first stop: iceland

So I landed here in iceland after a 4 hour delay at jfk. I got in around 10am and took the flybus into town. the airport is in another town called keflavik, about 70km out of reykjavik. Reykjavik itself is a rather quaint town. i have yet to see a building that is really over 6 stories tall, and all of those that are that high seem to be hotels. Coming in from the airport it looked as though we were on the moon. there was only barren rocky land between the airport town and the capital. Someone told me that the astronauts of NASA used to come to iceland to practice moon walking because of the rocky terrain - i think that was just a stupid american talking.

So while here, I have been just walking around the town. I saw the culture museum with some cool viking artifacts, some other random museums with iceland artwork, some nice cathedrals, the boat docks, and some interesting architecture. The highlite of my first night here was this concert i heard about. it was an internally famous pianist and soprano opera singer and they went on for almost 3 hours. For encores, the people here would all clap in unison.

There is a saying in Iceland: if you don't like the weather,wait 15 minutes. that is to say that for a period of time it would rain and then get sunny, then rain and get sunny. I would try to escape the rain by going to get some coffee at a cafe -- upon entering, it would stop raining, i would hurry out only for it to rain again. Now i just wait it out like the locals.

My second day, today, was spent at this place called the blue lagoon. Kind of cool place that seems like a huge outdoor hottub. one might think that is a natural occurrence, but i think I swam in chemical waste. Nonetheless it was kind of cool.

And by the way, iceland coffee is the best i have ever had. When asked where this one particular place gets its coffee, the lady responded Colombia - if that is the case, we in America are getting shafted because Juan Valdez is screwing us over.

Tomorrow is my last day in Iceland and i am taking this 9 hour excursion to this glacier and waterfalls area. Apparently these is going to be some kind of snowmoblie action, can't wait. From there i will be off to London to party with Mike Shields and to see if i can americanify some haughty Brits. so long ............

-Sid