(a really, really good magic trick.)
i wasn´t only rubbing my eyes because of lack of sleep, i couldn´t believe my eyes. no picture or video or iceland could have prepared me for this magical place. as one of my fellow seeds volunteers said 'this place has crazy vibes.' and i was also rubbing my eyes because i thought i must have fallen into a dream. a ream in which i was gazing at heaven. sudden landscape changes every ten minutes, and it kept getting more beautiful.
i´ve tried to take pictures to capture the magnificence of this place, the magic, but to no avail. i´ll continue to take pictures but it´s tough when i know the picture doesn´t even begin to do justice to the wonders. it is mind-shattering just trying to comprehend what my eyes were (i think) seeing.
iceland is a magic trick and you will not believe your eyes. you will rub and you will rub your eyes and yet you will never wake up because this isn´t some hologram or optical illusion or crazy magic trick - this is real.
so now that i have fully gushed out about iceland, i will start to tell you some happenings of the past three weeks. (i hope my campaign about iceland has convinced you that you need to travel here - and when you do come i´d like to come along with you.)
i know i won´t even begin to start at telling you everything that has gone on given that i´m typing against time but hopefully this will give you a bit of a feeling for my time here.
after a few days of exploring reykjavik on my own, i arrived at vesturgata, the seeds house, the night before i was going to take off for my first workcamp in the west fjords. i met a few really nice people at the house (a common theme every time i meet a new seeds volunteer) and was just about to have some dinner when oscar, the founder of seeds, came into the house telling us that because there were more volunteers going to the west fjords than the bus could hold, two people would have to go in a truck on the way up. i hadn´t unpacked so i volunteered to go. next thing i know i´m in a transport truck debot with the camp leader, eddy, who was a stereotypical french person with The French Accent (and a very heavy one at that) and it was great fun getting to know him. he´s a real character. incredibly funny. so my way up to the west fjords featured myself and a trucker. we left at 6pm and at 10pm we arrived at a diner in the middle of nowhere where all the truck drivers congregated for dinner. (dinner is always realllllly late here.) (and at this point i was dumbfounded by the eerie cultural experience i was taking part of - sitting in a diner waiting for the truckers to stop eating so i could get going to my destination again.) at 11 i was on the road again, this time with a different truck driver who knew even less english and then the descent into heaven started. beautiful waterfalls, tiger-striped snowy mountains, weaving rivers and just weird rock formations. at 1am the sun started to set just as we arrived at the top of a mountain blanketed in snow. it was so beautiful to see the sunset colors rising over the white.
the seeds camp started the next day and it didn´t take long to realize that this was going to be pretty special. the two weeks was a very special time of cultural experiences - conversing with people of totally different backgrounds and lives. the first group featured people from finland, russia, israel, china, germany (two guys), usa (a teenage couple), canada (me and a guy from... toronto), france. we were helping out at a guesthouse slash restauraunt and so our meals were plentiful and very good. we ate a lot. we had three meals a day and a coffee break at 4pm. every meal took two hours because our camp leader was french and he liked the lengthly meal times. our coffee break was an hour long. we were supposed to work 7 to 8 hours a day but considering these lengthly meal times, we worked 5 to 6 instead. it was quite funny. the work consisted of helping out with the farm on the land, building a fence for the horses, caring for the chickens, preparing the gardens for planting season, and then a whole lot of digging rocks out of the ground (iceland has lots and lots of rocks) and pouring cement (the day we did this, we worked 11 hours - and that was our first day.. thankfully the work only got easier, and of course, the days weren´t as long after this).
i would love to tell you about each individual i worked with at the camp but i'll have to save that for a different time.
on our off days we explored the area. iceland is so wild. there were amazing glaciers, waterfalls and lakes we would hike to despite having no path or trail to follow. we´d have to cut through bushes and cross rivers and then eventually we'd run into something which was just too good to believe. and to think how many people have come upon these spectacles. there is so much to see and yet there aren´t many accessible ways to get to them so it really is an explorers dream country - happening upon these landmarks in seemingly the middle of nowhere because of the lack of trails and the remote locations.
it started snowing (which is unusual for this time of year) a few days before the camp ended. the wind picked up and it was just so cold outside nobody could be out there for long. on the day we were supposed to leave it snowed a LOT and we were stranded temporarily in the remote guesthouse in the west fjords. the snow eventually stopped and we drove home slowly over the snowy mountain and after we came down the mountain it was beautiful sun all the way home. the mountain was so snowy and windy all we could see outside was the white snow and some yellow road markers. the road the sky the mountain, it was all white it felt like we were driving into heaven, and this time not because of the beauty but because it was just all white - everything.
back in reykjavik now. this city is very cozy. it is starting to feel like a second home a bit. there is an arts festival going on and we saw some crazy show in the square. it looked like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/snofla/4783582737/in/set-72157624472142324/
icelandics are very into art and music and writing. it´s lively on the weekends. i went to a concert a few days ago - it started at 12 and ended at 2. by the time we came out the sun was already up but who knows maybe it didn´t even go down that day. it wanted to party too perhaps. after the concert everyone flocks to other bars and cafes and continue to socialize and dance and party and it was a really cool cultural experience to be a part of. everyone is really friendly and it seems everyone knows everyone.
yesterday i ran into oscar, the founder of seeds, three times in three different parts of reykjavik. it was always a joyous occassion and just funny to keep runnning into them. i always run into a bunch of different seeds volunteers daily. or people who have done seeds in the past, as is the case of a hostel receptionist i talked to yesterday.
i will be going to the north of iceland in six days and until then i have time off to explore on my own. it was pretty weird to say hello and goodbye to seeds volunteers so quickly. it was actually quite sad to say goodbye to some, but éveryone is already making plans to come back to volunteer with seeds again.
i think i will end here because i have little time left and so i will leave you here for now.
can not wait to come home love you miss you come to iceland leave me a message God is good see you all soon.
