Iceland

Iceland was a special place for me long before I even went there, because of the magical music that spawned from the small island. The most famous artist is Björk but the band that really got me into Iceland was Sigur Rós who I still think is the best band ever. They play their own unique version of post-rock and the music sounded like the landscape of Iceland while the singer Jónsi sang in both Icelandic and vonlenska, which is a language of made up words that sounds right to the music. I got so blown away by them that I quit my plans for being a journalist and instead I went to the university to learn Icelandic, so I could move there. It was a hard language to learn and although I finished my courses I felt like I hadn't learned a thing after I graduated. Then I landed a dream job at a culture house in my hometown Helsingborg and the plans for going to Iceland went away. 

Then it was in the back of my mind for ten years before I finally decided to fulfill the dream of going there. I couldn’t resist when Sigur Rós were going to play at Iceland Airwaves, the biggest festival in Iceland, and my friend Christofer was up for it. We were also going to meet up with a friend called Daniel who also went to Iceland for the concert with a friend of his. We went there in November and the island lived up to its name since it was freezing cold, I have never felt such icy winds before that went straight through your clothes. 

We arrived at the capital Reykjavík which is a small but cozy city and we immediately walked in Sigur Rós footsteps without even trying. We saw the famous Smekkleysa Record Store which is Iceland’s most important record label, and the bus stop Hlemmur which is featured in a documentary which revolves around the lives of some unfortunate destitute men who spend most of their time there. Sigur Rós has made the music for the documentary. 

We left the musical path and visited Hallgrímskirkja which is a unique church that might be the most famous landmark of Reykjavík. We went inside and there we met an Icelandic guy who could speak fluently Swedish as soon as he understood where we came from. Language is important for the Icelandic people and they can often speak many different kinds of it which is impressive, but maybe it’s easier to find time to study when you’re on a remote island.

We weren’t going to visit the full Iceland Airwaves festival, instead we had bought a separate ticket just for the Sigur Rós show but we found out that you could see some gigs at the festival for free anyway. It’s a nice and unique concept where the bands play many times at different venues from small bars to garden houses on the town square etc. We went to see the band Exit Music at a bar down at the harbor but we nearly gave up since the wind was so strong that we could barely walk, it was 2 steps forward and 1 back. The weather is quite extreme and I feel sorry for the people who has to live with it all year around, but when you just visit as a tourist it feels right. It should be freezing cold when you go to a place called Iceland. When we saw the great concert with Exitmusic we met up with a friend from back home called Rebecca, and we had also met her and another friend from back home, Jennifer, earlier on the trip. They had studied in Iceland before and were back for a visit at the same time as us, and it was fun to meet people you know from back home in a new environment. 

When me and Christofer got to another bar I couldn’t believe my eyes when the artist Björk just walked in, looked around, and then left almost immediate again. I know she isn’t into crazy fans who want to take pictures and stuff so I didn’t run after her. Instead I just sat there and tried to grasp that she was right in front of me for 30 seconds. 

Since it had been a dream for so long to go to Iceland I tried to do it all, I snorkeled in the national park, saw the geysers and waterfalls and tried to get Christofer to eat the whale burgers since I’m a vegetarian myself. He refused and I can see why, and it was a good thing that one tiny, tiny whale got spared!

I went on a journey by myself to try and see the northern lights since Christofer didn’t seem that amused by it. It’s easier to catch it in a totally dark place so I took a tourist bus late one evening to try and see the spectacular lights. The tour didn’t promise anything but on the way out they said that we would probably going to see it tonight, because it was the right weather for it and so on. I socialized with an Asian guy who also travelled on his own and we talked a lot about the upcoming concert with Sigur Rós which we would both going to see. The excitement was in the air for the northern lights but it quickly turned into hours and hours of just sitting on a bus seeing nothing but total darkness outside. It was freezing cold outside and my stomach hurt for some reason and the once social me turned into "leave me alone and take me home"-me. The Asian guy must have thought he did something wrong because I was going totally Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde with my mood swing. The closest I got to see the northern lights was when a woman on the bus photographed the sky with an expensive camera and you could see it on the image, but I couldn’t see it with my own eyes on the sky. I might as well have stayed at home that night and Googled it.

One of the things you must do as a tourist in Iceland is to swim in the Blue Lagoon. The thermal spa is in a lava field in the middle of nowhere and I hoped it would be hot since it was freezing cold in the air and even snowing a bit. It felt more like lukewarm in the water but it was an amazing view and I can recommend it, even though it smells like fart, like all water does in Iceland. Imagine how fresh it feels to be standing in a shower to get clean and all you smell is fart. A good thing is that the smell doesn’t stay on the body though. The next day I stayed in bed all day sick with something that felt like a fever and I guess it was from being outside at the Blue Lagoon for hours while the water wasn’t that hot. I was scared that the whole trip would be ruined but after one day I was on my feet again!

Something strange happened while I was on Iceland. Me and Felicia had been dating for a year, back in Gothenburg in Sweden where I live, but we had never made it official. I had a pretty bad break up in the past so I wasn’t ready to commit again, or so I thought. Felicia moved to Berlin and I went on my trip to Iceland and somehow it just got to me then that I should give it a try. It’s funny how things can happen in weird ways, but I guess I realized it when I understood that we were so far away from each other and still all I could think about was her. And I would be an idiot to waste the chance that almost already seemed gone since she had moved. I told her about it and a week after I got home from Iceland I went to Berlin to see her, but you will have to wait to hear that story. Anyhow, while I was in the national park on my own on the last day of the trip, I went up a mountain and could see some white houses and a river down below. I could hear someone say that people get married down there, overhearing it while I was listening to the song Dauðalogn with Sigur Rós in my earphones. People around me left and I stood there alone and enjoyed the view and just when the music gets bombastic some birds came from out of nowhere and up from below the mountain, and flied over me. It felt like a movie scene and I thought to myself that I would one day marry Felicia down in the valley, since I took it as a sign. 

Oh, and the concert with Sigur Rós? It was quite boring to be honest, because I had seen them too many times already over the years so I knew what to expect.

* Best things about Iceland – The Blue Lagoon, and to go explore the island with Sigur Rós as your soundtrack, especially the scene that felt like a movie stood out as something magical that I will never forget
* Most mediocre thing about Iceland – that you never can tell when you will be able to see the northern lights, it’s frustrating but at the same time I love that you can’t just see it because you want to, it’s a true natural wonder and there's not many of them nowadays that people can't exploit
* Worst things about Iceland – it’s freezing cold outside and the showers smell like fart

Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):

1. Andorra
2. Cyprus
3. Greece
4. Iceland
5. Denmark
6. Ireland
7. Belgium
8. Estonia
9. Finland
10. France
11. Bulgaria
12. Bosnia And Herzegovina
13. Albania