!!!

Okay, so two things...

1) I just saw Jón Birgisson of Sigur Rós hanging out at a coffee shop, who showed me that

2) I'm on the front page of Morgunblaðið, the largest Icelandic newspaper.

I swear I'm not making this up.

Critical Mass Reykjavik! (pt. 2)

=)

Critical Mass Reykjavik!

Earlier this evening, I was taking coffee in downtown Reykjavik and saw a fellow postering about the coffee shop. I didn't pay much attention to him until my eyes fell on the words "CRITICAL MASS," which excited me to no end.

Let me back up a bit. For those of you who don't know, starting early this year I started attending Critical Mass, the monthly international bike ride. It's something I very much look forward to for several reasons. It's not organized, in fact it's relatively chaotic. There is no set agenda, route, destination, or political position. Critical Mass is simple: bicyclists coming together to ride bikes. Another beautiful thing about Mass is that it happens in hundreds of cities all over the world (so there is a very decent chance that there's a ride near you). I was saddened, however, to find that Iceland has yet to set up a ride and that I would miss this month. Imagine my surprise when I found that not only there is indeed a ride here, but that this is Iceland's first ever Critical Mass! Though I suspect the ride will be considerably different from what I'm accustomed to (Seattle's Mass, specifically), I am completely ablaze with anticipation!


We are traffic!


My whip, a Schwinn Frontier. The bike has a less than favorable past - a couple friends found it abandoned in a nearby pond, likely the mishap of a drunken adventure (or something). On the other hand, it was free. Anyway, people ride really lame bikes here, so I'll fit right in!

(psst - anyone know why the pictures are cut off?)

The Solstice

I probably should stop waiting to upload these videos. Anyway, the solstice was really epic. A group of us went to downtown Reykjavik to see Amiina, an Icelandic electro-classical (I just made that up) quartet who has recently found a more international audience. A most enjoyable evening. After, we went to Cafe Cozy, which, as we discovered quite a while later, was a gay bar. But our group, about 20 people, basically took over the bar, effectively ruined their shtick last night - oh well. Later in the night, I climbed up a 200-foot construction crane to get a better view of the city. The view was just incredible (if a little terrifying) - completely unobstructed and likely one of the highest points in Reykjavik. Undoubtedly the most memorable summer solstice.

Arrival, no shower

I probably should explain that before I left for the airport, I was sitting in a car for an hour in 85 humid degrees of terror then sat in a plane for six hours. When we finally found University of Iceland, we were told that the showers were not available to us (yet).