Two (long) days of history

I've been here for 6 days but it already feels like 6 weeks. Much to absorb in a short period of time and I'm reminded how babies spend a higher percentage of their sleep in R.E.M. in order to process all the new things they see each day. I'm not sure if this applies but last night I had a dream about spending New Year's eve searching for a bar where Pete Tong was playing and a group of us were searching for it . It was either in Prince George or Las Vegas.  I thought I'd been dreaming about volcanoes but I suppose that will happen next week. ( I've been recording my dreams each day since I've been here as part of another art project and therefore: not completely unrelated and bizarre as it may seem to have in this blog!)

An-y-ways.. I rented a car and have been driving about the last two days. Yesterday was dedicated to searching out  the region where my Lang Amma's family came from. The majority of the places are located on the coast of the Havalfjordur, a large inlet about 45 minutes north of Reykjavik. I started by stopping at Pufukot (P=Th sound). A lot of the farms have the same names they've had for centuries so it's actually not too tricky to find them- they are on the map. Pufukot actually had a signpost. I wish I had some pictures to post because the landscape is AMAZING. Alas- I shoot film :) Basically, there are old  volcanos everywhere and the farms are located at the bottoms of the valleys. Everything is reflected in the blue water of the inlet and it is all very transcendent and gorgeous etc, etc. I travelled on to Leira where there was a  church. I think it was my great, great, great grandfather who was a pastor there (don't know if it was the same church though). I stopped at a gas station for fish and chips (had a diner-esque feel) and was offered complimentary coffee. "Kaffi" is quite the thing here- everyone drinks it at every hour seemingly. When I was a Sigga and Bjorn's the other day we had a cup at 10 pm. I regretted this later and I stared at the ceiling in my apartment trying to sleep. I haven't built up the Icelanders resistance to caffeine yet.

 

From Leira, I continued north towards the former location of Litlaskard where my Lang Amma's parents lived before coming to Canada. It was at this point in the day that I began to get completely overwhelmed with everything I was seeing. I came to Iceland wanting to look for similarities in the landscape, and at times I find them, but there is a HUGE amount of territory that is completely foreign and strange. There are also hardly any trees and it is extremely difficult to get a sense of how big the mountains are and how little and insignificant you are (though I found I still felt this way most of the day- insignificant that is). I was also amazed that anyone could 'farm' here at all. Along the way to Litlaskard I passed a gigantic coke can in the middle of a field so I stopped to take a picture of that. Basically, I trended towards photographing things that could be some sort of reference point to the landscape, or things which interrupted the landscape in an interesting way. It is very hard not to be seduced by magnitude of everything you are seeing and fall into the postcard picture 'trap'. I've also stopped to take pictures of the ground or close-ups of vegetation in order to gain a more intimate knowledge of the landscape; a seemingly impossible task. 

Up the number 1 highway past Borganes, I started to become mesmerized by an asymetrical snow covered volcano which had a few Utah-esque black cliffs in front of it. (I suppose the one landscape that compares to this is Utah.. + Manitoba farms+ the Maritimes- bizarre mix!) I was trying to keep my eyes peeled for a sign that said Litlaskard because it was mentioned in brackets on the map and I had seen signs for every other place so far. In my mesmerization with the white cone in the distance I inadvertently passed the Litlaskard area and found myself in the middle of an old lava field which I stopped to take pictures of. It was only after I passed Bifrost (about 15km north of Litlaskard) that I realized I had gone too far down the road. I'm used to everything being really spread out in Canada and forget that everything is closer here. I decided to photograph the volcano ( which I think is called Baula) and returned back down the road. There was no sign but there was hiking trail for Litlaskardsfjell which I figured was pretty close. The white volcano was in view the entire time. 

I'm beginning to get an understanding of how much the landscape plays a part in the consciousness of the people here. When I think of how my ancestors probably saw that white volcano everyday as they worked on the land it blew my mind. Maybe this is why I love the mountains so much (but also why I like being an the gateway to them, close to the prairies): it's in my blood! As much as I wanted to keep taking pictures of the volcano I also tried taking some pictures of the dirt here. We'll see if this works conceptually in the end I guess!

The volcano- it's everywhere in the visual art gauging from what I saw at the art gallery..

I was going to try to write about the places I visited today but I think I will save that for tomorrow- more digestion time needed! All I can say is I think I understand a little bit of why people who live in the North love it so much. It's unlike anything I have seen before!