Sol de Medianoche y Náttúra

Well, once is Akureyri I was finally able to unpack my bags (which finally made their way back to me along with a $100 reimbursement from the airline) and settle in to my new temporary home. It's a very nice house and my room is rather large. I'll take pictures of it and post them later. I live with a man who works for an airline, so he spends most of his time in Reykjavík. He is part of a program called couch surfing and he also likes having people stay at his house for the night or for some months, so I get to meet really interesting people this way. So through this I have met: a girl studying for her environmental engineering masters degree who is working with whales in Húsavík, 3 Germans who were doing the tour around Iceland (and stayed with us when Germany beat Turkey in the Euro2008 fútbol cup thing), a Polish computer scientist studying in Scotland who came to Iceland for a conference, and more recently an Icelandic couple with a dog.

So when I arrived it was close to the summer solstice so the man, Hreinsi, took me to the mountains across the fjord to witness the midnight sun. Here are some pics of the mountains near Akureyri and of the midnight sun:
Yes it is midnight.This last one is from on top of the roof of my house. Past midnight so the sun is on its way back up. You can't see all of the sun cuz some mountains were in the way.


So Björk and Sigur Rós and some other artists were having a free outdoor concert in Reykjavík on June 28th to bring environmental awareness in Iceland . So I def wanted to go see them, however, I didn't have a car in Akureyri and flying was rather pricey. Luckily at the last minute I found a ride thanks to some MIT connections. So Friday the 27th we drove the 4.5 hours to the capital, they dropped me off at my Reykjavík home and then I slept. Before the concert we were invited to the Hungarian capoeira guy's place for a party. It was really nice and all of the people there were great. From there we walked to the concert and it was amazing. I ditched the group to stand closer to the stage. I probably enjoyed the concert more than the other people I was with, but that's OK. I had seen Sigur Rós in Boston a couple of years ago, but that time we were in the back, so this was wicked awesome. Here are some pics from the concert:

Sigur Rós YEAH!
Péter, Attila, and Cash enjoying some great music and some food.
Béla rocking out.


More Sigur Rós. :Þ
Björk.


In her very colorful outfit.


The day after the concert we were invited to the house of a fellow coworker who has an amazing apartment overlooking the water and amazing photography and artwork on the walls. The best bachelor pad by far. Sadly I did not take photos of said apartment, but when I grow up I wanna live there. So the guy, Magni, was teaching the girls how to cook while the boys were talking about stuff and I was taking pics with Magni's awesome camera. Sadly I had to leave early so that Péter could drive me to this other city where the people who gave me a ride would pick me up. So I only stayed for the salad, but it was a really good salad.

All in all a great weekend in Reykjavík!