Iceland (photos)

Warning: photo heavy.

I think it's a Glaucus Gull? They're beautiful! And they also seemed a bit larger than the seagulls hereabouts.

We just got back not long ago from Reykjavik, and I'm already missing (strangely enough, of all things) the sulphurous smell that accompanies the hot water. I was a bit skeptical at first when my coworker was telling me that one of the things she remembers most about Iceland was that the hot water smelled of sulphur ("... you mean like rotten eggs?" "Yeah, exactly that."), but I actually found there was something soothing about it once I experienced it myself. And I was also surprisingly fond of all the licorice flavoured stuff they have there - this coming from someone who used to absolutely shiver with disgust whenever she so much as heard the word licorice crawl out of someone's mouth! (The hotdogs were also amazing.)

Can't help but think buttcrack when I look at the photo, to be honest.

We were very lucky in terms of weather; every day trip we took (one to the South and another to Snæfellsnes) was more or less sunny, with a bit of cloud and rain for Snæfellsnes, which made for a couple of rainbows - a couple of double rainbows, actually! - at the waterfalls in the South and a fun time all around. Our guide for the Southern tour told us that this was the first time in about a month that he was able to actually talk about the volcanoes we were passing, because they had been hidden from sight all the other times he had led the trip by fog or cloud! My film never caught after I reloaded it during the South tour, and that was for the camera I was using the most that day, unfortunately, so there isn't too much to show for it (including double rainbows at both waterfalls), but apart from that tidbit, everything went pretty smoothly and we even got to go into a cave!

We went with Gateway to Iceland for both trips - they keep the tour sizes small, and the tour guides were knowledgeable and obviously passionate about their work, which is always great to see!

Double rainbow...! Jokes! Film didn't catch till I gave up on trying to capture that. Photos or it didn't happen though?

It was actually even more of a saturated blue than this.

Directly across from where we were living.

Elliðaàrdalur

The rest of the time we stayed in and around downtown Reykjavik, though we did go visit the trail in the Elliðaàrdalur valley (I still can't pronounce it) after visiting Àrbærjarsafn (Àrbær Open Air Museum), where I finally got to see some sheep up close! We got a bit confused along the way to Elliðaàrdalur, trying to match up a map with reality and not realizing that we were looking at the wrong bit of map (the road we were looking at continued with the same name even though it looked as though it was just an intersection), and ended up having to ask for directions. Once we reached the river, my brother and I both saw - but failed to capture! - a fish jumping right up the small waterfall (if you could call it that). Not sure what fish it was, but it had great timing! Although there isn't too much in terms of wildlife that I saw, the bird population we encountered was huge. Birds everywhere, from gulls and Arctic terns (I will never forget the sound of their warning calls or the feeling of the love tap they gave me on the back of my head - beautiful birds otherwise) to ducks and geese to your regular pigeon. We had just gone during nesting season, too, so after that tern attack, I couldn't really fully enjoy Viðey island the same way as maybe I would've been able to before that encounter, especially not after seeing a "protected nesting grounds" labeled on the map. The island was... I don't want to say it's boring, but there wasn't too much to see. It's great for a leisurely hike, and I'm sure we missed out on a lot of the more scenic routes because we tried to avoid getting attacked by birds and stuck to the main road, but I kind of expected more colour all around.

Did I mention the lichen and the moss?

I have no idea what's going on there, but this was in between houses.

The colours that you can find sort of just everywhere in Reykjavik are so incredibly vivid and varied that I was tempted to take photos of basically everything I came across at times - imagine a Hockney-esque panorama of some view or other, even within the city with all the buildings. The roofs of the buildings offer pops of colour left and right, and even the building walls themselves are coloured! I'm not sure why exactly, and from the photos my brother took last time he went (a couple years ago, I think?) from up in the church, it does seem to have dulled a bit in comparison, but it's still very cheerful at ground level to see the variety of colour. Something else that was everywhere: wall paintings and graffiti.

Graffiti

The entire construction wall was graffitied through, ranging in style.

See below.

I thought I saw you somewhere before! (There's also a restaurant called Ugly, though not sure if associated?)

I know we have moss & lichen here too, but there's something about it!

There's also a profuse amount of moss and lichen, the likes of which I want to say I've never seen before, but I'm sure I have and it simply didn't make as great an impression on me. What really got me, though, was the moss. And not even the incredibly bright green moss that carpeted the entire ground on either side as we were driving along the road for the South tour (because it had just rained the day before). It's the thick, light green-grey stuff that's probably inches thick growing on the lava fields. Those are absolutely mind-boggling! How thick and lush they are; how plush! Just imagine lying down on that! (Though you'd get a pretty hefty fine from what I understand if a ranger found you on top of the moss.)

This. Is. The. Dream.

See that streamlined shape in the foreground, that the guy at the side is keeping an eye on? That's an arctic tern (see below).

Aggressive when nesting.

We didn't explore too much around the city itself, going to the same broad areas throughout the week:

• Along the harbour. We ate ice cream at Valdís a couple of times, where I tried a salted licorice ice cream despite my initial misgivings (I mean, it is licorice after all, and you know those boxes of black and brightly coloured licorice candies? That was my first experience of the stuff, so I think it's an understandable reaction). We also went to the omnom factory, where we got most of the chocolate souvenirs.

Along the way to Whales of Iceland

The car roof looks like water!

• The Whales of Iceland exhibit. I think they set this up quite well: the audio guides were small and unobtrusive, the size of an iPod mini, I think, and they provide you the headphones as well. I usually never listen to audio guides, so the fact that I did is a good sign. There were also tablets set up beside each dolphin or whale so you could read a little blurb about it if you chose not to listen to the guide or if you wanted a reminder which is which (with language options between English, Icelandic, and German). There were also interactive displays that gave a bit more information about specific things, such as killer whales, the evolutionary backdrop to whales (and how hippopotamuses are their closest living relative), and another one on mink whales. Then there are the models and the way they were displayed, such that you literally walked among the whales! Pretty cool.
• The only concern I had after watching the documentary they were showing was that the documentary, which talks about Keiko the killer whale, who was set free after a campaign following the Free Willy movie. The documentary shown (that I saw - perhaps there is more than one being shown?) only goes up until the part where Keiko is still in the pen in the ocean, being slowly trained to eat fish in the water instead of having fish being thrown into his mouth. It doesn't tell you that Keiko never integrated into the pod that was closeby, or that Keiko died alone off the Norwegian shore, completely dependent on humans for subsistence for the rest of his "free" life. I spoke to one of the workers there and he told me that they had only just started showing the documentary, so perhaps they will be adding the other one, which follows Keiko till the end of his life - they actually have this documentary in the store, so I really hope they do! - depending on how things go, later on. It would definitely change the views of the visitors who come into the exhibit, I think, and be a bit more thought-provoking, though I suppose that isn't really the point of this particular exhibit.

Outside the bedroom window

Nifty back corridor we took to get to the harbour & thereabouts.

• We walked along Laugavegur a couple times also, taking the bus to Hlemmur and walking back to Ranargata, where we lived.
• City Hall area, which was actually very close to where we were staying, so I'm somewhat surprised we didn't go more often considering how beautiful it is there. That being said, if we had made regular strolls around the city in addition to all the touring we did, I'd probably not have made it back in one piece, so I'm glad we decided that sleep is important and we should probably indulge in that.
• Surprisingly, the 24-hr daylight didn't bother my sleep schedule one bit. I probably slept better there than I have continuously in a while. It might have something to do with how much walking we were doing every day and how many activities we would fit into each and every day, such that I'd be exhausted by the end of it all, but all the same. I loved the constant sunlight.
• Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur. They are the best. I'm not even a hot dog person. I stay away from street meat when in Toronto to the point where I can't even remember the last time I ate one. But these I'm pretty sure I can eat every day. No joke.
• We did get to go visit one of the swimming pools, which was beyond amazing! We went to Laugardalslaug and stuck to the outdoor pool and the hot tubs - I didn't even realize the beach volleyball was accessible from the floor of the pool area - and the lack of chlorine was a nice change from the swimming pools here. There was also the fact that even though the lanes weren't strictly regimented into slow/medium/fast lanes and didn't tell you which direction you had to swim, everybody looked out where they were going and it self-regulated well. But that's not even the best part. The entire system is the best part.
• You get a little wristband after paying that allows you past the turnstile and opens/locks the lockers inside the changerooms. The pool provides towels if you didn't bring your own (already amazing) as well as soap (which pools provide here as well, but the soap was actually soap-like, not the poor excuse for soap they provide at public pools here). There's an open shoe rack outside the changerooms, and shoe lockers right beside those if you want to use them, so shoes are not allowed at all into the changerooms. The floor of the changeroom is also completely dry. Whoa. I'm always tiptoeing left and right around the disgusting muck that is the floor here! Someone monitors who goes into the pool and comes back in, as well as hands out the towels, so if they see you're heading into the pool dry, you'll get stopped and reminded to shower. The pool gets to stay cleaner and you don't step on all manner of dirt and hair on your way back into the changeroom - incredible. There was also a dryer so your swimsuit wouldn't drip all over the place afterwards, although I hear that's been implemented here also in some pools. On your way out, there's a bag for you to dump your towel and the turnstile lets you out only after you return your wristband. I have no words to describe how much I love this system. No words.

Cool.

I was never afraid I'd get lost to the point of no return, and navigating the streets came pretty naturally after the first day, which is weird. I can get lost in Toronto, and it's a pretty rigid grid system in Toronto. It might have something to do with how colourful everything is and how close to the ground everything is. I definitely want to go back - maybe in the winter next time?

Iceland

That's (probably) what you think it is, yes.

This is going to be real quick. Just stuff I bought in Iceland (the irony being that both of the above items are from Finland). Yes, I added to my stash. No, I didn't take any digital photos, so photos of Iceland will have to wait until all the film has been processed and printed.

In the colour Pistachio, even though I've never met a pistachio quite this acid yellow-green.

This lovely blanket came from a souvenir gift shop, but the moment I saw the colour, I couldn't quite bring myself to leave it behind. (Though I did leave it for a day before going back. It helped that I had it in my mind that it was double the price it actually was, so when we did go back (to get postcards, but also take a second look), I snatched it up immediately.) I've been noticing that I'm quite attracted to this type of colour, as you might have gleaned already from what yarn I'm attracted to and this dress I knit. The blanket itself is also just dreamy - look at that weave pattern! It's not just a diamond grid, and that slight off-centering just makes the blanket - and seeing as I got a lot of use out of an older large doubleweave red-black blanket/scarf that I dug out of storage earlier this year, I was able to justify it to myself. I'm sure this pistachio blanket is going to get a lot of use later on, once autumn comes back around.

I'm not sure what Sisustus & Sina mean, but I had a lot more luck googling Reeta Ek, the designer. This comes from her Lapuan & Kankurit SS/2016 collection, and just looking at her other collections, I really like her aesthetic! There's something about this blanket (and the collection itself) that leaves me beyond confused though: which part of this is "Eskimo"? Because that's what the blanket is called both in print (on the back side of the tag; I didn't notice until after I got home and looked at the full card) as well as on her site, where it says "Eskimo & Mehiläispesä (beehive)". Beehive makes sense, so I'm wondering if this is the result of some unfortunate naming due to an unfamiliarity with the English language (it also translates in English under materials, "100% wool, pistachios", and I'm not sure if it's 100% pistachios or 100% wool, or... both?) and the offensive connotations of the term "Eskimo" (though a quick search on Google tells you it's offensive right at the very top, so in which case I'd suggest simply doing some research), or if there's something I'm not quite understanding here about what Ek is trying to say about either the blanket or the collection. I mean, I still love the blanket itself - just uggggghhhhhh. I feel as though the blanket just got a bit heavier.

Onto a lighter subject, though: yarn. (Though perhaps not so light considering how much of it I have?)

Grenadine Einband for a lace dress I saw in the Handknitting Association Store

There was really no way I could've made it out of Iceland without bringing some yarn with me (despite not yet having used the yarn my brother brought back last time), so here's some more Einband. The dusty rose (Grenadine) above is going to become something akin to Miðja, which I think I saw a sample of in-store. There were two other dresses of similar style, cinched with ribbing at the waist and covered otherwise in allover lace, that I quite liked. I think there's actually too much yarn here, since the dress looked a bit big on me - I didn't try it on - but better safe than sorry, right? I also don't have the pattern, so I think I'm just going to find a lace I like and improvise. As I do.

The below three are going to be used for a sweater. Hopefully I've got enough of the body colour, but even if I don't, I'm sure I'll be able to make do with some of the other Einband I've got in my stash.

Main colour.

         

Contrast/accent colours.

You might notice I haven't really talked about what the wool blanket is sitting on, in the first photo. It's a reindeer skin. I've been eyeing a reindeer skin for a while from the Shetland Tannery (as well as the lambskins, to be honest), and I did wait until the last day to purchase one from Iceland, because we're not really a fur or leather family, and what am I going to do with a reindeer skin? In the end, I couldn't get it off my mind and I caved - especially after hearing one of our tour guides say that the lambskins in Iceland all come from lambs that are used in the meat industry, and that Iceland tries to use as much of the animal as it can, though this reindeer skin in particular did not come from Iceland, as I noted above; I didn't know the airport duty free stores also stocked skins, and Icelandic ones at that! It's always a gamble to wait until the airport anyway though - so now I am a happy owner of a beautiful reindeer skin! I'm still kind of drooling at the Shetland Tannery lambskins though, so if I ever make a trip to Shetland, I might still end up bringing home a sheep, or as much of one as I'll most likely ever own.

Ghost Photos! (Not.)

At a temple, no less.

None of these are ghost photos (that I know of!), but I'm surprised anything came out of this roll at all. Some of these shots were taken at Nam San Wai, so I know for sure which roll of film this is: the one I thought never rolled on properly. When I rewound the film, after going way beyond 36, I only had to wind a couple of revolutions before the film was off the other side, so clearly it never took, right? And yet pretty much the entire roll contains photos of Hong Kong! Because I thought nothing took, I put the film in once again and, as luck would have it, shot everything at the wrong ISO (it was a 100 ISO film - I shot at 400 by accident), which is where the ghostly effects are coming from. Funny how things work out, since everything would have been too dark if I had shot at the correct settings. Now. I have no idea when I took the above shots. I usually try to avoid shooting people, so the fact that there's someone at the foreground is very odd.

Who are you? I think I know where this is, but I don't remember taking this shot...

It's really interesting to see how, without any planning whatsoever, the double exposures still came out pretty well. I suppose it's because I take photos according to some sort of rules or guidelines? Not really consciously, but I have a certain aesthetic and I follow it most of the time.

Intersecting lines

The trees are where the other trees are at, parting around where the bridge meets the ground!

Probably because of the number of times I tried to get the film to catch, and the number of times it went through the camera, some of the shots are in noticeably rough shape. It's also really grainy, in addition to the fogginess that I'm getting all around. Not the crisp red that this redscale has offered before.

Funnily enough, even two shots with different orientations work out well together! The lighter layer was taken in Canada for sure, though I can't really make out where exactly, and the main image is in HK. You can see the damage on the film in this one, though they're not scratches since they came out almost white (something must have been blocking the light on the film when they were being printed). Unless the plastic cover's scratched? I kind of just threw it into my bag after all. I'd like to think the imperfection adds to the effect.

Downstairs at ah por's

What's that ghostly figure in the center?

A variety of sweets. I don't even remember what we got, just the old lady that asked us to share with her after we paid.

This one's odd, because at first glance I thought the bright part was a reflection, and the white wisps clouds. Note how there's no sun on the "right" side of the "reflection". And the clouds? Probably damage to the film, though I'm not sure what. It might be dirt, actually, since no light, or very little, got through when it printed. I'm actually really happy with how this roll turned out, all in all. It's a good mix of where I came from and where I am now, a small, unintended negotiation.

Now ain't that lovely?

Souvenirs, Etc.

Souvenirs.

These are the souvenirs I got my friends while I was in Hong Kong: 3 wooden bug magnets & a gudetama chopstick holder. While I'm sure you can only find these eggs and bugs in HK, it's not as though I would really get bug magnets (from PMQ) and a gudetama chopstick holder for my friends on the regular even if I saw them here. (Gudetama has grown on me. I didn't get the attraction or the reason for his popularity until I saw him every day in the Circle K promotion displays and started desperately wanting to shop at Circle K and collect their stickers just so I could redeem them for gudetama merchandise. That being said, I've been told the reason he's so popular is because he's really existential & consequently lazy, which baffles me... or is it because his reason for laziness reflects the mindset of the people?) One of them - a stone paper notebook - I already sent forth, but these little guys are patiently awaiting their turn since they're rather fragile (ironically, the egg is the sturdiest of them all).

Attention to detail! The little butt delights me. Really, it does.

I did a bit of shopping for myself while I was there as well, the bulk of which came in the form of clothing (subsequently the bulk of which came from Uniqlo, although I hear we're getting one soon in the Eaton Centre space?). In my defence though, half of the clothing I brought back was given to me as hand-me-downs by my aunt after she discovered I would take them.

I got a watch strap replaced at Ap Liu Gai, and it has since been worn continuously after coming back, which is great considering my usual watch has withstood probably over 10 years of use, leading to the many scratches on its face (I wear the face on the inside of my wrist for that one) and signs of wear on the leather strap. I'm sure it'll appreciate some down time.

New watch for rotation, wood mosaic from Hakone, ring from PMQ (with bugs)

There were mosaic woodwork stores everywhere we went in Hakone! Maybe excepting up on the mountain (we walked up to the amazake chaya by the stone paths alternating with the side of the winding roads), but quite literally everywhere else. We even got some wooden postcards, though we were too afraid they'd crack in the mail to send them out.

Books, letter-writing set from Le Petit Prince Museum (Hakone), notebooks, and stationary

I sent out a variety of postcards while I was in both Japan and HK (none of which are pictured since they've since been delivered and hopefully received), and was pleasantly surprised to see some responses once I got home! It's been a really long time since I've actually had letter mail that didn't come from work, the government, or school. So I went on browsing a lot in the stationary areas pretty much whenever I saw them, which also meant I came home with a number of notebooks and memo pads, in addition to a letter-writing set from Le Petit Prince Museum in Hakone (why there's a Le Petit Prince museum in Hakone of all places is beyond me, but I'm not complaining! It was really quite lovely.) and a grand total of one whole book purchased on my entire trip: Fashion & Sustainability: Design for Change. The notebooks I'm going to try at least to justify myself: I'm almost done my moleskine! There's a couple pages left that I'm not sure will ever be filled since I'm obviously ready to move on to a new one at this point. And not because I don't like moleskine; I was originally considering getting the exact same one to replace my current one, but I saw the plethora of choices available to me in HK and decided to try something new. The small red pocket notebook (Muji) came in very handy throughout my vacation as a travel log: it's the perfect pocket size, with a soft cover that gave enough protection against water that I could minimize damage when it threatened to happen. The paper itself I also quite like, since there isn't much tooth to it at all, which made an easy transition from my moleskine.

Presents!

Soon after coming home, I got a bit of a surprise in the mail in the form of books & movies! They're completely outside of my usual fare, and they come on recommendation, so I'm looking forward to making my way through them once I get some free time.* I've been going non-stop from work to going out with friends since coming back, so I didn't hesitate too much when I went out with my mom to get myself a gift:

Gift to self. Nothing to do with my vacation, really.

*I've actually finished reading Childhood's End, and enjoyed it immensely. That being said, I don't know if the style of writing just didn't sit well with me or what, but I found it rather stiff at times on top of being very self-conscious - it was as though Clarke was trying to maintain a certain detached voice but missed the mark just a bit. It might just be that I have grown much too used to different genres and their accompanying styles of writing. Or perhaps it's because the subject matter at hand is not natural as we know it, so why should I expect its mode of delivery to be? (Although I would make the argument that it is natural, in a sense.)

Tai O (HK)

Tai O is one of the many islands in HK that you have to take a ferry to get to. It doesn't take very long - about an hour or so - and there are several stops along the way. It really saddens me to see all the garbage that gets thrown into the water along the harbour, including styrofoam boxes (used for keeping fish, I believe) and lots of plastic bottles:

Styrofoam box on the rocks

Inside of the ferry waiting area

Outside, along the harbour

The main street is packed with food vendors, especially dried seafood stores, and as you continue on along the street, you encounter more and more houses that look as though they're about to crumble, squished between two newer houses or stores with no space in between them, as well as empty lots that were overgrown with plants. While the description sounds really bleak, I think these were absolutely beautiful.

Looking out from a dessert shop (doufu hua & black sesame)

End of the main street, looking back at housing

Breaking down, but beautiful in its own right.

And of course, stilt houses all along the shore. We walked into the streets, but I'm still not sure whether those areas are actually open to the public: they are houses after all.

Stilt houses

And even further along the path (we were the only tourists around), there was some incredibly beautiful scenery to be experienced:

I believe the copper-coloured building was for burning articles (as part of worshipping ancestors)

I wonder who lives in that complex?

Suffice it to say I was enchanted by Tai O. While part of me hopes it never changes, half the island already has higher rise buildings than the areas we walked around, and I'm not sure any amount of wishing will make those buildings stay where they are and leave the rest alone.