Árbæjarsafn Open Air Museum

A few weeks ago we visited Árbæjar Open Air Museum.

It put us in mind of both Colonial Williamsburg and Greenfield Village in Michigan. If you haven't been there, Greenfield Village is a part of The Henry Ford [museum]. Henry Ford went to different areas of the US, collected notable buildings like the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop and Thomas Edison's laboratory, and moved them to Greenfield Village so that people could visit them all together as a picture of American history. Well, Iceland's Árbæjar museum is a collection of Icelandic buildings that were moved to one location with the same sort of idea. You get a sense of Icelandic living standards changing over time by walking through the turf houses, ...

...timber houses, barns and churches of various eras.

It was a special event day, so many people were dressed in the traditional national costume, and there were performances of dance and music involving kids and adults. Everyone looked like they were having fun.

There were also displays about raising sheep and using their wool.

You could even visit with some sheep and feed them some grass.

Check out the horns on these guys. Two seem to be growing upward and outward from the temples, and another two come out of the area right next to the ears and curl downwards. How many horns does one need?

Berry-picking at Heiðmörk

We had great (sunny) weather on Sunday, and we decided to do something typically Icelandic -- pick wild blueberries. Late August to early September is the prime season for it.

Just on the outskirts of town is a public recreation area called Heiðmörk where people can pick as many berries as they want for free. We picked blueberries and red currants, but there are also crowberries and black currants. Here's one of our three containers of berries.

This little birdie, a meadow pipit, aka anthus pratensis, followed us around for a while. He was not at all shy and came up close to us, sticking by us as we picked berries, catching up to us as we moved along. Weird.

Reykjavík Street Art

There is lots of street art in Reykjavík. Some is evident in the form of murals.

There is also graffiti...

...and interesting social commentary.

Reykjavík City Library

The other day I walked over to the main branch of the Reykjavík City Library (Borgarbókasafn Reykjavíkur).

It's an attractive place with an exhibition space and cafe downstairs and most of the books, audio books, CDs, DVDs, and periodicals upstairs. I was especially impressed by the room of foreign language books.

There were lots, perhaps thousands, of English-language books, along with those in other languages.

Membership costs 1600 ISK ($13.26 at today's exchange rate) per year. Definitely worth it!

Velkomin til Íslands (Welcome to Iceland)

We're settling into our new post, Reykjavík, Iceland. Best thing so far: our view. Here is the sunset on Aug. 21, taken from our living room.

On the far right, you can catch a glimpse of the luxurious yacht, Octopus, owned by billionaire Paul Allen. It went away for a few days, but now it's back. Perhaps it took a trip over to the West fjords? Or Greenland? Another great thing: festivals galore! We skipped the Bacon Festival yesterday in favor of the Melodica Acoustic Festival. Saw some great performers, including Rob Maddison of Spaceships are Cool and Hjalti Þorkelsson of Múgsefjun. The Melodica Festival continues today. Maybe we'll get a chance to hear some more good live music.