ICELAND: HLUTI THRIR

HALLO.

Today staying up until four in the morning caught up with us. We slept in 'til 9, ate breakfast, and then fell back asleep until 1.

After we finally dragged ourselves out of bed, we went to the Icelandic Flea Market. It was so great. We found a nice little postcard booth, run by a kind man with grey eyes and a big silver hoop in his right ear. I paid for my cards and said "Takk," which is one of the very few words I know. The nice man thought I spoke Icelandic because my pronunciation was good. That was flattering.

We also found many used book booths, and many booths selling Lopapeysas. I bought a lovely grey one, and E got a nice brown one with horses. We are almost real Icelanders.

Post-flea market, we came back to the hotel to drop things off, ate some bread and butter, napped for an hour, then headed back out. We went to a Pylsa stand - the one that Bill Clinton visited when he came here! We got a hotdog, and it was SO GOOD. I don't even like hotdogs. But the sauces and the crispy onions made it so great.

We continued on to Harpa, which is easily the most beautiful of the venues. The steel on the outside is shaped like the patterns in lava rock, and the outside shimmers green and purple in an imitation of the northern lights. It's gorgeous.

Tonight's shows were almost all in Northurljos, which was the one hall we hadn't been to. We started out with Rokkuro. The lead singer had the most beautiful voice. I am not partial to female singers - female anythings, if I'm honest - but she was really great.

Next was the Barr Brothers - experimental blues? Something like that. We skipped out and went down to Kaldalon to see 1860 [again! We've seen them in some capacity every day]. Their set was very nice. Gunnar, the bassist, was very funny. I loved them.

We made it back up to Northurljos in time for the last song from the Barr Brothers, and they were much darker than I expected. Agent Fresco was next, and they were easily the hardest-core band we've seen. But they're also fairly experimental, which meant that about 1/3 of each song was rock-n-roll-y, and then they broke down into headbanging metal. After the concert, a girl - maybe named Sinna? - came over and asked me to draw a picture on her jeans. I was confused and taken aback, so I drew a skull, because I know how. I wonder what sort of character statement it is that skulls are my go-to image? Hopefully the other people she asked drew better things.

Finally, Asgeir Trausti played. I've been looking forward to his show. I listened to him a little bit on the plane ride over, and was very impressed. He sounds a little bit like Bon Iver, but not like a complete copy. He's distinct enough, and also sings exclusively in Icelandic. His stage presence was not big - he only said "Takk," and the name of the next song. But he seemed sweet. I bought his album.

Now we're back at the hotel. Today was much less busy. We slept a lot. Tomorrow will be more full - we are going for a walk down the coast, I'll probably visit the cemetery at some point, plus we're snorkeling at Silfra [assuming the weather holds - it has been much nicer today], and then stopping at the Museum of Phallology on our way to see Sigur Ros.

Takk takk.