Icelandic Adventures (Skál!)

Coming out of the airport at midnight into a twilight, with dark green grass and red on the horizon was unreal. It felt so bizarre when it didn’t ever get dark, and even though I didn’t sleep much, I felt great today. Going to see the Pearl, the Hallgrimskirkja church, and walking through random (beautiful!) neighborhoods with Justin was a blast (even though we didn’t get to hitchhike successfully). Lunch was delicious, and shopping was super fun. And everyone here are so helpful and polite!

Did I mention that we performed the last two days at a Viking Festival? Today, after our outdoor performance to people wearing all sorts of cool tunics and bows and hats, there was a massive, 20+ person battle in a field, complete with wooden shields, spears, swords, and axes. And of course it was heathens versus Christians, and had lots of yelling, great facial expressions, and dramatic fake deaths.
But we have to back up, because yesterday was one of the most memorable days ever, and one of the most spontaneously fun, too. After a great afternoon with JP, we went to the Viking Festival, but it was raining, so we performed inside (wearing cloaks — JP, Kirk, and I added a spinning move to our trio part that almost made us lose it twice), and ate a delicious meal (I traded my lamb for veggies, and was very satisfied). Afterwards, we had another performance at a hip music place called Cafe Rosenberg, where we met the musician who had helped to advertise our performance. His name: Svavar Knutur. At first, this guy seemed very enthusiastic, and very grateful for us joining him to perform — I had no idea of how incredible of a vocalist, performer, and musician he was. After a quick walk around the neighborhood (where we visited Rock Bar Dillon…foreshadowing!) to wake up a bit, I walked back to Cafe Rosenberg, and he taught us the backup vocals to one of his songs (“Yfir Hóla og Yfir Hæðir”). He introduced us in Icelandic with so much warmth, and the audience was very appreciative. Afterwards, he started to sing, and it was incredible. His voice, so pure and shockingly versatile, totally blew me away. Also, as the night went on, his set got increasingly humorous, and he sang most of his songs in English. Perhaps the most amazing part was how perfect his timing and comedy was in a second language. And a third and fourth (German and Dutch. He speaks French too). He came up to us afterwards to chat, and mentioned that after the show, he was planning on going to Rock Bar Dillon, the same place we had just visited because Sawicki had found it earlier on the internet, to celebrate his friend’s graduation from The University of Iceland in philosophy. We agreed we’d follow him after the show, and he seemed very excited. Then, a very interesting looking Icelandic woman walked into the cafe, dressed in a white fur-lined dress. Svavar introduced her to us as the best blues singer in Iceland, and said that she wanted to sing a song with us: “Summertime.” We ran through it once, and she was really good. Then, we performed a short set, with her as a guest on that song, and the audience seemed to really dig it. She was very courteous, and walked out briefly while Svavar took the stage. At this point, he seemed pretty tipsy, but his singing was still out-of-this world. Svavar sang some great covers, from Rufus Wainwright’s “Hallelujah” to Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name” to Lionel Ritchie’s “Hello.” “Hallelujah” in particular was hilarious, and had us all doubled over for the better part of 8.5 minutes. He also had a lot of great stand-up moments sprinkled throughout his set, and totally blew us away. For a few of his jokes, we were the only ones who got the references, too, which just went to show how up to date he was with youth pop culture in the US.
Then it was 2am, and we all agreed to meet him at Rock Bar Dillon, so we grabbed our stuff (super-phallic Thor statues from the Viking Festival, tux bags, CDs, etc.) and clambered out the door to the next block. What four hours earlier had been a few quiet, near-deserted streets had been transformed into a lively, bustling bar district, with Scandinavians drinking, yelling, and generally having a good time. Rock Bar Dillon was jam-packed. After dancing for a while, Svavar came back, and he wanted us to sing for his friend. Security didn’t alow us to sing in the patio area, so we went upstairs to the noisy second floor, where Svavar made the DJ turn off the music so we could sing a song. We blasted a raucous “Honeysuckle Rose,” to the great enjoyment of everyone there, who sat us down. We then sang two more songs (“Summertime” and “Sam”) to these two women who really were loving everything (one of them was named Alexandra). They said they had never heard anything like it, and that we were amazing, while another older man tried to explain in shaky English how our “coordination” was what made us really excellent. The main thing was that we were all going wild, moving around, and singing our hearts out — that was what made it so fun and so wild. Svavar took us downstairs ("Skál" is the Icelandic toasting word, as we quickly learned), and he said he wanted to bring us to another club called Bakkus. The best club in town, he said, so we had to visit it. And at this point we were ready for anything, so we danced down the streets, high-fiving random people and enjoying the wonderful daylight that made it seem like 6am (the sun had actually never set — it was light this whole time. That’s why Iceland is awesome in the summertime). Lee, Rashid, and Cron decided to head back a little early, and brought our backpacks and stuff for us, which was great because otherwise they probably would have been lost. We finally got to Bakkus. I was rocking out and dancing, accidentally swinging an elbow or two, but having a grand time packed shoulder to shoulder with tons of well-dressed, artsy cats in red lights. The music was amazing. Not too long after, however, Sam S and Kirk come hurrying back, Sam S insisting that we’re leaving. Thinking he meant everyone, I followed him into the street, where Svavar was waiting. Svavar, with a bit of self-professed ADD, decided to take us to the famous “Bæjarins Bestu” and treat us to the best hot dogs in Iceland. They were delicious (I wasn’t feeling vegetarian enough to turn it down at this point).Svavar was so kind, inviting us back anytime to just come and hang out with him. What an amazing guy. We got back just after the other group we had been with. To our surprise, everyone was still awake. Since Brett and JP had been locked out, there was a lot of commotion in the room, everyone sharing stories and changing into PJs. I uploaded the three CDs I’d gotten from Svavar (we traded albums), and then went to sleep. It was now past 5:30am, and our plan was to wake up for an 8:30 bus to the hot springs.
So we didn’t end up getting up for the 8:30 bus. And Dillon and Kirk both slept through the run they’d promised to go on together. But we did leave around 9:30, and after a half-hour walk/run, we finally caught the excursion bus that went to the Blue Lagoon. According to a local, visiting Iceland without visiting the Blue Lagoon would be like visiting Cairo without seeing the pyramids. Pretty convincing analogy. So we didn’t mind the price (6000+ krónur, approx. $50), and we hopped aboard a bus. Most of us slept for the whole ride, and when we got there, we were all very excited as we strolled along a path lined with large, black, volcanic rocks to the hot springs. The place was very clean and organized (as were almost all of the places we visited in Reykjavik), and after renting a few blue towels, we walked through the well-maintained locker rooms to the lagoon. The pools were a cloudy, whitish blue, and the sun was shining brightly overhead. The water, the perfect temperature, salty, and sulfuric smelling, like our showers at the hostel. We floated around in paradise for a while, covering our faces with white silica mud masks to exfoliate, and then getting slushies and Blueberry or Banana skyr boosts, which were essentially the same as fruit and yogurt smoothies. We stepped out for lunch (sandwiches for most, an Icelandic buffet for Brett and Lee), and I passed out in an unbelievably comfortable reclining lawn chair on the relaxation deck. Everyone else who was there went back into the springs, at some point running the Lady Gaga Medley choreography (and getting applause from other guests in the springs). Brett filmed the whole thing.
We left the blue lagoon, buying a few stamps and postcards, and passing out again on the bus ride back to the hostel. We had a beautiful walk from nearby the Pearl back to the Capital Inn, where many of us took quick naps again before call for the Viking Festival. Again, the food was delicious, and the two singers at the restaurant performed another song for us (with hilarious facial expressions, and very manly voices). Jwise tried his hand at archery, Sawicki successfully had a 10 second conversation in Icelandic before the woman realized he didn’t actually speak it, and the outdoor performance was really fun. A little kid fell down right in front of the shoe while Kirk was singing “The Water is Wide,” and I couldn’t keep a straight face, which threw a lot of it off (hopefully no one noticed). Meanwhile, kids were scootering back and forth, and the mom of the kid who fell over grabbed her kid in a really awkward and hilariously forceful way. Last night, after returning to our amazing hostel, I mailed some postcards (the two receptionists were so helpful not to mention beautiful), cooked some tomato-pesto eggs, and packed for our 4:45am call to leave for the airport. From there, everything went smoothly — cereal and raspberry skyr drink for breakfast, deep sleep for the whole plane ride, and a smooth trip to London!