Our Incredible Trip to Iceland: August 15th // Unforgettable Food and Music

Kjötsúpa

Kjötsúpa // Indigenous Food ●

The following day we slept in late and went to lunch at the Islenski barinn, a bar in downtown Reykjavik. Actually, according to Kyndall it literally translates to “Icelandic bar.” We got to taste authentic Icelandic food for the first time. We all agreed to try Kjötsúpa, a lamb meat stew, because we weren't really sure if we were ready to try some of the more exotic foods. It was delicious and had rice, potatoes, turnips, onions, carrots and was seasoned herbs.

On our walk back to the hotel, we noticed that there were benches in the middle of the street! It was so strange, seeing these lacquered benches with cast iron feet cemented into the ground. There were even arrangements of daisies and small shrubbery with the benches! I’m not quite sure why they did this, but they certainly did this purposely.

The Harpa Hall

Bjork Concert at the Harpa Hall // Culture ●

Later that evening, at 5:00 in the evening, we went to the renowned Harpa to see a Bjork concert. The Harpa is an incredible work of art itself; its crystalline structure is entirely unique. Certain panes are colored, others left clear creating a beautiful effect when the sun shines through. Shadows of pastel greens, vibrant blues, and pale yellows dust the entire outer halls. I would much more expect the Harpa to be a sun-catcher or wind chime than a symphony hall. However, the concert hall itself has a dark red lighting and is structured for perfect acoustics. The Harpa often hosts classical symphonies, but occasionally hosts concerts.

Bjork in Opening

Bjork, an Iceland native, has a performance and music style unlike any other. It can only be assumed that she chose to perform at the the Harpa because of her music’s frequent use of cellos, violins, and trumpets. However, she puts a modern twist on these instruments with synthesized music evocative of the Matrix. Her brand of house music is unparalleled. Her classic instruments and techno combination is very similar to the city itself; combining the new--if not futuristic--and the old in the most wonderfully confusing way possible.
She came out in elaborate costumes and wowed us with her echoing voice. Her brightly colored spiky headdress reminded me an more alien Lady Gaga. Her entire performance was like a modern art piece. The moment that we saw her ensemble of classical musicians, all toting various string instruments, scurry onto the stage, welcomed by ambient noises, we knew we were in for a wild ride. She came out in a structural white dress, and her costumes became more bizarre as the night progressed.
We all had a wonderful--and strange--time at the concert.

Bjork

The Perlan restaurant

Later that evening we went to Perlan, a fine dining restaurant in Reykjavik. The building, like the Harpa is primarily made of glass. It looks straight out of Tomorrow-land. The dining area is under a spider web like glass dome and gently rotates to provide the customer with a 360 degree view of Reykjavik. It was built on top of giant water tanks and stands nearly 84 feet tall. The ground floor is also known as the Winter Garden and concerts are sometimes held there. There are multiple shops within the Winter Garden. The gourmet shop sells Within the gourmet shop, sells high quality mushrooms, beef fillets, oysters, world jams, wildfowl, and smoked salmon. The souvenir shop sells viking helmets, Icelandic sweaters, and various other items. There is also a year round Christmas shop that sells Icelandic Christmas statues and ornaments. There were many statues of the Icelandic Julelads, who is a descendant of Saint Nickolas, or Santa. There were also figurines of the Huldufólk (Hidden Folk), a race of elves the Icelandic people believe in. Construction projects are often halted to stop from harming the rocks that the Hidden people are said to live in; children are told to never throw rocks at risk of hurting them. They were so cool that we each bought one.

The beautiful interior of the Perlan

It was incredible, seeing the warm Midnight Sun light stream in through the enormous sun roof. We could see the incredible mountains, the colorful town, the evergreen forest, the lavender field surrounding the building, the harbor, everything. It was incredibly beautiful. We had to force ourselves to look away from the beauty to eat our delicious four course meals.

We had three main courses of salmon, scallops, steak, and shellfish. Each course was better than the last, especially paired with the fine wines the sommelier recommended. Everything was going fine until Abby had to go and nearly die. Turns out there was shrimp in the third course. At first we all though Abby was just overcome by how beautiful the view of the mountains was because she had been practically hyperventilating over it for the past hour. But once she started swelling up and turning bright red, it became pretty obvious she was having an allergic reaction. It's regrettable to admit, although, that at first we had thought she was choking so Alissa performed the Heimlich maneuver on her. We put two and two together and realized what was actually the matter. Thankfully, my grandpa has always made me carry an Epipen because apparently I'm allergic to bees, which has been disproved multiple times. I grabbed it out of my bag and stabbed her in the thigh. To finish it off that near death experience we had a delicious coffee mousse dessert.