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A Big Hello from California!

(note girl on Paul Bunyan's foot)

More soon...

Kalifornia!

We're in Cupertino in the Golden State, swimming, soaking in the sun, shopping like there's no tomorrow (or like there's many to come in Expensive Iceland!), and bonding with the wildlife (turtle doves, lizards, deer, programmers.) Blogging has and therefore will be spotty in the coming month...We do have some pix to show though, so be sure to check in every once in a while for updates from the Great West Coast, aka the Edge of The Modern World.

Sincerely Sunkissed and Stoked,
Maria and Valentina

Adventure

We went River Rafting!!! And we had sooo much fun! The picture to the right is not of our group, but is a great shot of the Green Room Rapids on East Glacial River, or Austur Jökulsár, in North Iceland. This river is rated a 4+, meaning it's not for the weak of heart. There were nine of us who went together, and along with a group of 16 Italians, we were split into four rafts with six people each plus a guide.

Our raft went down the Green Room rapids last, and we totally wiped out! Gulli, shown here on the left (looking like a MIR space station veteran) almost died...he was stuck under water in an obnoxious whirl pool so long that he is actually reassessing this whole being alive thing and thanking the River Gods Mightily for letting him keep on taking part in it.

We had a Super Great Extreme Rafting experience, despite how scared we were while being tumbled like so many socks in a washing machine. I know we'd all like to thank the Excellent guide crew at Activity Tours for making us laugh and for telling us we could Do This River as long as we stayed focused and remembered, above all, the immortal message written on the back of the best guidebook in the Galaxy: Don't Panic. We all touched Nature and found a far too neglected Core of Courage in our hearts during our four hours on the river.



We're all here in Svarfaðaldalur tonight, just south of the Arctic Circle, looking out past Eyjafjörður at the Midnight Sun as it dips it's toes in the North Atlantic and we're glad to be alive and happy to be together.


A very perfect weekend.

Pink

This cute little store, called Frú Fiðrildi (or "Madame Butterfly"), is located on Ingólfstræti, just off Laugavegur, the main shopping street in Reykjavík. Its absolutely filled with charming things, from sparkly butterfly pins to fluffy pillows, candles, statues, glasses, decorative baskets and all things pink.

Shop owner Ingibjörg, whose son Breki is Valentina's classmate, puts out little dishes of cookies for her guests, and welcomes them to relax on cushy chairs and enjoy the atmosphere, old fashioned tea-time style. This store is a must for anyone who adores precious things, so do drop in and see if you don't end up finding a gift for someone you love.

Bridge

Hvít = White
Á = River

Valentina cartwheels across the Old Bridge over Hvítá. This one-lane bridge just off the main highway that runs around around Iceland (the Ring Road) used to be frequented by buses loaded with travelers going through the Reykholt region, and was built at the site of an important ferry crossing for the area. My mom remembers how scary it was going over the tiny bridge in a towering bus, and how at the west side of the bridge the travelers would stop for refreshments at a small inn. Now the bridge is hardly ever used. It hasn't, though, lost any of its charm.

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.

Sheep Crossing

Another charming scene from our road trip...these beasts were being herded across the main island road by a whole family, three generations, all in rubber boots.

We stopped and waited patiently, which is more than some townies do these days. They just can't wait to get to their rented weekend houses, so they barrel through the landscape at high speeds in their SUVs to get to where they're going and have a few more hours to relax. The irony.

There were three or four kids in the group, so we waved to them and smiled. They seemed a little surprised at first, but eventually waved back shyly. Then my mom told Valentina about going out to the country when she was her age. She said she and her cousins would sit by the side of the main road, sometimes for hours, waiting for a car to go by. When they saw one kicking up the dirt on the far distance (the main roads were of course dirt in the early Fifties) they'd jump up and down and wave and call out "Hello! Hello! Hello!" She said it was sometimes their most exciting game.

Oh, here's an Iceland Eyes entry about Road Sheep. If your going to drive here, you've got to watch out for them!