Reykjavik And Sigur Ros At Iceland Airwaves 2012

On this day we thought it best to wander through Reykjavik and see a bit of the town/very little city, which pleased me to no end. We had so much to see and do and it was a perfectly relaxing day in the lead up to the Sigur Ros concert we had very much been looking forward to that night. In fact it was the very reason we had decided to book our flights over 5 months ago and we are so glad we did.

KFC was a wonderful start to the day. We dined on a large chips, which was extraordinarily large while we waited for the bus and with services starting in our neck of the woods at 12.30 on a Sunday afternoon we had plenty of time to be waiting and testing out the local chips. Results? Not even close to the famous KFC chips in Australia.

This was the window of a local religious wares shop. Christian I believe, the majority of Icelandic people are Lutheran. Regardless, this window display was creepy.

Reykjavik has commissioned street art everywhere, making the city bright and cheerful despite the mind numbing coldness and the 4 hour long winter days. I'd put this down to the fact that they have such a cool mayor, take a looksie here.

The streets are lined with cute and colourful houses and shops like this one.

And these ones

And this one. Which was especially colourful (inside and out). It's a massive candy store!

They even have a Lebowski bar, which is as you may have guessed a bar themed like the one in the movie of the sameish name... the Lebowski part anyways.

More of the colourful art.

A local skate park. This place even had an ice cream parlour out the front.

More of the skate park.

Bike racks places around the place... Also ridiculously bright.

Streets

A local cafe.

Not to name and shame, but this is the home of the worst meal Lloyd, Adam and I have ever eaten. Lloyd had a burger with a sloppy, wet pork patty and Adam and I had foul omelettes. It was Adam's birthday breakfast, which we were meant to have next door at The Laundromat, which as you'll later learn, became our favourite eating establishment in this city. However, due to it being the last day of Iceland Airwaves it was tricky to get a place anywhere and the festival effects were felt thrice fold in this establishment for two reasons. 1. It was the official caterer of the festival and 2. They do an amazing weekend brunch. So, sorry you had to get the slops from next door for your birthday Adam.

Some cold rocks down by the harbour. It was this cold!

Harpa concert hall Reykjavik. We didn't go in, but based on photos I've seen it looks incredible.

View from the harbour.

Halloween was just a few days earlier and there were remnants all over the city. This is someones front yard in a little side street of the city.

Hallgrímskirkja is Iceland's national church, which is kind of a big deal if you consider there are over 245 000 Icelandic Lutheran peeps in a country with only a little over 320 000.

The building offers one of the best views of the city, the other being the Perlan, which offers a 360 degree view of the city and a rotating restaurant, though after seeing the view from the church you don't feel it necessary to see again. It's nice, but Reykjavik ain't the sweeping city with landmarks everywhere that some other cities are. It's a tiny city with colourful houses and an ocean front. Most of Iceland is best enjoyed from the ground.

On an adventure in the Kringlan mall to find our pre-booked tickets to the Sigur Ros concert. This is Reykjavik's largest mall.

Walking home to our sweet apartment with tickets in hand and a decent gin and tonic on the mind (We had some really bad ones the day before due to our inability to find tonic water).

Tickets and gin with old faithful tonic as promised and Pringles for good measure.

Walking to Laugardalshöllin to see Sigur Ros. In the background is the Imagine Peace Tower created by Yoko Ono. You can read more about the Imagine Peace Tower if you wish.

Inside the stadium.

Armed with my cans of Tuborg and a big butt faced grin.

Still excited for Tuborg and Sigur.

Adam and Lloyd nursing beers and also being excited to see this amazing band in their hometown. Schwing!

It's starting along with the butterflies and tears.

Watch the video in HD once it starts!

This is where I leave you to look at the pictures from the night. All I can say about it is it was one of the greatest concerts I have ever seen, if not the greatest and the feeling we all got watching Sigur Ros was almost indescribable, but I'll give it a shot. It was like a child waking up on Christmas to find he/she got everything he/she asked for and more along with the amazing happiness of being surrounded by all the people he/she loves the most and finding out he/she gets to do all his/her favourite things for the rest of days, then you weep a little. I love Christmas, I love Sigur Ros.

They started silhouetted behind a massive sheer curtain which dropped to reveal the eleven piece in front of a massive 180 degree screen with beautiful images projected onto it to match the music and then to top it off they had light bulbs dotted all over the stage which seemed to pulse in time to the musician nearest to them. Such an incredible display and the music is a million times more epic and enchanting live.

Watch video in HD!

Everyone seemed to walk out like zombies still in a trance from what they had just witnessed.

It was that time of night where partially drunk Lloyd and Adam crave fast food hits and on an island with no McDonalds their only available option was Metro Burgers.

Which was a lot fancier inside than any Maccas I've seen.

Yes, I did eat a metro burger sans patty and yes, it is my first and last fast food burger fix of this year. The shame... though it was kind of tasty.

The weirdest map of Australia you can expect to find in a far off place. If you look closely you will notice there aren't too many marked cities or towns so you too should be asking why they mark Birdum WHY?, Yampi Sound WHY?, Dampier WHY?, you could even ask why Augusta, considering there's no Margaret River, Busselton or Bunbury. The latter two being cities and Augusta being a little fishing town??? Don't get me wrong, I love Augusta, I just don't get why a tiny map in a fast food restaurant in Iceland seems to think it such an important place in the scheme of Australia.

Another reason why Iceland is great. It is so bizarre. Thank you for another (great) night, another (great) day...