Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The church again

I didn't write about it but I went up to the top of the church, they have BIG LOUD bells up there.

I was taking a photo out of the window when noon came about... So here I am trying to take a steady photo and this bell starts ringing above my head.

After ringing out the time, they played a nice little tune on the bells, it was quite enjoyable with your fingers shoved in your ears. They don't play the bells by hand, they have nematic strikers now but you can see the remnants of the manual system still.

Needless to say I jumped about 5 feet.

But I did get some nice photos of the area around the church.


Well time to head to the room, EVE-Online fan fest is this weekend. So should be a good time.

More to come and photos from the weekend for sure.

Mid week

Well humpday.. I made a major achievement, found a place to do laundry :)

Last night on the way home there was northern lights, and a beautifully clear night, when I got to the park i walk through they where still going strong.

Saw the icelandic version of "are you smarter than a fifth grader" i think they are getting the short end of the franchise. The prizes top out at 2,000,000 isk (about 33,000 can).

Monday, October 29, 2007

It Snowed

well it is monday

And it snowed here this morning, it was interesting walking into work today. you are walking along a snow covered sidewalk and suddenly the snow is gone. Just hit a portion of the heated sidewalks.

it was a very peaceful walk in, takes me about 20 min to walk here.

have some more pictures but they are not up yet.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

The Blue Lagoon

Well it is Sunday. I was going to write this last night, but was so
tired all i got done was uploading the new photos.

Started the day by going to the mall (Kringlan) and looking for better
rain gear. Icelands definition of XXL and XXXL are very different from
north American. there XXXL rain jacket was tight in the chest and way
to long. I will have to go back to Canada at some point to clean up
the condo. So i will have to go to MEC and get a good one, need a
hood for sure. And some new hiking boots might be good also, finding
my feet are getting blisters :(

Picked up a book and CD set on learning Icelandic so hopefully it will
make mores sense at some point.

In the after noon I went to the famous blue lagoon, Anne and norman,
mike and heather would lover it there.

The lagoon is basically lava rock, so you have to watch out for rocks
on the bottom. And since the water has so much silicate in the water
you can't see more than a few cm below the surface. The silicate mud
is supost to be good for your skin, they have buckets around that you
can ladle out and apply to your face and arms.

They have spa treatments there also, you can get a massage while in
the pool and other stuff. I mostly just sat in the hot water and
became a prune.

The water is kind of neat, you get waves of hot and cooler water
moving through the lagoon. They pump the water in and mix it with cool
water. This is because the source is about 85c hot, and they mix it
with cold water to get about the 45c temperature.

Today I have the lofty goal of figuring out where I can do laundry.

Then I think I will go into work and play WoW...

If you have questions and comments, please start a new email. I am
trying to keep this one as a trip report and the reply s from people
mess up gmail....

Friday, October 26, 2007

The job

Well i am working but haven't signed the contract yet... so hopefully i am not jumping the gun, but it looks like i have a job. :)

Found out something. Karen is never coming to visit Iceland.... It turns out that they don't use allot of sugar in anything here, there is a big health craze and everyone uses aspertain in everything from sprinkled on donuts to baking and drinks. You have to ask special if you want sugar. So i guess Karen could come visit but i don't think she would remember much of the visit..

So second weekend coming up, planning walking to one of the two malls (Kringland) and buying some better rain gear. except for last night and this moring I have walked in the rain. And want to go to the blue lagoon and go swimming so there should be more picturs on monday...

Sunday, October 21, 2007

The Golden Circle

Well end of day 2 , tomorrow is the interview..

So did a bus tour today and saw a bunch of stuff. The first place was a green house village, If you have seen a green house you have seen this one, they grow allot of tropical fruit and flowers there.

the next stop was a volcanic crater, basically a hole in the ground with allot of water in the bottom.

The next stop was the golden falls, they are really cool set of falls and the mist they toss out is something else.

next we went to Geyser It is the geyser that started the name of geysers, according tot he tour guide. There are two geysers there the big one that shoots up 80-90 meters and the smaller one. the guide said the smaller one shoots two times every five min, i wasn't sure what she meant as her English is not good. but the geyser shoots off and then a min or so later goes again, there there is a five to ten min wait for the next eruption.

Next we went to the national park, it is where the two continental shelves are pulling apart. and the ground in fractured and torn apart, there was a cool waterfall falling off of north america and running down the crack to exit in Europe . but there was no path leading up to the falls, and the driver didn't stop where you could get a picture of it.

we did a walk here and walked a path that leads up the crack and out on the other side. it was cool.

well that is pretty much today. i have the day 2 pictures uploaded to flickr now, my little laptop is grinding away and struggling to do this task. so i am going to shut it down and go to sleep, need to wide awake tomorrow.

The Curch on the hill

the first photo is of a church not sure of the name but iceland is famous for it, It has heavy nordic traditions in it. They say you can go up to the top for about 800 isk, but it wasn't open when i was there.

Things tend to shut down on the weekends here, I didn't find much in the way of shops and stores open until about 11:00, and the banks don't open at all on the weekends.

I have started a island flickr photo set and will be adding photos as i take them to there, so keep a eye on it.

Well off to breakfast, and I booked a tour for today that will take me to a bunch of sights. I think it is on a coach bus...

But I should have some interesting photos uploaded tonight, and tomorrow is the big day. Also the water has just a hint of sulfur in it, and they don't have diet coke, they have coke light :)

Saturday, October 20, 2007

the picktures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9369220@N05/sets/72157602561548835/

Yes it was as cold and miserable as it looked, but had fun until the sideways rain..

The Begining

Im here....

It is way to early in the morning... My room wasn't ready when i got in so did some wandering around downtown this morning. not going to send all the photos, but here is one.

The town is small 180k people in the greater area.

qand my laptop is slower than a snail crawling up a crazy glued covered hill!

more to come....