Park

Here's where the washing was done up until the late 1920's when the Reykjavik finally piped steaming hot ground water into the city center. Women lugged their dirty loads the 3 kilometer distance from downtown to Laugardalur, Hot Springs Valley, walking Laugarvegur, or Hot Springs Road. Going out there and reading the info plaques about what laundering was like and how it was all done less than a hundred years ago helps to put things into perspective . We've come a long way...(Here's a good link if you want to read more about Iceland's more innocent version of dirty laundry)

When we pulled up to the entrance to the Laugardalur botanical gardens this past weekend, just by the little zoo and skating rink, I saw some skinny young badass hanging about at the edge of the parking lot looking all jittery and expectant in his cool sunglasses and swanky sneakers. Two cars pulled up for whatever he was peddling in the time it took me to park and guess his game. By the time the third car was pulling away, the kids had run ahead of me into the gardens and the skittery, embarrassed-looking dealer knew that he'd been made by a 'suburban' mom. So just to bug him I called out in English Dude, you are So obvious and smirked. I know, he replied as he sheepishly jogged away, I know.

Times change.

Play

Play, originally uploaded by blue eyes.

Our beautiful Eva Guðrún Gunnbjörnsdóttir presented her graduation production for the Theatre: Theory and Practice department at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts on Saturday.

The play, Pósteria, was written, designed and directed by Eva, who also acted the role of a sweetly ignorant, hopeful, frustrated, underpaid and disturbingly gullible post office worker (seen here at the beginning/end of the play reading a Cosmo quiz for her coworkers.) It was a painfully truthful, quirky and very funny look at the modern day feminist dilemma, full of awkward and loaded silences interspersed with roars of energized rebellion against the roles women adapt to and, often all too willingly, adopt. Cyclical, contained, explosive, sentimental, ironic and shyly childish, the play is like growing up, coming of age, becoming an adult in a world we don't quite understand, even if any number of subtle (and not so subtle) clues are left here and there to form and guide us. It asks What if I don't get it? What if I don't want to take part? How does this secret happiness thing work? What do you want me to do!? and leaves us with enough thoughtful detail to help us form our own, very personal answers.

Congratulations, Eva. Wonderful stuff!

Blooms

Springtime in Reykjavik, with pretty blooms and hints of blue skies, is finally here after our long winter of discontent.

New life is pulsing, quickening, in the warming earth and in our hearts. Elections have brought hope to many that our little island nation will survive our recent disgrace and grow again, if ever so humbly. We can't escape our pasts but are forced instead to review missteps, misdeeds, selfish living and a collective disconnect from the land we live on. But Nature, in her wisdom, always grants a new spring, a new chance to plant and nurture, sow and reap. The lessons never go away. They are revisited on us until we get them right, until we learn to cherish, selflessly, all that truly matters in our lives. What we run from comes back to us in ways we never imagined, offering new chances to bloom, and to grow.

Tower

You've all read this Vanity Fair article about Iceland's crash, yes? Here's the tower Michael Lewis refers to. It's glorious, shiny and very very empty...

By the way, Mr. Lewis nails us in many ways, but yes, we do have more than ten or twenty names in circulation here, and no, not too many SUVs have been blown up and sorry, but even the women here can be stubborn and bumbling and inexcusably, unapologetically aggressive when in public.

It's a space thing: Dr. Seuss' Zax anyone? (and the Zax's even agreed to disagree, and not barge into each other sans eye contact, a disturbing local phenomenon for those from more cultured cultures.)

Atlantis

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," as Keats put it and to be boldly truthful, the resort casino down the beach from the ashram was a daily draw. Great pools and aquariums abounding with local sea life, the overly-manicured landscaping and the immense hotel structures towering over the gentle Paradise Island beaches testified to the human will to tame nature and erect monuments to the gods of engineering and ingenuity.

It was very worthwhile to saunter over for immersion in American family-vacation reality, a big reminder that while daily silence, yoga and meditation are a way of life, humanity in all it's baseness and glory doesn't disappear in the meantime, and that we're all in this life thing together. In other words, those little trips (along with forays into urban, decaying Nassau) proved that Oneness, Service and Compassion are always the order of the day.

All that, and a daily double latte to boot.

Way

Paths wind through the ashram foliage, yours to choose.

Here you are not an accumulation of all you've been, but an unfolding of pure potential at every moment.
 

Doves flow through this compact jungle, cooing the name of Sumer's goddess, Hu.
 

If you step softly you may even hear the soft rustle of a swami's orange robes on a path nearby, or the gentle chanting of students in their morning meditations.



Here you stretch your heart to the sun, on a beach, by the trees...
 

...and meet like-minded souls over shared meals.
 

And, of course, there's always the sea...
 

Paradise

Paradise, originally uploaded by blue eyes.

The dock at another little island in the Atlantic, called Paradise.

Keflavik to New York to Miami to Nassau and onto a small boat and suddenly you're there, at the ashram for a week of sun, kirtan, asanas and silence. Your mind stills, and all the pains of yesterday are washed away in the warm and salty sea.

Kaffi

One of Kaffismiðja Ísland's owners, Sonja Grant, is refilling her grinders with fresh toasty beans, roasted on location in a fantasy-pink coffee roaster at the most cozy café in town. The location is sweet, the coffee amazing and barista Hjörtur makes the perfect drink every time.

Be their guest: stop by, order something warm and inspiring, flip through the selection of classic vinyl, put something on the turntable, have a seat, sigh happily, smile, and enjoy.

Sushi

On Laugavegur, just above the intersection with Skólavörðurstígur, is SushiBarinn, a tiny jewel of the Orient tucked unobtrusively in between a café and the walled off carcass of a house slated for demolition/renovation. It's easy to miss, and looks from the outside as if it would be ridiculously impossible for more than one or two people to sit inside at a time, but appearances deceive. Inside it somehow expands to accommodate, and provides a small bubble of meditative respite from the hustle outside. And the sushi is excellent too.

March

Sunny, snappy, at turns gusty and calm. We're living and loving here, facing our transformation, unsure of our direction but fully aware of our need to change. Old patterns and habits no longer suffice.

Kiddie steps into our future are called for: constant, without hesitation, at times wobbly, but always looking forward with joyous expectancy, adventure, anticipation.

Bridge

Our version of the Golden Gate, spanning the Ölfusá river at Selfoss. Not so majestic, but pretty on a winter's evening.

Sunset

sunset, originally uploaded by blue eyes.

Oh, poor little island...so many things are exposing in this, the twilight, of our millennial glory. It's all we can do to keep the love lights shining in the face of so much freshly raked muck. If it's more disaster/recession/meltdown content you're looking for, search other sites. Iceland Eyes stays neutral and seeks, as always, to find the shine of beauty in our world, made all too common, all too often, by the squabbles and pettiness of men.

Find something beautiful today and give it your love.

Lopi

This photo is an homage to the person who created the very nifty kids pink wool one-piece that we saw hanging in the Red Cross charity shop on Laugavegur.

It's one of a kind, or at least I've never seen this particular design before. Someone knit this with dedication and a loving hand for a child who outgrew it and has moved on. Maybe it even passed through a family, a klatch of sisters and cousins who inherited it for a winter or two, snuggled or itched in it, loved it or suffered it, until their arms poked too far out the sleeves and their ankles got too exposed, and then it was conveyed on. Decidedly unfashionable, it was finally relegated to the second-hand heap, stuffed into a plastic bag, donated to a good cause, and delivered to the storefront for a chance at a new life where it has maybe already found itself a small winter body to warm.

Calm

Today a new Prime Minister takes over, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (definitely check out the link about her...very cool stuff!)

The Pots and Pans revolution (protestors banged on kitchenware incessantly for days outside the House of Parliament) that took place over the past two weeks was a resounding success in that the sitting two party coalition collapsed under its own weight, making room for a politcal shuffling. Not everyone is happy with the new government (hi Dad!) but the fact that the old *regime* folded so easily must say something about how tenuous the parties' collaboration had become.

Iceland is still in a muddle, and it seems that every day some news of corruption or of ethically unsound business practice is floating to the surface like so much pond scum. The Guardian revealed this week that Iceland may be fast-tracked into the EU which is cool, but a fairly humbling kind of continental triage.

The good news is, though, that Iceland is really inexpensive now, as this LA Times article nicely describes. Pack your bags and we'll see you all soon!

Day Two

For more about the current tensions here in Reykjavik, please go to IcelandReview Online. I, frankly, don't know what to say...

Damage

Police in riot gear block the entrance to the Parliament while protestors toss what they can, including paint, milk, yogurt, eggs and cans at the house. Iceland is in full on protest against the sitting government, demanding they step down, or at least admit some measure of culpability in Iceland's recent economic meltdown.

Glow

Glow, originally uploaded by blue eyes.

We've been dusted again with a light snow though the threatened super-cold snap has yet to show. These grasses in front of the Government House on Lækjargata have got it made, gathered as they are around the heat of a flood lamp. Even in the coldest dark, they seem to suggest, a warming glow can be found.

Thanks to all who took part in the voting. We doubled my tally in just under forty eight hours, and now the polls are about closed. We didn't win, but we showed strength and hope. That's democracy in action!

Iceland!

Iceland !, originally uploaded by blue eyes.

Iceland Eyes is a finalist in the 2008 Weblog Awards in the Best European Blog category! I just found out today and voting ends tomorrow, so cast your vote HERE for your favorite Icelandic Photo blog, Iceland Eyes!!

And thanks to whoever nominated me...what an amazing compliment! Of course, it's all about you, faithful readers...big thanks for all the support you've given me over the past four years!!

On a more important note, my prayers are with those suffering in the Gaza region. This blog has stayed intentionally politically neutral over the years, but in this case I think it's important to keep in perspective that there are innumerable events and situations the world over that need to have the light of global awareness shined upon them. A blog contest may seem frivolous in comparison, but the fact of blogs is that they have given voice to millions, and have helped to engage the shift of consciousness that we are all, as world citizens, now experiencing.

We are all in this together...there is no separation.

Light

All the emails, all the love from around the world, readers who wonder if we're still alive, surviving and I'll answer here a resounding Yes. The lights are still on in Iceland, we've eaten well over the holidays and as I write hundreds of thousands of króna worth of fireworks are going off in celebration of the 13th day of Jól. Christmas is over, the last santa goes back to the hills, the decorations come down, but the glowing soul of our nation shines on.

New

Happy New Year to All!

May you blaze forth into a Prosperous Future in 2009.

(photo of the Ægisíður New Year's Eve brenna, or huge annual bonfire, courtesy of Dan and Addy)