Domi in Ice-wonder-land: February 2014

Friday, 21 February 2014

Learning Icelandic is a great fun. 'Ljóð í sandi' means poetry in the sand..

That's funny feeling to speak 4 languages on daily basis. Yeah, I speak English and Polish and listening to Icelanders everyday, than twice a week I have my Icelandic lessons in Spanish with Spanish-speaker's association. And once a week I have a language exchange with my new Icelandic friend, a journalist and traveller. We're speaking English why teaching each other Icelandic and Spanish. That's a real exercise for my brain! I love it and I'm doing very well as I got some complements about my Icelandic pronunciation from my Portuguese teacher (speaking funny mixture of Spanish and Portuguese with us during lessons!). Also my Icelandic friend was surprised that I already know a lot about Icelandic and can create whole sentences.. Yep, I hope to speak Icelandic quite fluently until August because I'd like to start to study this beautiful language at Háskóla Íslands (Icelandic University). Everything depends on my future work and other issues, but still it's great plan. This or the next year.. we will see :)

On the photo you see the Geothermal beach in Nauthólsvík, only 30 minutes walk from my place. It really looks like Mediterranean one! It's filled with golden sand and you can spent up to 2 hours in a rectangular hot pot while watching a beautiful sunset at the bay. Some people are going to swim in the ocean afterwards as at this point it's much warmer because of the geothermal water supply. I went there to 'swim' in the hot spot with my Canadian friend once.

In the summer of 2000 the Geothermal beach in Nauthólsvík was opened for the first time.
Golden beachsand was braught in from elsewhere and big seawalls were build which form a lagoon where the cold sea and hot geothermal water fuse together. It is actually more likely to see a beach like this by the Mediterranean sea than in the most northwardly city of the world that is situated by the North Atlantic sea! The goal with this project was to make this bay, Nauthólsvík, a diverse outdoor area with numerous possibilities as, for example, sunbathing, seabathing and sailing.

And coming back to my Icelandic lessons.. I also plan to take some piano or guitar lessons and go for a choir rehearsal once.. At the moment I am going for concerts a lot. On last Thursday night I was at the wonderful live concert of my Icelandic colleagues' band called Árstíðir at Kex hostel. Great performance!!! Much better then I expected while listening to their recordings. A real volcano of energy and a lot of sense of humour mixed with professional male voices and great instrumental arrangement. I was very happy to see the premiere of their new songs and listen to the old ones.. Fantastic evening!!! Here is a live recording from
the kitchen session with 'Ljóð í sandi'. Enjoy!

Aurora dance and Imaginary Peace Tower by Yoko Ono on 18th February in Reykjavik

On 18th February the Imaginary Peace Tower on Viðey island was relit only for few hours to commemorate Yoko Ono's birthday. She is the author of this artistic installation. Here she speaks about her project and the love for Iceland.

Courtesy of Reykjavik City Hall

Following The Reykjavik Grapevine I'd like to explain you that: 'The Imagine Peace Tower was created as a memorial to John Lennon and has the words, “Imagine Peace” written on the monument’s exterior in 24 languages. The memorial, which consists of a tall tower of lights and prisms that reflect a column of light vertically into the sky.
The tower is usually lit for a month each year starting on John Lennon’s birthday, October 9th and through to December 8th, the date he was shot.'

So this is very special monument to John Lennon, I think it's unique in the world. I visited Viðey island in September last year and I took some pictures of the tower. While walking around this tiny island I was really curious to see it in the full splendour with the column of blue light.

And then the news came that the Imaginary Peace Tower will be relit on 18th February in honour of Yoko Ono birthday. Just imagine how happy I was to see that there are much more lights on the sky then only blue one. Although there was prevision for low aurora activity the green ribbon was dancing around the column of the blue light. And almost nobody was watching it as the wind was very strong and cold on that night. I was struggling to put my tripod in the right position and it wasn't easy at all. I forgot totally about the cold air and tried to escape from the city lights and take some nice pictures of this stunning phenomena. So here go the results of my efforts. I'm still learning how to do good photography of the northern lights as it's turning to be too much blurred when I'm not using the autofocus. Definitely, I need to learn more tricks :)

Miraculously, Aurora and the light of Imaginary Peace Tower were dancing together that evening. So let's hope they will bring more peace to the world..

Monday, 17 February 2014

From Barcelona to Reykjavík. My impressions from Sónar Reykjavik 2014, International Festival of Advanced Music :)

Sónar Reykjavík 2014 just finished last Saturday night with fantastic and one of the biggest spectacles of aurora this winter! The northern lights were dancing just above Harpa Concert Hall, so close to the ground and people that were admiring this incredible colourful dance of lights! This time aurora was like a huge horizontal ribbon shifting from one end to another, changing colours from green to white-yellow and rose. It looked so unreal, more like a visuals during the Sónar performances than like a natural phenomena.. JUST WONDERFUL!!!!!!!

Sónar Reykjavik lasted for 3 days, 13-15 February. A lot of interesting DJs and bands, mostly from Iceland, U.S. and Europe (U.K). It's aim is to be constantly on the pulse of the current electronic music landscape.

And for me this is very clear link between Reykjavík and Barcelona, my two favourite cities in Europe!!! They have much more in common, but this is one of the most visible links between them!

Sónar is the International Festival of Advanced Music and New Media Art taking place in Barcelona during three days every June. Combining a playful nature, the avant-garde, and experimentation with electronic dance music's newest trends.

Here in Iceland Sónar Reykjavík took place at awesome concert venue, Harpa, that is situated by the harbour in downtown Reykjavik, in the midst of the city’s heartbeat. The festival took place at five different stages: Silfuberg, Norðurljós, Kaldalón (seated!), Flói and the underground car-park.

And here go the biggest stars... :)))

BONOBO, most people came to Sónar to see him! This time playing with full band. Gentle, melodic, ethnic sounds mix with electronic. Beautiful and harmonious. LOVE THEM, AWESOME PERFORMANCE!!!

JON HOPKINS, extremely energetic, colourful and trance performance of an awesome guy from U.K. He is a London-based producer and musician who writes and performs his own melodic electronica and dance music. I lost myself completely in his music!!!! Here is a piece from the last Airwaves :) And one of his masterpieces.


© triskel James Holden at Sónar Reykjavik 2014

JAMES HOLDEN, the biggest surprise at Sónar! He's British electronic music artist and DJ. Cosmic trance music with some ethnic roots combined with artistic visuals filled Harpa with incredible energy! Amazing and beautiful!! Here is one piece with irresistible rhythm.

And these are my highlights from the Sónar Reykjavík 2014:

Good Moon Dear (Iceland). This is an experimental electronic music project leaded by Guðmundur Ingi Úlfarsson. Atmospheric filled soundscapes and live percussion make a great show! This is a part of their performance from las year at Harlem Bar 'Heimurinn'
Muted (Iceland), a big curly-haired guy that's mixing music in a marvellous way, have a look at this: Samaris - Hljóma þú (Muted Remix)
Hermigervill (Iceland), tatally crazy guy full of energy playing so vivid and colourful music. Volcano of energy awhile visible was only a cascade of reddish hair. Wonderful performance!! Here you can see the video from Airvawes 2013
Kiasmos (Iceland), electronic music from Reykjavik. Kiasmos is the brainchild of Icelandic modern classical composer Ólafur Arnalds and Bloodgroup mastermind Janus Rasmussen from the Faroe Islands. They are linked by common love for minimal, experimental techno music.

Hjaltalín (Iceland), really good voices and energetic performance. I was waiting to see them at the Sónar. To be honest, I like them more on the stage then from the recordings. Very good performance, alot of energy and sincerity on the stage!

Low Roar. Love their music, but the concert was too short, only 30 min at the very beginning of the last festival day, so there was no proper atmosphere for their music. Just have a look at their newest song that I really love: 'Breathe in'. Ryan moved to Iceland from the States. I recommend you to read my favourite article about Low Roar music and life in Iceland. I feel exactly in the same way!! 'It seems that some people living lobe trick and the birth of throwing a person in not quite suitable for him on the ground. A goodbye with a cynical smile, he adds, "We'll see how you can handle it." During the life of such a person appear more often different dilemmas, loneliness, alienation, detachment from the surrounding reality. Lack of synchronization between "I" and "a place where I am 'cause internal disharmony and leads to discomfort and tune, and it involves various activities in their consequences.'

So I spent 3 fantastic nights at Sónar festival in a company of my Polish colleague, a very friendly guy, that has quite similar musical taste to mine. Also meeting some other colleagues, two nice Dutch girls and some Spanish people from my Icelandic course.. Because it's such a small town and it's so easy to bump into someone just by 'coincidence', and I love it!!!! :)

Sunny Saturday: Skálafell, Þingvellir and dog sleds :)

On Saturday late morning, while I was sleeping deeply after Sónar Festival days and crazy Friday night, my Polish friend called me to wake me up to go for a birthday surprising trip. She was organising it for one of her Polish friends that lives here for 14 years and I was invited to join them. So I get ready very quickly and in 30 minutes they come with a car to pick me up and to take surprised colleague to a trip. What's funny, he reminds me a little bit Marek Hłasko in his life style and behaviour. And what's more, he was almost my neighbour from Poland, as he lived in my district Saska Kępa for a long time :)

The weather was amazing, temperature around -1°C, extremely sunny and totally clear sky. We stopped at Skálafell ski resort first and we went up to see the ski lifts and stayed there for some time at the sun. The wind was quite strong but we managed to shelter near a place where sled dogs where waiting before the next run. What a big surprise! I had never expected to see them here in Iceland!! Jest like in Greenland, beautiful dogs sleeping in the snow, partly covered with snow while waiting for the next run.. AMAZING!!!

Then we went to Þingvellir National Park, a place where tectonic plates of Europa and America are divided by several deep rifts. This is also very special historical site where the first parliament in the world was founded in 930 AD. In Icelandic it's called Alþingi what means 'all-thing', a general assembly. Þingvellir (Thingvellir), the 'assembly fields', are situated approximately 45 km east from Reykjavik.

I was in Þingvellir in July for the first time, then again in September but in less touristic areas, and now in February I came here again. I really enjoy to be there, it has some special atmosphere and the landscape is just amazing. Not every day you can walk in a deep rift between two continents! Feels thrilling! Also, you can see beautiful Þingvellirvatn lake in the distance. Just stunning place!

We continued our journey to the south and decided to stop the car for a while near the river and sat in a sun under a bridge.. having fun and relaxing in the sun. Brightness and blue colour of the river, silence and sound of water.. great moment to recharge our batteries for the next week. Later we arrived to a restaurant in the countryside in Reykholt, not far away from Selfoss, ran by Polish people, where I had my first Humar súpa (Lobster soup) in Iceland.. and the first one ever. Delicious! And for a dessert real chocolate with wiped cream. What a fantastic day!

So we arrived to Reykjavík after sunset, that's why I had not much time to prepare myself for the last night of Sónar Festival.

To make the day even more unforgettable, amazing aurora appeared just after midnight over Harpa Concert Hall when the festival was still on. Tricolour ribbon was dancing behind splendid Harpa building and pulsing, changing from green to yellow and rose.. so incredibly close from us and beautiful!!!! The best aurora in this year :))

Friday, 14 February 2014

Living in the land of ice and fire. Magnetic storm finally reached Iceland..

So the magnetic storm finally reached Iceland.. And maybe because of it, last week was full of emotions and surprises while waiting for the northern lights to appear on the Icelandic sky.. A real emotional storm came before the green lights and swept off all the illusions that were growing inside me for over 6 months until know..
Well, just after my skiing adventure I felt so many strong emotions rising in me and I knew it somehow that something was not clear, something was going wrong in my relationship.. Just intuition..

Don't worry, I feel big relief and I'm fine now, just a little bit sad and empty inside but still happy that I decided to move to Iceland, such a fantastic place in the world!! :))

Indeed, it was very tough moment in my life and I felt to be at the very bottom for a while but then one of my colleagues help me to understand that I just reached the emotional bottom, so now it can be only better as I will be coming up to the water surface step by step.. And I was really lucky to meet one of my new friends 'by coincidennce' again in one of the Reykjavik's cafes, very nice Canadian guy. By his presence and understanding he helped me to go over it in the worst moment and not to think too much about what had happened in the past.. I knew he deeply understood what I was going through in this moment as he had had very similar story in his life recently.. in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
So this time I was playing a card game called 'Cards against humanity' with a group of friendly people from the States and Canada and trying to guess the context of their culture as I was the only non-English speaker. I was doing quite well in the game and the place was really amazing, with a view of the Ráðhús (Reykjavik's City Hall) and colourful bridge lights on the Tjörnin lake.. Yes, there is Winter Lights Festival in Reykjavik during whole week 6-15 February.

So I feel deeply relieved and can start a new episode in my life again. Finally, I don't need to be puzzled about relation with the Icelandic guy anymore. Obviously, he wasn't interested in me that much and I was illusioned for so many months only because he had so many friendly feelings for me.. And my heart's got frozen with the Icelandic ice for a while, even if it's blue it's only an ice so it will melt one day on this volcanic island. I'm sure about it!!

Ok, let's leave it for now. It just happened on Thursday one week ago so maybe it's too early for this story..

On Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday night Reykjavik downtown sank completely in the green light of aurora borealis. Exceptional and magical spectacle of lights appeared in the sky!
The northern lights came exactly in the very moment when I stopped to look for them, I just forgot about them for a while.. and they appeared so surprisingly and in such a beautiful and unexpected way! I was watching them on the great terrace in the very centre of Reykjavik downtown, at my friends' place. I was so happy and cheerful, it was such a magical moment so I forgot for a while about all the painful story that happened one day before. Northern lights and the beautiful starry night! I'm so grateful that I could see it in such a great moment and place :)

I went aurora hunting for next 3 nights and I took some nice photos downtown, by the sea and by the Tjörnin lake. And was walking on ice to take some nice pictures of aurora arc for you :)

Sometimes it can start about 8 p.m. like on Monday evening, but usually the right time to hunt for the northern light is about 11 pm. So you need to wear warm cloths, prepare you tripod and camera and go hunting into the cold night.. That's magic! I love this flow of the green and yellow lights and hope to see them outside the city one day, in all its green splendour..

Just yestarday I start 3-days marathon at the Sónar Reykjavik Festival 2014, I guess it's second edition of Sónar here. It's mostly electronic music, hosting artists from U.S., Europe, Iceland.. great fun to see them in live concert.

More musical news coming soon :)

Monday, 3 February 2014

Water, energy, fish, tourism (and music!): few words about Icelandic economy and resources

Today I'm in quite melancholic mood for the first time.. as it's still not possible to go hunting for the norther lights...

The weather and solar activity are so capricious these days..

And it's so windy outside, the air is cool and fresh..

I went to talk to director of the primary school that is in my close neighbourhood, Austurbearskóli. Apparently, they don't need any new teacher or social assistant at the moment. That's a pity, I left my CV in case the situation changes.

Yep, the weather.. something melancholic is in the air tonight..
So I prefer to stay at home in the evening and just discovered Icelandic group (to be more precise: female quartet) which music perfectly suits my mood today. It's peaceful and monotonous but there are some cheerful sounds in the deeper level of their music. It's called Amiina and I'm listening to their first album 'Kurr' (2007) at the moment. Their music is made with a great number of instruments. It contains elements of minimalistic style, contemporary classical, ambient, and electronic loops. Just try out this song from their latest album 'Puzzle' (2010) with nice animation, called 'What are we waiting for'.

Exactly! So what are we waiting for..? :)))

Last weekend I had some talks about Icelandic economy with Icelanders and some of them are complaining that the life is hard in Iceland, politicians are stupid and incompetent and the money you earn is not enough to suit all your needs.. Come on, what can I say? I come from Poland and I cannot agree with this kind of statements. The quality of life here is much better then in Poland and people have more trust and are much happier then in any other European country!!! For sure, it has deteriorated since the economic downturn in 2008 but Iceland was the first country to find a solution how to go over the crisis. Here you have the Polish text about Icelandic economy: 'Pozwólcie bankom upaść'

And some insights from international press. Just have a look at the opinon of journalist from 'Bloomberg': 'You can say that again. Iceland’s approach was the polar opposite of the U.S. and Europe, which rescued their banks and did little to aid indebted homeowners. Although lessons drawn from Iceland, with just 320,000 people and an economy based on fishing, aluminium production and tourism, might not be readily transferable to bigger countries, its rebound suggests there’s more than one way to recover from a financial meltdown.' For those who are interested about the details, the whole article can be found here 'Fighting Recession the Icelandic Way'.

Iceland has a strong base in natural resources when taking into account the population size: one in 84 of fish caught worldwide are caught here and in addition, Icelandic hydro power and geothermal resources enable it to produce electricity 5 times bigger then the requirements of the local population!!!!

Indeed, the electricity is so cheap here and cold and hot water can be running out of the tap endlessly as we use only 5% of the water resources in Iceland! So water is not at all a scarce good here. What's more, you can drink cold water just straight from the tap and it's both healthy and delicious! Abundant just like in paradise :) And the hot water has a specific sulphuric smell.. yeah, it takes some time to get accustom to this natural and ecological way of hot water supply :)

And yes, it's always warm indoors!!! The abundance of energy is really impressive. Holly Wikipedia says that: About 85 percent of total primary energy supply in Iceland is derived from domestically produced renewable energy sources.In 2011, geothermal energy provided about 65 percent of this energy, the share of hydropower was 20 percent, and the fossil fuels only 15 percent. In 2013, Iceland also became a producer of wind energy. The main use of geothermal energy is for space heating with the heat being distributed to buildings through extensive district-heating systems. About 85% of all houses in Iceland are heated with geothermal energy. Renewable energy provides almost 100 percent of electricity production, with about 75 percent coming from hydropower and 25 percent from geothermal power.

And there will be around 1 million tourists visiting Iceland in 2014, though a lot of work in touristic sector is going to be done!

So there is no need to be worry about..

Góða nótt, sleep well!

Sunday, 2 February 2014

Skiing in Bláfjöll: extremely strong wind and amazing sea views, just Iceland!

Today I went skiing to Bláfjöll ski resort with my new Polish friends, a couple that moved to Iceland for good 2 years ago. That's a funny story that we have one friend in common, the world is so small and everything is so much interconnected :) Also we share a lot of interested so I really enjoy to talk to them and share our observations about the Icelandic life and culture. They inspired me to look for new opportunities to share my social observations here - maybe I should write an article to 'Polityka' magazine?

That so sweet that they lent me all necessary equipment, nice pair of carving skies and a ski goggles to protect me from the strong wind that was making the temperature much lower than the official -1°C.

This was my first day to ski after 2 years of interval and first one in Iceland! :) Bláfjöll ski area is really amazing place, only 20 km from Reykjavik, is just by the seaside!!!! :))) At the first and second picture you see the view from the highest point. This time I was skiing alone as they went together to go with cross country skies. Enjoying the stunning view I had a great fun even despite the strong and cold wind and the landscape was really amazing!!

My friends told me before that there is something strange in skiing in Iceland, maybe because of the altitude or because of the lack of contrast, you always get dizzy while starting to ski. And indeed, I got a little bit dizzy at the top of the hill. I think it might be the ocean influence and the sudden change of altitude. I will keep asking people about it..

Next time am planning to go cross country skiing as it gives more exercise and keep you warm because of the intensive movements of the whole body. Of course, everything depends on my friends and the disponibility of equipment.

And here goes the week overview, some funny stories that you already heard of:

My friends from ProjektPolska.is were organising a meeting with journalists from Poland sent by Prince Polo company. Iceland is in love with Prins Póló, it is estimated that each Icelander eats about half a kilo of this Polish chocolate bar every year. It has been the most popular candy bar in Iceland for 60 years.
I went to Icelandic photo models agency to take part in the casting. One of my dreams is to do extras in 'The Game of Thrones'. And I still have a chance as season 4 will be also shot in Iceland. Keep your fingers crossed!!!
And that's very funny as I just got Ygritte in 'The Game of Thrones' quiz! In fact, I have quite similar character to hers ;)) So definitely I need to go to Grjótagjá cave hot spring. This is exactly the same cave from 'The Game of Thrones' where the famous love scene with Ygritt and Jon Snow was shot.

Also I spotted a nice scarf hanging from the window on one of the 101 Reykjavik streets, knitting is one of the most trendy activities here. Even during the music concert you can see young people, those around 20-30, just knitting and listening to the music. That's crazy world! :)
I went to a Polish talk about colourful optical phenomenas in astronomy organised by IcelandNews
Music is one of the most important spheres of my life, so I went with my friends and flatmates for a concert of Myrra Rós at Hlemmur Square, just 5 minutes from my place. Later at night my Icelandic friend introduce me to her as all the musicians from here know each other. So I had a nice time talking about music and life with my friend and his colleague.
Winter is back to town, that's important news! The world is covered with a white layer of white ice again. And instead of the northern lights I still have my Reykjavík dream..

© triskel my Reykjavik dream continues..
Reykjavík's latitude, at 64°08' N, makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. So it's less than 2° from the Arctic circle! However, at the beginning of February the day begins at 10:05 and the sunset is at 17:19, so it's increasing now by 6.5 minute per day!
Getting know more and more local people here, and party time on Friday and Saturday is very intensive and colourful :)
And on Tuesday I'm starting my Icelandic language course in Spanish, that's going to be a really crazy mix! :)
Also I subscribed to Háskóli íslands, that is a main Icelandic University in Reykjavík, to start 'Icelandic as a second language' studies in August! I will need to learn Icelandic at a medium level to have lectures in Icelandic so soon!!!
I continue my astonishment with Icelandic approach to male and female roles and I am completely confused at the moment. Have no idea how to interpret the behaviour of Icelandic guys.. is it something special or just a friendship according to him? I feel like walking on the moon, completely unknown territory..

© triskel 101 Reykjavik, Grettisgata street
And I am missing my cats so badly. This is my neighbour cat that greeted me on the night of my arrival to Iceland. Funny one. So tell me, do you sometimes read my news??? :)

Ah, I just forgot to tell you..On Saturday I went for a walk to the beach with geothermal hot pot. I had a coffee with on of my Polish friends and walked back through a forest at the Perlan hill, a real one! And this is the picture of the place. Yes, this is Icelandic beach in wintertime, believe me!