Today we went sightseeing in Barcelona. First stop was the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, an enormous church that has been in construction since 1882 and is expected to last until at least 2026. We never went inside due to the extreme long line youn had to wait in. After that we walked around, ate bad expensive paella and watched buldings for a few hours or so. Getting close to our apartment, we jumped on an overpriced sightseeing bus and took a tour around parts of Barcelona. After almost two hours we were back were we started and decided to walk some ofe the back streets and alleys near our apartment in old town. We started to get hungry again and had some good and fairly cheap local pan pizza.
By this time we were getting cold (it had rained twice earlier that in the day) so we went back to the hotel for a while to relax and warm up.
After some time we went back out again in a new direction. Walked for a few hours, found a giant cat, had a drink and bought some snacks on the way back. Now we are going to watch a movie: Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. 😉
My mom has a nice tradition. Whenever we kids turn 30, she takes us to a destination of our choice in Europe, just the two of us. Since I turned 30 just over a month ago, it was my turn. I picked Barcelona.
My brother gave us a ride to the airport at 7 in the morning, and checking in went fine. We changed plane in Frankfurt and spent time watching two movies on my Eee: The Heroes of Telemark and The Good Thief. Both were surprisingly good!
After arriving in Barcelona we took the aerobus in to town. instead of taking a taxi to our hotel we decided to walk. Strolling through La Rambla, we arrived at our apartment around 4 in the afternoon.
Shortly after, we went for a walk, did some minor shopping and had tapas.
Monday morning we got up at around four in the morning, really tired. The first thing we noticed that there were a lot of noise outside.
What the Icelanders do when they party is that they have warm-up parties at home before going out, meaning that the night life doesn’t start in Reykjavik until around midnight (or 02:00 Swedish time) and continues until late the morning after.
We noticed this very much, as our hotel was located at the main street of the city, our room faced that street an there were plenty of clubs and bars around. This meant a lot of thumping bass and shouting people every time you tried to get to sleep, and sometimes still there when you woke up. Good thing we brought earplugs.
We got to the airport allright and the security check was a breeze. Did some taxfree shopping and had some breakfast before boarding the plane. Flight was nothing special but we had to wait for 10 minutes or so before we could get off the plane due to missing ground crew.
When we finally got out in the open it was warm. 15C and no wind compared to 2C and lots of wind makes for a big diffence.
On sunday we went to the famous Blue Lagoon, a big spa resort with a great outdoor pool/constructed lake. The water was hot (almost too hot in some places) and milky. Under the water was black sand and all along the “shore” there was white mud that had a really strange consistency to it. There was also a waterfall with hot water and a couple of steam baths and saunas.
From being frozen a great deal of the time we’ve spent in Iceland, the Blue Lagoon was a great contrast. Even though it was a but crouded at the entrance, it was so big that you could simply swim out for a few minutes, and suddenly you were all alone. And due to the thick fog (hot water/cold air) there was not a human in sight for some moments.
Exiting the Blue Lagoon, we saw Dave Growl, singer in Foo Fighters. I didn’t talk to him or even take a photo, trying to respect his privacy. But a part of me regrets it today. 😉
After going back to Reykjavik, we spent some time in the hotel room and then went out to Balthazar Bar & Grill for dinner. Having to get up around 4:00 the next day, we made it a short evening and got back to the hotel fairly early.
Yesterday we spent the entire day in Reykjavik to do some shopping. It is a nice little town with interesting architecture, many restaurants and nice people – but it is not a town where you go shopping. During our stay here, all I have bought is two t-shirts and two comic books (Wolverine: Weapon X and Zombie Stories: Good Eatin’).
Anyway, yesterday we walked around for a few hours trying to find something interesting to buy. Failing that, we then took a bus out to Kringlan, the big shopping mall outside the city. A lot of stores but not much of interest to us. After that we met up with my brother and we had some dinner at the Mexican restaurant Santa Maria next to our hotel. A Mexican restaurant where you had to make a special request to get a Mojito, since the waiter didn’t even seemed to know what that was. Anyway, the food was quite good and the prices low (or odyr, as they say here in Iceland). We went on to Kaffi Zimsen, a pub that seemed to have a nice atmosphere, but turned out to have very expensive drinks and a busted-up bathroom. After a while four women that Fredde had been diving with turned up. After chatting with them for a while we went back to the hotel after a quick stop at our favorite pyslur (Icelandic hot dog) place.
We have no idea if these were protests, statements or party invitations
Building across the street from our hotel
Cars are really big in Iceland
This is apparently the hub of Reykjavik
The blue building is Hotel Fron where we stayed on the 4th floor – our balcony is to the right in this picture
Yesterday wee took the Golder Circle Tour, a guided bus tour to different parts of southern Iceland. First, we went to a geothermal plant to look at how the hot springs brings hot water and electricity to practically all of Iceland.
Next stop was the Gullfoss waterfall. Absolutely stunning! That was probably the most intense nature experience I’ve had, and is strongly recommended if you ever go here.
After that, we went to the geysir area, “where hot springs are in abundance, geysers explode and pools of mud bubble”. Cool experience – got some really nice photos as well.
Last stop was a visit to the Thingvellir National Park, the site of the oldest existing parliament in the world. It is located between two tactonic plates (North American and Eurasian), which has created a huge rift in the ground, still drifting apart with a few centimeters per year.
We got home to the hotel at about 17:00, where we met up with Fredde who had been diving in two degrees cold water (but with at least 60 meters of clear sight!) during the day. We went to a restaurant to have dinner, and did some barhopping after that.
Pictures and further updates will come when I have time, now we will do Reykjavik!
Update: Pictures!
Update 2: Captions!
Lots of bus window photos were taken
The landscape is very shifting
Car wrecks were placed along the road to remind peole to drive safely
Steam from geothermal plants
Entrance to a big geothermal plant
Inside we got a lecture about how the plant works
Nice view from inside the plant
Our busdriver who almost drove off the road
Icelandic horses
The hills are alive, with the sound of laavaaa!
Some river in Iceland
In the distance the active volcano Hekla can be seen
Overview of Gullfoss waterfall
On the way to Gullfoss I had a staring contest with some dude I found. He won.
Gullfoss. Magnificent.
Frank at Gullfoss waterfall, Iceland
I walk the line, right before the big fall
The rocks rocked
This image of Gullfoss gives absolutely no justice to the actual experience.
Ice around the waterfall looked like cake frosting
Hot lamb soup after freezing at the waterfall
Cars are big in Iceland
Warning signs around hot springs at the gesir area
A small geyser (The little geyser)
The geyser Stokkur erupts [1/2]
The geyser Stokkur erupts [2/2]
Stokkur at close range
Blesi hot spring
Yes, it really was hot!
Blesi hot spring sign
Konungshver – means “the king’s hot spring”
Stokkur erupting in the background
The shallow water around the geysers looked amazing
Lots of small hot springs in this field
Information signs is da shit!
Viking troll, common in Icelandic souvenir shops
Thingvellir national park -this is the actual rift between two tactonic plates
Marianne lying on a grassy wall while chinese tourists take pictures
Inside the rift – under the small ledge I’m standing on is a 4 meter fall
Great view
A sun dial at the top of a hill
Relaxing inside the rift
Great example of how the ground has split when the tactonic plates drifted apart
Can you spot her?
Muahaha!
There are a lot of cracks here
It’s heroic pose time!
Thingvellir national park is Unesco protected
Fantastic mountains
I like the fact that many of the mountains in Iceland looks completely flat on the top
More fantastic mountains
Architecture in Iceland are sometimes beautiful, and sometimes just strange
We are now in Iceland. The flight went wery well, comfortable seats with good in-flight entertainment (touch sceens in every seat). Hotel is absolutely faboulus with a really fresh room larger than my last apartment, located right in the very center of Reykjavik. We have had a great dinner, good beer, nice Icelandic company and the best hot dog (due to munchies) in ages.
Tomorrow we will go on a tour, seeing waterfalls, geysers and a national park.
Some pictures:
While waiting at Arlanda Airport, I made a Lego man.
Me and my Lego man!
Fredde reading a Star Wars book
Our airplane – looks a lot smaller on the outside!
On the airport bus between Keflavik airport and Reykjavik
Yesterday my gf M went to Salvation Tattoo to get her latest ink from Nille (who has tattooed both me and her in the past).
The motif was a custom scene portraying Snufkin and the Moomintroll on a bridge. It took about 2½ hours (not including preparations), and she was very happy with the results.
If you recognize the tree (previously done) that it joins with, it is the Tree of Gondor from Lord of the Rings.
I got an SMS the other day from Simon, guitarist in Blindside, that they are having a free concert tonight (February 5) in Stockholm.
The place is Lilla Hotellbaren (Scandic Malmen) at Medborgarplatsen.
They are on stage around 21:00-22:00, but it might be a good idea to be there as the place only takes 500 people.
Aside from Blindside, others that are playing are the Johan Kjellberg – PENSIONATET 18.00-21.00 and Daniel Howe (Superdiskant) & Johan Ljungberg (Thelma/Louise) 22.00-02.00.
Sounds like fun!
Update:
The concert was good! Place was packed, sound was fine and Blindside was full of energy as usual. 🙂
