The death of the red dragon; 5 km outside of Borgarnes..A toolmans professional oppinion was: "this car will never start again".

A few days ago the hotel recieved a beautiful wooden teabox. As a principle, I have so far maybe had 3 cups of tea my whole life. Drinking tea was just not my cup of tea. However, weak as I am, I ve completely fallen in love with this new fancy teabox..When open, appears a whole new world with new paths of life at your feet..
Completely worked out, tired and ready to get out of this hotel, my favorite time of the work has become to refill the wooden box. Now 4 days are left in the restaurant and i ve started my own one-woman-tea-marathon (i am so simple);

Russian Earl Grey ,Green Tea ORIENT ,Green Tea MINT (my favorite so far) ,Green Tea CITRUS,Yellow Label Tea ,African Rooibos ,Indian Spice ,Forest Fruits ,Blue Fruits ,Blackcurrant ,Orange Jaipur ,Lemon Tea ,Tropical Fruits ,Persian Earl Grey ,Camomille ,Earl Grey.. .usw

At this moment Im half a cup of my dislike Strawberry Tea.

Saint Germain Des Pres Cafe/Jamie Cullum - Devil May Care

(who on earth is responsible for this french keyboard!!! i cant find anything)

No excuse.. but i ve been working away the whole summer.. we are all on the verge of crying here so thankfully its only 8 days left..

There are some leftover photos HERE which say more than words, so I wont spend any for the moment.. but its a bit of a road, travelling, bicycling in Reykholt, parties.. and everyday life here.
I managed to fall into a river and lose one shoe.
Im finally writing postcards but i forgot all my addresses in Sweden so feel free to give me an address.

My good friend Seb is introducing me too all kinds of french music.. this is brilliant -
-M- - Qui De Nous Deux

All by myyyyyyself!! Don´t wanna be...all by myself!!!... this became the themesong of a GREAT trip in the south of Iceland. Singing along the highway with not a singel wheel in sight.

Day 1: CLOUDY: Rolling out of bed, Drífa and Marlous catching an early bus to volcano crater Kerið and taking a look at classic Gullfoss&Geysir. Beautiful as always. After desperate times trying to hitchhike back in direction of the ringroad..we got a lift including half an hour of near-death-experience. The lift we picked up was climbing into a HUGE HUMMER with a CRAZY driver..(poor guy had parkinson and was disabled..but that is no excuse for driving at 160km/h swinging from one edge of the road to the next licking the passing cars) When we finally got out of the car we had to take a moment to overlook our life and gather a new perspective on things - never been so happy to be alive. Walked in garbagebags through rainy-stormy-Selfoss and hitchhiked with a farmerwoman to Hella. Mosfell-Hotelmanager Gulli and housekeeping Katla were great enough to take us in. (Takk aftur!!:* ) Even though tenting has its charm we praised the lord for showers and cosy hotelbeds looking at the stormy weather outside.

Day 2: STORM&RAIN.

Armed with trashbags around ourselves we crawled to the side of the road with a hopeless feeling of getting a lift. 5 minutes later an army of 5 jeeps came to the rescue!!! My parents and their friends!!! This IS a small world.
Driving east in shitty weather with my parents was great!! In this ride we saw Skógarfoss, mountains and Jökulsárlón! So beautiful! We saw actual SEALS swimming around!!!
In the evening we barbiqued with the whole jeepteam at a farmers hostel by the roots of Vatnajökull.

Day 3: SUNNY SKY.

Since the weather turned the men decided to drive up on the glacier..we were more than happy to follow. Driving up the vertical road while the cars exchanged stupid comments in walkie-talkies was no picnic..but sitting in a car on the edge of a cliff was completely worth the spectacular view from the glacier!!! Rolling around in snow in the middle of July. We jumped out of the jeeparmy at village Höfn. On our own we got a short ride with fishing Father&Son and later on a man with long hair who had been living in Lund.

Stopping again in Jökulsárlón but now without the fog. Sitting on a rock spying on seals. After a long stay we catched a bus going to National park, Skaftafell, where we put up our little tent.

Day 4: SUNNY SKY/t-shirt:

Hiking in Skaftafell with beautiful view of the glacier and waterfalls. Packing up the stuff and hiking towards the ringroad...there we were once again. Spent a GOOD time on that road since the cars were of short supply at that hour. Out of the blue an old vehicle came rolling our way. An even older man, 85 years old with no teeth, jumped out. Such a cutie!!! We sat with him the better part of the day.. and he shared stories about his days. They were many. Such a cutie!!!!:)
Arrived in Selfoss quite late and very tired. Hitchhiked with a local on the way to the big city. Home again!
Photos of our trip

oh lord..off breakfast from hell w/Seb and Ewa.. I could only think of Pekka on a Sunday-Bloody-Sunday-on-a-Monday...with 5000 germans for breakfast and you have nothing left to offer than strawberry tea, herring, súrmjólk and some crackers. If the chef wasn´t on vacation he would be in serious physical danger from the breakfaststaff. I managed to pour half a liter of appel juice all over Drífa. I didn´t, but the audience enjoyed the show;)

yes and the piece of vehicle that we had...broke down with minor explosions..so now we are REALLY stuck here.

Memo to myself: don´t drink coffee with a tea-bag in it.

Húrra, Marlous is coming in 4 days and we´ll get 1 day of civilazation in Rvk. Can´t wait!
Now big coffee, Ella Fitzgerald&Louis Armstrong.
For everyone out there I´m going to recommend this swedish artist, Laleh, and her video, beautiful:

Laleh - Invisible

Two days of holiday!!
The plan is to go further mountain hiking.. if raining; read.
Yesterday the staff played football (kind of).. without the presence of teams or goals.. the game got therefore completely pointless but it´s not every day you see three polish girls running around like headless chickens (with beer in their hands).. chased by three french guys and Xabina.

Orishas - Represent, Cuba

National day and went to Reykjavík w/Seb picking up the Finn and the French. Couples in love are discusting and Johanna and Benji are getting out of hands.. Matching rugsacks and doing eachothers laundry is crossing the lines by far. However it is so nice to see them:) Many beers and some Pastis later it was morning and getting thrown out of a bar like The Dubliner is something you only do once.. being female in there is like being a celebrity!! Very much unwanted freakattention..For some reason we all decided to be finnish (repeating the word “munakoispaistos”) but that only gave us more attention and Lordi-remarks. And free drinks from creepy Germans!! Thanks to relation with Saga at Hotel Suðurgata we could get sober again in free hotelrooms. Thank you sweetheart:*

All luck in the world to Marlous who is doing the jury tomorrow!;)

Playlist for the summer:
Gnarls Barkley - Smiley Faces/Crazy
Roisin Murphy – Night of the Dancing Flames/ Ramalama (Bang-Bang)

Emilíana Torrini – Unemployed in Summertime

After a few supernice days in Reykjavík meeting family and most of the girls I find myself stuck “in the asshole of the world, not even by the ringroad” (Johanna Salo) Reykholt. To sum up: here is nothing. And a church.
The hotel is amazing! Every corner of the hotel is themed with Nordic Mythology.. Þór, Óðinn, Freyja, Freyr, Ægir, Baldur, Loki, Yggdrasill, Mímir, Urðarbrunnur, Hávamál etc and they even have a Lord of the Ring-lounge!!! It isn´t as bad as it sounds.
On top of this stuff we have a wellness center with all kinds of crap like Aroma therapy!, relaxing room, daybright therapy and an awsome massagechair!! Love it.

As for work in the restaurant it is great..Im working with Xabi (esp.) and Seb (fra) whom I already knew. The kitchensituation is totally towards the forrest!(di.transl.) First of all we don´t have a chef..small detail.. and second of all we have this person in kitchenhelp (from Hungary) who is so strange that no words can discribe...he is unbelievble.
Saga and Sandra, if you thought that 2003´s frozen&stuffed-in-the-microwave-breadCATASTROPH was stressy...you have no idea, back then we at least HAD bread! This person in the kitchen here makes the worst shit bread in history...on the outside it is so rockhard that you could seriously kill a man with it (preferably the one who made the bread) and on the inside it is always dough. And it tastes like shit too.
So while not having a chef it is all about survival in the kitchen...this lunchrush you could be flipping a fishpan and cutting vegatables while serving beer at the bar and answering questions about mythology.

Lifehouse - Everything

Everyone, I am now an owner of a bicycle! A very old rusty female citybike...it is purple and white, very classy I know..but it works so it serves its purpose. I think i´m going to spray it with some graffiti spray although I might me mistaken for a bicyclecrook. I bought it in a dark alley (at 11 o´clock in the evening) from a chineese exchangestudent...she looked quite suspicious. Hmm...but I though it would be wise to buy a bike 5 days before I leave to Iceland.
Enough about the bike, I´m going home tomorrow!!!:) Finnished the last schoolproject yesterday and now enjoying the summer.
So looking forward to see everyone at home and I already have a Kaffi Vín date with Brynja.

Gyllene Tider - Sommartider

Caliente!

I´m having a serious 90s nostalgia with old classics... so good!(well..) Memories memories. Like Sandstorm etc
It all started yesterday night in Karins (who worked w/me in the bar) penthouse in Malmö. Pre-party before going to Wallmans´Schlagerbar (don´t ask!). Very interesting evening...after we got thrown out of the Schlagerbar listening to all kinds of schlager and worse karaoke ..we proceded to the sadest afterbar I´ve experienced...The name of this place is Heartbreak (or “H.B.” as the hardcore malmöpeople call it, which I think says it all..) it was so desperate that we didn´t even go in.
So at last a very nice evening.

On repeat today: Dr. Alban – No coke (I recomend listening)

'Cause when I come
I come rough
Inna reaggae raggamuffin business
Kom!

There he way arrested, and tested
And the drugs he had on him
He confested
Mi callin' on the youth in his country
Whole heap of boys
Whole heap of girls
Drug abuse is a dangerous thing
Stay out of drugs and stop
The violence
Inna dis hard time you have
Abuse drug
Listen what 'ya say and hear
My point of view
To much drugs you can
Go mental
Da say Dr. Alban tellin' everybody
We no want no coke, no heroin
No hasch-hasch, no amfetamin

Chorus
Cocain will blow your brain
And ecstasy
Will mash your life!
Cocain will blow your brain
And ecstasy
Will mash your life!

Drug pushing is a serious thing.....

Back again!
To say the least it was too short.. Really nice time in Belgium but it feels like I never left. Now it´s all school again and some extra boring projects these days..maybe boring because it is summer now and you shouldn´t be studying then. . But mom told me that it is winter again back home! Snow and all.

On thursday we met Meintje and Tessa in the Grote Markt to join them for Popi´s widescreen Eurovisionparty. The house was packed w/mad eurofans and probably the only icelandic girl living in Antwerp, Alda, joined our table.....as well as a very strange scary sleazy dutch man (in a sweden t-shirt) who had all kinds of useless information about the competition.

What a disappointment! I don´t understand how some of those songs got to the final.. "we are the winners!!"?? what!
But well.. and but WAUW! HYVÄÄ SUOMI!!!:) so many congratulations to Finland! I got a message from someone in Finland in my icel.phone... Pekka? Suvi? Johanna? Pihla? anyway..now i´m thinking...next year will they hold the contest in Hartwall Areena?? I think so..and if so.. Eurovision will basicly be held in OUR OLD BACKYARD, Pasila! Shit, I want to go!!
but on saturday me and Marlous went to Brussel!! In shit weather (i´m used to all bad luck when it comes to us) we wondered around the international city! cathedral, center, square, free ice cream and jazz marathon.
My dutch is becoming better and I can understand most so poor Marlous can´t talk behind my back any longer;)
Ik heb nooit van wafels gehouden, maar we kunnen de wafels wel bestellen voor de kinderen. Ik heb geen kinderen.

I wasn´t disappointed with The Da Vinci Code...maybe because it is long ago that I read the book. If it will be Reykholt hotel this summer it will be lots of reading..I have to find some books.

Alcazar – Alcastar ( “We´re the VIP everything´s for free!”)

Anouk - One Word (Transavia´s landingsong)

Thursday evening is of course well planed with everyone and holier than most evenings…cause then we are going to win pre-Eurovision! As always:)
Last weekend at Playground I could pinpoint 5 icelandic exchangestudents right over the bar..(They were the only ones that came half an hour before closing) and they invited me to a huge Eurovision fiesta they had been planning for weeks... aren´t we cute or is it just annoying.

Sad to turn them down but yet very happy to be spending thursday in waffel, chocolad and beer Belgium w/my Marlous and a bunch of Belgians:) Leaving in less than 2 days!!
Train to Helsingborg – boat to Helsingör (I am in love w/this boat) – train to Kastrup – flight to Schiphol Amsterdam (I have never seen such a big airport in my life!) – train to Antwerpen! (Such a nice city!)

Again as for eurovison I´ll be cheering for Silvía Nótt although voting for both belgian Kate Ryan and swedish Carola to be in top places! Hmm..as well as maybe beautiful Finland I hear but it will be exciting to hear all the countries
Enjoy the evening everyone and congratulations all icelanders with finnishing exams!

Gleðilegt sumar!! (Happy summer!)

Silvía Nótt - Til hamingju Ísland

....I´m about to lose control and I think I like it!
aaahhh going mad being inside writing stupid paper in this weather


Yes, I have the soundtrack to the Disneymovie Tarzan. Back in the day seeing the movie with my sister Ásrún I cryed my eyes out!! Now I can´t even listen to the soundtrack….song nr 10, i think, starts all happy jungle but then you can instrumentally hear the bad creature sneaking around in the trees, the drums go faster and faster, the violins go mad, and soon enough the chase between life and death starts and I know whats going to happen in the movie so ultimately I mute the whole thing. This way nobody gets hurt. Instrumentally.

Sean Paul - Temprature

Photos from Valborg

Party on Garth, party on Wayne!

Laughing babies!! :)


and now back to study..

So HOT here! wauw, around 20 something degrees for 10 hours a day almost(and I mean bikini&speedo weather)..Been laying out in the sun among my fellow people from Ulrikedal.. which is a CLUSTER (and i love this word since I read Populärmusik från Svedala, you can use it in any sentence) of studenthouses. Woke up 7 in the morning to make fruitsalad and bagels for Sunday-Brunch at the "nation"

Someone in the dishwash must have been totally heartbroken cause this:

Kelly Clarkson - Because of you

was on instant repeat in the kitchen for some time. Poor little thing

..but on the topic of love, I heard at a birthdayparty of my oldest friend, Ulrika, that Carola, Swedens Eurovisionqueen, got married... and to the happiness of the public her wedding is availible on video! It is suppose to be the laugh of the year when saying vous (don´t know how to write this) Carola slowly reaches into her purse and to everyones surprise grabs a microphone and starts singing to her man.."I love you so much and I´ll always be yours and so forth..."
But I don´t sell it more expensive than I bought it... (direct translation)

Now time has to FLY...;)

These days we are pbl-reporting about microbiology and food safety so i´ll be poring myself into nasty bacteria the next 2 weeks..

A popular question today was “So did you survive Valborg?”.. I can say that I am studying how to celebrate the perfect Valborg..and I have a few solid memos to myself of things not wise to repeat next year…

We started the day (at 8 in the morning) by setting up a “tent” (sort of) by the fountain in the city park. Some of the guys decided to bring a whole set of living room furniture into this one tent. Fair enough. We packed ourselves, 10 p, cozy in our shelter with swedish herring/meatball breakfast and the morning was beautiful..soon loads of students were stuffed into the park carrying even more bottelshaped liquid. You couldn´t see grass anymore, people everywhere, and songs like “ice ice baby” were shouting from the speakers. I ran into some old childhoodfriends from Hjärup. Back at the tent we had 8 big bottles with 8 types of shots..and someone had really used his/her imagination making these shots..2 bottles looked like pink and greenish shampoo and another looked like blue floating throat tablets (and tasted like it too). Whenever something ended up in the fountain there was a “tenttoast” and this was every 5 minutes…needless to say and without going into details my last april was “cut short” at 14 o´clock and before I knew it it was already 1st of may….looking forward to next year.

Nostalgia of the day: we ended up burning the baguette totally so we spent the next minutes competing of who could throw pieces of the burnt bread furthest out our 4th floor balcony. (04-12-12)

I´m going to promote an artist from these parts – Timbuktu! He is brilliant! I didn´t think that anyone could make it in life w/ a Skåne-accent but this man is a god!

Timbuktu - Alla vill till himmelen men ingen vill dö
Timbuktu – Stirra ner

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We like sun and we like cheap...(we are not very picky)

Buena Vista Social Club - Chan Chan

aaahh..been writing all day on this stupid report, deadline tomorrow. During my research I discovered a research done by someone else.."Why do companies lose customers?".. well, the first factor is that 1% of the customers die and 3% move to another location. I´m so tired.

This weekend it´s King of Swedens birthday! Happy birthday sweetheart! He is having a huge party in his palace. I always had a bit of crush on him, who didn´t!?!
On sunday it´s "Valborg" (the day before 1 may) and then it´s tradition here that all students go to the Stadspark (the city park) and I´m not sure..hang around there, listen to concerts, and festivalactivities. I´m meeting the rest of the barpeople from last weekend to have herring-champagne-breakfast and play baseball in the park at 8 am..I hope they won´t bring herring though.
now on with the studying..

Lauryn Hill - Just like water

I´ve notised a very alarming pattern here in Sweden. Especially here in Lund. Everywhere you go..... you recieve condoms. They (and who are they???) are giving them out in school, in the shops, videostores, in the streets, in the trainstation and yesterday I recieved three condoms as a tip. Hmm...

Yesterday was another evening of bartending at Lund Nations nightclub “Playground”. I love working there cause even though we don´t get anything payed we get lots of free alcohol, free food and free thankyouparties..which is highly appreciatied by the poor student. Plus, it is really fun working with great people, listening to music and serve funny drunk people...and you start to wonder do I act like this when I´m drunk?
Me and Anders got yet another tip for our Black Eyed Peas Pump It´danceperformance behind the bar..we got 70 cents and we took that personally.
At the end of the evening when the 500 person crowd was being thrown out there were people making out in every corner of the club...lights are on, music is off and the place is almost getting empty and these people just keep on making out...at moments like these it is good that there are condoms availiable everywhere you go.

Massive Attack – Better things

Weekend already! and from now on hopefully only in english... for the little foreigners in their little countries...So Good evening Europe! Bonsoir l'Europe !! (I think I have to see someone about this Eurovision fever)

Today I attended a series of lectures about the hospitality industry and I am almost disturbingly inspired again... I find myself totally in love with one of my teachers (and the name), Svingstedt! She has the most funny and inspiring lectures about ass-kicking businesspeople and how to handle complaints from guests.

I can´t wait for summer!, sun, Iceland, old friends, family, school reunion w/people i haven´t seen for ages, nature, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, icelandic countryside parties and the whole deal....

Til hamingju með afmælið mamma!!!! Mom´s turning 50 years today! 50 is the new 30;)

Well it is sunny here in Lund so I´m jumping outside
p.s. thank you for all lovely easteremails

og..Íslendingum er velkomið að kommenta á íslensku ef vilja
Queco - Tengo

GLEÐILEGA PÁSKA!!!!!