It's been a long time...

But I'm back :).

The last month or so has been a bit hectic, so I apologize for not posting more frequently. I have pictures from Norway and from some trips in Iceland too that I will be phasing in later. But for now, I will post the pictures from our most recent trip, to Italy (for our first wedding anniversary!).

We first went to an area called the Cinque Terre first, a group of 5 villages on the Northwest coast that seem to hang off the side of mountains. Very picturesque. The weather was great (we had our warmest temperatures in over a year, given the cool Icelandic summer). We even managed to swim in the sea! We had forgotten to bring our swimsuits, but thankfully we did not forget to bring underwear. So we used that.

We stayed in a room with a view of the harbour of one of the 5 villages, hiked on the path between the villages (there are no direct roads between them, only hiking paths), and took a cooking lesson. And just relaxed.

Here are some pictures from that trip.

The view from our room in Manarola

The view of the same town from the harbor, where we went for a dip

The hills looked a lot like Lebanon

Corniglia (that town on the left) from the South

Jó enjoying her seafood pasta there

Corniglia again, this time from the North

Vernazza

Narrow streets in Vernazza

The obligatory cat picture

Jó modeling for some mushroom pictures

Chopping onions

Fresh pasta with mushrooms... Mmm...

Snæfellsnes

We finally managed to make a trip to Snæfellsnes last Sunday. I don't have much time tonight.. So, here are some pictures!

The glacier

A closer view

If you've ever read about the lifting stones at Djúpalónssandur.. You'd realize I'm not made to be a fisherman

Climbing Jó

Bárður the giant

The lave fields coming from the volcano are quite impressive

We had coffee at Hótel Búðir, which was very nice

Jó... doing something

You can never have enough lava fields

Pretty mountains

Berries

Réttir

We made a quick stop by a réttir (annual sheep round-up) the other day. It was a tiny round-up (and it was mostly over by the time we got there), but here are a few sheep pictures, of course.

Packed sheep

Into the van

Little lambs

It's the 2nd sheep from the right, officer! I'd recognize him anywhere...

We wanted to hike, and went to Hveragerði...

But the weather looked like this.

So we stopped by the greenhouse / tourist trap that is Eden, and I got to hug a giant puffin.

Jó was able to make a friend too.

We'll have to come back another time for that hike, if the weather improves.

Golden circle snapshots

Rock, Barnafoss

Burrowing Jó, Þingvellir

Jó and I, Haukadalur

Tourists and rainbow, Gullfoss

Sheep, Iceland

Menningarnótt

Menningarnótt stands for "Culture night". What started as a day with some artsy events 10 or so years ago has turned into a day filled with all sorts of events (artsy stuff, concerts, random stuff, etc). The program for that one day takes up 4 pages or so, with up to 30 different events or so happening every hour (from the morning until 11pm). The events are spread all through downtown and a few neighboring spots.

We noticed some noise in the morning under our windows. It turns out we're on the path of the Reykjavík marathon which occurs on this day. Judging by the people we saw running it must've been the 5k event.

We then left the house and basically kept wandering around town until past 11pm. We had some free waffles (that were being offered at people's home), and we got sidetracked for a while in the 12 Tónar music store, which it turns out has an annual sale of about 50% on all CDs during that day (tip for next time: browse at the store a few days before menningarnótt, then on that day go in the morning and get all the CDs you want before they get sold out!).

Along the way I also got some free soup (well, it came with some environmentalist spiel) and had a sandwich at the Sandholt bakery (we had to wait 20 minutes to get the sandwiches because they insisted on giving them to us in a plate with a fork and knife, and they were out of clean plates..)

We even stopped by the national museum for a "Coffee tasting" by Kaffitár (rather underwhelming), a church with a classical music concert (including a harpsichord), and after 9pm went to Hressó to listen to a fun dixieland jazz band. Finally we went closer to the harbor by 11pm where a DJ was wrapping up his act, to look at the fireworks show.

Running by our window

Other mammals can participate, apparently

Yellow house, yellow car

In a house by Hallgrímskirkja where they were serving free waffles (mmm, waffles)

Bee

Jó enjoying some fox fur from the expensive Greenlandic store on Skólavörðustígur

People on Austurstræti

Somebody's idea for a Reykjavík metro, apparently

A slightly gloomy view from the pond

Two

Pseudo-sheep, by the Nordic house

A nice blue house on Tjarnargata

This is only funny if you've been in Iceland for the last couple of months

The city's best hot dog stand (that's what it's called)

Ein með öllu (one with everything). Unfortunately everything does not mean Dijon mustard, so that could be improved. But overall, gotta love the Icelandic lamb hot dogs.

The dixieland band

The red lights in Hressó's garden, with Eymundsson's coffee shop above

Some DJ towards the end

Fireworks