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Reykjavik:
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Reykjavik: A Study in Contrasts
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Tag Archives: Iceland
The Roots of Reykjavik Architecture
Do you wonder why Reykjavik looks like Reykjavik? 
For the answer, go to the Northeast.
Bustarfell, near Vopnafjörður.
Note the multiplicity of small houses, all that turf and driftwood and the strength of a horse can manage …
… with many dark passages leading to faint light…
… sometimes brighter…
…and all joined together by spontaneous organic design…
And then back to Reykjavik you go, this time with the delight of recognition…
Splendid.
It’s improv theatre!
This is the kind of history the Icelandic National Museum doesn’t cover. Best to get lost on your way there, I think.
Ordinary Iceland
Volcano:
Volcano with cows: 
Volcano with church:
Just another quiet, ordinary day on Snæfellsnes.
Two Seasons on the Strutsfoss Track
July is a beautiful time to turn over your shoulder when hiking to Strutsfoss.
So is April.
And then you turn around…
… and keep going.
One of Iceland’s Small Pleasures
I know, it’s a thing to chase after waterfalls, but consider the lowly Icelandic driftwood fence. It’s a charming tradition, speaking of past pain set aside.
Unaós
It doesn’t really do anything except to remember, but it’s a fine artwork nonetheless. It catches the mind and holds it, and that is… well, that’s memory. Cool.
Slow Travel: The Black Beaches of East Iceland Coming to Life
Iceland is a country best explored slowly, and on foot.
Krosshöfði
When it is called “a beautiful country,” it means that every step is beautiful. Easy does it.
It comes to life as you walk through it, changes you, and remains within you.
A Skua Attack on the Jökulsá
The nasty piece of work called the skua comes to the Eiðars skirting the rip rap on the Jökulsá.
At first, they get out of the way.
Fast.
The Skua keeps at it. When I witnessed this scene two weeks ago, I’d already been harassed by a skua myself, on the selfljót. It wanted my grey hat. Or me. I don’t know which. Yikes.
It’s the ducklings it really wants, though.
The eiðar defense entails a lot of splashing.
And then the eiðars attack the skua.
And jump on the murderous intruder’s wings.
And try to drown that sucker.
But the skua gets out of the pile.
It kicks across the water…
…and is off..
… with a duckling (flapping its little wings) for a catch.
And that’s why eiðars have so many ducklings.
The Self-Peeling Ewe of Rauðarnes
Baaaaa-aaaa.
Bah.ðarb
Ptarmigan is Watching You
On the Lower Stapavik Trail, the ptarmigan like to hang out right on the trail edge, right on the edge of the river, among the logs, where the sun gets warm and life is good.
And then they burst up in front of you, from like 20 cm away, and are gone. The trick to disappearing is to remain absolutely still. It didn’t quite work for the one above, which tried to sneak between the cover of two rocks and wound up freezing on the shore grass beside the trail. The one below got it right, though. Safe among the lava lumps.
It’s the joyful hoped-for unexpectedness of the encounters that is so alluring. Like most things in Iceland, “you just never know.”
Politicizing the Shop Window Tradition in Reykjavik
For Icelandic National Day, June 17, Icelanders gather in celebration., with speeches in town squares, national flag dresses for girls (or at least princess party dresses for the very young set), blow-up carnival rides, lots of coffee, and, as you can see from this photo taken in Reykjavik the day before, at least one politically-pointed unicorn..
Reykjavik’s shop windows: an informal national gallery with a point.
A Farm in Iceland 
