Iceland @ MindSay

Keflavik is known for two things - the proximity to the International Airport that is used as a hub by the major airlines that come to Iceland, and the no-longer present NATO base.  NATO closed up shop here a couple of years ago which sparked fears of a housing glut and job losses as all the base housing would soon be public.  Instead, the area was transferred to a local college and what was NATO and a US Naval Air Station is now a campus!  New apartments here in Keflavik (the town at the foot of the hill on which the old airbase sits) are going up and Sigga tells me the immigrant population is rising as many come for construction jobs.  Personally I'm surprised this little burgh isn't more popular with people from the capital, Reykjavik, which is just 40 miles or so away from here.  No traffic, no bustle, beautiful views, and wonderful fishing history.

The school I visit is in neighboring  Njardvik which is literally just a mile down the road from Keflavik and is also a waterfront fishing village.

This Reykjanes peninsula of Iceland juts out of the SW corner of the mainland of Iceland and is geologically pretty active with underground volcanic vents.  It is the home of the Blue Lagoon and some of the steam vents pipe hot water all the way to the capital city.  Sigga had joked with me on my first visit that a local mayor was the one behind a lot of expense being put into road projects and public art (sculpture).  He was, if I recall, refered to as the "roundabout mayor" due to the number of roundabout encountered when you reach this area, many with fountains and sculptures in the center of them and very attractive brick work on sidewalks and crosswalks.  This has resulted in my observation that this is the town of 'tiny dancers', as listening to the cars drive over the pavers with their steel studded winter tires is like listening to a dozen tap dancers gone wild.

Where was I?  Oh, yes!  A stroll through town down to the small harbour and then back along the seawall.

 

First encounter is this interesting wall mural on the side of a building that now houses an art gallery for local aritsts.  It appears to honor the women working shoreside with the catch as their husbands are out to sea :

 

Down at the harbour itself, where the restaurant and Duus' Mariner's museum I mentioned yesterday is located, there is this ship.  I guess you could say it has been caught on the wrong side of the rocks, LOL! 

A brief google of the boat's name seems to bring up a local news item refering to the Duus museum - I'm guessing the museum which sits on the opposite side of the parking lot out of site to the left of this picture, agreed to place the fishing boat at a permanent mooring here at the beginning of what is a sea-walk under construction.  A temporary gangway is nearby as is electrical wiring indicating it will be accessible once all is in place :

 

Now turning a walking back eastward towards the town, the first memorial has a plaque in Icelandic so I can't say what it is about, other than it appears to honor the lives of 3 or 4 local fishermen lost at sea in 1930.

Maybe the ship was recovered but not the men and this was its anchor? :

 

 

Meanwhile, a trawler exits the harbour and heads into the bay - I cropped the high resolution image to create the header, the detail of the snowy cliffs 20 miles eastward are amazing and something I was not even focusing on! :

 

The same ship as framed from within a link of the anchor above :

 

Cotinuing up the seawall walk there is a park area between it and the local street about 100 feet away with picnic tables and bbq pits.  In the center is this sculpture that I found someone on-line had identified as

"Anchor Boat" - modern sculpture is very popular here in Iceland with some very unique takes on the shapes

of things like viking ships and birds (more about that in a minute!) :

 

Way off in the distance is an aluminum plant.  Out in the bay there was a small craft.  Somewhere in the direction of both came the repeated loud BOOMS! of something.  It wasn't large enough to be a trawler,

so I didn't think the little boat might be using cannons to fire netting over a school of fish.  But I was unaware

of any excavations going on in the area that might be using explosives either.  After taking this picture and then

seeing it high rez, I noticed that they lone guy on it, appears to be a lone gunman!  WTF? :

 

The boat does have orange marking, and the man has an orange jumpsuit, and a half hour later or so I

spied this ship coming out of another harbour.  This second ship is clearly a training vessel for the

Icelandic Coast Guard (with the loss of the US NAS, they now have fewer resources for sea rescues), complete with orange markings and men and women in orange jumpsuits - I'm not going to even hazard

a guess what the lone gunman/ICG man was doing out there!

 

Back into 'town' there is a small inlet with several tourist boats as well as a few commercial fishing trawlers.  Summer is whale watching season and this one, appropriately named, is the local charter for excursions :

 

Also nearby, peering over the seawall, I spotted this little natural cove, with the very distinctive shapes

of molten lava etched into it :

 

On other nearby rocks sat some of Reykjanes Peninsula's largest population, Cormorants.  I've yet to see

any Puffins, but Cormorants?  I seen plenty!  I guess they are revered for their fishing abilities and maybe even as guides for fishermen since they will be found bobbing on the water and diving for their catch.  I contemplated a silly thought and searched on google only to be disappointed - look for "bird rising from the ashes" and you get references to the Pheonix.  Try "bird rising from the water" (or ocean, or depth, or sea) and you don't get cormorant.  Oh well.

So, little wonder that some artist decided to do a modernistic appreciation of them to be set here on

the shore complete with its own yet to be completed spotlights :

Dixie currently feels:

COLD 

 

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IT'S SO BLOODY COLD.

March is SUPPOSED to be the first month of spring!

 

It certainly doesn't feel that way.

 

I'm sat in my bedroom, I've just had a shower - a really warm shower... Ahhh, heavenly bliss, it was.

I get out, put on my robe, and come in here.

 

NO HEATING, NO RADIATOR.

The coldness smacks against my wet self - and makes me SHIVER.

 

I had to walk up to school today in HAILSTONES.

With NO COAT.

 

Fine, it's England - it's only about... 2 degrees?

Fine, in Canada, Iceland, Russia, Scotland - it'll be in the minuses.

From -5 to -20.

 

But... ARGHHHH...

They're USED to it!

 

It's NEVER this cold in England!

 

HOW I HATE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE CHANGE.

 

Global WARMING?

More like GLOBAL FREEZING.

 

 

...Dixie needs a nice warm hug.

...Emily - where are you...?

 

I'll tell you where Emily is - or, where she bloody will be soon - packing off on a holiday and leaving me all on my Billy Todd.

How grand.

 

And she's off to bloody Florida - you know, the SUNSHINE state!

 

I'D KILL SOMEONE FOR SOME WARMTH RIGHT NOW.

 

 

Dixie is so damn jealous.

I imagine when I was a teen I worked my way though various forms of literature.  Science fiction, fantasy, greek mythology, not to mention the more realistic if just as wild stuff described by Hunter Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut and George Orwell.  I enjoyed a lot of it, stayed with science fiction for a bit longer than the others, and of course participated in the fandom of The Hobbit, by Tolkien. But I put all that behind me by the time I got to college and immersed myself in the realism of books about police, spies, Watergate and Viet Nam.

But during those earlier years I never put any of the stories I had read into any real historical context.  I never connected the dots between popular fantasy-fiction and true ancient mythology.

I bring it up today because I just got a Christmas package from my Icelandic penpals.  I am slowly learning a little about Iceland, about the language, and about the history.  I have not yet tackled the Sagas, writings of early Iceland from the era of the 10th and 11th century. 

 

But this year, I was sent a statue of Odin.

 

WHO or WHAT is Odin?  I hadn't a clue! 

Two years ago they (my trucker buddy class) related to me their story of Christmas which included an ugly troll named Gryla who steals naughty children!  And she has a cat who EATS bad kids!  She and her husband also have 13 children who have become friendly yet mischeivous and each one comes down from the mountain to leave a gift in the shoes which children  leave on windowsills.  So Icleandic Christmas involves 13 days of gift giving, starting today. Last year I received a deck of cards that held pictures of the little trolls with the great names like "bowl licker, window peeper, door sniffer, sheep worrier (ruh-roh!), and candle beggar.

 

This morning I had to turn to the great god google and learn, with help from Wikipedia, about Odin. 

Odin himself is part of legend/lore/mythology and one of the Norse Gods.  What I found fascinating in reading about him : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin , was the interconnection with several things from modern lore that I have heard mentioned, but never was able to put in any perspective.

For instance Vallhalla.  I have heard reference to it for years, and sort of lumped it with the other mythological place of El Dorado.  It was a reverential place and that was about all I knew.  Well, Odin, among his many characteristics, is a god of War, as well as of poetry, victory and the hunt.  One of his activities is to recognize the fiercest of warriors who are lost in battle.  He is assisted in this task by the princess Valkrie - another character I have heard of but never knew anything about.  Once chosen, the warrior spirits are brought to Valhalla to feast and await the final battle.  (in the final battle, Odin is victor but the world is destroyed.  From the remains of his adversary, he creates the earth (the body), rocks (teeth and bones), rivers and lakes (blood) sky (skull) and clouds (brains).  Odin then chose two trees and into them blew breath and life;  one of Odins brothers then embued them with brains and feelings; and his third brother gave them sight and hearing.  One tree was now man, named Ash, and the other was woman, named Embla and all human kind came from them. 

 

Odin is also the father of Thor.

Odin is accompianied by two ravens called Thought and Memory.

 

There are just so many incredible interconnnections you can follow from the above linked wikipedia entry it will take me days to follow them all and hopefully, gain a better understanding of the myths.  The Irish, like the Norse, have mythical characters that represented qualities and traits.  Good battled evil for things such as love, freedom, and eternal peace.  Giants in both realms were the forces of evil.  Bad men who died in Norse belief (as well as men who simply did not die heroically in battle) went to the 9th world,

 

a place called . . .

 

wait for it! . . .   

 

hel. 

You have to start reading yourself to learn that hel was a realm lorded over by Hel,

a goddess sent there by . . . Odin!

Welcome to Hel :

 

I'm going to try to not become a geek all over again, but I'm going to enjoy the next few days!

So I have made it to Montpellier, finally after months and months of planning. I left Minneapolis on a group flight taking icelandic air first to Iceland. I was super nervous about meeting these people that I would be studying with for the next 5 months. When I got to the airport i tried looking around for students that were equally sad, confused and touristy looking as I did. And sure enough, I spotted such a group, noticing the dorky touristy passeport neck purses that people wear ( I avoid this trend like the plauge, their is nothing so lame). We all introduced our selves to eachother, (there were about 13 of us that chose the group flight option). With that we began our journey to france. Like i said before our first stop was iceland. the flight from minneapolis to iceland was about 5 1/2 hours. I was really quite nice. I had a little laugh becasue the movie that we watched on the plane was "one fine day" with George Clooney and Michelle Pieffer. I wonder if they know that he's like famous now and has done other more interesting movies! lol. So when we arrived to iceland we got on another flight taking us to Paris. that was a 3 1/2 hours. And again, apparently the people of iceland are still catching up with American movies. Because our inflight entertainment was "Ground Hog Day" with Bill Murrey. Granted I love the movie, but come on now, really? that movie's like 20 years old. We ended up having a 6 hour lay over in paris, looooong! and I hate the paris airport, it is confusing as hellm its uncomfortable and their is poor sinage for lost americans. Luckly I speak french though ( I became translator girl) So i got us out of many questionable situations! We got lost, almost took our luggage when we wearnt supposed to, stood in a line that we were not supposed to for 45 mins!! and so on. We also realized just how poor we are going to be living in france. We stopped at this little cafe to get some for to eat, and it costed a fucking arm and a leg for a croisannt and a damn soda! Oh well c'est la vie! So we were 2/3rds done with our journey. My flight to Montpellier from paris was only an hour. I sat next to 2 little boys, who were so cute and rambucious amd ate this interesting salmon and avocado sandwich. When we arrived to montpellier it was like a huge amount of stress was lifted from us. We went to the bagage claim and stood waiting for our baggage, watching everyone go and grab their bags, only to realize that few U of M students were grabbing their bags. One of the airport people came to us and was like theirs no more! We thought he was kidding...he wasnt. We didnt have our baggage for our first night in Montpellier. One the airport ladies looked at us and said "Welcome to Montpellier!"...thanks bitch. After 27 hours awake, that was a great way to start our trip. We went to the hotel in taxi and my night only got better. I wasnt on the roster. So I didnt have a room....great. So to aleave my sorrows, stress and confusion, I did what any american college student would do. I went out the the bar! Me and a group of girls went in the Place de la Comedie, right next to our hotel. Its a super nice square that is full of life. It was so pretty! The whole square was lite up in white lites, it was the prettiest thing I've ever seen. And to make it better their is a huge gothic opera house that was cover in twinkling lights that said Happy New Year! We roamed the streets, taking in the sites. So every one in Montlpellier is so incredibly stylish! I love it, and I feel so incredibly underdressed! I am obbsessed with getting boots!!!! Everyone has boots, every type of boot that you could possibly imagine, and they mix them with their outfits so well. Its ridicolous. So I'm gonna buy boots, the sale season is coming up, so what better time! :) We went to a little cafe and ordered drinks. I got the most questionable drink. I was called the "tagada souin souin." Dont ask. I was the smallest drink i have ever seen in my life. It looked like a glass votive, or a candle holder. I was like pure vodka with a little strawberry syrup. and it was like 4 dollars! If I had had two of those I would have been drunk! While we were eating this guy came up to us and was like, you guys are american areant you....ah yeah? I guess he said he could tell by our eyes...ok, we'll take his word it! So I did Eventually find a place to stay. So that was my first night in montpellier. The second day we went to our new center for U of M students and did an orientation and registered for classes. It was really nice, we have computers, wireless and other stuff, qnd I registered for my classes. I'm taking a Translation course, a Grammer course, a Phonetics course, A Civilization of the South class, and a History of Communication in france class. It sounds busy but it should be nice. Later that night, the assistants took us out to dinner and they also took us to some of the hot spots of montpellier. The city is super young so their is lots to do! My friends and I decided to seperate though because we got some many stares because we looked like a ridicoulous group of tourists! So we went back to the hotel to change and then got ourselves some beer at the bar (the beer is called 1664, its good!) and then we headed out to antother bar to get some more beer! Being of age in this city is glorious! We'll I have to head to class so I'll update you on my family and my classes tomorrow! Hope everyone is doing well :) Salut!!! (Pictures will be added as soon as I get a chance to up load them!)

So I finally tried it.  Mr Thorarinsson's Dad came in from Iceland and brought this delicacy.  It's shark meat that has been buried in gravel for up to six months and left to ferment (rot).  It has the worst smell I've ever experienced...it's triple-bagged in my fridge and I can still smell it.  The first thing I noticed when I put it in my mouth was the overwhelming taste of ammonia...horrible.  At moments it wasn't too bad - it almost had a really strong goat cheese taste, but overall, it was just bad.  I liken it to tuna that has marinated in urine and ammonia for a few weeks.  I'm glad I finally got the opportunity to try it, but that is the last time.  Check my picture for my facial reaction to the actual moment.