Museum of boxes.

A box inside a box, inside a box.

Knitting outside.

Siglufjordur.

Is my new favourite 'secret' place in Iceland.

It's on the Northern-most tip. Siglufjordur residents would say 'let's go south to Akureyri'. Not many people would utter such a sentence.

Anyhow, Siglufjordur reminds me of Jasper, but on the edge of the ocean. The salt wafts over everything, but, to borrow a phrase from Paris, time feels soft there.

This is at the edge of Iceland.

We went to a newly-constructed pool in a village called Hofsos. It's a pretty great pool, overlooking the ocean.

We also went to the weird old man's Christmas lodge, where it's Christmas 365 days of the year.

Further photographic images.

This horsey is looking into your soul. Do you feel it? I do.












This is a beautiful map. Now, I own it. It's my favourite souvenir.

This is a whale I ate.

He was tasty, especially in peppercorn sauce.

This is a nice horsey.

Lauren eating breakfast. Oddly enough, everything is green here.

An Icelandic gas station.

You pay with a credit card.

Items of interest from in & around Reykjavik.

Indeed.

Lauren thought this guy needed a hug.

I thought he needed something else.

I am nicer to horses than I am to statues.

This is the new concert hall, Harpa.

Bjork played here last night. It's pretty 'avant-garde' in it's design. Neat place.

Fans of Sigur Ros might recognize this chap.

I'm a huldufolk.

Robyn - Dancing On My Own..."Stilletos on broken bottles"

Furthermore!

Eli Roth is inspired by Iceland from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

Inspired by Iceland : Emiliana Torrini - Jungle Drum

Painters Painting.

Adding to the growing list of odd jobs on hand here in Iceland, today I'm going to paint two apartments with Lars. One of the guys on our hockey team, Siggy Sigs, is a real-estate agent, and can rent these apartments when they're less decrepit.

Lars is a big mule, and is mostly looking for me to bring my laptop and play some music while we work. Can do!

Of Monsters And Men - Love Love Love

myndbrot 30 ; U20 landsliðsæfingar á Akureyri 15. okt. 2011

I'm the referee here. This is Iceland's under-20 team against the Vikings, who won 7-4. It was a long game: three, 30-minute periods, running time. They can play that long here, because there are no other teams waiting to go on the ice.

Hakarl.

Ug. I think my brain repressed this for a few days, but this past weekend, I just remembered I tried 'hakarl' for the first time. This was, without question, the most vile substance I've ever put in my body. It makes eating a block of cheese seem appetizing to me. That should speak volumes. Anyhow, for those not in the know, Hakarl (pronounced 'how-karl'), is fermented Greenlandic shark. Why fermented? Well, shark meat is poisonous to humans when it's fresh.

So, some Viking must have buried the shark for awhile, and come back, hoping for better things. It's fermented in piss-coloured by-product from making Skyr. Then buried under ground, until you've run out of food, and have to turn to this disgusting substance. The guys on my team told me that historically, 'February' was a popular time to eat it, as the winter supply of food might be running low by then.

Nowadays, it survives as a food, though I don't know how. Tourists buy some, but so do some Icelanders.

I was given a chunk by a guy who bought some at the farmer's market, and wanted to share it with the rest of the hockey contingent. I gagged four times trying to get it down, and in the end, I'm not sure what I swallowed, but I snuck part of it into a back pocket, because it was making me retch. He gave me a shot of whiskey afterwards, which was helpful, but I still had tears in my eyes.

This is what it looks like.

This food is so bad, that I had a single cube, and could still smell it on my fingers three days later. Guys in the truck could smell it on the way home. Just thinking of it makes me gag.

I'd rather eat another Icelandic traditional food, pickled ram's testicles, than this, anyday.

Refereeing.

These are snippets of me refereeing a game between SA (Jotnar) and Reykjavik.

Reykjavik has the Rangers-style uniforms.

This game finished 13-3. Fortunately for us officials, no fireworks happened in the third period--SA was down 10-1 going into the 3rd. This past weekend in Reykjavik, the stable of referees for the league (five of us) got together to discuss rules...and I went on a bit of a rant about having B-squads play A-squads--I am thinking eventually, frustration will boil over in a 3rd period, and someone will get hurt. I suggested a mercy rule, because really, nothing good is going to take place in the 3rd period of a 10-1 game.

Mountains Beyond Mountains.

These are some pictures of mountains that Jon took today. We actually stopped on the highway to take them, which was really funny--you wouldn't do that on the Trans Canada Highway. Unless you had a death wish.

Anyhow, it was pretty cool to see how guys who have been making the drive between Akureyri and Reykjavik for their whole lives still take the time to appreciate the scenery. I would have thought is would be background wallpaper to them by now. But no.

A Gold-medal worthy day.

This is Herman. He drives like a crazy-man. Thankfully, I did not come to Reykjavik in his car.

He is a better defenseman than a driver though--my preferred partner on the 'Old Boys', a rag-tag group put together to attend Canadian Hockey Day in Iceland on behalf of Skautafelag Akureyrar.

Despite how they look here, these are stand-up guys, Gardur (orange) and Jon (banana). Gardur builds ships. Jon is a tour guide on glaciers, and is the ski-patrol at the local hill, when it's open. Very Iclandic. Jon told me a funny story about him and some buddies going mountain-climbing, but getting stuck on the mountain. So he called for a rescue squad...only to hear his buddies phones going off--the entire Icelandic Search and Rescue team was stuck on the same mountain. It took them 18 hours, but they finally got down from the mountain. Funny.

This is Sami-Jo Small, a fellow Canadian. But she's a wee-bit more accomplished than I: http://www.samijosmall.ca/

This is her Gold Medal from the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. She is here to pump the female hockey players up about what they are doing. She gave an awesome, awesome speech. Amongst other things, she encouraged people to close their eyes and imagine what their dream is when they hold her medal. Olympians are very inspiring!

This thing weighed about a pound.

This is me playing defense. We lost to the Winnipeg Falcons 5-3...which was not a bad showing...except I am told only two of their players were sober. They were drinking on the bench. I had two assists.

Our next game started minutes short of midnight, and we won this one 3-2. That was against a team from Quebec.

The Iceland Hockey Logo explained!

There is pretty good media coverage of this tournament here. Their equivalent of the CBC, "RUI" was here, and one of our guys gave an interview. Sadly, it was our idiot player who was ejected in the Falcons game for swinging his stick, McSorley style at a poor Winnipegger. Fortunately, he didn't make contact. Scary.

I am happy to be back in Reykjavik! Their rink here is connected to a huge movie theatre.

Indeed.

Winter has struck. Today in Icelandic class we learned many of the words they have to describe the various kinds of snow.

Winter Snow Covers Ground in North Iceland

Akureyri residents in north Iceland woke up to a snow-covered ground this morning; it is the first winter snow to fall on the ground in Iceland this year but snow had already fallen at higher altitudes on mountains in both Akureyri and Reykjavík.

Although not quite as much snow covered the ground in Akureyri this morning, this is what the town sometimes looks like at the height of winter. Photo by ESA.

However, the snow in Akureyri is not expected to last long as rain and warmer temperatures are forecast for tomorrow, mbl.isreports.

Today, though, wind is forecast to blow in from the north at 5-13 meters per second, followed by sleet or snowfall in the northern part of the country while mostly dry conditions are expected in the south.

Winter conditions exist on roads in the north and east with snow cover, patches of ice and snowfall. There are also partially slippery conditions on mountain roads on Snaefellsnes peninsula in the west and in the West Fjords.

Winnipeg Falcons v. Old Boys of Akureyri.

So...this weekend in Reykjavik there is a big tournament. Nine teams from Canada are coming. I'm playing for the local 'Old Boys' team, and we are going down on Friday night. Shoud be fun/weird to play against Canadians, and not be on the team.

Winnipeg Falcons to Play at Iceland Ice Hockey Cup

When the Winnipeg Falcons, a team comprised of ice hockey players of Icelandic descent, returned to Canada after becoming the first Olympic champions in ice hockey in Antwerp, Belgium, 1920, they were given a royal welcome.

The original Winnipeg Falcons. Source: Wikipedia.

When Winnipeg returned to the NHL ice hockey league in the summer of 2011 they considered naming their team the Falcons, but ended up deciding on the Jets, Morgunbladid reports.

Nevertheless, the Falcons were resurrected to compete at the 2011 Iceland Ice Hockey Cup in Egilshöll in Reykjavík next weekend, held by local team Björninn.

“We want to contribute to restoring Iceland’s economy by spending a few dollars while we’re here,” said one of the Falcons’ team member Grant Stefanson.

As with their predecessors, most of the Falcons’ players are of Icelandic descent. Stefanson said it is natural for them to honor the name of the first Olympic champions in ice hockey. They will play their first game on Thursday.

Canadian Hockey Day Celebrated in Iceland

October 9 will be the Canadian Hockey Day in Iceland when Canadian and Icelandic hockey players, including Canadian Sarah Smiley who is on the Icelandic national women’s hockey team, two-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time world champion goaltender Sami Jo Small and her husband, gold medal Paralympian sledge hockey player Billy Bridges, will present the sport to Icelanders.

Icelandic hockey players. Courtesy of Birna Baldursdóttir.

The event is part of the annual Iceland International Ice Hockey Cup Tournament which will take place October 5-10 in Egilshöll in Reykjavík, a press release states.

This is the first time that the tournament includes a full women’s division. Canada will be represented by 57 female hockey players.

The Iceland International Ice Hockey Cup Tournament has been providing a unique hockey experience for nine years.

“The charitable component of the tournament began in 2008 after Iceland’s banking collapse with a bunch of guys from New Jersey who love Iceland (‘The Great Iceland Hockey Bailout’),” wrote Deirdre Norman, whose organization The Women of Winter (TWOW) is the driving force behind the Canadian women’s participation.

“So far, [CAD] 25,000 [ISK 2.8 million, USD 24,000, EUR 19,000] in cash and hockey equipment has been donated to youth hockey organizations in Iceland and the Iceland Red Cross,” she added.

“TWOW is responsible for coordinating the women’s division, for creating ‘Canadian Hockey Day in Iceland’, for bringing donations of gear, and for bridging Canadian and Icelandic hockey programs,” Norman concluded.

ESA

Radio Free Europe!

Today has been a good day thus far. I was moments from bringing an Icelandic copy of my 'service' resume to this restaurant, but noticed they were busy, so didn't want to bother them. This restaurant, Greifinn, is just on the corner where I live, and it seems to be busy all the time. When Domino's was closed last week, we got pizza from here, and it was great. They also serve puffin.

Deciding to come back tomorrow when it's less busy, I walked across the street to the grocery store to pick up some maple syrup for show and tell at Icelandic class tomorrow morning. We are supposed to bring something that is representative of our country, and this is the best I could think of.

I also ran into an American guy, Ryan Patrick, who is in my Icelandic class. Turns out he know the program director for +987 FM, and they are looking for someone to replace Runar, who got a new job as a liquor rep. He asked me to have lunch tomorrow, so I am going to do that.

Interesting, this maple syrup is from Moncton, and is called 'Steeves Maple Syrup', which means it comes from Cam's mom's family. Small world.

There was also a big sale on at 66 Degrees North today. Coats which were normally $250, were on for $50.

I miss Cam.

Josh sent me this--he thinks it's funny that I eat bacon so often. I do not think 3-4 times a week is that often.