful history starting from the Settlement era twelve hundred years ago. There is actually a very nice book highlighting easy nature walks in the Capital region which I was asked to translate into English called 25 Beautiful Walks - Walking Trails of the Greater Reykjavík Area (if you click on the red "Smelltu hér"link under the large image of the book, you will get a PDF preview. The book can be purchased here.)

I agree with this Iceland Review book review that additional info could have been added for non-locals, but I also agree that it is overall a very informative and enjoyable trail guide for just about anyone, local or intrepid guest.

If it's ICESAVE info you're looking for, here's a video recap from 2010 and here is a statement from the Government of Iceland to the world.

p.s. I'm really happy with the big new photo size on Iceland Eyes! Unfortunately, I can't increase the sizes of past posts without losing comments readers have made, unless someone at Flickr (ahem! Kevin : ) finds a way to make it so.

Climb

At the Reykjavik Zoo and Family Park on a beautiful spring day. (I'd rather not mention that the kid's pirate ship play feature is now sponsored by an oil company, with no less than five white signs posted along the ship's side, for all the spaced-out moms and dads to see...)

Pebbles

In macro, even the most mundane things in life show their true beauty. Here, a centimeter-sized stone, one of untold millions that provide softer landings in Icelandic playgrounds, does just that.

Harpa

The final touches on the Harpa concert hall are being put into place for the May 4th opening show with Vladimir Ashkenazy directing the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra.

This immense and oddly-angled building, which hunkers at the eastern edge of the Reykjavik harbor, was part of a grand pre-crash scheme to redesign the city center as an international center of finance. The award-winning Danish Bjarke Ingels Group of architects (be sure to visit their website because it is very cool) was commissioned to design a global headquarters for Landsbankinn bank, which Ingels himself said he was excited about in his TED lecture until he found out the bank had gone bankrupt in October 2008. Watch this video from 2007 to get a visual on the once-grand plans for the Reykjavik harbor area and also for a virtual tour of the hall itself.

The big question, then, post-crash, was whether or not construction should continue on the concert hall, which is also to be used as a conference center. After much debate, construction did continue and today I think we are all fairly excited to see the finished results. (There is still some grumbling at the cost of cleaning the hall's thousands of individual panes of glass, a whopping 8 million króna or $70,000 a year.)

Saga films has been documenting the building process since 2007, and you can watch a clip from the film online, though it is untexted and in Danish (the Henning Larsen Architecture group designed the glass exterior in concert with the Icelandic Danish-born Icelander Olafur Eliasson.)

Conceptually, this is a gorgeous design and I think we are all hoping that, when finished and glistening like a multi-faceted jewel in waters of the bay, it will live up to it's lofty aspirations.

Snow

An icy mountain, only millimeters high, casts a tiny shadow in the late morning winter sunshine.

Evening

A lovely blue winter sky (with the moon and a just-visible Jupiter below it) decorate the backyard of the internationally recognized Icelandic Nikita brand clothing store on Laugavegur. In winter, the store's owner, Heiða Birgisdóttir holds all-ages snowboarding competitions in this yard, and in the summertime the half-pipe in the left-hand corner of the picture lines with skaters big and small. Some amazing concerts have been held here as well, including Icelandic wonders GusGus and the very amazing Agent Fresco.

Gods

Gods on Mount Esja

Belief in gods arises from visions like this on the side of Mount Esja today.

Two faces peer out across the Faxaflói bay, disturbing my sensibilities and reminding me that it's not man in all our chaotic, often destructive, glory who owns this world, but some force we cannot understand. Painted in snow on a volcanic mountainside, this portrait of a man and creature lasted only as long as the incoming fierce storm permitted, and was witnessed by those who thought to look up, to look out a window, to see the world outside.

...and for our Bjössi, who recorded as biogen, and has passed: rest in peace, dear man.

Palms

...with Egypt on our minds while strolling through Perlan.

Amazingly, I found a book entitled Egypt and Iceland in the Year 1874, actually written in 1874 and published online in its original format. At first glance, it looks to be a 299-page travelogue written by a certain Bayard Taylor (1825 - 1878.) An absolute gem of historical knowledge!

For the more geologically minded, here is an article on the impact of the 1783 Láki fissure (Lákagígar) eruption on life in Egypt.

Regardless of any odd connections that we may have had in past centuries, though, today there is this one simple message that Iceland Eyes would like to send to the people of Egypt, one of the oldest recorded civilizations on our planet Earth:

Respect.

(Parliament member Birgitta Jónsdóttir made sure yesterday in a Q & A session that Iceland's stance in Egypt's current affairs was clearly identified. You can read more about it here. )

Skuld

One of the beautiful mythological works at the Einar Jónsson Museum. Einar was Iceland's master sculptor of the last century, and the museum, located just to the west of Hallgrímskirkja, is a lovely piece of art deco architecture designed by the artist himself. This sculpture, named Skuld, or Fate, and many others can be found in the garden behind the museum, which was once his private residence.

Please also take a look at the web site of a friend of mine, Hrafnhildur Arnadóttir, who was recently awarded the Nordic Award in Textiles and who has shown her work at New York MoMA, on the top floor at 7 World Trade Center and as a Macy's NYC window display. She has also created pieces for Björk, Lady Gaga and Nike.

She presents under the name Shoplifter (as the story goes, she was trying repeatedly to pronounce her name for someone at a loud party in New York and all that person could hear was "shoplifter"...the name stuck), and is as eclectic and colorful in person as the exciting works she creates.

Regarding politics (but why bother?) read about our latest fiasco here, and some background details on the hopes Iceland, and observers out in the real world, had placed on a generally-elected Constitutional Assembly. Those hopes are dashed, and somehow it feels as though some certain fate is sealed.