August 17th // Cultural Festival

     We went took a short nap until 10 am after getting home from the museum and our crazy night at the bars, but we couldn't really sleep in because we didn't want to miss Culture Night. All pretty groggy, we went to the Stofan Café for coffees--lots of coffee. It's a green faded wooden building with a bright red door and steep steps, which Abby tripped over. We all got a coffee. Then a second, and a third, and a fourth. By then we were clear headed, if not a little jittery--Kyndall was practically vibrating--and wanted to thank Alda and Odda for calling us a cab last night.
      As soon as Taylor started dialing the phone, though, we realized we never got their number. Thankfully, Iceland is such a small country that every citizen can be found in a single phone book, organized by first name. We found Alda in no time and called her to thank her. She was happy to hear that we had gotten home safely and invited us to have lunch with her and have a tour of her job since we seemed so interested the night before. We couldn't wait to see them again and get to find out more about their fascinating jobs.

     Culture Night // Holiday ●
      In Iceland, every year there is a Culture night.  Cultural institutions such as museums and theaters annually organize to showcase Iceland's unique history.   Concerts are organized with  popular and even fringe Icelandic bands.  While the date does change every year, the cultural festival is a very important event in Iceland and it was so cool getting to see attend the 22nd annual Culture night.  It's the largest festival in Iceland, and that's saying something because there are numerous festivals.  They range from commemorating art and music to local festivals dedicated to elves.   This year 100,000 people came, which is remarkable because the entire population is only around 325,000.  

Alissa at the waterside on Klapparstigur street

     On each street around the Reykjavik harbor there is a different attraction.  Along Klapparstigur street, known for it's bright colored buildings and bars, a carnival was held.  Iceland's top DJs and young musicians, such as Yoga Dance Party, performed.  It was so much fun dancing to the music--thankfully Kyndall used the moves Alda and Odda taught her last night instead of the Macarena.  
     There was even a 658 foot sip and slide along the whole street!  We slid on our feet like with socks on hardwood and penguin belly slid.  I threw Abby like a bowling ball and she slid straight into Alissa.  She fell too and they both slid for another few hundred feet.  It was hilarious because they spun, rolled, kicked each other, and yelled.  By the time they got to the end of the slide they were uncontrollably laughing.  We slid on giant animal floaties, on green alligators and pink flamingos.  We slipped and slid up down the boulevard for an hour until our knees were scraped from the plastic and our fingers pruned up.  
     The Krás street food festival 
had stands with clear overheads and colorful balloons tied to them.  Restaurants from all over Reykjavik, and even some from outside communities, had little stands.  High end and casual restaurants alike gave their spin on street food.  The energy was great and everybody, customers and food stand workers alike, was having a great time.  Everybody seemed so overjoyed to get to meet fellow Icelanders and get to learn more about their crazy, creative, colorful country.  

Dons Doughnuts

A stand on Krás street 

      We got delicious pork tacos, juice smoothies, and "dirty pork sandwiches".  Bæjarins Beztu, a street food place down by the harbor said to have the best hot dogs in Europe, set up a booth also.  It had been hard to find food that Kyndall like since she's so picky--honestly it's a wonder she's gotten this far--so she was really stoked to get to try such a prestigious hot dog.  Former president Bill Clinton himself called them the best hot dogs in Europe...Kyndall wasn't as impressed, but don't take her word for it.  Even the aptly named Meat Soup wagon came down to the festival.  It serves only traditional Icelandic meat soups and is said to be just like your Icelandic grandmother's stews.  It's adorable and covered in little cartoons of soup.  We all split a small bowl because we were pretty full for 900 isk, or $7 usd.  We topped it all off with some of Dons Doughnuts, which were probably the best doughnuts I've ever had.  When you get them they're still warm and have just a pinch of salt sprinkled on them to bring out the flavor.  You get to choose caramel or chocolate sauce and your own topping, similar to a server yourself frozen yogurt place.  
     There was an emphasis on all natural and organic food, which seems to be very important in Iceland, nearly every stand proudly displayed "Organic".  Taylor was really happy to get to try the waffles at the Vöffluvagninn, which translates literally to waffle wagon. 
     This started and argument about weather pancakes or waffles are better, Taylor a passionate waffle lover, me a passionate pancake enthusiast.  "Pancakes get soggy, they're like sponges!  Waffles have nice little pockets for butter and syrup, how can you not love that," said Taylor.  "Waffles are too square!  Taylor, when they're too crispy they hurt your mouth, I have literally been cut up by them.  But you know what will never betray you? Pancakes," I argued.  It only got uglier from there.  We ended up having to leave the food festival and go over to the Westfjords stands. 

The Westfjords are the circled region

     The Westfjords are a peninsula north of mainland Iceland.  Because they were separated, while their culture is fairly similar due to their viking influence, it is still unique.  It's mainly a fishing community because of their natural harbors and lack of low land for agriculture which limits then to sheep, with a population of roughly 7,600.  We learned a brief history of the Westfjords.  They were isolated from the mainland and had been living off the sea for a very long time and they didn't experience many of the the famines that early Icelanders endured form crop failures.   They even were safe from plagues.  
      They were very remote and because husbands frequently died at sea, women ran the communities and were highly respected. In fact, Iceland as a whole has been very progressive in nearly all social issues.  Currently they have a female president, and their first one elected was in 1980.  They legalized gay marriage in the early 90's, although recently there has been a lot of uproar about their staggering 14% wage gap.  Because of their remote location, it was very hard for Westfjordians to gain as much wealth as the rest of Iceland, and they only recently have.   They are a very hard working people and are grateful for the new luxuries they have.  
     Many of the villages have been kept alive in recent years by Thai, Filipino, Lithuanian, and Polish immigrants.  They have the highest rate of immigration in all of Iceland.  We even got to try some of their native cuisine, which unfortunately included delicious pancakes.  The argument was re-sparked and even more intense.  We decided to agree to disagree, and Taylor couldn't help but admit those pancakes were pretty incredible.  They were lightly powdered sugared and drizzled with a chocolate wine sauce.  We tried other Westfjordian foods, which were mainly seafood, so Abby wasn't too thrilled because we wouldn't let her try any.  "Sorry for not wanting you to die," Alissa said as she shoved a spoonful of seafood out of Abby's hand.

     Then we went made our way over to Arnarhóll where concerts were being held.  Arnarhóll is this big field in the middle of Reykjavik with a hill that overlooks the whole city.  It had a huge stage built up, lights, and streamers.  By then it was around 6:00 pm and the light started to dim a bit at least.  
     Of Monsters And Men preformed songs from their album "Beneath the Skin"  and a bunch of other ones from their older albums (apparently Taylor knew all about them and spent a good twenty minutes recommending all kinds of indie bands and folk music), which confused me at first.  It turns out they, like Bjork, are from Iceland. Most Icelandic music is folk music or EDM, electronic club music.   
       We got went up to the front row and had fun for the next two hours until we went back down to the food festival to get some dinner.  By the time we got back it was really crowded over by the concerts so we put down a picnic blanket on top of the grassy hill that overlooked the stage. 

Our view of the fireworks 

      Finally it got dark around 1 AM and the fireworks display at the Harpa could begin.  We were heard that Arnarhóll was the perfect place to see them, and it was true.  Around 50,000 people gathered there to see them, the rest had either taken their children home or were at the Harpa.  They started out with red and then moved on to brilliant blues, purples, greens, and whites.  It was incredible because from Arnarhóll you could see the reflections of the fireworks coming off of the harbor, and the Harpa looked like it was glowing.  All of it's intricate glass work lit up like a Christmas tree and the whole building was turned purple.  It was so pretty that Abby literally cried.  We went back home to the Black Pearl and spent our last night in Reykjavik before our trip on the Ring Road.