Photos from my window

There's not much to explain in this post, but here is a collection of photos that I have taken from my window over the past few months when we have interesting weather or a beautiful sky.

I've posted this one before, but here is the first snow in October.

And here is more snow in December (it hasn't stopped for weeks now) with a pink sky.

This is a particularly dramatic sunrise from a few weeks ago.

And finally, this isn't actually from my window but from an alley at the side of my house. Despite what my father insists, that green blur is not a smudge on the camera lens but my third sighting of the Northern Lights.

Remember the day we NEARLY went to the Westman Islands...

Finally my exams have come to an end and I feel like I can justify spending time updating my blog rather than attempting to study. It's been a busy few weeks so I may bombard you all with blog posts before I go home for Christmas on Sunday!

A few weeks ago, a group of us hired a car with a plan to visit the Westman Islands off the south coast of Iceland. We had to wake up early to collect the car at 8AM so we could catch the ferry at 10AM. I managed to drag myself out of bed on time and we were at the hire car office bright and early. Of course, this being Iceland, there was nobody in the office and we had to wait around twenty minutes before being handed the keys and getting on our way. We had a bit of a panic that we wouldn't make it but managed to get to the ferry terminal at 9.59. We were all ready to jump out of the car and desperately try and stop the boat from leaving without us, but it wasn't there. The woman working at the terminal told us that actually no ferries were running that day due to the weather (despite the website indicating that everything was running as usual!) and we'd had a wasted journey.

Although the situation was annoying, we had a whole day with a hire car and it seemed a shame to waste it. So we made the most of the situation and decided to have a bit of a tour of the south west of Iceland. First up was a visit to Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall which you can walk behind. Unfortunately my pictures aren't particularly impressive because we visited at around 10.30AM and the sun hadn't completely appeared yet (it now appears well after 11AM but more on that in another post)!

Behind the waterfall.

Next up we drove to Reykjanes peninsula. It's not the most beautiful area of Iceland but it's so grey and rocky you feel like you're driving around on the moon! We visited a viking museum near Keflavik then went on to the Bridge Between Two Continents. The bridge crosses a fissure between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. It was an interesting place to visit but the wind was making us so cold we only managed to leave the car for a few minutes.

Friends in different continents - and a very grey landscape.

Couples attach padlocks to the bridge.

Lastly we spent an evening at the Blue Lagoon before heading back to Reykjavik for a burger. We may not have quite made it to the Westman Islands but the best days of travelling are never the ones which go exactly as planned.

'Normality' in Reykjavik

I have to admit, I feel pretty annoyed that I had to last so long without a laptop; in that time I feel like I've forgotten how to write and I keep forgetting about this blog. It's also the case that in the six or seven weeks that I couldn't update this, living in Iceland went from being new and exciting to just, kind of, normal. That's not necessarily a bad thing though; if having a year long break in Iceland is a normal thing for me, then I realise I'm a very lucky person! I thought I would write a little about living in Reykjavik and some of the main differences between my life here and my life in the UK.

First of all, I've now been studying at the university here for over two months. I would love to say it's been great, and I realise I should be a little bit careful about what I do say online, but it's not exactly been the highlight of living here. Compared to my home university, the department here is very disorganised. There never seems to be any consistency between what we are learning, what our assignments consist of and the level expected from us. One of my modules is essentially like my first ever introductory lecture at Leeds, but spread over three months, so it can feel a little frustrating at times. Although the work is starting to build up a little now, I never seem to have that much to do. At first I thought this was great - year long holiday! But now I'm starting to realise that I study my course for a reason: I love it, it really interests me and I am a total Linguistics geek! So now I'm starting to miss having something a little bit more challenging and inspiring to do, but of course there are benefits to not being too busy.

A major benefit of not being tied down by university work is that I can really enjoy my weekends here, and I confess that that involves a lot of alcohol. I feel like I've changed in a lot of ways in Iceland and this is one of them; before I came here I enjoyed going out, but I've always been more of a pub than a club girl and tried not to make crazy drunken nights too regular, but here I seem to be out until 4 or 5am at least twice a week. Of course I can't say that drinking more alcohol is a positive change but I definitely feel like I've become a more sociable and confident person because of going out so much (and not just when there's alcohol in my system!).

Speaking of change, this feels like a good point to talk about food: one of my major frustrations in Iceland. I've gone from having fairly healthy eating habits to pretty awful ones. The supermarkets here are quite uninspiring and so expensive. The choice of fruit and vegetables is limited and everything is about four times the price as in the UK. The only not-too-expensive stuff seems to be junk. It's also not that easy to be a vegetarian here without spending a lot of money. I haven't eaten meat since I was six years old but another change I decided to make when coming to Iceland was that I would start to eat fish. It's really delicious and so ecological here that I don't feel too guilty. But there is one thing I feel a bit guilty for... in a drunken state I may have decided that it was a good idea to completely break the vegetarianism and eat a hot dog - on three separate occasions. (I don't think I've confessed this to my parents yet so I hope they're not too shocked!)

So as you can see, since being in Iceland I've become more lazy, I'm eating and drinking too much and I've broken 17 years of vegetarianism. I realise I'm not coming across too well but overall this whole experience has resulted in mostly positive changes; it's certainly made me a lot more confident and easy-going, and most importantly I'm really having fun here! There have been points where I've not felt totally happy with my life here, but, with just over a month to go until I go home for Christmas, I think I'm really starting to appreciate this place again!

Speaking of having a month left... I have really mixed feelings about going home for Christmas. On the one hand, I can't wait. I feel like I would love to have a break and I really can't wait to see my family and friends again. But on the other hand, most of my good friends here and all of my flatmates leave for good in December and it's so sad to think that they will all return to their home countries and there's a lot of people who, realistically, I will never see again. I really will miss everyone but the one good thing is that I now have friends from all over the world (and I will be finding any excuse to visit them!).

The last thing I will speak about (this has been a really incoherent, rambling post, sorry!) is the weather. Of course, in Iceland, you have to speak about the weather. It's been snowing a lot recently and getting very cold. There's also been a few storms and early on Sunday morning we got to hear a huge clap of thunder, which is apparently very rare for Iceland. The worst thing by far is the wind: it can seriously be so strong it nearly knocks you off your feet and it makes everything feel ten times colder. Also, the days are getting rapidly shorter - we lose around 6 minutes of day light every day and already the days here are far shorter than the shortest days in the UK. My body is definitely not used to it and I feel a bit like I want to go into hibernation mode. Getting out of bed before midday has suddenly become a struggle, let alone waking up in time for an 8.20 lecture. It's safe to say I will be very ready to go home for Christmas by the time we get to four hours of daylight!

Walking back to my house at night this weekend - lots of snow!

The bad weather and short days makes travelling more difficult, but I hope to do one or two more visits this semester so hopefully my next post will include some real events and pictures, rather than just me moaning about my very easy life!

Sjaumst.

Iceland Airwaves

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Iceland' s biggest music festival: Iceland Airwaves. It's a chance for Icelandic and international musicians to perform all over Reykjavik. It lasted for five days and it's my kind of festival; I didn't have to camp and could end each night in my own bed!

There was only one downside to this festival though. It happened to be during the week I got a stinking cold and sinusitis and I'm not sure that I made the most of it like I would have any other week. I still had an amazing time though!

The highlight of the first night was seeing Retro Stefson and FM Belfast playing in Harpa, Reykjavik's new concert hall. They created a fantastic atmosphere and the only word I can think of to describe these acts is crazy: crazy in a very good way! I also got the opportunity to see a lot of bands I've never heard of and I have to say, it's amazing how much talent Iceland has for such a small country.

The second day I got to see something a bit different: an Icelandic musician, Olafur Arnalds, playing with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. It was beautiful and felt perfect in the main hall of Harpa.

Sorry for blurry pictures!

Another highlight of the festival for me was seeing Sin Fang, an Icelandic singer who I had listened to a lot before coming to Iceland. It sounds very cheesy but I remember listening to the song 'Young Boys' and feeling so exciting that it wouldn't be long until I was going on my year abroad adventure so it felt very special seeing it performed live.

But now for the main event: Kraftwerk! On Friday, me and three friends queued for two and half hours in Harpa to get tickets. It was actually really fun and we were able to sit on the floor (five minutes later and we would have been standing out in the cold!) whilst eating cake and drinking coffee. We got tickets and when we turned up for the show on Sunday night we discovered we were actually in the second row! I think maybe these seats were seen as slightly inferior because the 3D would not work so well (yes, we had to wear 3D glasses!) but considering 3D never seems to work well for me anyway, this wasn't a problem. The band members stood perfectly still at their keyboards without saying a word to the audience except for 'Thank you. Auf wiedersehen, goodnight' at the end. But this just added to the enigma of Krafwerk! It was a truly bizarre but brilliant show!

Autobahn!

I'm back (with a brand new laptop and a lot of photos)!

Seven weeks after my laptop died on me, and after endless hassle with Apple and Icelandic Customs, I have finally received my replacement computer. Words can't describe how happy I am to finally have it! So now it's time to update this - I must admit it feels weird to write a blog post again but I really enjoyed blogging before so I will get back to it!

My last month and a half has been busy, mostly with the two most important aspects of an Erasmus student's life: studying and drinking. Ok, I'm not kidding anyone: some studying, too much drinking. But I'm having fun and enjoying living in Reykjavik. I've done some interesting things and had some fun trips so I'll try and fill you in - but don't worry, I'll keep it brief (mostly pictures)!

Last month my parents came to visit me. It was great to see them and show them the city I live in and also explore some more of the countryside. We visited Jokulsarlon, a beautiful glacier lake in the southeast of Iceland.

We also spent a day exploring Snaefellnes Peninsula.

We found some fairy houses on the way.

Black church at Budir.

Wild landscape.

Black sand beach.

And of course, we did the Golden Circle. This is one of the most popular tourist routes in Iceland and consists of visiting a geyser, a waterfall and Thingvellir National Park, where the Icelandic parliament was founded. I have now visited the Golden Circle three times: once on a university organised trip, once with my parents, and once last week when a friend of Maarit let us use her car for a few days. On this final trip, we also visited Kerið, a crater lake.

Thingvellir.

The geyser at Geysir.

Gullfoss.

Crater lake.

Whilst we were borrowing the car, we did another very touristy trip; we spent an afternoon at the Blue Lagoon relaxing and smearing silica mud on our faces. 

Sometimes it's fun to be tourists in Iceland!

One of the best trips I have had so far in Iceland was a day out to ride to the top of Langjokull glacier in a huge ex-military truck. It was a fantastic day and we also got the chance to see some beautiful waterfalls and hot springs... oh, and did I mention that it was my birthday? Well, it was the absolute best way to turn 23. And of course I followed up the day trip with dinner with my housemates and a great party with my friends in Reykjavik.

We got to ride up front - because it was my birthday of course!

Lovely birthday cake from Enya and Maarit (but nobody else is allowed to call me Lexie!)

I also think I should mention two exciting weather events that have happened here in Reykjavik. Firstly, at the beginning of October it snowed! Apparently that's unusually early, even for Iceland.

The view from my bedroom window on October 8th.

Even more excitingly, last week I saw the Northern Lights. I won't upload my photos because quite frankly, they're embarrassing. But hopefully next time I will learn to use my camera properly and take some nice photos! They were absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to see them more over this coming winter.

And finally (thank you so much for sticking with me), last week we went whale watching. We were  lucky to see lots of dolphins and a minke whale.

Awful photo, but you get the idea.

Ah, that felt good to finally write about my last few weeks! Hopefully everything is back to normal; fingers crossed, no more technology problems and I will update this again soon!

I hate technology

I haven't updated this for two weeks and it's not because I have nothing to write about, but because my laptop is broken. It's been messing me around for several months now and of course it decided that the time to die was during my first week of university in a foreign country. So I've been spending time travelling out of the city centre to the 'Epli' store (the Icelandic word for a certain type of fruit) but I'm still without a repaired or replacement laptop. My poor Dad has been ringing people in the UK for the last two weeks trying to get me a new one so fingers crossed I will have a computer again soon.

But of course, life can never be simple and I've now got a new technology problem. This weekend I went on a trip to see 'Rettir', an event during which the farmers round up their sheep for the winter, and the The Golden Circle, a tour of three of the biggest tourist sights in Iceland. I took loads of photos of the Icelanders rounding up their sheep and I realised that most of my photos are still on one of my memory cards for my camera (I'd been worried that I might lose all my photos with my broken computer). However, when I turned on my camera to take some more photos it came up with an error message saying there was a problem with my memory card and I would need to wipe all the pictures from it before I could use it again. Obviously I didn't want to do this but it meant I could not take any more photos that day. It also means that I may have lost all the photos on that memory card.

So now I have no computer, I think I've lost all the photos of Iceland that I've stored on my computer and I've probably lost all the photos on my camera. And that explains the title of this post: I hate technology.

If I'm able to recover my sheep photos I will write about that soon: I know a post about sheep doesn't sound that exciting but it was a really great day. I also have an exciting couple of weeks coming up as my parents are coming to visit and I have some trips planned. Hopefully my next post will be more positive, written on my own laptop (I'm currently using a university computer and the Icelandic keyboard is very confusing) and will include some photos! Fingers crossed.

Settling in

I arrived back in Reykjavik nine days ago and it's been an absolutely manic week. I've finally found some time to write about what I've been doing, other than Culture Night and going to a certain museum.

I've been to the university several times, at first for introduction meetings and today for my first lecture. I haven't been in university lectures since April and I'd kind of forgotten that the reason I've come to Iceland is to study. I only have six lessons a week but I think it will take a while to get back into the university routine again. The campus is a really nice place to be and most of the buildings I'll be in seem very modern; the most impressive part for me is the university cinema which shows the latest blockbuster films as well as serving as several lecture halls!

As well as starting my studies, I've been out and about in Reykjavik a lot during the day and night. On Monday night a group of us went out for someone's birthday and on Friday night there was a huge welcome party for all the exchange students. It's a really nice feeling that whenever I go out I meet dozens of people I know; even just walking to the supermarket I always seem to bump in to four or five other exchange students!

On Saturday night a huge group of us went to see a free outdoor concert for the Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men. They've had huge success around the world and their song Little Talks has been played endlessly in the UK. This was the last concert of their tour and it was a huge homecoming gig for their Icelandic fans. Around 15,000 people showed up and despite the endless rain the atmosphere was fantastic. They were great live performers and it was pretty special to see them at home and speaking Icelandic the whole way through.

One of the most exciting things that has happened for me this week is finally moving out of the fourteen bed dormitory and into my own room! I have a great room but the whole situation is just a little bit strange. My landlord, Fridrik, is very friendly but the most disorganised person I have ever met. I had to wait for six or seven hours to move in to the flat and lots of things still need to be fixed but I'm not convinced that will happen any time soon. Fridrik is getting married next week then going off on his honeymoon for a fortnight so won't be around much. Normally his brother would step in but after Fridrik's stag do, he ended up with two broken ribs and a collapsed lung!

The strangest thing is that one of the guys I'm living with currently doesn't have a room - as in, it doesn't exist! The old living room is currently being turned into a bedroom and until then Sebastian has to sleep in the landlord's guesthouse down the road. The other very weird thing is the number of beds in the flat; my room has a double bed, a single bed and a set of bunk beds. Between five of use we have 14 beds! However, despite all of this I feel I can't complain. My room is huge, clean and modern. The flat is in a good part of town and close to the city centre. And most of all, I finally have a room to myself!