i keep a diary

a thing in 34 photos in 2003

iceland

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iceland
Some tiny leeeetle Lego-village near the airport.
european vacation part 21: heading home!
November 01, 2003
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Chris-san practices his crane kick.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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A view of the spa building from three quarters of the way up.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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Panning right towards the powerplant...
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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A view across the lagoon from the top of the hill.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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Here's the entrance to the spa. The spa is this huge, brand new building that surrounds the 16,000 sqaure foot swimming lagoon.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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When we turned off the highway onto the smaller road that led up to the spa, the land started to become dotted with smaller, geothermal pools.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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See that building in the background? That's a powerplant takes geothermally heated water from the earth and uses it to both heat homes and to convert into electricity.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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10:45am: When we had driven into Reykjavik earlier that morning the darkness had hidden the alieness of the Icelandic countryside. In the daylight, it was absolutely breathtaking. Rocky fields made up of lava rock covered in electric green moss stretched in all directions. We were so blown away that we eventually decided to pull over and take some pictures. (Time Elapsed With No Sleep: 20h 15m).
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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Here's the wooden walkway that led up to the top of the over look.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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...and then this is what the landscape looked like 180° in the other direction. (To get a better idea, click here to check out the awesomely ghetto panorama I stitched together).
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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The lagoon from three quarters of the way up.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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The pictures really don't even do the colors justice.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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Chris on top of a rock pile.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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A half an hour or so later, we started seeing this huge steam cloud on the horizon. We wondered if it could be the spa, but we we're like "Nah, it can't be noticible from this far away." But as we got closer, we discovered we were wrong - the huge naturally heated pools were throwing up immense clouds of steam visible from miles away.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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Chris and The Fatty.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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Fatty and Chris walking back down to our car.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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The view from halfway up.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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This is one of the few pictures that accurately depicts the electric cobalt color of the water. It was like nothing I'd ever seen.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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Here's the huge deck you walk out on from the locker rooms.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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Here's the last pic I took before the air temperature forced me to stash my camera and make a beeline for the insanely awesome 110°F water.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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And also checked out a whole bunch of vehicles outfitted with monster tires.
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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A few minutes later, we watched this guy show up with a little kid and a huge garbage bag full of rolls and bread.
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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8:15am: Just as we arrived at the Tjörn, the sun came up (which made me with my prediction of 8:10am, the big winner of the "When Will the Sun Rise in Iceland" Contest. Too bad I didn't win jack shit). That building on the left is one of the Municipal builidings of the city.
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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Then Smari took us to the Hallgrimskirkja church, the tallest building in the city.
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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We walked to the north-western edge of town and checked out the mountains across the bay.
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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It was right around this time that I decided it was time to pull out the video camera and start capturing some of this. I mean, Christ, I'd already failed to capture the lobotomy guy and Smari dropping the C-bomb about his sister - I wasn't about to miss out on any more. I asked him if he minded me filming him talking and he said he didn't. As soon as I started taping, he launched into all these stories about Iceland's crazy nightlife and told us that we needed to come back over the summer and spend a few days. "Don't worry about a hotel." He told us, "You won't be needing one." Hahaha. (Footage coming soon).
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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As we walked along, Smari told us all about his life growing up Reykjavik - and then out of the blue he pointed to a store and said "That store right there, that's my sister's dress shop." We were like, "Oh, that's rad." He goes, "She's a fat bitch. I hope she's goes bankrupt." We were completely caught off guard and when we all started laughing Smari's like, "No seriously, she's a real cunt." I nearly lost my mind.
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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As stood nearby discussing what our best plan of attack in exploring the city, , he overheard us talking and asked where we were from. "Oh shit," we thought. "Here we go again." But when we told him we were from NYC, he told us that he'd lived in NYC for a bunch of years as well. He introduced himself as Smari and told us that he'd lived in the States for 15 years and that besides NYC, he'd also worked as a bakery manager in New Hampshire and San Francisco.
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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Out front of the church is a statue of Leif Ericsson, the Icelandic explorer credited with the discovery of Vinland (North America). The inscription on the back of the statue reads: "Leifr Eiricsson Son of Iceland Discoverer of Vinland. The United States of America to the People of Iceland on the One Thousandth Anniversary of the Althing. AD 1930" (I didn't know what an the Althing was. I've since learned, via Dictionary.com, that it's: "The parliament of Iceland. The oldest assembly in Europe, first convened in 930.")
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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8:02am (yep, still dark). We made it to downtown Reykjavik (the world's northernmost capital) and parked our teeny-tiny Eurocar in a public lot near the Tjörn, which is a big, man-made lake in the center of the oldest part of town.

We didn't manage to get a picture of him, but on the walk over to the Tjörn, this thirty-something year-old guy, who had what looked like a giant lobotomy scar running horizontally across his forehead, ran up to us and said "Where are you from?" in perfect English. "New York City," we told him. "Oh, yeah? What do you do?" Me: "I work at a software company." He then leaned in really close towards my face and asked, "A SOFTware company, or a softWARE company?" Then cackled maniacally and ran away.
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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Here's Chris and I trying our best to not look cold for a photo. We didn't want to pack a whole bunch of winter clothers that we'd only be using for a half-day in Iceland so all we had with us to fend of the 4°C temperatures (about 39°F) were our light jackets.
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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Miraculously, he managed to avoid getting a ticket (but he did accidentally lock himself out of the car...Doh!). We thanked him for the tour (it's still one of the nicest things a stranger has ever done for me - so Smari, if you read this, thanks again!) and then told him that we were thinking about checking out the Blue Lagoon on the way back to catch our flight but that the lady at the rental car place had seemed underwhelmed when we asked her about it. Smari told us "Fuck that lady. If there's only one thing you could see in Iceland, it should be the Blue Lagoon. Don't miss it. Go there now." That settled it. We bid Smari farewell, and headed for Grindavik.
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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7:25am: Lost. We were right on target until the highway we were on turned into this crazy-ass rotary that shot us off in the wrong direction. We stopped at a gas station for directions, but nobody there spoke enough English to be helpful - so we hunkered down with the map and tried to figure it out. (Check out Fatty's priceless "We're lost" expression).
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003