Missing Iceland and Loving Japan and other updates of sorts

Hey All! ひさしぶりね！

I've been back in the states for over a week... sadly.
They say traveling makes the heart grow fonder or
yonder, and in my case: Yonder.

Iceland was clean, humans were treated as they should
be: Equal.

Being back in the States makes me feel, as Bilbo Baggins once said: "I feel thin, sort of stretched out. Like butter spread over too much bread."
There was a feeling of fulfillment and calm to being in Iceland that doesn't exist for me back in the states. Sure, I love my job (glorified babysitter), and being within 20 minutes from a monolithic Japanese market (read on for more talk about it)... But I have nowhere to hike, and the days go back to being repetitive.

Between now and moving to the Land of the Rising Sun, my traveling will be few and far between.
I'll be going to Alabama for a while, my best friend Edward moved down there recently, so I'll be driving down at the end of August to see him... And see whatever there is to see in Alabama. Maybe theres a Japanese market or some trees or something... Only time will tell. On the way down, I'll be stopping in the ghost town of Cairo, Illinois and explore a while.

After that, I'll be going to California to see some family members. San Francisco is my favorite city in the US, so I'm excited to be going back for a while, with intentions of blasting this song through the streets...

Theres a few other things I'd like to see in the States that I won't be able to see before I leave, such as the small towns of New England, Grand Canyon, the forest from 'Stand by Me'... but it will have to wait for a few years when I come back for a few weeks.


But in recent news: Today was the お盆まつり (O-Bon Festival), and Mitsuwa Market's parking lot turned into a small piece of Japan for the day. Street Vendors selling Takoyaki (fried octopus dumplings), Yakitori (the staple of Izakaya food), gyoza among countless other foods.

There was an overwhelming feeling of friendliness and happiness, that only feels like foreshadowing my soon-to-be life in Japan. Kids were running around in yukatas, taiko drums pounding away in the background and the smell of deliciousness... Everyone wearing masks on the sides of their heads... Or many, because hey.. they were cheap.

All was well, the weather perfect... and then I lost my car keys. After searching for a while with my friend, we stopped caring and just decided to eat some more food. We called to be picked up, so it was no use freaking out.

As the festival was dying down, I spent some more time walking around, and was talking with an amazing (and amazingly beautiful...) person who moved from Tokyo a few years ago. She was a vendor who had the privilege of selling 2 of my favorite Japanese drinks (Calpico and Oi-Cha).

We were talking (mostly in Japanese), and then remembered: I was kinda-sorta-maybe still without car keys. When I told her that I got distracted by the food and cheer and should be looking for my car keys, she said, "You're way to calm about it, are you sure you're not Japanese?!" Of course, in the midst of laughter I, yet again, forgot about my car keys...

The O-bon Festival is akin to the Dia de los Muertes in Mexico. It celebrates and commemorates the passing of souls onto the next world. I danced, I ate, completely disregarded my situation regarding a ride home... And it only made me wish that I didn't have to wait to move to Japan.

The performances and the food were amazing, and a thank you goes out to The Arlington Heights Police Department, all the performers, the vendors, and the infinitely friendly people who made this event so amazing!

I brought with my camera to take more 'professional' photos... But the picture settings were still set to when I was in Iceland taking some prior photos, and I was too lazy to change them. Oh well.



As for my blog: This may be one of my last posts on it.
I'm setting up a website via Weebly, and it will be a full on website with a blog in it as well as having my own domain name.
I'm loving the website-editor and design tools, and hosting a site isn't very expensive either. I'm slowly putting it together day by day, and will be posting a link and everything later on.

Stay Tuned!

Day 7 in Iceland: Eyjafjallajökull, Vatnajökull and other hard-to-say things

Unfortunately, my time in Iceland is winding down. I'm back in Reykjavik, which doesn't feel 'right' after that last few days going along the south coast. I didn't think that being here would resonate with me as much as it has, but so far it's been beyond words.

The morning after I wrote my last post, we had breakfast (mine consisting of about 9 hard boiled eggs and cucumbers), we left the Sudhurland Highlands to climb a mountain, a pretty damn good way to start you day! Me and Tyrfingur, my guide and new favorite person ever,  spent the morning hiking it. The hike was easy, and the view was breathtaking (as is every other view in the country), and as all good things must end, we descended the mountain. I once read that the best part of hiking a mountain is the meal afterwards, that you never forget the meal. It´s all too true.. I had a sandwich with ham, cream cheese, lettuce, mayo and tomato with a Coca-Cola. And it was the best sandwich I´ve ever had. But if I ever had this sandwich for lunch or without having hiked beforehand, I would think nothing of it...

Tyrfingur then said that there were a handful of waterfalls in the area that he wanted to show me... so we dove for about an hour to the first 3

The last one was my absolute favorite, and you had to shimmy through a few rocks to get to the inside

That night, we stayed at a guesthouse called ´Ferðaþjónustan Vellir´, which was a perfect place run by a mother, daughter and her husband. Now, one thing I thought was funny was that both the mother and daughter were wearing more rural apparel, but the husband of the daughter had on a shirt that was just... strange. It was a Kobe Bryant as a cyborg... for some reason I still chuckle about it. The food was unexpected... It was a 3 course meal starting with asparagus soup, followed by an entree of cod, salad and broiled potatoes, followed by a dessert of marbled chocolate cake with Skyr. I could´t sleep much that night since the surrounding area was so beautiful, so I walked around outside for a while... Hard to sleep when this is the view from the window:

In the background is the glacier of Eyjafjallajökull, the hardest thing to pronounce in this country.



We passed through the town of Vík and to a lagoon
at the base of Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Iceland.
Along the way we passed the time with the music of Ásgeir 
Trausti and ´Of Monsters and Men´, 2 of the greatest Icelandic 
artists that fit flawlessly with the scenery.

The lagoon was beautiful, and seemed to have every shade of blue you could imagine. It was foggy, which gives most people reason to complain, but the fog added an unbelievable ambience to the entire area... It felt like the Titanic (minus Leonardo

DiCaprio)

Afterwards we went back en route of Vík towards the beaches that surrounded it. The weather had become very misty, so my camera´s photos became very grainy.

 

My tour with Tyrfingur was coming to an end, unfortunately. I´ll be seeing him Tuesday though! He does a dinner tour, where he takes a few people shopping for groceries around town and makes Icelandic dishes at his house...
We were 2 hours from Reykjavik, and on the way back stopped by Eyjafjallajökull again... When I come back to Iceland I´m going to hike it for a while...

One thing I´ve come to love about Iceland is the amazing quality of the rest-stops.. A strange thing to point out, but they´re all unbelievably clean, have bakeries or restaurants in them and have incredibly friendly staff. In America, rest stops are some of the sketchiest places around, and the food is only good if you have a death wish... Iceland: 1, America: 0

I was wiped out when we made it back at 10:30ish, and fell asleep until about 9 the next day (today).. And when I woke up I headed over to Kolaportið Flea Market... It´s like all flea markets, very hit-or-miss. I picked up a few out-of-circulation coins from when Iceland was under Danish rule for about $2USD... But there I saw it, my all time favorite thing about Flea Markets: knock-off merchandise.

LOOK AT IT!

LOOK AT IT!

JUST LOOK AT IT!

After pondering whether of not to actually buy the fake-teletubbies balloon (and I deeply regret not doing so), I wen´t to Iceland´s National Museum... There was no photography allowed, so of course, I took a bunch of pictures...

 
 

Now anyone who knows me can tell you I love the early 1900s, especially in respect to the progress of art and communications. So one thing about the museum I fell in love with was the huge collection of camera strips from photo booths... I spent a good 40 minutes on all of these alone... Forgetting the blister in my foot that had been hurting all day! 

So I did something unethical for a traveller: I got a pizza.

There´s a Dominoes Pizza right next to where I´m staying, so I went ahead and got a pizza they called ´The Tokyo´, because hey, I´m moving to Japan so it was an automatic bias...

Everybody in the Dominoes was extremely lively, the people where singing while preparing the pizzas and the guy taking my order made jokes... I see that a lot here, where people work what American ´culture´ (or lack thereof) considers the lowest of the low jobs. Here in Iceland all the gas station employees, fast food workers, waitstaff are very genuine and nice, which is an evident reflection of how they´re treated by their employers and society. They make good money and are treated fairly... something that people in the same line of work don´t have in America.... Moving on...

The pizza itself was good, nothing out of the ordinary... but my gripe is how it was named ´The Tokyo´... when it is the least Japanese thing I have ever seen... It had feta cheese, ham, ground beef and bacon.... You´d think it´d have at least shrimp or egg or fish... Ok, before this turns into a rant about me being a militaristic food enthusiast... I should move on

Tomorrow I´m going to the Snæfullsnes Peninsula for the day, the day after I have the food tour with Tyrfingur, and on Wednesday I´m leaving this borderline-flawless country... So until then... bye!

Day 4 in Iceland: A Love letter to Iceland and Update

The typical roadside view

As I write this, I'm sitting in a hotel in the middle of nowhere, near a volcano that is supposed to erupt in the next few days... And having fallen in love with this country.

I have a personal guide, named Tyrfingur, who is by far one of the nicest and most knowledgable people I have ever met. (When this portion of the trip is over, I'll be posting links to his site, and everything).

Now, here's the thing: I HATE tours.

My favorite waterfall thus far.. it's just in the middle of nowhere

They're for people who simply want
to take photos and move on in a bus
filled with people who share a similar
purpose, having a 'guide' tell them some
textbook information about the place. Tours take away the sense of discovery and the intimacy with your surroundings...
But here I am with a guide who is easily
one of the greatest people I've met in this
country (Alongside the manager of a 10/11
and this one Thai girl I talked to). He tells
stories of his childhood, his passion for
Iceland, his views on how Iceland should
advance economically. In short: Highly
intelligible conversation. He's also been
a big help in my tenure to better photography. He encourages me to come back to Iceland and see everything by myself, saying "Anyone with a bike or car can see the whole country on their own". He has a genuine passion for showing people the country he takes immense pride in. Oh, and he's a professional chef.

But let me rewind a bit, for all the glitters is not gold. Yesterday I paid a visit to the Blue Lagoon. Something you hear travel guides guffaw at, and see illustrious photos of...

Well it was the biggest (albeit only) disappointment. Now, I was expecting a tourist trap, but this was a whole new level. It's a pseudo-spa with a hot spring about the size of an Olympic pool. I got there, and cringed at the flock of tourists, walked through the entrance and enjoyed the interior, then got to the hot-spring and cringed again. It's a glorified, egg-scented swimming pool. I got a massive headache from the sulfur, and spent my time in the food court pounding away cups of green tea (which was about $5 [$4.50 too high for a Lipton tea bag]) until I was able to catch the bus back to Reykjavik. My head cleared up on the ride, and I talked to a pleasant woman from Israel who was with her family. Back in Reykjavik, I went to Icelandic Fish and Chips for lunch. I'm writing a restaurant tidbit later, so be sure to hear my reviews of some of the places I ate at. My headache returned, leaving me tired... Aaaaand fast forward to today.

Me and my cynical @$$ were picked up at 8:30 in the morning by Tilly. Of course I had no intention of being rude, despite my disgust to tours, so I smiled and shook his hand. We introduced ourselves and we're on our way in a quant little car with 4-wheel drive. On our way out he pulled up to the house where Reagan and Gorbachev held the peace conference, then left so we could make good time. He then said, "On our way out we're gonna stop at my favorite bakery in the country and pick up some pastries and sandwiches to eat." This is the easiest way to sway my opinion of you, especially when it looks like this:

We got a bag full of Kliena, which are spherical donuts. As well as chocolate pastries, and sandwiches. Then he informed me of the quality and freshness. He said that the throw-out time for all the pastries is that night, since they would not be fresh. All pastries will go bad in a day since they weren't made with preservatives and unnamable fillers... A subtle knock at the food industry in the US.. Which made me like the guy even more!




Polishing of a large black coffee and a retrospectively disgusting amount of foods on the road, we made our way to the region of Sudhurland, the first stop being the sight of the original Parliament of Iceland. It was established as the parliament by viking settlers, who contrary to popular belief, were very political and civil (with the occasional pillaging and whatnot). Now the area as a whole was neat but my favorite part was the gorge. I have no idea why a giant gap in the ground appealed to me so much, but it did.
It wasn't a deep drop off to the water at the bottom of the gorge, so temptation did call a few times... but alas, I didn't do anything stupid (If you're here to hear about me doing absurd things... stick around). Like all water in Iceland, it's perfect and pure so that you see right through it. In fact, you can drink any source of water in Iceland, which makes it easy to survive in the vast wilderness.

Crystalline water, a common fare in Iceland

About 20 minutes after, we went to the ruin of a house built into the mountains that nobody noticed until the 1920s. The couple that lived there is supposedly still alive, and all that remains is a cave... Which makes sense, since, ya' know, it WAS a house in a cave...

Carvings outside the house-cave.

Afterwards, we passed through a small 

town where we stopped for a snack.

Now, fruit snacks are nice 

and maybe even some pretzels,

but here, you can get  

a delicious package of Sviðasulta.

What is this seemingly delightful treat, you ask?

Well, you beautiful reader, I'm about to tell you...

It's Sheep's Head Jelly.

The meat from the head of a sheep and a block with gelatinous fat. You know how they say,

"Dont knock in 'til you try it"?

That applies big time.

It was like pulled pork with the texture of Jell-O, and I'm eating the leftovers as I type this.

We headed to the Golden Falls briefly, which was nice, but I would soon find waterfalls that we're hundreds of times more stunning. I asked Tilly if the childishly-enchanting feeling of seeing all of this goes away when you see it again, and he said, "I've been seeing this since I was a child and it still takes my breath away." 

En route to the next spot, the resting place of a Troll (bare with me on this one), Tilly told stories of being a kid in Iceland and the Sagas (the mythos of Iceland), all of it told with a genuineness that was just great to listen to. And by the time he finished telling the story, we were there.

Quick story cut-away time! 

So, back in Iceland after the spread of Christianity, there lived a troll who was friendly with people, something which wasn't very common. His name was Bergþór úr Bláfelli, and he helped the farmers till soil and raise livestock. He told a farmer he knew that when he died he wanted to be buried in the cemetery the village folk were buried in. Sadly, he was not a Lutheran (which, as everybody knows, Trolls weren't very religious), so he could not be buried at the cemetery. Although he could be buried next to it, near a river. He was okay with this, since he could, in death hear nth the water and church bells. He told the farmer that soon he will die and the farmer will know that day has come when the troll's cane was leaning against the church door. Sure enough, the framer saw the cane resting on the Church door and told the townsfolk the news. They went to the cave that Bergþór úr Bláfelli lived in and carried the body. One townsfolk noticed a bag of feathers in the cave and decided to take it. He noticed, upon leaving the cave, that the feathers had turned to gold. But when he wen't back to the cave for more, the cave was gone... Which explains the lack of a cave in the area. He was buried near the river above, and next to the cemetery...

The cemetery is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen, and hasn't been renovated much in the past few centuries.

We proceeded to lunch at a nearby place that had Lamb Soup. By this point, I have eaten at least 2 whole lambs in the last few days. The soup itself was good, the meat being the highlight. 

We then stopped by an area that he found, with one of the most amazing waterfalls I've seen. We spent a good 40 minutes there before moving on...

And from there the day starting winding down, we had a dinner of salted cod soup and lamb (yea... more lamb hahah). I some much more happened in between, in terms of stories told and sights seen. But it is something you need to see and hear for yourself. And while I'm sitting here, I've decided to add this Country to the list of countries I'd like to live in. 

The water in this country is so pure you can drink it from anywhere.

The meat and fish is so fresh that it can make any vegan hungry.

And the wilderness... is heart stopping. The weather here 

is constantly rainy and grey, but it make's the 

never-ending sea of mountains so much more ominous.

When I look into the distance, I'm reminded of the scope 

and scale to which we exist. Iceland is a small place, but 

when you're surrounded by mountains for miles, and 

green-grey hills,  you feel even smaller. 

It reminds me of Lord of the Rings, the 

rolling fields surrounded by lush mountains.

The very thing that made me want to go out 

and see the world. Guide or not, being out here is breathtaking, and coming back here alone will be all the more satisfying, with the opportunity to camp and just walk for miles over mountains.

Tomorrow I'll be able to do some hiking and I will be spending a short amount of time in Vík í M'yrdel (and going to another bakery!). I'll probably do an update in 2 days, and include information about Tilly and everything. Until then... Enjoy the view:

Day 1 in Iceland: First Impressions and First meals

After a grueling series of flights, I landed in Iceland around 10:20am or so. The weather was almost immediately comparable to London: A weird pairing of foggy, overcast skies and sunny weather. The ride from Keflavik International Airport to Downtown Reykjavik was close to an hour.

The driver was a kind, hardy man from Lithuania. He said he came to Reykjavik to work for a year... and fell in love with the clean atmosphere and level-headed and kind people. In a matter of hours, I too would be in love with the atmosphere and people.

I had lunch at Cafe Loki, a place right next to Hellgrimskirja (see picture) that serves traditional Icelandic cuisine, which in essence is very basic. Most dishes consisted of Pumpernickel bread, fish and local plants.. But on the menu are 2 things that most people would cringe at: Fermented Shark Meat, and Jellied Lamb's Head. Sadly, I forgot my camera during lunch, so I didn't get a picture of the Shark Meat. Though I am returning to eat the Lamb's head, so expect pictures later on in the week!

Hellgrimskirja Church

The fermented shark meat was extremely potent. The scent was similar to pure ammonia, although I eat a lot of fermented foods, so it didn't bother me as much. The taste, however, was amazing. If you can put up with the stench long enough to get it to your mouth, you'll enjoy it. It tasted pretty similar to pickled whitefish (man... I really eat a lot of old-people food).

Afterwards, I went and got my camera and just started walking, and walked back to Hellgrimskirja to take a picture of it really quick.
The tourists were flocking to it from the front, but no one really appreciates it from the side. I'm heading back to the church tonight after all the tourists have headed back to their cruise ships and whatnot. It's only a 5 minute walk.

In matter of minutes later I ended up by the coast, in front of the 'Sun Voyager', a contemporary sculpture made to envelop the spirit of exploration, so as you can imagine, I was quite a fan. You can see Mt. Esja from there, one of my main reasons to come to Reykjavik. I'm climbing it tomorrow.

The Sun Voyager

I walked along to coast until I came upon it...

                                       My mouth watered and my knees trembled...

                                                                                    I saw the light of lord Krishnu himself:

Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur.

Pure Beauty

Bæjarins Beztu is the hot dog Holy Grail, 

The sausage Shangri-La. 

It's a shack no bigger than the single table sitting next to it. Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur means ´Town´s Best Hot Dogs´ in Icelandic, and that name could not be more true. 

I waited in line for about a minute, which is a minute too long when standing in the holy light of the universes most decadent hot dogs. When It was my turn I uttered the words I´d practiced perfecting for this very moment: "Eine með öllu" (One with everything). In seconds my little miracle materialized in front of me.

So what makes a mere hot dog so great, so much so that I treat it like the second coming?

Well this isn't any ol' deer-frank. It's a sausage made with lamb, beef and pork. Beneath it a majestic parade of fried and raw onion. Above it, 2 sauces, one of them a house gravy and the other... I don't know. Pair it of with some Icelandic Coca-Cola and you've just justified your entire trip to Iceland....

But alas, my hot dog met his end, shortly thereafter... I found myself sitting on the rocks by the ocean, as my coca-cola dwindled away slowly. It was a great opportunity to just think... but I spent most of the time thinking about going back for seconds at Bæjarins Beztu... At this rate I better be getting an endorsement from them. 

And alas, my first day is winding down. Far from over, as I only took a break to write this. Reykjavik is amazing, and despite tourists and the strange clash of contemporary and old-steel architecture, feels quite cozy... But I'm happy to be getting out of here and going to the mountains tomorrow morning.