Category: Iceland

two weeks with only 5mins of internet time to check my uni results – I did great!
heaps of photos to sort through, so much to write.
will get some stuff up in a couple of hours.

quick word to a very special chica in my life – you deserved it!

má ég taka mynd – the phrase that cames out of Birta’s mouth all the time when she sees a camera, it means may I take a photo. Over the course of the weekend, from the 200 photos I took, I estimate over half of them were taken either by Birta or her sister Silja and then sometimes as well Matthew.

All in all the weekend was a great time, the sun shined m ost of the time, the wind was always there and the grass was always green.

Our time was fillled tickling little family members, damming rivers, skimming stones at the beach, eating and singing (a lot), it was filled with laughter,

We are back at Karl’s house now and where we picked up mum’s sister Margaret who is joining us on our trip round the country.

We are off to stay with one of my aunts tonight and then off to visit the west fjords where my parents used to live.

There will be some photos appearing on /random life. over the next couple of hours.

When I next get computer access, I will try to get some more photos etc up.

Today we are heading off to where the family moot will be, with some/heaps of stops along the way.

Yesterday oh it was an adventure. (pictures are coming, still figuring out Karl’s computer, have so many I want to share)

We picked up the rental car, Since Pabbi is hopeless with directions and driving, and Mum is good with both, it meant that Pabbi had to drive ( I am not allowed to drive it, though I can navigate). Now I do know that driving in an unfamiliar place is not fun and on the other side of the road. I will not say much more other than it was one very big adventure. I will say this however, when you are told to go 3/4 of a way round a round a roundabout, that does not mean you go 1/4 of the way round.

Lupines (Lupinus nootkatensis) are an introduced plant to Iceland and in all sense are a weed like Lantana is in Australia, however at the moment the hills round the place are covered in a sea of blue. I love it!!! Why go to Texas to see bluebonnets when you can go to Iceland??? Also saw some poppies along the road as well but no where as many as the lupines.

After going to the town hall to show to Matthew, Mum and Pabbi the 3D Topographical map of Iceland that took four guys four years to make (made out of 1mm thick paper), we walked round the town a little picking up tourist brochures, we looked at part of an amazing public photo exhibition called “Faces of the North” which is photos of people from Iceland, Greenland and Faeroe Islands. When I find a link I will have to share, the photos are amazing black and whites, full of utter raw life, full of grain and contrast.

We then went back to Toti’s house where we met his family, his two little girls were quite shy at the start but after I started playing silly it was all a-ok. They are two of the most adorable girls. After eating a late lunch at 3pm, we headed over to Hafthor’s house to meet his little family for dinner at 6pm, Soley raced to meet me, I love Soley 🙂 she is full of energy and it is her mission to teach me Icelandic, it started the last time I was in Iceland when we taught each other the colours and numbers in Icelandic and English.

Her classic line of the day, why can’t you speak Icelandic at the table, I can’t understand 🙂 we all cracked up because at most tables both languages are spoken and it can be quite confusing. It is still a total crack up to see Karl speaking Icelandic.
Also met Hafthor and Sigga’s little boy Daniel, who has chicken pox at the moment, he is utterly adorable as well, had a ball playing with him and Soley. At one stage he had walked over to where the shoes were at the entryway and started playing with my pink cons so I grabbed the camera out but the little ham he is, he saw the camera and made a bee-line for it.

So many photos I want to share, one of my favs is one Matthew took on my camera of me with Silja, Birta and a girl from down the street called Kolla , all blurry because were moving but it is nice.

Anika had been given tickets to Megadeth at work yesterday and since she was unable to go she gave the tickets to Karl, Matthew and myself. Oh what a night! It was half filled with people with mullets, long hair and lots of black head banging and the rest people who had just came for a night out. Was not my kind of music at all but still it was an experience to see.

Still having troubles getting used to 24hr daylight as it is impossible to guess the time like you can back home!

Today we are going to hit up some shops, check out the grocery store (with two of us who work in grocery stores, Matthew and I always like to check out our respective departments at other stores).

Tonight I will hopefully present some photos from our trips so far.

Well we have now arrived Iceland. After many hassles
we arrived at Heathrow at 5:17am Sunday morning after sorting stuff out, Mum and Pabbi left to take the bus to Stansted, Matthew and I took the tube into Kings Cross Station and then walked a good 2.5km as the crow flies but looking at the map closer to 4km to get to Liverpool street station to get the rail express out to Stansted airport. We arrived at the Liverpool station at 9am, after probably taking an hour or so to walk the distance including a stop to get McMuffins for breakfast and readjusting our packs on our shoulders.
Yeah that is right, we walked with packs on our back and our daypacks on our front – and my bag is more of a sports duffle bag, which I was using the straps as arm straps – I have nice red marks on my shoulder from that trip as well as blisters on my feet.

We did see a very non-touristy side of London, and we were graced by not much traffic or people as not many people are up at that time of the morning.

We stumbled into Mum and Pabbi at Stansted to be told our plane to Iceland was delayed from leaving at 1pm till 5:30pm, due to technical problems – the plane had not yet left Iceland. We checked in our bags and were given our first set for meal vouchers to spend on food. So we waited and we browsed and raised our eyebrows at some of the candy and soft drinks we saw.

Some time round 4ish we hear another announcement on the PA, the plane is now delayed till 9:30pm argh!!!!! So we slept and moaned and chatted to the other people who were going to Iceland as well. Then we had another PA announcement for us all to go and get some more food vouchers and that they are very sorry for the hassle. We ended up with £56 of free food as each voucher was worth £7.

We arrived in Iceland at roughly 12:30am to be greeted by three of our brothers and a drawing from one of my nieces (Soley) saying in English that I am her best aunt 🙂 she was going to come meet us but since it was delayed it was too late for her. Can’t wait to see her and my other nieces and nephews a long with my other siblings and family tomorrow.

Now I need to go to bed and get some sleep:) from the land of the midnight sun, good night.

this post comes straight from Changi Airport in Singapore, Matthew and I are hitting up the free internet terminals – we managed to walk on to a vacant one – most have long lines. score!

We arrived safely with only a few arguments between the family. where is my boarding pass, where is my _______ etc.

Didn’t need to bring a book etc on the plane with me – I had 60 movies, 120 tv shows, 220 music albums and 12 radio stations, plus all the games.

I watched Coach Carter and Hotel Rawanda, both pretty powerful movies, manged to get up to the 500 000 pound question on who wants to be a millionaire as well.

Well we are off to find some slurpees and look at the gardens as well as checking out the very, very, very cheap booze.

Till London, Peace Up A-Town.

ETA well the 7-11 did not had slurpees <= how can they call themselves a 7-11? The subway has Iced Lemon Tea on tap! We found a super cool internet place where we have webcams and microphones as well as x-boxes and tv on request - pretty rocking! If you want to add me to your MSN List it is simply msnAThelenthuraDOTcom 🙂 the webcam is pretty cool. Though they are using IE instead of Firefox 🙁