UNA Magazine January 2015

UNA

MAGAZINE Volunteer Guide Edition January 2015

INDEX 1.Life in Reykjavik and South Excursion 2.Geology of Iceland 3.Interviews with : Ellen Loree & Minttu Sébastien Magnus Arturo Orri 1.“Peace House” 2.Icelandic Music 3.“Recycling House” 4.Pictures

1. Life in Reykjavik and South Excursion

Iceland is really popular for travelers but in winter, it is not. Most of tourist guides and travel sites say that the best time to visit Iceland is summer but we think that they have never been here during winter. People are always afraid of the strong wind, the permanent precipitations and the short daylight hours but we share our experience to allay their fears.

In fact, summer and winter are really different but you can find benefit in both cases. cases.

Everybody who came to Reykjavik in winter expected that the weather would be so bad that they couldn’t walk around the city. If you find the courage to go out, you can admire the beautiful landscapes that are available to you.

Daylight hours in winter Iceland are really short, but every time the sun comes up, the sky is filled with different colors that change everything around. If you want to discover other regions, be ready to encounter problems with the weather. You just need to rent a SUV or buy a ticket to go by bus. Icelandic drivers know the roads and the weather, so you will not take any risks even if the roads are icy.

For example, we went on tour for the weekend to observe the waterfalls, the black beach and glacier lagoon. The journey was long and we encountered difficult weather conditions such as wind storm, snow and of course frozen roads but that did not stop us to reach all destinations and see the famous Icelandic landscapes with our own eyes. By the way; these landscapes in winter are really different from summer season and sometimes it is really more expressive.

During our excursion we met a man who worked for a TV channel and made a special trip to Iceland in winter to shoot the Aurora.

We were the first who saw his pictures.

As you can see, you can enjoy Iceland every season, and each of them will show you another unique Iceland. So don’t be afraid to visit Iceland even in winter because this country offers amazing landscapes that you will never forget ‌

2. Geology of Iceland

Iceland, what is this country? Distant and unknown, located on the edge of the world. A country, where there is no warm sea, but where people can luxuriate in hot waters. This is a country where the geographical border between the two continents of Eurasia and America lies. This country has a special beauty. Having been here once, many consider themselves lucky.

Iceland is a small country, here only mountains, geysers and waterfalls are big So what is attractive about this harsh climate country? Geologically, Iceland is a unique country. 200 million years ago, all the continents formed a single supercontinent called "Pangaea", then it split into several parts, which began to break apart. Iceland was right in the middle.

Iceland is the westernmost country of Europe and geologically the youngest. The most ancient formations here are only 60 million years old. Iceland is the island of geysers and volcanoes, located among the glaciers. Iceland area is 103 000 km2 and is the most extensive aerial coverage of the mid-ocean ridge. In these structures take place the formation of new oceanic crust and the process of spreading. Spreading - geodynamic processes stretching, expressed in impulsive and repeated apart of lithospheric blocks of oceanic crust and filling liberated space magma.

Most of the highland is covered by glaciers, which occupy a little more than 13% of the total area of Iceland.

It continues to evolve and new areas are formed at the present time as well as parts of Europe were formed hundreds of millions of years ago.

Even today you can see how the earth is born and hardens as it collapses and disappears under water.

Iceland itself is an extremely valuable teaching aid in the study of geological processes.

Layers of lava at the age of less than ten thousand years cover about 10% of the country, and although volcanic activity weakened during the past 12,000 years have been the eruption of more than 150 volcanoes. The island was discovered in the 9th century, and since then almost 30 volcanoes have shown that they are active. On average, volcanic eruptions occur every five years.

When in 1947 Hekla eruption - the most famous volcano in Iceland, which was dormient for more than a hundred years a cloud of ash and steam 20 minutes rose to an altitude of 30 kilometers. In 1963 the Atlantic Ocean began to "boil" off the southern coast of Iceland, and climbed out of the water column of black smoke.

At the bottom of the sea eruption occurred: during the day from the sea began to climb the island as well as it did millions of years ago. The island continued to grow, fueled by an endless stream of lava flowing every day from the crater.

When the molten lava in contact with water, raised huge clouds of steam. After two weeks, the length of the island was already about 800 meters and a height of over 90 meters. Above the water, the island took the form of lava crater. The water in this huge pot boiling, and continuously out hot ash.

Even when land volcanoes of Iceland begin to act, they cause the movement of water. Volcano Vatnayёkudl 2119 meters altitude is both powerful glacier, the largest in the world outside of Greenland, the Arctic and Antarctic regions. It covers an area of 8400 square kilometers, the ice thickness is about 1070 meters. This volcano has a large number of craters.

When an eruption of the ice melts and the water rushes down into the low-lying plains of the island, at times with such force that carries all fall on its way to the sea.

The geology of Iceland is absolutely not similar to the geology of the surrounding continents, for example here you can meet Black sand deserts, vast lava fields, glaciers, volcanoes, a single tree for miles.

Black Beach - a mysterious place. In the southern part of Iceland, near Cape Dirholaey, near the village of Vik is most unusual beach that I could see.

Harsh, cold sea on a background of the dark shore looks like something unfriendly.

If we talk about why black beach, it should be pointed out that this is the result of volcanic operating for quite some time. It is known that the eruption of lava poured out of its crater, glowing molten rock in liquid form.

Reaching the waters of the ocean, the lava cooled slowly and remained on the edge of the coast as a homogeneous species.

Ocean, and gradually for more than one century (if not millennia) pitched a solid hardened lava billions of small particles and thus created one of the most beautiful and fantastic beaches on the planet.

In addition to the incredible color of the sand, the beach fantastic landscape complement the huge boulders and basalt columns. The form of the unique formations very different. As the local legend, this evil trolls petrified by the appearance of the sun, pausing during one of the attacks on the Earth.

Basalt columns in black emerged from the effects of seawater on the coastal cliffs. Reynisdrangar - this name are massive black education.

With volcanic activity closely related hot springs scattered throughout the country. In these areas the circulating water is overheated above the boiling temperature at a relatively shallow cracks and rises to the surface as geysers and steam jets.

From gushing springs most famous Grand Geyser, whose name has become a byword for all such entities. Thermal springs the widely used 85% of the population lives in houses heated by their waters. In addition, the warm water is supplied to numerous greenhouses and swimming pools.

Geothermal waters with temperatures ranging from 20 to 40 째 C and has healing properties are used for medicinal purposes. A lot of resorts are located near the geothermal hot springs.

Iceland is a wonderful region with geysers, bizarre volcanic landscape with numerous tiny lakes, rivers and waterfalls. I advise everyone to visit here and see it with your own eyes!

3. Interviews.

Worldwide Friends isn't just about the volunteers. There are many people in and around the White House to make sure, that our volunteer experience will be a good one. We interviewed a few of them, like MagnĂşs the amazing driver, who can drive the Icelandic streets like a pro, Arturo the cheerful cleaning man who gives every volunteer a bracelet and a good mood, Minttu and Lore who are there for the questions of future volunteers and a few other amazing people, who are working for WF-and for all of us.

Ellen She is 25 years old, she comes from Netherlands and she was hostel manager, camp leader and officer during 4 months.

She spent a lot of time in the white house where there is the office.

She was the craziest girl of the house but thanks to her the atmosphere was funny all the time.

1. Why did you decide to go to Iceland?

Why... I wanted to go to Iceland, since I was 18. I saw this... like a concert registration of Sigur R贸s, it was showing all around Iceland. I think it was called "Heima". I really wanted to go and then, after I got my bachelor degrees, I thought "okay, now is the right time". That was two years ago and when I was there, only for two weeks and now I thought "okay, I have to go back and stay longer". I think the main reason to come to Iceland was the concert registration from Sigur R贸s. It was amazing, like all that landscapes and like... "yes, I really want to go there".

2. How long have you been here?

I've... like now I've been here for four months, but two years ago it was only for two weeks. But four months this time, yeah.

3. What did you do when you were in Netherlands?

Back home I just finished my studies, I graduated, I got my masters degrees. After seven years of studying, I wanted a change.

4. What are your previous volunteer experiences?

They were really good. My previous volunteering experiences were really good, otherwise, I wouldn't be here. I did "Film Festival", the Reykjavik International Film Festival. It was an amazing group, and it was a really fun workcamp. We worked, but still had time to do less serious stuff. And than I came back here and I did the same workcamp again because I liked it that much, but I also stayed for airwaves and a Christmas workcamp.

5. What kind of difficulties did you had to deal with during your trip?

Well, when I was just a regular volunteer, it was actually all fine, like no problems at all, like sometimes you have a bit of a language issue, but its not a problem, its not a difficulty. When I became the hostel manager, it was sometimes a bit stressful when a lot of people arrived, but it was never a problem or it was never a difficulty or it was never like... too much, like too many people to handle or something, because it could be like really crazy, than it could be really quiet, like it was never a straight line.

5.1 not really stable?

No, not really stable. No, like I could never prepare, sometimes something happened last minute and you had to switch back into this mood. It was never a problem that made my mood really down or something.

6. What are you doing after this camp?

I will stay in the Netherlands for just two weeks to visit my friends and my family and after that, I will go to Romania and I have no idea, how long I'm going to stay there, or what's going to happen. It's still empty.

7. Can you describe your working activities here?

As a hostel manager right now I work in the hostel, obviously, and I do the bookings. I answer e-mails, people book a night in the hostel, I will manage that. I do the shopping during the work camp, but also when there's no work camp just regular stuff for the hostel itself. I kind of clean up the place every now and then, do laundry, change the sheets and I'm the first person that most of the people meet when they come here. So be responsible and a warm welcome. Stuff like that. And that's like my main tasks here, as a hostel manager.

8. Why did you decide to become vegan?

I am vegan, because... (*laughs*) (such a strange question all of sudden. *everyone is joking around, than back to serious*) I was a vegetarian for ten years and I just decided to go a bit further, see how it would work out, if I can do it. I read more information about it, like how even being a vegetarian doesn't make such a difference for the animals. Like the whole dairy thing, it's still pretty shit how they treat the animals. And so I just thought "Okay, I just give it a go" and now, a year later, I'm still a vegan. It just amazed me, how I'm still able to survive on just a plant based diet. Like how many possibilities there are, and it changed the whole way of eating and also like looking at stuff and also checking the ingredients, you know, and I don't know, I just find it interesting how it's possible to eat, to eat even without the animal stuff.

9. What do you miss the most about your home?

Hm...well, returning on the vegan question, I think the accessibility is easier to vegan food, because here, most people eat fish and meat, but I was actually surprised, that they still had some stuff here. And understanding the language, also the vegan thing, when I want to check ingredients, it's impossible. And the rest, I don't know, sometimes I like it, but sometimes I do miss trains, like just the possibility of going somewhere easier, than just by your car or by a bus, but I also like the fact that this country doesn't have any trains. I think that's all. I like this country a lot, I like this city a lot.

11. Why do you think volunteering is a good idea?

To meet new people, to meet all these different kinds of people, all this different cultures, also doing something not necessary, not for money at all, just for yourself. Just for your own growing, for your own changing, but also to help other people, cause this organization offers different kinds of workcamps. Either with people to help people, or to help the environment, or a bit more helping yourself like changing into a different person. And I think, a lot of people actually recognize that, because by meeting all this different cultures, you reflect on your own way of thinking. You reflect on your own culture, think “mmm, this is totally different, maybe it's a little bit better for me, if I tweak a little bit at things. That was the thing for me, just to get a broarder view on the world, for example, we had this new years work camp and it was new years eve and it was like four o'clock here, but it was new years somewhere else and everybody was skyping their family like "Happy new year!" and it was so small, the world, like all in the same room, but also in the same time, so big. And than, after work we gonna visit each other, we're going to new place and then realize, it's a small world, but at the same time it's so fucking big to meet all these people again. But it's an amazing experience just for that alone, like meeting all those people and making new friends.

12. Did you have any fears about your job, about volunteering? And what can you say to people who want to do it?

When I came here, I didn't really have any fears about volunteering. I just... I really didn't have any plans, I came here really empty without any plans and that was what actually was the thing, that scared me the most, because I had no plan what I was going to do, but I can imagine people having like for example the language thing. That's the most common fear. I would say: don't worry about it, cause there are so many people that don't really... are not good or have difficulty with speaking, but I would just say: put those fears aside, don't be afraid to make mistakes, but also at the same time I would say, you are here to learn a new language. Meeting new people could also be a fear for some people, but the fact that you're already here, all by yourself, is already a thing that shows, this fear is already getting little and little and little. A new country could also be a fear, but it's an amazing place, people are really friendly. So don't be afraid. I think those are the most common fears that I hear the most, when they come here.

But all of them... they were just gone pretty soon, so it worked out all fine for them.

13. Are you happy to come back home?

I am happy to go back home, yes, I am. And at the same time I will be very sad, like because of all these things that happened here and that all kind of stay here all like between this walls.

They all like disappeared, only the memories stay. And I met so many people and I won't meet a couple of them, but at the same time I'm happy to go back home, to see my friends, see my family, to get some sort of a reality check, because during this walls you're just in the Worldwide friends-zone and outside is a whole different world, so I think it's good to be back on the mainland and figure some stuff out, but I will definitely come back, probably in summer, not in winter. (*laughing*)

Lore & Minttu They started to work in the office together last week. Every day they have to answer mails and to organize the camps with the director of Worldwide Friends ( Toti ) and the responsible for art and cultural projects ( Antonio) but the weekend is free.

Lore is from Spain and Minttu is from Finland.

They are going to talk about their life in the white house.

1. Why did you decide to go to Iceland? And how did you start in the camp here?

M: Well, it was a great opportunity for me, I was looking for to get away from university, so I just found this great place on the internet, so right now I'm here, doing my internship for five months and that's how I started two weeks ago.

L: I came here to Iceland in Nov until May maybe, the reason was to improve my English.

2. What did you do in your country?

M: Well, I was a university student, doing my final year.

L: I was studying a final degree in labour relationships and human resources

3. What is your job in the office?

M: Placement officer, it's the same title for both of us.

L: Yes, we send some mails, ask about some questions, about the volunteers.

4. What did you already do for WF? M: well, we were in Hveragerรฐi just having this training, how this organization works, and right now, we're doing our job for a few days now, just answering e-mails and any questions that new volunteers have and sending confirmation letters and a lot of paper work.

6. What kinds of difficulties can you meet in your job?

M: Right now, 'cause it's the beginning of our job here we still have a lot of questions about anything, like we're running out of ink, where can we find more ink, it's the simple things, but there are not that difficult, usually we just get the answer from Toti, our boss, and it's settled.

7. What do you like about your job?

M: Right now, I like the flexibilities, back in my own country you have to be very punctual, you have these strict timetables, but here I have learned that this is much more relaxed environment, you don't have to be so serious on the clock and about the time. So I like the flexibility and all the relaxes in this place.

L: Yes, pretty much the same.

8. What were your fears about your job and volunteering or your internship here in Iceland?

M: Fears? Well I remember we did this exercise in Hveragerรฐi where you have to list your expectations, your fears and contributions. I remember I wrote down my fear was I'm going to be lonely and I'm going to be isolated and get depressed but I've not been lonely at all, I have a lot of friends here. That was my fear about this job, like being isolated and just doing work with the computer, but it's the opposite and I'm always with the people and I'm very happy.

L: Yes, the language, 'cause I can write, but it's very difficult for me, yes.

8.1. And what would you recommend to people, who are afraid of something like this?

M: Just go for it. Like don't think too much about it. Like the more you think about your fears and all the things that you're afraid of, just don't focus on them, just focus on the things that can happen to you, the happy and positive things, so don't get too focused on the fears you might have.

L: I always say "Can you speak more slowly please?" and the people are okay with it, it's no problem, I can understand.

9. What is the biggest difference like between your country and Iceland?

M: The wind and the mountains, like in Finland we have all flat and not any mountains, so for me whenever I just go outside or see the mountains I'm like "Oh, so nice!" and well the weather is almost the same as in Finland, but the wind is crazy. But you just have to prepare yourself with waterproof and windproof clothing.

L: For example, the weather. Because in Spain there are more hours light, here is always dark. For example I think Iceland is more expensive than Spain.

10. Why do you think volunteering is a good idea? If you think so.

M: Well in overall I think people should travel more, because even myself I have very close friends who I still consider quiet closed minded and if they just would travel and do volunteer working, working with people from different backgrounds, I think they would be a little bit more open minded and not stick with the stereotypes of foreigners, so I think it's just the best way to know the locals and a country when you do volunteer work. If you're just backpacking you might get stuck to your hostel and don't really get to know the locals that much, but yeah, it's something, that you should do and I'm glad that you're all doing it.

SĂŠbastien He is 22 years old and new camp leader in Hveragerdi, one of the most popular work camp in Iceland.

He comes from France, so we talked to him about his first volunteer experience, some difficulties in his work and relationships in his camp.

1. Tell us about your previous volunteer experience and why did you decide to be campleader?

This is my first experience as a volunteer and would be a leader too. I choose this project in France. I wanted to make a volunteer experience to discover something new and meet new people.

2. Can you describe a typical day?

We wake up in the morning at 8am, we take our breakfast together, after that we go to the workcamp and then we have lunch. In the afternoon, we start to work at 1pm and we finish at 3pm and after we usually have meeting with Antonio. Then we have dinner together at 6pm and after we have free time to make some activities with the group.

3. What kind of difficulties can you meet?

We don’t have any problems with people or with our work because all the people are very kind and there is a good atmosphere.

About the work, sometimes there is a lack of organization but we are here to work and we want to help so it is ok.

We also work inside the green house so our work doesn’t depends of the weather.

4. You told that there is a good atmosphere in your group, how you made it?

I thing that it is because we are all together and we have to make the same things so we put all our energy in this workcamp and I thing it became natural.

During the first day, we had a lot of games to know more about each other and become a real team. So we spoke about our countries and shared our cultures like our music, our eating habits,…

5. Why do you thing that your workcamp is one of the most popular in Iceland?

It is a great place to live, we have good accommodations and we work with the nature so maybe it is the best reason for some people who want to be a volunteer in Iceland. And there are a lot of young people here so maybe it is a good opportunity to meet some new people.

6. What did you already learn during this camp?

A lot of things, for example we can learn about people and we can discover some similar qualities. We can also learn about our self.

7. What kind of qualities do we need to be a good campleader?

We have to be organized, aware with others people and to have some skills about work, to understand what another person has to do and to try to reach our goal with a lot of motivation.

Magnus He is 65 years old and lives in Iceland.

Magnus is really irreplaceable person for Worldwide Friends. He is good baker, carpenter, pilot and one of the best drivers. He is very appreciated by the all camp leaders and the volunteers.

Everybody knows Magnus but after reading this interview you will learn a little bit more about him.

1. How long have you worked here till now?

4. What are the difficulties in your work?

Ninth June this year, three years.

No problem. Because it's Iceland we have like ... heavy ice, strong wind, rain. No problems. And I only drive slowly.

2. Can you tell us about your previous experiences?

5. Can you describe a typical day?

I am a carpenter, a baker, pilot and driver.

I wake up every morning, Toti calls me, if I drive today, if I maybe work as a carpenter today, I work in car for WF, it's no problem.

3. You have so many skills, why have you worked as a driver for so long?

6. Do you like your job?

I drove a big truck in 1976, a big trailer. Maybe fifty, sixty tons.

Yes, of course.

6. How many kilometers have you driven in your life and how many do you drive in a year?

8. Do you have plans for your future?

No, only working for Worldwide friends. Forever, forever, forever.

Maybe 120 kilometers one year, 120 000 a year.

6.1 And in your life? Because you were a pilot.

9. What did you already do for the work camp in Eskifjรถrรฐur?

Very much, very much. Very, very much.

Thousands kilometers.

I helped the school, and the house. Next problem is, there were no showers, in the old school and there is a long way, they have to go two kilometers to go to swimming pool.

7. What do you like about your life in Iceland?

10. Can you tell us about experience in plane? When you started and why did you quit?

Yes, it's okay, it's okay. The problem is very much ice. That's problem.

For five years, I flight only in Iceland, one time to Greenland, I had one person with me, flying to Greenland.

Arturo He is from Columbia and lives in Iceland to stay close to his daughter. He helps to clean the house every day.

Discreet and generous, he is a part of the family of Worldwide Friends.

After reading this article, you will know about his life in Iceland.

1.- What do you like to living in Iceland? What don’t you like?

I like the calm, the peace in this country, especially the forest. Also the culture, and people from Iceland is reliable.

I don’t like the problem when I want to go out, because there is a big distance between my home and the city center.

I don’t like when the city is full of snow because it’s difficult to walk.

2.- What do you like in your work?

I like sharing the culture between all of us. I love to learn something's about other countries. The volunteers are wonderful, really funny.

Helping to have a clean house, because it’s important for the volunteers to live in a nice home.

3.- What kind of difficulties do you meet in your job?

The problem is the language. I don’t speak English so it’s difficult to understand when people talk me. But I think that we understand us a little bit.

4.- What do you miss about Columbia?

I miss my country, latin people is different. I also miss the weather, for example, the sky in Iceland in this season is very dark, but in Columbia the sky is always clear.

But I’m fine here, because someday latin people have a meetings.

5.- What means this bracelets?

I make this bracelets with the color's of Colombia’s flag. It’s a gift to volunteers because I want that they remember my country.

6.- Did you already leave your country for a long time?

I was here before during three months, but it was in summer, really different than now.

I’m here since five months, I don’t know how many I will be here, because I’m here with my children. I collaborate with Worldwide Friends because Toti, the Director of the organization, is my husband’s daughter.

7.- What are your plans for the near future?

I think to live between Colombia and Iceland, because I have family in both countries. But the next months I will be here.

Orri He is 34 years old and lives in Iceland.

He is one of the most famous graffiti artists in this country. After reading this interview, you will want to meet him and maybe begin to draw or paint.

1. Could you tell us something about yourself?

I'm 34 now, I started painting graffiti when I was eighteen, I guess. We had some cool places where everybody used to paint especially this one tunnel it was close to my high school, so I was walking through there and so actually I started...I did just one painting by myself, then with another friend and yeah, then I got introduced to two other guys that invited me to be part of their crew and we started painting together and before you're going into it, it's such a mystery, the whole thing, who all the people are, that do it, you know, and I really liked that time. Because it's a cool aspect of graffiti that you can come up with a alter ego, you know, in day time you're just a normal person or something but you can be some other person, you know and yeah but it's always just been a hobby and most of my friends went into graphic design and I do think certain kinds of kids always want to go for extreme things, extreme sports or they don't fit into football or handball or something so in that aspect I think graffiti is really important I mean me and all of my friends we spent all our teenage years just painting and painting and painting and I'm sure if we would not have that, we would have done a lot of worse things, you know, getting drunk, get into fights or whatever, you know and in the end most of these kids ended up as artists, graphic designers and stuff. But I am a forest-tree worker, I work with trees and forests, I went in another direction.

2. Do you have a special education?

Education? Well I'm a art teacher for kids, I started that but when I finished it I started working with trees, so I've been doing that for the last eight years. And now I study that forest science, kind of.

3. Is it your hobby or your job?

Bit of both. It's always been a hobby, but I've done a lot of work for companies and people and I used to have a little shop, importing spray cans, a little shop and gallery. But it was like a secret, there was no sign on the door, you just had to know.

4. Is it (il)legal to spray on walls in your country?

Kind of, I mean you need a permission of the owner, of course, supposedly you also need a permission from the city, but we never have one, cause nobody does and it doesn't really matter. Yeah, that's it. You just need the permission.

Before, we had so many walls here in the center, nobody cared about it, so often we would just show up with orange wests in the mid of the day and just do it, had music playing and then everybody thinks you have a permission, you know. But it's also connected, before the crisis there were companies buying all the old houses here in the center and because they were so old, they could not tear them down, so they would just turn down the heat and electric and open the window and let the house rot for maybe two years, just to destroy the house. So they could tear it down, cause it was ruined. And they were systematically like destroying the buildings around to build some huge buildings. So then we had a lot of walls, we would paint a lot of these ugly houses an stuff. We really miss them. We used more like old factories and stuff. We don't like this oldest developments, you know.

5. Is it expensive to buy the special stuff for spraying and how difficult is it, to get them here?

We always had some, because there are special kinds of paints that are really good for graffiti, Montana, Montana Gold […]. I mean, I started painting so early, there wasn't internet when I started painting, we didn't had internet, so we had just crap paint. The cans are a bit more expensive here, cause we have to import them. They're about eight euro, in Spain it's maybe like two, three euro. But we have to take them from the factory, to Rotterdam, from Rotterdam here with a ship and them costumes and taxes and stuff... but then at a certain point you need to know what you use. You can do a lot with little money. We did a lot with roller paint and people started getting really good with it, you just roll your back round, you can just roll the fill-ins for the letters and you just use a little bit of spray paint, you know.

6. Have you only drawn in Reykjavik or also in other cities?

The problem with Iceland is, we only have like one city then there's Akureyri, but...one of my best friends, he is a graffiti artist from there and he is the only graffiti writer in this town. It affected it style a lot, he got really good, cause there was nobody judging him. We travel bit around the country and paint like on the countryside, but always respecting the buildings, if I'd find an old farm, I would not paint the front, I would paint the back or something. I like my graffiti also to be like you're walking somewhere and you're looking here and you find something. I think it's kind of nicer to find something then to put it always in your face, you know. But a big part of graffiti is travelling, to paint in other places. I painted quit a lot in Denmark, a lot a lot a lot in Spain, New York and the Bronx and places, Norway. It's a really nice aspect about graffiti that there's an extremely strong brotherhood or community around the world, so all the graffiti writer who come here, we always help them out, we give them a place to stay or, you know, if I go somewhere I can always ask somebody „Hey, do you know somebody there?“. You don't find this trust in lots of other hobbies or sports or somewhere, just random people sleeping in your house.

7. Can you tell us more about your team, about your community?

My crew?

It's for of us. Three guys and one girl. I started painting with one of them, then the third one and then she joined a bit later, when she moved to Iceland. But it's good cause we have a similar taste and what we want to do, more complex work. I'd rather do less and better quality and a lot of small stuff, but that's also our style. There are lots of different graffiti's and it just depends on what you want to do. In bigger city, you maybe want the whole city to like have your tag or crew name everywhere, you know, that kind of fame, or you go for the trains, which we-obviously don't have. This is such a small town, that I don't see any point... I used to do it when I was younger, but I don't see any point in putting my name everywhere. Why? Everybody knows me, you know, who does graffiti's, so there's no point and I also just want to make the town nicer.

“Peace House�

In 1986 the house served as a meeting place between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.

ICELANDIC MUSIC

Most people think of Björk or Sigur Rós, when they think about Icelandic music, but Iceland has so much more great music, that I just have to write about it. Most people in Iceland are playing more than one instrument and it seems like many of them play in more than one band. So it's no wonder, that Icelandic music is so successful, all over the world. Iceland has one of the best symphony orchestras of the Nordic countries, but it also has another big symphony orchestra in its Nordic area. The Icelandic symphony orchestra in Reykjavik was nominated for a Grammy award in 2009 for “Best Orchestral Performance“. Iceland also has a few music festivals, I think the most famous one is Iceland Airwaves. Each year it takes place in Reykjavik. It started as a small event in an airplane hangar on the Reykjavik airport in 1999, since then it developed to a big event in different bars and clubs with new national and international artists, with a few thousand visitors each year.

Most Icelandic bands and artists realize their music labeled as independent or alternative.

The artists and bands are very different to each other, but at the same time they all have similarities. One thing I can hear in many Icelandic and Nordic songs is a mysterious tone, I think Sóley (who's also part of the band Seabear) and Lay Low, but also Emilíana Torrini (who was part of GusGus) are good examples for this tone, although Emilíana Torrinis biggest international hit was the happy sounding „Jungle Drum“, that's really different of many of her songs. Many artists from Iceland are making music in different genres, for example Of Monsters And Men's music is indie folk, indie rock, alternative rock and folk rock. Most of the songs sound really happy and positive, but the videos and also some of the lyrics aren't that positive at you might expect when you just listen to the music.

One other thing, that many Icelandic songs have in common are sounds, that you can't really tell, if your hearing an instrument or a synthetic sound.

“Recycling House”

We visited a house that was built only with recycled materials.

As you can see, the local do not lack imagination. For example, he uses a lot of traditional African masks. He transforms objects into a work of art. Eccentric and intriguing, this house is still a good humbling against a consumer society like ours and it illustrates the desire of Iceland to stay a clean country.

Pictures