hrefna gerður björnsdóttir would be my pen pal since the 8th grade. we met in dc in 2001 (weekend of the radiohead disaster!), which made up for ... the radiohead disaster ;). and it's only fitting visiting iceland would be my first trip outside north america.
anyhow, i've heard about her friends, family, and even pets for years, and now i finally got to meet them! i had a great time hanging out with her sister hrönn and brother björn - and adorable nephew ævar (who gave me lots of high fives!) - at their house in akureyri and at kaffi krokur, a popular hangout in sauðárkrókur for years, with alta and etla.
so - the day went like. 645 arrived at KEF. 800 or so, met hrefna and alsa, whom we dropped off in reykjavík. 1100 or so, fell asleep in the car :). 1230, got to sauðárkrókur, hung out there, drove around. visited the horses. carburetor fell off. went to the shop. eventually made it to see the siblings in akureyri around 1800. dinner. good dinner! icelandic cod :). got back to sauðárkrókur at 2200 or so, went to kaffi krokur. and then ended up cruising up and down the main street and learned the town gossip till 0100 ... after which we slept till noon the next day, headed back to reykjavík and had to say good bye :(. but i had the evening to myself, so i wandered the 1.5 km to downtown, had a nice dinner and some coffee, and stayed up all night using up my phone card calling home, ginger, emily, esther, bill munsey, et al., before leaving bright and early at 5 AM. so, a good trip overall, eh?
PICTURES
i had to take this for all my friends who are björk fans. i had promised to find her for a few folks, but instead found 'her house' ;). ha. anyway, this is the björk house in sauðárkrókur.
the view from hrönn & halgrimm's new house in akureyri. 'm quite jealous...
hrefna and ævar (ævar björn biswasit halgrimmson :))! i think he's almost 2, i believe.
ævar and his blocks...
...and the svali ball!
everybody roughhousing in the bedroom :). one big happy family! and... ævar got a hold of hrefna's hat ...
hrönn ::: he's a little picasso!
hrefna ::: no, he's a little gangster!!! :).
svali ball wars!
!!!one big happy family!!!
:D.
but alas, we had to go. but i got a tour of akureyri at night.
akureyri from above... quite a beautiful lookout.
byrja, the best ice cream in the world :).
made it back to sauðárkrókur - just in time to play with mozart who'd been lonely! he finally let me pet him that night ;).
KAFFI KROKUR
sauðárkrókur's coffeehouse/pub :).
hrefna and alta.
hrefna, erla and alta.
*YAWN* (sleep) and a sunny day ahead.
the views from hrefna's balcony.
her house & her street.
sauðárkrókur & sauðárkrókur from above.
on the drive back to reykjavík.
so we meet up with alsa in reykjavík - and they help me find some icelandic wool clothing to keep warm up here this winter :) - and before they have to leave again ... we think my camera's being difficult (as you can tell from the looks on our faces). hm. seeing as we got about 5 pictures of the two of us - three with confused looks on our faces - i think it might have been working :).
reykjavík @ night
i think i agree with hrefna and her friends - akureyri is much more fun than reykjavík, and i got an entirely stuffy feel from the people who lived there. but, i still enjoyed myself. i stayed at the fosshotel (a mix of hotel and hostel feels, and in between the two pricewise) since the hostel was booked booked booked. took a nap, then wandered out for dinner at 9 p.m. made it to the city center, and enjoyed strolling around. found some good food and coffee. and wandered back. some things i saw. oh yeah. i used to know the name of the discoverer of iceland and reykjavík, whose statue you see below, but of course i forget now and am not having the best of luck finding it on the web. but! i do remember he tossed out some sticks to see where the vikings should settle, they landed where reykjavík is today, and it was a foggy day so they named it reykjavík - smoky bay. ah - some pictures.
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