Golden Circle tripping
Yesterday we took part in one of the standard tourist activities here, and embarked on a Golden Circle trip.
The last opportunity for yours truly to sport my sexy Goretex-jacket, so we started at 8.30 AM amongst a mixed crowd of tourists from all over the world (mostly Germany). I really liked the sights, especially the Gulfoss-waterfall, but it all felt a bit flimsy compared to the scenery at the Westfjords. But this maybe was just because all the other weatherproof-plastic-clad tourists ruined the feeling of loneliness we had up west.
Wow, some nice words from Jim:
hey guys,
i donated to your site for a couple reasons. 1) it rocks and 2) i love what you’re doing. you’re an inspiration to me and i can’t say how awesome i think this concept is.
you’ve got a big fan in me, for what it’s worth.
all my best.
jim
Thanks so much!
Slowly but surely my (Marcel’s) time in Iceland is drawing to a close. I’ll be leaving from Keflavik airport on Thursday morning, arriving in Dublin somwhen in the afternoon. And as the last weekend was my last one in Reykjavik, we maybe overdid the beer and Brennivín-research on Friday and Saturday a bit, hence the radio silence on the blog over the last days. What we however kept diligently on doing was meeting Icelandic musicians.
Summer is a flimsy thing. Especially when you live in northern Europe. The days may be longer, but you get rain, cold fronts, sunburn because you forgot to bring sunblock for the 2 hours when the sun is actually shining, and in general you may not enjoy the season as much as the people living in Marseille, for example. Therefore it’s good if you have something to do inside, not depending on the weather. Even more so when the summer has reached its zenith, and the sun is out for one complete day. As it is on 21.06., or Midsummer. There are some interesting Midsummer-traditions around Scandinavia and Northern Europe, but it seems Iceland is a bit behind when it comes to that. Except the annual Midsummer-marathon, there’s not much going on around the day. Therefore a collective of people came up with the idea to have some kind of festivities in Iceland, and the Jónsvaka-festival was born. Sonic Iceland met with two of the organisers, Harpa and Daniel, at the Hemmi & Valdi cafe on Laugavegur, to learn more about the festival.
The 17th of June 1944 is the day that Iceland became independent from Denmark and is celebrated as a national holiday, also because it’s the birthday of Jón Sigurðsson, one of the fathers of the Icelandic independence movement. We celebrated the day by sleeping longer than usual, mostly because we were out longer than planned the night before. I was however eager to see how Icelanders celebrate this day, and also had an invitation to see a show of an Icelandic grindcore band, Manslaughter. So I put on my shades to protect my sensitive eyes and headed off through a throng of teenagers eating candy floss, Icelandic ladies in traditional garbs and families having a great day out.