Music From Iceland: Ólafur Arnalds & Arnór Dan

Because I love the Arnalds family and I just found out Ólafur Arnalds is having a concert in Harpa in December I am posting more music! This is a song featuring the singer of Agent Fresco, one of my favorite bands.

Music from Iceland: Ólöf Arnalds

I haven't really listened to Ólöf Arnalds but I saw this video and love this cover of Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man. This was recorded at KEX hostel during Airwaves. Also the two girls performing (Ólöf & Klara Arnalds) are cousins to Ólafur Arnalds who I posted about earlier in my Airwaves post.

 

Oh and Happy Halloween!! Snow on the ground in Maine, crazy! Hope everyone's power is back by now!

Iceland Airwaves

Triple blog post today ya'll (this ya'll is Vanessa's influence haha). So Iceland Airwaves music festival was from October 12-17--five music filled days of awesomeness. There were off-venue shows for free during the day and then the on venue shows at night which you needed a bracelet for. Bands from all over the world were here in Iceland, as well as music lovers, and SO many hipsters. I met people from Australia, Germany, Belgium, and Canada who were here visiting Iceland for the week. It is always fun to meet other tourists and be able to say that I live here now and am studying here! I'm going to go through some of my emails so I don't have to retype everything :)


So airwaves started on Wednesday and I started it off going to KEX hostel with Begga and her Icelandic friends so we got picked up in a car. We went to see GusGus and For a Minor Reflection. KEXP seattle was broadcasting live there, they have some free podcasts on itunes and videos on youtube you should check out. The hostel is also really cool. It was super packed for GusGus so we couldn't see but they sounded great.  The bands only play for about a half hour at this hostel. There was a break in between for a minor reflection and GusGus so we went across the street and got burgers. Then came back around 2:45, saw For a Minor Reflection, had amazing french press coffee, and watched Just Another Snake Cult. This last band wasn't so popular so the hostel really cleared out and we could sit down right by the stage. We left KEX around 5:30 and got dropped off at the dorm.  My friend Vanessa loves this band Yacht from the US and they played off venue at 7 so Vanessa, Jake, and I went to see them under a tent outside. They have crazy energy and are pretty good, we were in the front for this concert and Vanessa was in heaven. Then around 9:30 I started my on venue shows, no one wanted to go with me so I went by myself to this venue NASA. The line at NASA was so long (about 20 minutes)  so I actually got into NASA to see the last 30 seconds of this band I really like Mammut. The next band was ok (Sykur), I used it to make my way to the front of the stage for my next two favorite bands. Side note--saw the singer of Sykur the other day working at a second hand shop.  So for Agent Fresco (4th time seeing them, and would see them 2 more times during Airwaves) and Of Monsters and Men (3rd time I think seeing them)  I was literally in the front row leaning over the rail. It was awesome!After I headed home and went to sleep. 

Thursday I went to the Nordic House on campus with Begga, her Icelandic friend Elsa, and her friend from Belgium Hanne and we saw Pétur Ben, Guðrid Hansdóttir (from Faroe Islands), and Agent Fresco doing an acoustic set. The Agent Fresco acoustic set was one of my favorite shows of the whole festival. Guðrið Handóttir was also really good, we were all happily surprised by her. Here is a video of her performing off venue (I didn´t see this show but she performed this song at Nordic House). Side note--saw her at a bar this past weekend and Begga told her we really liked her.

Then after Nordic House we went back to the dorm for a little bit and ate then we headed to KEX hostel again.  We went to see Mugison who was great--I only knew one of his songs but really enjoyed his set. We then hung out in the hostel on these couches in the corner and listened to Lay Low perform. We then went upstairs and hung out in the hostel since Hanne was saying there and came back down for Of Monsters and Men. I spent most of the night at KEX with Begga, Elsa, Hanne, and this German guy we met who was staying there and we hung out in the kitchen. Then I met this Australian girl staying at KEX who wanted to see Yacht and I knew Vanessa and Jake were there so we left together. I found Vanessa and Jake in the front. There is a picture of us on Yachts homepage, http://teamyacht.com/. 


Friday I saw Ólafur Arnalds with Emily at Nordic House, it was packed but I was able to see him. He is the cutest person ever and makes really beautiful music. You can get some of his music for free---living room songs and found songs (should come up on google). 

Then I went to Eymundsson, the super cool bookstore that I spent a lot of time in before I got internet, to see Útidúr and Sóley. Útidúr is one of my other favorite bands, they have 12 people in the band and play really fun music with a lot of different instruments. They played a few new songs which were great, so hopefully they will put out a new album or ep soon. I had heard a few songs by Sóley (she is doing solo work now but it is in my favorite band Seabear) but wasn´t super interested in her. However, she was awesome live and I am now getting more into her music. She was one of the best surprises for me at Airwaves.  Here is a video of her performing at Harpa. When I saw her she was wearing the most Icelandic bun I had ever seen (girls in Iceland love wearing buns).

Friday night was the big night, I went to the Art Museum (really cool venue) and met my friend Karyn and Jake there for For a Minor Reflection and Agent Fresco. They were both great, and again I was in the front row.  Then I left to meet Vanessa at NASA for Tune yards but the line was so long and wrapped around the square downtown. We waited for like 20 minutes but moved 10 feet so then we met Akeem and Biggi at the English Pub, then went back to the art museum to see HAM but it was too intense (they are a heavy metal band) so we went to Glaumbar to see the end of Of Monsters and Men, then went to Bakkus to see Mammút, then I went to NASA at 2:30 to see Bloodgroup. It was a really fun night and I saw a lot of bands. I ended up getting a sub at 4am and walked back home haha. Then I slept through all the off venue shows on Saturday. Saturday night I went to Iðno and met Jake to see We are Promised Jetpacks then we went to see GusGus but the line was too long so we saw some metal band called Swords of Chaos. We didn´t stay for that whole show since I wasn´t really into it, and then we met up other friends and hung out for a bit then I went home with my friend Karyn. Sunday I went to see an Icelandic reggae band, Hjálmar, with Vanessa, Akeem, and Biggi. Mammút was playing afterwards but it was on venue and Biggi and Akeem didn´t have bracelets and they were going home in Biggi´s car so I decided to get hot dogs with them and get a ride home. Overall a very successful airwaves. I had tons of fun, saw awesome concerts, saw my favorite bands, and got to experience new ones.

Road Trip up North Part 2

Ok here goes part 2. Monday we woke up to Emily's alarm saying "it's 7:00 time to wake up, it's 7:00 time to wake up" which we ignored and went back to sleep till about 8. Finally I got up and went downstairs (I was sleeping in the loft) and started making breakfast and sandwiches for later. It was not too cold out this morning but it was snowing and it looked so beautiful. It felt like Christmas time :). Eventually everyone got up and we ate, cleaned the cabin a bit, and took pictures outside. We headed out around 9am. Our next destination was Sauðárkrókur, the second largest town in northern Iceland with a population of 2635 (and on the way to our final destination Akureyri) except we decided it really wasn´t all that great. As Riitta said "it's ugly, let's not stop."We did however stop at a beach in the town which was nice. It was a black sand beach and it was snowing again at this point.  We continued on our way till we spotted a few horses along the edge of their fence. We had been waiting till we saw horses along the road and only a few of them so we would be able to feed all of them bread and pet them. We spent a few minutes here and I was so happy, I would have stayed longer but my hands were freezing!

We continued on our way toward Akureyri constantly surrounded by huge mountains. I was in awe the whole time, it was absolutely gorgeous! Here is a quick video of our drive hah.


We finally got to Akureyri and went to a café that Riitta knew. We all got coffees or cappuccinos and Riitta and Erin got really yummy looking spinach pies. We then headed to the see the church in Akureyri, Akureyrarkirkja, which is designed by the man who did the church in Reykjavik, Hallgrímskirkja. We couldn´t go inside since there was something going on, but we climbed the many stairs to the top and took pictures and got to see the town from a higher view.
Then we went to get ice cream at Brynja, supposedly the best ice cream in Iceland. I´ve only been to one other place (In Reykjavik), but Brynja was definitely the better ice cream.

Jake, Me, and Emily enjoying ice cream

Next we decided to see Goðafoss, one of the most powerfull waterfalls in Europe. Riitta was so excited to go see it because she worked at it during the summer and had never seen it during the winter. She kept calling it "my waterfall." She however forgot to mention that you have to drive over a mountain to get there. For a little bit of the way it was white out conditions and it was a little scary, but we made it through fine. The waterfall was really cool to see, but sooo windy. We drove over to one side and took pictures and then Riitta said the other side is a better viewpoint so we drove over there but you had to walk to get to the waterfall. It was probably the windiest I have ever experienced so it was really cold but worth it. We basically walked really fast over there, took a few pictures, then ran back to the car. After this we headed back toward Reykjavik and did pretty much the same route we had already taken so we had much fewer photo stops.

Here are some pictures that Jake and Emily took (the rest of mine are on Shutterfly)

Riitta and I in the cabin.

Crater next to the Volcano we hiked.

Goðafoss

Tiny waterfall we saw at beginning of trip by fjord

First stop of trip.

On top of the volcano.

Road Trip up North! Part 1

So this is a little overdue but I am finally going to write about my road trip up to norður Ísland (northern Iceland). We left on Sunday 10/9, the original plan was to leave on Saturday but the weather was so bad in the morning we decided to leave on Sunday instead.  Because we left on Sunday our friend Jake from Vancouver could come with us, so it was my friend Emily who was awesome and drove the whole way, Jake, and these two other exchange students Riitta (Finland) and Erin (Australia). We put out a message on our exchange student facebook group to see if anyone wanted to join us and Riitta and Erin responded and I am glad they did because they are awesome and really nice! We rented a Hyundai Sante Fe and left Reykjavik around 10am. The cabin we stayed at was probably 3.5 hours away but we took our time enjoying the sights and having picture stops probably every 30 minutes. We ended up getting to the cabin I think around 5:30. We stopped at Borgarnes a town about an hour away, although I think we got there in 3 hours with all our stops. We did a little grocery shopping at Bónus and then ate lunch in a café overlooking gorgeous mountains and the shore. Along the way to the cabin we drove around a fjord (this was before Borgarnes), there is a tunnel under the water you can take that is 5km long (we did it on the way back) but we wanted to see the fjord and I am glad we did. It took a lot longer but it was beautiful. We also stopped along the side of the road at this place that had houses for elves/dwarfs. Apparently some farmer just built these little houses and put little figurines in them. Our friend Jake had seen it before and sure enough we were driving along and spotted the little guys so we turned around and stopped.             


We also were driving and our friend Riitta (who has worked at a guesthouse by the waterfall Goðafoss for two summers) told us we could climb this hill coming up. We were driving up to it and it looked steep and rocky and we were all secretly thinking how are we going to climb that? But then there was a sign that side drive to the other side and on that side there was stairs and paths to climb up to the top. It was a short little hike and really awesome views. We were looking at it and Emily, who studies geology, realized it was a crater and when we looked out we could see a lava field. We figured out that we had just climbed a volcano! How cool is that!

Look Mom, I'm on a volcano! L-R: Jake, Riitta, Erin, Me, and Emily

Then we drove for a bit till Emily wanted to stop to look at cool rocks. There was a tiny waterfall with these blue colored rocks, we suspected they were blue from copper. Emily got out her rock hammer and was hammering away at some rocks to get them to open. We each grabbed a few rocks from this place.

We then kept driving till we saw our first snow and of course had to get out and take a group picture.

We drove some more till we got to Skagaströnd where our cabin was. We explored the tiny town of 530 for a little bit (not much to see), there is the only country bar in Iceland here but it was closed on Sundays. We then went to the cabin ate spaghetti and drank tea and hot cocoa while we played card games all night. It was cozy and real fun!

Thanks to Jake for all the group photos, and since I had some serious issues uploading this post I will write part 2 after I eat lunch! 

Music From Airwaves: Of Monsters and Men

Here is a video of a band I saw, Of Monsters and Men. I saw this performance off venue at Kex Hostel on Thursday. Also saw them on venue at Nasa on Wednesday. I will blog later about my road trip up North and airwaves!