Thank God Eurovision's over

I was going to blog about this last weekend, but frankly my hangover from the Eurovish party prevented me from doing very much at all.

Eurovision is really big in Iceland. Like the majority of Brits, I think that Eurovision is a load of old Pap, so I am really surprised how seriously people take it here. People get really excited about it and Eurovision parties seem to be the thing to do and yes, we had one in our house.

I found it interesting that there was a flurry of traffic on the roads just before the competition started and then as soon as it started, nothing, not a car to be seen. The empty roads reminded me of world cup semifinals when England's playing (or rather losing) .

Anyway I decided to get on the outside of a few beers in order to sedate myself for the onslaught of crappy euro tunes. I managed to excuse myself from most of the first half by flipping meat on the BBQ outside, but I came back inside in time to watch Iceland's entry.

The song itself was actually one of the best tunes in the competition, although I thought the French song was probably the best. Obviously neither of these won. Eastern European countries tend to only vote for the country thats next door to them. As Russia has more neighbours than anyone else its was really no surprise they won.

I made a bet with one of the chaps at work and I put my money on the UK coming in last place. So it wasn't only the Russians who won on Eurovision night.

Earthquake !

Well the earth certainly moved for me Yesturday. There I was sitting at my desk at work when the building started shaking. It only lasted about 10 seconds but it was enough to put the wind up most people around me.

Coming from a place where earthquakes don't happen, I was not sure how to react. Thankfully I didn't make myself look foolish by wetting my pants or screaming like a girl.

We were about 30 miles away from the epicenter and the force was 6.1 on the Richter. The only damage to my home was a couple of pictures had fallen off the shelves in the living room, that was all.

The Town of Selfoss took the brunt of it. The emergency services dealt with the situation in a very cool manner. There was no fuss when people where asked to move out of their homes in case of strong aftershocks, they even evacuated the Prison.

The professionalism of these people (mostly volunteers) is something Icelanders should be proud of.

Park it like you stole it

I have seen many cars that are abandoned at the side of the road or dumped in shopping mall car parks around Reykjavik. It took me a while to realise that these abandonments where genuine attempts to park cars.

Its quite regular to see one car parked across two parking spaces or a car parked with one wheel mounting the curb. I don't think its because the puffin eaters are bad at driving I just think that a lot of them can't be arsed with the technical aspects of parking. There seems little attempt to straighten up a car in a parking space, they tend to just get out and walk away.

The other reason is that nobody ever says anything. If people get pissed off when out driving they don't tend to show it. I will take my camera out with me over the next few days, shouldn't take long to build up a nice portfolio of comedy parking pictures to show you all.

One with everything

I thought I would share with you a story of my first attempt to speak Icelandic. It happened a few years ago on my first trip to Reykjavik, my Girlfriend took me to what she told me was the most famous hot dog stand in the world.

At the time I thought she was a bit crazy but I have learned since that everyone (at least in Iceland) knows about Bæjarins beztu Pylsur or more commonly known as 'that place where Clinton got a hot dog'.

This hot dog stand reputedly serves the best Hot dogs in town and I must say they are pretty good. They say the secret to the taste is that they have never changed the water that the Hot dogs are cooked in. This is possibly why Bill Clinton had a heart attack a week after eating one of these things. Anyway back to the story.

My girlfriend told me that I should order the hot dog by saying 'eina með öllu', which means 'one with everything'. In my head I repeated to myself this phrase again and again. When I got to the front of the queue I told the hot dog bloke 'eina mellu '.

The guy gave me a funny look, sighed and then started to sort me out a hot dog with everything.

Little could I have known at the time but ' eina mellu' means 'one prostitute'.

Volcano

I decided it was time to have another go at climbing Keilir. 1st May is a bank holiday here and I decided as the weather was so good it would be a shame to waste the day.

I drove the car to as close as I could get to the Volcano and then left it and set off over the Lava fields. The last time I came here there was a lot of snow on the ground, so much so that it obscured the now quite obvious track across the Lava.

The track was not that easy to walk on but it made its way across the field without running into anything impassable. I laughed at the thought of me having such a hard time trying this just a month or so ago.

After a 40 mins hike I was through the Lava and at the base of the Volcano. I took my pack off, had a drink of water and then started the climb up. The climb started steeply and then just got steeper and steeper the further to the top I got. Lower down there is plenty of rocks but towards the top the surface is just sand and black ash. Its like trying to climb a giant sand mountain with your foot sliding down six inches with every step you take. Quite unnerving when you are 1000 ft up in the air.
I took this photo about two thirds of the way up and as you can see I am standing/lying with my back against the rock. It was pretty steep.I had to break the climb into little bits and rest after each part had been completed. I would look up and choose another waypoint ahead and then make out for it.
The view when I got to the top was worth it though. As I reached the top a couple of walkers where on there way down. I was so knackered all I could do was just grin like an idiot in response to there greetings.

It was such a clear day that you could see for miles. Looking south, I could even see the Sea on the south coast of Iceland, really amazing.


I had a bit of a rest and then wandered about the top taking pictures. I found a guest book in a metal box and got myself busy signing it. Then the wind suddenly picked up and I decided it was time to go down again, although I did manage to set my camera up for a self portrait before I left.




The way down was much easier and I only stopped to take a few photos. I soon reached the bottom and set out across the lava again very pleased with myself and looking forward to a shower and a cold beer.