Íslandsferð Níu Part 1

In the summer of 2009, after a painful 2-year absence, I returned to Iceland for 3 weeks to hike the popular Laugavegur and Fimmvörðuháls trails in the central southern portion of the country. Also to attend the rock festival Eistnaflug in Neskaupstaður, a small village on the far east coast. Accompanying me in all of this was a friend I met the year before online (but never met in person) named Loftur, who also plays in a band called Muck that were playing the festival. His girlfriend Gyða and other friends of theirs also joined us.

All pictures by me unless otherwise noted.
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In Loftur & Gyða's apartment in the Vesturbær section of Reykjavík. They're both at work at the moment. Man, it is so fucking nice to be back here. I missed this place so much. Had a pretty decent flight. I actually managed to get a little sleep, which is highly unusual for me. Touched down in Keflavík right on time to clear, sunny skies. My heart rejoiced. Back home it's been constantly raining/cloudy/drizzly for weeks on end. Thank god we literally got one day in the past week that wasn't rainy so I could mow the lawn before I left. If we didn't get that one little break (and very lucky for me, on a Saturday), my lawn would've gone 5 weeks without being mowed when I got back. Not at all what I would want to come home to. Not to mention such an unkempt lawn would be yet another indication to would-be theives that the house was not occupied.

So, Loftur went to work shortly after bringing me here, and I took a walk to get a little food. Fucking Icelandair didn't give us anything on the flight except a dinky little drink on the flight out of Boston. No food, nothing. Not even coffee in the morning! I couldn't believe it. So, I walked down toward the harbor, but nothing was open yet. Walked the other way and took a chance on good 'ol Björnsbakarí and hit paydirt. Got some of their delicious food, went back to the apartment and got some much-needed rest to alleviate my jet lag. When they got home from work we visited Siggi so I could give him the books he had me bring. It was a real pleasure to see him & Manon again. Turns out Gyða is his cousin or something. As I told him, it shouldn't surprise me any longer when two seemingly-random people here turn out to be related, but it never fails to. While at Siggi's there was an earthquake, but it was so short (literally about a second) and barely perceptible (probably because we were underground at the time) that I would never have had any idea it was an earthquake unless they told me. In fact, it was barely noticeable over our conversation. Weird. After that we went shopping for supplies for the hike then went to Linus' place in the Þingholt area for dinner. There I tried calling some people who I can hopefully end up meeting at some point before I leave. I'm here for 3 weeks, but I'm only going to be in the city for a few days, so it might prove difficult.

Now I had read in the Grapevine just a couple days previous that Brain Police were playing Grand Rokk that night, and was planning on going. However, it turned out that it was the Foreign Monkeys instead, which was even better as far as I was concerned. I'm going to get to see Brain Police anyway at Eistnaflug, and I was dying to see the Foreign Monkeys again after being blown away by them at Þjóðhátíð in 2006. Also, their recently-released album was at the top of my list of things to pick up on this trip, so it was really a perfect situation. Cliff Clavin opened up and were quite good. Recent Músiktilraunir champions Agent Fresco played next. Amazing. So tight and musically-adventurous, like a jazzier, more experimental Fucking Champs with vocals. Not really my type of music exactly, and I don't know if I'd particularly enjoy it on record, but live it was mind-blowing. The Foreign Monkeys headlined, which was a bit of a shame since it seemed most people were there to see Agent Fresco and place thinned out a bit after they were done. They were good, but not quite as good as they were 3 years ago. Maybe it has something to do with Bjarki's (their old vocalist) departure from the band or maybe the sound wasn't as good, or maybe it was just following an act like Agent Fresco.

Hanging outside after the gig I bumped into Palli and we shot the shit for a bit. He's moving to Sweden soon to go to university there. Then we came back here and drank and talked a bit more before calling it a night. Today we're going to hike Esja, something I've meant to do for a long, long time, and this will be a perfect little warm up for me since I didn't have time to gear up at all back home. I was actually going to suggest this, but much to my delight, Loftur brought it up on his own. The sun is shining outside. I'm so fucking happy to be here. Life is really good right now.

Agent Fresco at Grand Rokk

Foreign Monkeys at Grand Rokk

Capping off the night with Loftur, Gyða, and Ási back at the apartment

It's almost one in the morning and still light out. I know that shouldn't be such a big deal to me anymore, but I still think it's cool. Loftur and I hiked Esja today. It was great. We had nice weather and the views were beautiful. I can't believe it's taken me this long to do it. I've been staring at that mountain for almost 8 years and never got around to hiking it until now. It was nice, but it wasn't easy. I brought my full pack, even though I didn't need it, just to get myself used to it again. I haven't hiked like this since Greenland in September, so I'm pretty out of shape. This was a perfect little appetizer to prepare myself for the 7-day juggernaut ahead. Not a lot of distance, but a good amount of elevation: 914 meters. I slipped coming down, twisting my leg a bit, and now it's sore. Hopefully that works itself out in the next two days and doesn't bother me on the hike.

We talked quite a bit while we were walking. The subject of sleeping came up and I asked if him and Gyða slept in the same sleeping bag to keep warm. He said no, but two people just being in the same tent adds to the overall warmth. I made a light-hearted comment how I'll be the coldest one since I'm the only one sleeping alone. (The other people coming, Vernharður, Inga, and Guðbjörg, are husband, wife, and daughter, so they're all sleeping in the same tent.) He said I could sleep with them in their tent, which holds three. That rules. Not only do I get warmer (as do they due to my additional body heat), but I don't have to bring my tent.

After the hike we went to Gyða's job for dinner. She works at the domestic airport kitchen and hooked us up with some food. Fuckin' A. That's pretty much all I did today. The hike wore me out quite well. Came back here and got myself a bit organized and checked my email while Loftur went to band practice and Gyða went to her mother's for something. I tell ya, it's so great to be here. It's as wonderful as ever. Góða nótt.

Walking around Vesturbær in the morning

On the way to Esja

The Esja hike

Gyða giving Baldur a snack, birdie style

Yesterday I spent pretty much all day shopping. Bought a ton of shit, taking advantage of the "kreppa" (the financial crisis here in Iceland). The dollar has never been stronger for me here. It's worth almost twice as much as the last time I was here, which means prices are now down to reasonable levels, but still not cheap. That night I went to see Jeff Who? and Ske at Grand Rokk. Great show, but they refused to play Barfly no matter how much we called out for it. They must just be sick to death of it, which is understandable. I was also disappointed that Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir (aka Silvía Nótt) was no longer singing for Ske. I'm a huge fan of hers and really wanted to meet her. After the show I hung out with the Jeff Who? guys for hours. Really nice guys. I was with them (at least Bjarni) until around 5:30. Didn’t end up getting back here until about 7:30. A truly proper Saturday night in Reykjavík.

Various sights around town	Late evening sun sets a lovely scene on Laugavegur	Hressingarskálinn	Jeff Who? at Grand Rokk	Ske
Group shot with Elís and Bjarni of Jeff Who? Note the cupful of rockstar loot.	Cool artwork in the Grand Rokk garden	The guys in Jeff Who? taking a picture of their misspelled name on the schedule posting	After going to a few other places, we ended up at the Celtic Cross	Before heading back, I stop for a slice at Pizza Pronto. The drummer of Agent Fresco was hanging outside and provided this unique photo op.

Got up around 13:00 and met my friend Anita downtown at 14:00. We hung out and talked for hours. It was truly pleasant. Came back here and started packing for the hike. Gyða brought me home a big dinner from her job, which ruled. Called my aunt Betty, who is taking care of my dog Charlie for me back home, to check on things before I leave for the hike tomorrow. Everything’s fine there, thankfully. Man, I would love to go into so much more detail about everything, but it’s so late and we have to get up early to catch the bus to Landmannalaugar, and I don’t want to start the hike unrested.