Winter Isn't Made For Sleeping

I would have thought, given the darkness, overly heated, cozy homes, and twinkle lights in all the windows that I would sleep like a baby here in the winter. In the summer there is so much to do, and the constant light allows adventures to be had at all hours, so it isn't too much of a surprise that I don't sleep much then. Whether I can attribute it to residual jet lag or travel adrenaline or what, I don't know, but I'm not getting much sleep in the winter either. And when I am sleeping it isn't at the times I want to be sleeping. Shortly after finishing my first blog entry on Monday night, the Erins and I were going to attempt to get some shut-eye. After very effortful and useless attempts to sleep we decided drinking might help. We made our way to the kitchen for some cocktails and instant mashed potatoes, which we consumed while watching videos of people falling off of hover boards on YouTube.

Being responsible adults, we decided around 3:30am to try to sleep again. Much tossing and turning ensued, but eventually we all did sleep...a whole 6 hours, during which I woke up at least a half a dozen times.

Tuesday, once we had pried ourselves out of our beds, we walked up the block to Hallgrimskirkja. A light, wet snow had fallen overnight and people were making little snowmen all over the place.

Our goal was to go to the top of Hallgrimskirkja (there is an elevator) from which you can see the whole city, and even farther on a clear day. Sadly for us, every other útlendingur (foreigner) in the country decided that would be a good time to go to the top of the tower too. The line was unreasonably long and the elevator only takes 6 people up at a time, so we decided to go do something else. Our impatience won out over the opportunity for a cool view. I'd been up there before one gorgeous day in the summer time so I didn't feel too terrible about missing it this time. We grabbed coffee and tea from Reykjavik Roasters. I ended up paying 590 kronur for what was basically hot water, as the dummies that were working that day didn't steep my dang tea long enough. #disappointed

Don't wanna know

Pretty snowy trees

We took our hot drinks into the Einar Jónsson sculpture garden next to the church. There are some interesting works there, and the lovely snowfall made it festive and fun. There may have been a snowball thrown.















Another trip to the grocery store followed. In our sleep deprived state the day before we didn't exactly get a nutritious selection of items. We bought a few fruits and veggies and some actual food to add to our stock of cookies, candy and chips back at the apartment. It was slightly sunny when we walked out of the grocery store, so we walked down to the harbor and had a little selfie session with Esja in the background. The Erins had made me leave the selfie stick I brought back at the apartment that morning, but boy were they sorry now.

In the mid-afternoon on Tuesday we had a kaffi timi set up with Almar Grímsson, the former head of the Snorri Program Foundation. He is known as Afi Almar to many past Snorris. I've met him several times at various events in Iceland, Canada and Minnesota. When I saw him in Gimli this past summer we chatted about setting up a time to meet when I was visiting Iceland this winter. He and his wife planned a lovely kaffi time with delicious pönnukökur, vinarterta, and other tasty treats at their home in Hafnarfjörður. The Erins and I got a ride there, and to our surprise several other people connected to the Snorri Program arrived as well. My very best surprise that visit was getting to see Almar's grandson Kjartan and his girlfriend Hafdís, who worked with me at the Icelandic Camp in Gimli this past July. It was a very fun and cozy visit.

We were given a ride back into 101 Rekjavik and immediately had to drop off our stuff and head to the grocery store (again!) to meet Erin's cousin Oli and his girlfriend Sólrún. They were going to make pizza for us, but we went with them to get the ingredients first. I've seen the inside of Bonus supermarkets more this trip than I have in about 3 trips combined. Oli and Sólrún made us really great pizza from scratch and we sat around and chatted and laughed and for some reason ended up watching clips of MMA fights. It was one of those things I just couldn't look away from, train wreck style. I may have actually cheered for some of the fighters.

Another sleepless night followed. I lay awake from the time we got home around midnight until nearly 5am. The other girls were sound asleep hours before and I thought pretty seriously about accidentally waking them up so I had someone with whom I could commiserate. I did finally fall asleep and then Erin Johnson and I slept until noon.

We started our day today (better late than never) with a trip to the local pool. The public nudity in the changing rooms barely even makes me blink anymore. We spent a lovely time in the outdoor hot pots. The contrast between the chilly air and the warm water is delightful.

This afternoon we did a little shopping and walking around. I love that I have been here enough times and have met enough people that I actually run into people I know on the streets of Reykjavik. When we were out tonight the Erins and I ran into Egill Helgason, who is a journalist and TV personailty here in Iceland. He created the Vesturfarar documentary series about Iceland emigration to Canada and the US (the one I got you for Father's Day, dad). I got to meet him for the first time this past May at the INL Convention. He remembered us and introduced us to his young son, who looks just like him.

My cousin Selma, who has graciously let me stay at her apartment on other visits came over for dinner. She made her world famous guacamole, which Erin Jones requested with great verve. We made soft shell tacos to accompany the guacamole and it all turned out perfectly. After dinner, Selma generously offered to drive us to a grocery store outside the city center which was still open (yep, that's another grocery store visit on the books). We had to get ingredients for the items we were asked to bring to the New Year's Eve dinner at Asta Sol's house tomorrow evening.

Around 9:30pm the Erins and I decided to take a little walk, hoping to see some of the premature fireworks that we have been hearing for the last couple of days. People are starting to get geared up for the big show tomorrow night and are testing some of their stock. Of course, once we got down towards the water front we couldn't actually see any of the booms we were hearing. The sky was clearing though, and we hoped we might get lucky enough to see some Northern Lights, but no dice. We walked for about two hours, in and around Harpa, Tjörnin, and neighborhoods near downtown. It was a chilly walk, but I relished the activity and the fresh air. I've been feeling a little cooped up this trip.

Sólfar statue and you can faintly see the Imagine Peace tower lit up in the sky behind it

Harpa, all decked out

Tomorrow we don't have any particular plans during the earlier part of the day. We have the dinner at 6pm or so, followed by a (potential) city bonfire, the annual comedy show on TV, FIREWORKS, and then a big party to go to in Seltjanarnes. Should be a good time. If anyone wants to see the Icelandic fireworks, you can see them live at mila.is around 6pm Minnesota time. You can guarantee I'll be staring up at them in the sky, slack-jawed and possibly crying tears of joy.

Reykjavik: Lights Out

I'm back! Back in Iceland and back on the internets to blog about it. I'm currently sitting in the kitchen of the cozy downtown Reykjavik apartment that we are renting for the week. The kitchen table is doubling as my writing desk. The view out the third story window is of Hallgrímskirkja's dramatic tower. I'm pretty fond of it and I'm hoping it does something to inspire my writing on this trip. 

When Erin Johnson and I arrived in Iceland yesterday morning around 8:30, tired and bedraggled, wanting nothing more than to sleep, it was pitch damn dark and absolutely pouring rain. The rain in Iceland I'm used to, but the darkness here is new for me. I've been here 4 times before in the summer when the sun never/barely sets, so while I was expecting the winter darkness on this trip, I had never experienced it firsthand. The dark is far more off-putting than I thought it would be. 9am...9:30...10am passes, and still it is almost middle-of-the-night black. Finally around 10:15 yesterday I noticed the sky brightening, turning gradually more grey. There is really only about 4-5 hours of true daylight at this time of the year, though from what I can tell most of it is cloud covered. The reality of it is far stranger than I would have thought. I keep looking at the clock and thinking it should be much later than it is.

"Sunrise" a little before 11am

So, on day one, Erin and I arrived in Reykjavik after having taken the Fly Bus in from the airport. We dropped our bags off at a friend's house until our apartment was ready for us to check-in and went to wander the dark, incredibly icy streets looking for an open coffee house. It was a rather apocalyptic view as we walked around the city. Not one I was used to. The only people we saw shuffling around in the dank morning were other visitors; people I recognized from our flight, and one lonely trash collector, making the rounds with his truck. Normally this would not be a problem, as Erin and I are both pretty familiar with the city streets and various business locations. Apparently at 9:30 on a Sunday morning the week after Christmas almost nothing is open. We finally stumble into a shop that looked open. It looked like a guesthouse breakfast buffet room and so we asked a man behind the desk if we could buy breakfast. Our companions in the cozy little room were a group of young men that had been on our flight from Minneapolis, a woman who may or may not have worked there that was drinking beer and wearing a beret, and the semi-surly proprietor. We had what ended up being a great breakfast and then walked back over to our friend's house to chat and wait for the apartment to be ready. Other Erin (Jones) joined us, and soon after we were able to get settled in the apartment. 

Our jet lag was crushing, as neither of us had slept for even a second on the plane, but we managed to go to the nearby grocery store and stock up on a few things before taking a several hours long nap. We made spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner (well, Erin Johnson did) and then we just sat around reading and chatting for several hours. Erin Jones lives here in Iceland now and is getting a degree in Icelandic language, so we had some catching up to do.

Here is where the adjustment to the time difference gets interesting/annoying. We went to bed at a completely respectable hour. It couldn't have been later than 11:30pm. I don't think I've ever gone to sleep that early in Iceland. "What a marvelous night of sleep we would get!" (We foolishly told each other). "We'll wake up fairly early in the morning and start a day of adventuring!" We could feel the excitement building. Reykjavik was ours for the taking!

How naive we were. At 2:30am Erin Johnson and I woke up and could not get back to sleep. We were wide awake, tossing and turning and swearing. We finally turned on the lights and read for an hour. Around 5am we finally went back to sleep, promising, "We'll get up around 10am at the latest. We want to get up and take advantage of the daylight hours." At 1pm we woke with a start, and more swearing ensued. Not our intention to sleep through half the day. In our defense, that's 5am at home.

Erin's cousin Oli came to visit as we were getting ready for the day. We went to walk around downtown with him as he did some shopping. Christmas lights are strung up everywhere and a soggy sleet/snow began to fall. It was incredibly festive and pretty dang crowded. We went to one of my favorite places, the City Hall, where they had a small Christmas display, and dumdumdum...! The big map! I love the big map. I've waxed poetic about it in previous posts, so I won't go on about it this time. We also saw the town Christmas tree. Usually the city of Oslo, Norway sends a tree to Iceland. This year (and also last year) the tree they sent got damaged in a storm when they put it up for display, so ended up replacing it with a local tree. Rumor has it that Norway is done sending trees. After our shopping and walking adventure we stopped at Te og Kaffi to have tea and coffee. It was getting dark by this time, and we had to head back to the apartment to regroup for our dinner plans. 

Ice skating rink set up in one of the town squares

City Hall Christmas display

Big map!

Christmas tree

Erin Johnson's cousins Ingibjörg and Reynir, along with the rest of their family in Reykjanesbær were going to have us over for dinner. Ingibjörg picked us up near the apartment and drove us out there (practically back to the airport). We had a delicious leg of lamb dinner and great conversation. I'm not good at speaking Icelandic, but I do understand a fair amount, so was happy with the level at which I was able to follow the conversation. I wish I knew more, but I guess it isn't bad considering that I don't get the chance to learn it with any regularity. We enjoyed a great evening with the family and then Ingibjörg drove us back. Now we're settled in at the apartment again, getting ready for bed as snow sporadically flies outside our windows. It was a good day, even if we did get a terribly late start. 

Tomorrow we are going to go either to the pool or to the Reykjavik City museum,  Árbæjarsafn. We have plans to visit with our Snorri afi, Almar Grimsson, in the late afternoon.