Tight

See if you can figure out what happened moments after this picture was taken...

If you answered, "the muscled-up SUV with the hyper-inflated tires can't make it past the two cars left jutting out at irresponsible angles by Icelanders who can't, or can't be bothered to, parallel park and it's a one way street, as are all of the side streets (going in the wrong direction) the SUV has already passed, and the driver wouldn't be able to back up anyway because there are at least seven cars in line behing him," you'd have answered correctly. By sheer luck of timing the owner of the silver car showed up before road rage made a mess of everyone's easy Sunday afternoon.

And the owner of the black car? I wouldn't be surprised to find out that his vehicle got a bit bumped that day as, even with the other car gone, the ferry of over-bloated highland adventure jeeps and vans that just had to drive that particular quaint street that day still had a hard time getting past the blockage.

Just another simple scene from the pretty little city of Reykjavik!

Trash

Something about this scene, even though it involves a trash can, seemed pretty to me. Probably the colors, and the idea that the owner of this double stroller has passed out of that phase of their life and is moving on. Out with the old and all that.

The city of Reykjavik has also been cleaning house recently, saying good riddance to our mayor of a year and a half due to a scandal involving a public utility and private profiteers. I'll let Iceland Review do the honors of explaining the situation in more detail. It's a complicated series of events involving power plays, money and alliances that, frankly, are beyond my desire to understand. Ahh, politics. Sometimes a simple scene like the one above and the story it seems to tell are very welcome in our often overly-convoluted civic lives.

Moths

There's a crazy number of moths flitting around town these days. I'm not sure if I've just not noticed them in previous years, or if we're having some kind of trend related to global warming and such. Kids here call them butterflies (fiðrildi), though they're technically mölfluga, or "grain flies," in Icelandic (see here for a proper description of the difference between moths and butterflies.) Since we don't have very many insects here, and really no true butterflies (except a type of small white one and Painted Ladies on occasion), kids often have little reference as to what a true temperate climate butterfly looks like, with big colorful wings and all that. The only butterfly our little one, Óðinn, has seen is the cute and smiley mascot for Baby TV, our very favorite channel to watch.

Sigur Rós

I went to the premier of the new Sigur Rós documentary, Heima, last night and it was a beautiful experience. I have my own few photos from their Reykjavik show (here and here), but I'll let the trailer to the film do all the talking. Do watch it!

I chose this photo from the Sigur Rós Iceland Tour page because my Valentína was in the audience when they played this show at Ásbyrgi. And also because the tour was for the people of Iceland, a colorful group of whom are shown here, enthralled.

Fusion

Fall's here, so I thought I'd post a photo from the last days of summer, just to remind us how wonderful we had it during the hot months this year.

Buskers and street musicians are not usually permitted to play for any amount of time on the sidewalks of Reykjavik (unfortunately) though this collaboration of young musicians was able to put in a good few hours' session of jazz. Maybe they'd gotten permission, because it wasn't the authorities that eventually drove them to pack up, but a well-tipsy local who couldn't seem to stop from getting overly involoved in what they were doing. You can see him boogying down in this shot, but in between dance moves he was trying wholehertedly to help the musicians play their instruments, much to their frustration. They had humor for it for a while, then called it a day. I'm sure the interloper has nothing but fond memories of his sunny sumer day jamming with the boys.

Irish

They poured into town yesterday and doused themselves silly in support of their hometeam, Northern Ireland. Despite their best efforts though, including liters and liters of beer, Iceland bested their boys by 2 to 1 in last night's UEFA qualifying match. It was fun, I suppose, while it lasted!

Curiousity

If J.J. Abrams does film his impending Star Trek movie here, I will have a chance to fulfill the dream of a lifetime: to take part, on screen, in the Star Trek universe. It all started when Pabbi took me to get Leonard Nemoy's autograph at the opening of a condo complex in Pacific Grove in 1974 or so. We used to watch reruns of the original show together when I was little, and I've followed every series and movie since then (I don't follow conventions and I'm not a member of the offical web site, but I love it anyway!) Just the other day I remorsed over the fact that I'd maybe never get to live my dream (even beinging a backround extra in full, unrecognizable costume would make me happy) and that a whole generation of kids (who don't have access to perpetual reruns like in the States, my daughter included) have no idea what Star Trek is all about. Now J.J. Abrams, the creater of my very favorite modern show, Alias, as well as Lost, is going to save our children from ignorance, and help me live my dream. Stoked! (note from my future self in 2011: J.J. quit on the idea, so I'm still waiting...)

On another note, I got a very sweet email from a reader who'd asked me some questions about traveling here with kids before their vacation. She's written to let me know how it went, and I thought I'd just reprint it here for everyone to enjoy. Oh, and the lambkins in the photo is a resident of the Reykjavík Zoo and Family Animal Park she mentions below:

Dear Maria,

We are back from an amazing 10 days in Iceland, most of it spent in
Reykjavik but with a couple of trips out of the city (to the Blue
Lagoon, and the Golden Circle tour with the physicists from the
conference). Thank you so much for your tips - it was even better
than we could have imagined. The weather was spectacular (best summer
in 35 years - thank you for sharing it with us), and the city is so
perfectly-sized and friendly. We went to the Family Fun Park three
times (!), and to many of the pools -- including a really wonderful
day on Saturday, when we visited Abersafn and then walked up the
river to Arbaerslaug. It could not have been more gorgeous.

We discovered a few little playgrounds around town - the one on the
green hill at the foot of Bankastraeti/Laugavegur, and the little
preschool playground at the bottom of the Tjorn. But really we had
the most fun just toodling around the city, with James on his
scooter. We were staying at a place on Ranargata, so on the first day
out we went through Ingolfstorg, which has that excellent ramp. Every
single day we had to make a pilgrimage back there, sometimes twice or
three times, so scooter-boy could do about a dozen loops on the ramp.
It was funny to encounter the other scootering kids in the mornings,
and the leather-clad bikies in the evenings.

How lucky you are to be bringing up your children in such a great
place. It reminds me in some ways of New Zealand twenty years ago; I
hope Iceland doesn't change as much as NZ has, in the ways that
aren't so good.

I was also very struck by the attitude to children, which seems very
calm and dignified and matter-of-fact and accepting. I knew Iceland
was a kid-friendly place, but I didn't anticipate how that
"friendliness" would manifest itself. Occasional scooter near-misses
were greeted with smiles (except from the occasional grouchy
tourist), and it took me a while to notice that my kids and I would
make it through the day without encountering those well-meaning but
patronising comments from adults that are so common elsewhere... I
don't know if I'm expressing myself well, here, but it seems that
much of the way children are spoken to (or about) here in the US is
either very grumpy or very sugary. In our whole time in Iceland, I
don't think anybody mentioned Toby's adorable curls or his cute
little sandals all the time we were there, or said to James "So, are
you the big brother? are you a good big brother?" I got the
impression that while children are well-loved, you'd no more talk
about somebody's children in those terms than you'd talk to or about
somebody's spouse that way. Which I love, by the way - why *do*
people pat children on the heads or on the bottom, when we don't do
that to adults?? It was fascinating... I wonder if you'd concur with
my interpretation, or whether I was just seeing things through
tourist-coloured glasses :-)

Anyway, we've been raving about the trip to all our friends, and hope
to make it back again some day. Thank you again for your tips in
advance, and I'll keep reading your lovely blog...

Jolisa