By now everyone knows that Iceland punches above its weight in music creation. They put out so much good music in so many genres, I will probably never run out of Icelandic music to write about. So here is more Icelandic music I like.
ByGD
A Prayer, I Think
If I remember correctly, I took a picture of this plaque at the bottom (or was it the top) of Helgafell, a small mountain in Iceland near Stykkishólmur. According to legend, if you climb it without speaking or looking back once and make a wish at the top it will be granted. I climbed with my family. My oldest child raced ahead and barely made three steps onto the path before turning around to shout something at us. The rest of us did better, but it was slippery and in April there was still snow in places. I slipped up at the very top, accidentally asking out loud, “Does this count as the top or is it over there?” It must have been over there because my wish didn’t come true.
ByGD
Pet Penguin
It had nothing to do with the plot, but I was fascinated by the warm weather breed pet penguin in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Not that I actually wanted one for myself. Domestication of wild animals for pets is ethically questionable at best, plus birds are messy. But many years after watching Evangelion, I found myself in possession of a penguin for a short time.
I was at a music festival in Iceland. Intending to take a nap before dinner so we’d have energy to stay up for the late bands, we headed back to the tent. But like the three bears, we found a Goldilocks in a penguin suit sound asleep headfirst in my husband’s bag.
We couldn’t just leave him there for fear of him vomiting in our tent. But we couldn’t wake him. So we called on our neighbors for help. With a person on each ankle and one to hold the bag, we extricated the squatter from our tent and roused him to semicoherence.
Giant Penguin
The tall Icelandic youth wearing a penguin suit had drunk too much and gone to sleep it off, but was unable to locate his friends’ tent. Despite teasing about maternal instincts from the neighbors, I felt nervous just sending him on his way. So I walked him back to the festival lost and found.
We chatted along the way. I was impressed that he spoke English so well when he could barely remain upright and was obviously trying to deal with pants that had fallen down inside his suit. But he said, “Yeah, but I couldn’t do higher maths now.”
I told the ladies at the lost and found that I wanted to turn in a lost child. They were a bit bemused, that never having happened before at an 18+ festival, and the penguin took mild offense. He was, after all, more than a foot taller than me.
“Child?” he protested.
“Well, you are wandering around lost in fuzzy pajamas.”
I left him sitting on a chair nearby once the festival volunteers agreed to keep an eye on him until his friends showed up or he remembered where he was camping.
It turned out that he was only off by a couple of tents, so we ran into each other several times that weekend and got to be friends a bit for the duration of the festival. But I won’t share his name or any of the interesting details of his life. After all, he’s probably all grown up by now.
ByGD
Lake Myvatn
Lake Myvatn in north Iceland. Yeah. I could live here.
Of course, it’s probably frozen over right now. And I’d be afraid to drive in the kind of snow that’s normal there this time of year. But it is awfully pretty.
ByGD
KEX Deck
It’s just a wooden platform facing the alley behind a youth hostel. But the deck at KEX in Reykjavik holds so many wonderful memories for me. It’s usually the first thing I see as I set out on a new day’s adventure when I visit Iceland. On warmer days, I’ve curled up on benches there reading my guidebook or journaling. It’s where I’ve struck up conversations with strangers and listened to bands when the building was filled to capacity. And I think the last time I sat around with friends just chatting over drinks was on the KEX deck. You could almost say it’s a real life place that feels like Tiffany’s.