Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Sunday, July 25, 2010

8 New Music Vids

While I was in iceland I watched a lot of MTV UK in my hotel room, and therefore have a new selection of great music videos. Here they are for your enjoyment :)

Skepta - Rescue Me


Cee Lo Green - No One


Alexandra Burke Feat Pitbull - All Night Long


Magnetic Man - I Need Air


Dan Balan - Chica Bomb


Cheryl Cole - Parachute


INNA - Amazing


Keri Hilson - I Like

Iceland... the land of ice.

So I've been home for a little while now, collecting my thoughts about Iceland, and now it's time to post.

The verdict: I need to go back! Iceland is seriously the best place I've ever been, and I very strongly plan on moving there. Also, 24hour sunlight is awesome!

On my first day i went whalewatching, which you can read about here.

Whale watching

On my second day I explored Reykjavik and bought WAAAAAY too much stuff. Everything in iceland is SO expensive. For instance, a beer costs about $14. A bottle of vodka costs double what it would here in Canada. The one cocktail I remember buying myself was about $20. Dinner for myself would range from $60-$100. Lunch would be between $30-$50 (I actually had a $30 hamburger). Reykjavik's most famous restaurant is actually a hotdog stand, and it's just a couple dollars for the BEST hotdog ever.

Baejarins Beztu Pylsur... Best Hotdogs!

On my third day I went horseback riding in the morning, and then to the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, which was very very touristy (so many kids!) but still very cool. I got a 2-hour in-water body wrap and massage, so I actually just floated around the water being massaged and stuff. The only downside is that the water was very salty and destroyed my hair! The water was so cool though... it was almost milky white!



Water at the Blue Lagoon


On Saturday and Sunday I hung out in Reykjavik and went to some galleries and museums. The National Art Gallery had 2 very cool exhibitions on... Edvard Munch and Cindy Sherman's Film Stills.


On my second last day I went on the Golden Circle Tour, where you drive around to some of Iceland's main natural sites including Geysir, Gulfoss (a beautiful waterfall), and a place where you can clearly see the separation between the North American Techtonic plate and the Eurasian one.

Standing between the Eurasian techtonic plate (right) and the North American one (left)


The big wall with the waterfall is the North American techtonic plate

Gulfoss



Geysir (you can see a man in the bottom right corner... that should give you an idea of the scale)



The earth here is red from iron

At nighttime the Icelanders don't really go out until midnight, so I'd nap until about 11 and then head out. Most nights I hung out with my fabulous icelandic buddy Toti. Toti is also the reason I stood 1 foot away from Bjork! On my second day, in the afternoon, I was about to take a nap when Toti texted me about an art show down by the harbour. I said I was pretty tired so no thanks... then I woke up an hour later with a text on my phone that said "but Bjork's here", so I got down there in about 5 minutes flat! She was there with her kid, and as much as I desperately wanted to approach her, I was advised not to :( There were also 2 members of Múm there, and I even drove past Jonsi's house later that night!

Performance piece at the art show

Proof!


Me + Toti


Toti sitting under my new favourite photo


Some fun Iceland facts I learned:

-They don't have a word for "please". Instead, they have 3 words that mean "do it".
-Until recently, it was legal in Iceland to kill Turks.
-Beer was illegal in Iceland until a couple years ago. Not all liquor, just beer...
-The largest group of immigrants in Iceland is Polish people.

More photos:

Weird Statue at the Keflavik Airport

Flying over Greenland


The Reykjavik Pond at about midnight







Some dude bleeding in the street at 1am.


This is about 11:15 PM

Me on top of my new favourite statue

My new favourite statue



View of Reykjavik from the top of the church