From Seyðisfjörður

Dear reader;

Many days have passed since our last conversation... from what I remember, I was in Akureyri the last time we spoke. This time, I am in the lovely hamlet of Seyðisfjörður. But much has happened before I arrived here...

From Akureyri I bussed to Myvatn (sp?), a geothermmal area like none other... the shallow lake displays lava fields around it, psuedo-craters, power plants, fissures issuing vast quantities of heat and steam... it´s the ´fire´ in the land of fire and ice.

I was spoiled at a wonderful campsite with free showers, wifi, and cooking stoves (aka free fuel). (time is limited) Hikes around huge gravel craters and to bizzare formations with farms built up around them were part of the journey... as were hills painted orange and white with steam rising up from all directions. Krafla, an active area and crater, is the area of a few power plants and they look like something from a video game... or avatar. In fact most of the place looks like something from fantasy. How I wish PC´s were easier to work with. Pictures are worth more then all this drivel...

Ok how about this;

Myvatn

Asbyrgi

Dettifoss

ROCK ON. Those are the places I have been the last few days before Seyðisfjörður. Geothermal activity to the max. Massive horseshoe canyon while listening to Neil Youngs 'on the beach' (a really weird album... but I think I like it) and the most amount of water I´ve ever seen moving faster then I could imagine. (get ready for a Koyaanisqatsi-esque video once I get home to a Mac...!)

Look, if you've read this much, just come to Iceland already, okay?? You won´t regret it.

The place I´m in now is very interesting... and by interesting I mean quirky. And by quirky I mean anti-social. Not anti-social in the sense that people don´t like people, no, this is a common misconception of the term anti-social. Antisocial is simply going against social norms and conventions... the antisocial personality type needs excitement, fun, and knows rules are for others. Also uninhibited when it comes to going against the grain. This is a bit like the antisocial town of Seyðisfjörður. And by antisocial, I mean just downright strange at times. Strange... to me. Many artsy types present their works here, and there is quite the bohemian feel to it. Yet the pub is only open for 4 hours... hmm... 2 hours tonight. (ex-fucking-cuse me??) and there are more arts and crafts style shops here then I´ve seen in Iceland. It reminds me a bit of Isafjordur but less people. There is the constant sound of waterfalls, as this place is nestled in the bottom of a long fjord and waterfalls are pouring into the valley from both sides... its quite beautiful.

There was a lot of fishing going on around here, and as with any unsustainable practice on a commercial level oops! Overfishing, and now its... well just less fishing. More tourism, I can only imagine. As far as the people go... I don´t want to say people are assholes; thats not practial. They are happy to take your money and are just as happy to see you go. Not interested beyond what is polite and necessesary. I have described Icelandic culture like this (and this could be the experience I´m getting only because I have turned into a hairy, twitchy, malodorus troll like creature. Just kidding. I´m perfectly good looking, clean shaven and smell great): Imagine a club. A very exclusive small club. And the membership to that club is speaking the special language only spoken by the MEMBERS of that club. This is my interpretation of say 85% of my interactions of the Icelandic hunman kind... with 15% of supreme exceptions. One being the couch surfing network in Reykjavik... truely fun, generous and gregarious people. The family on Hornstrandir. They are all going to proverbial heaven and were so rockin its hard to describe. The staff at Gamli Borjoe9p´roðpæðæöööðæpööööffjjkkoplðæðæðæ forget the name bar-cafe in Myvatn. We drank together and they introduced me to how young people live right above their summer jobs. So for these few exceptions, by qualatative measures, Icelandic people are great... its strange; its as if you´re eating marginal food 6 days a week, and the food you eat on the 7th day is SO phenomenal, so amazingly wholesome, that it makes the measly 6 other days tollerable and looking forward to that 7th days food. Is this making sense?

None the less, this is a great town. It would be even greater if I could get to know the people in it. The camp warden is hardly ever there and trusts you to pay for your days whenever you see him... whenever that is. The ´pub´ serves a special Icelandic beer, with the picture of the founder of the company on the bottle. And he also happens to be behind the bar. The gallery-cafes have active sound art installations in them and a nice one outside; a hose attached to a piece of wood attached to a metal chair so that it constantly sprays water in an arc. I thought they had their street... watering... system on, when in fact its water taken from the closest water fall. And the piece is called ´sitting under the waterfall´. Quirky. Antisocial. Welcome to Seyðisfjörður.

Until next rushed time,
-e