where i am, but mostly how i got here.

dearest all,
i guess i'll relate a brief history of my travels, and have some pictures to get a quick sense of what it is like. [sadly, i have no way to upload pictures from my smaller camera- the one i was roaming with. sad, but a fixable problem, i hope. the pictures here will limited, but i will surely be adding more and more. all in good time.]



the flight to keflavik was far more eventful than i had originally hoped, but it did work, and for that, i am grateful.

a terse recount:
thanks mom, for driving me to the airport.
to the cincinnati airport [in kentucky], suppose that i should have had some breakfast. oh well. - first flight is with american airlines- i draw some caricatures of passers-by while waiting for the plane to be ready. once we board i am surprised to find that there are only eight passengers on this airplane to new york. i guess i assumed that anything associated with new york might be busy. in this case, that assumption is wrong.

the captain tells us that there have been delays due to weather at JFK, so we have to de-board the plane and wait for an hour. in that hour i talk with one of the other eight passengers. he is going to brazil for carnival. he is a pianist. he is talkative.
our flight is cancelled, so i end up getting my flight changed to a much later flight with delta. [the original flight was at noon, the one with delta at 3:35. luggage is rerouted along with me- all the way to keflavik. now i have to get to the delta terminal which seems to be about 5 miles away, but the walk isn't bad because of all the neat moving walkways. pretty fun stuff, all in all- even though most people look very serious. i bet they are enjoying it as well.

i get to the gate for the new flight. soon after arriving there, this flight is also delayed, not a problem, because it is only pushed back to 3:50- plenty of time to catch the next flight from JFK. should be fine. carnival brazil guy is here too. i get to hear more stories.

the flight is delayed further, and then again, leaving us with a tentative departure time of 4:50. being a 2 hour flight, i am concerned that further delays will be problematic- my flight from new york to iceland departs at 8:00 [i.e. boards at 7:20] that leaves about half an hour of flex time at JFK. carnival brazil guy is not so lucky. [bye!]

the departure time is pushed back to 5:25. i start asking about solutions, but while discussing options, the departure time is restored to 4:50. i love a problem that will solve itself.

at this point it is about 3:30 or so. i am pretty hungry, so i get a sandwich. in retrospect, i should have purchased two or three. oh well. i spend more time drawing caricatures of the passers-by.

a few of the people who were also airporting.

at JFK, there are seven terminals, with a train travelling between them. icelandair is in terminal seven. [good to know. i didn't.] checked in to my flight at five after seven. there was no line for icelandair, which was nice. since i should be boarding in fifteen minutes, i was redirected through a sneaky hallway security, so as to avoid the very long lines elsewhere. pretty nifty.

i get to the gate at 7:20. the plane is boarding at 7:20. pretty handy.

have an aisle seat for the flight. aisle seats aren't very good for sleeping. try to anyway. mildly successful. the only thing of note that happens on the flight is that an older woman passes out next to my seat. she is delirious and drooling, but with a little oxygen and some rest, she seems to recover. i am glad that she wasn't worse off.

when we land at keflavik, it is very windy. and it is hailing. a nameworthy icelandic greeting. it is 6:05am local time [GMT]. the keflavik international airport is quite nice, though rather deserted feeling this early in the morning. i wait at the baggage claim area for nearly an hour, but my luggage never shows up. i exchange this lack of luggage for a slip of paper so that if my luggage i can retrieve it. i think it would have been nice if my luggage had just shown up.

i get through customs pretty pain free, and then i buy a bus ticket to reykjavik. it was something like nineteen hundred krona. the handy thing about money here is that there is only one unit. unlike our dollars and cents, there are just ever increasing quantities of the kronur. makes it a bit easier.

1, 10 50, 100 KR .  anything bigger is paper. i like the pictures they've got on them.. the bottom coin is  the back of a 10 krona coin. the backs are pretty much the same.

the bus ride takes us from the darkness of night, through the lavafields of reykjanesbær. since it is snowing, the cracks and fissures in the rocky ground are visible, even in this low light. there aren't any trees for a long time, and i am struck by the number of rav4's driving around here. we drive on the same side of the road as i am used to, which caught me off guard. as we get out of the lavafields, there are some stumpy little trees, but they look pretty landscapy. i'll keep my eyes peeled for an old tree.

we get to the bus stop around 8:20, and i retrieve a key to the studios/apartment. the weather is familiar, though the landscape is not. i hop into a taxi, and we go to sogavegur instead of seljavegur. [didn't want to make it too easy, i suppose. sogavegur is conveniently in the opposite direction.] when we finally do arrive to the studio, i head upstairs to my room. i meet few of the early risers as i unpack the huge amount of stuff that i have brought with me. i get a drink of water. if you don't wait for the water to come out cold, it smells like sulphur. [i think that everything does, though very faintly.]

my very big room, filled up with all of my things.

since it still early in the morning, i decide to sleep a little bit- i am pretty tired.

the view from my skylight windows

when i wake up it is around noon, if i recall correctly. i put my shoes back on and head out, there are a variety of shops- mostly grocery stores, and a hardware store close by. i get some food- just bread and peanut butter and some sort of jelly [still not sure what it is.] some skyr [yogurt, iceland style.]. i also buy some eggs. i was hoping to buy some black beans, but have yet to find any. [i've been through about four different grocery stores. found some red beans in one. guess i'll have to figure out something else to eat.] i go back to the apartment and eat a little. i had gotten pretty hungry. weird.

view from studio, part one

view from studio part two. there is a whole lot of ocean out there.

after eating i walked downtown and talked to some ceramicists at Kogga keramik galleri. they were very friendly, and they gave me the contact information for the only clay supplier in iceland. lucky!

i am pretty soggy at this point, so i don't do too much more wandering. the snowflakes are huge and wet.
i draw for a while, and go to sleep, finally! around 11:00pm

that was yesterday. today i changed a bunch of money, went to the SIM HQ office and gave them a big portion of that money, tried to get a feel for the city, and finally, got an outlet adapter.

i also walked a portion of the coast line, but that was very early in the morning- it was cold, windy and snowing. it is overcast but clear right now.

some other view from within the apartment. looks pretty normal, right?

 we've got a meeting on friday, and there are some new residents turning up. i hope that my luggage turns up too. it could be pretty handy. i suppose that i need to buy some clay, but the catalog is in danish. at least i know to ask for Eyjölfur when i call.

more soon.