Tango

There is an amazingly active Argentinian tango scene in Reykjavík. Its apparently just like walking and certainly easy to get started with, though I´d say you need to keep practising to be any good. Well, in an attempt to meet people I started going to tango nights at Alþjóðahús, the Intercultural Centre in Reykajvík and met friendly people, and then joined classes ran by Kathrin, where I met my boyfriend, Óli.

We have kept dancing ever since and have taken classes at Kramhúsið with Hany and Brýndis. Regular dances, called Milongas, are held at a number of halls in town and a festival in September and they are such fun to get dressed up and dance, especially in the winter when it is dark and snowy outside but warm, romantic and elegant inside.

You can find out more about tango in Iceland here and here.

Turin, Paris, Brittany, Normandy, London, Edinburgh

In October 2005 I went to the MAEGS 14 Association of European Geological Societies natural hazards conference in Turin in Italy. On the way home I took a long weekend in France and went to Edinburgh to catch up with people there. I wouldn't recommend visiting three countries in the space of ten days or so. However, the french trip was fun. I went to my favourite bookshop "Shakespeare and Company" .. a beautiful independent bookshop in the Latin Quarter of Paris, with fascinating books and in a magical setting opposite Notre-Dame .. revisited family haunts in Carnac and along the Breton coastline and slept in my tent behind a hedge with a view of Mont St. Michael on my last night. It is fun how childhood memories enlarge the scale of everything. I had a great time and just needed it to be ten times as long.. so busy I seem to have no photos.

As for accommodation.. I stayed in hostels as usual and my tent. The youth hostel in Turin is exceptionally cheap, in a nice residential part of town and though not very central is still within walking distance of the centre. It has no kitchen facilities. The Aloha hostel in central Paris had a great location and friendly hostellers but was cramped and noisy at night. My tent is compact and usually has a great view.

Markarfljót and Gigjökull

I´ve been helping out on the Geography, University of Edinburgh undergraduate fieldtrip. Students study palaeo-landscape reconstruction, ecological processes, geomorphology and glaciology, among other subjects. The field area, usually along the southern margin of the Markarfljót valley in southern Iceland in an area called Langanes and on two outlet glaciers from the ice-capped volcano Eyjafjallajökull, Steinsholtsjökull and Gigjökull, is one of my favourite places in Iceland. You can read about past flood events in this area, associated in some cases with eruptions of the volcano Katla, on my research page.

Landmannalaugur to Hrafntinnasker

Fieldwork in usually about work, work, more work, though almost always in a stunning place, outside, in clean air doing fun things. For once I took a break, a weekend off .. and Nick and I had an adventure into some of Iceland´s most bizarre and stunning places. We had Flo the Landrover as our stead. We used her as our rather leaky tent at night and drove exciting mountain tracks to get to places that most tourists never see during the day. One day I´ll go back on foot with a proper timeframe for exploration. Ice, lava flows, green and yellow and orange rocks, steam and bubbling pools of mud, holes in the ground with steam that make sounds like a jet engine. Hrafntinnasker is so much more than I could have imagined; a wonderland. Add sunshine to the mix and it becomes almost unbelievably amazing.

Edinburgh to Iceland - the start of the adventure

I was living in Edinburgh in Scotland, a lively cosmopolitan city.. there was sunshine and friends. Sometimes. I worked as a bookseller and occasional tutor and laboratory research assistant. But Iceland held an exotic appeal.. land of fire and ice! So I left, bought a big Landrover and filled it with all my belongings to the point of bursting and set off on my adventure. I didn't want to leave my friends and I miss you folk. It was a long required and partly desired time for something new.

So Iceland: I came by ferry from Aberdeen with my big green Landrover Defender Hard Top 110 called Flo, stopping off in Shetland, and visiting my friends Ruth and Jonathan. We had an dramatic walk along the beach to St. Ninian's Isle blasted by northern winds bent double to be able to make slow progress, feet sinking into the wet sand. Returning back to their new house was a delight.. new and clean and warm, painted red, with gloriously luxurious heated floors. In the deep of night I queued up, with other Landrovers, bicycles and passengers to catch the Smyril Line ferry to the Faroes and then ultimately to Iceland.

My first house in Iceland was one from a fairytale, perfectly fitting my image of life in Iceland.. blue corrugated iron, with pretty details above the window, wood-lined interior and views from the windows of the old town patchwork of sweetly-coloured toy houses. I really loved it. And my flatmate Karen ensured the most calm and warm welcome; a fine companion. To come home to the fairy-tale house with my peaceful flatmate was the best way to start a new life.