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Noted In Passing: “What a worrisome view from Downtown Reykjavik.”

When you’re alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go – downtown.
When you’ve got worries all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help I know downtown.
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?
The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown
Things will be great when you’re downtown
No finer place for sure downtown
Everything’s waiting for you.

daily timewaster:  What a worrisome view from Downtown Reykjavik.

And what do the Icelanders do? Hike up and have a picnic.

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  • Richard May 31, 2021, 9:31 AM

    It’s a shame that such a descriptive word as awesome has been reduced by its all-too-often, overuse.
    Both of those videos truly are awesome. Magma being churned as if it were nothing more than jelly or jam in a kettle. Really puts things into their proper perspective.

  • ghostsniper May 31, 2021, 9:49 AM

    just that silly erf lettin’ off steam again

  • gwbnyc May 31, 2021, 9:49 AM

    perfect setting for a tun of vodka and a pickled sharkmeat roast.

  • Rob De Witt May 31, 2021, 12:34 PM

    They’ve all been weaned on tales of Arne Saknussemm. Perhaps that volcano is the storied Snaefells Jökull, and the center of the Earth lies within….

  • PA Cat May 31, 2021, 9:52 PM

    This present eruption isn’t as bad as the one that took place in Iceland between June 1783 and February 1784. The Lakagígar eruption poured out poisonous gases like sulfur dioxide as well as an estimated 42 billion tons of basalt lava, which led to widespread crop destruction, the loss of half of Iceland’s livestock, and the death of a quarter of the island’s human population from famine.

    The eruption caused a drop in temperatures worldwide; on our side of the pond, the winter of 1784 was the longest and one of the coldest on record, with the longest spell of below-zero temperatures in New England and the heaviest snow falling in New Jersey. The Mississippi River froze at New Orleans, and the Chesapeake Bay at Annapolis; some observers reported seeing ice floes in the Gulf of Mexico.

    Here is a link to a recent documentary about Iceland’s eighteenth-century volcanic disaster:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M50uQCFfqAQ&ab_channel=RolfB

  • Gordon Scott June 2, 2021, 10:56 AM

    The Icelanders may be a bit weird, but they are not wimps.

    When in Iceland you will go to the Gulfoss waterfall. It’s powerful, not least because you can walk right up to the edge and have it flowing around you, and it’s a whole lot of flow. There are no guardrails, no paved paths, no warning signs. One simply contemplates how unpleasant the last few moments of one’s life would be, should one fall in.

    If you drive east from Reykjavik, the first town you come to is Hveragerthi (so badly spelled). There is a strip mall of recent construction, with a gas station, grocery store, and a tourist office. Inside the tourist office one sees part of the floor open to the rock underneath, framed and lighted with Plexiglas. If you ask what that is, you are told, “That’s the fault.”
    They discovered a fault line while building the strip mall. They continued to build on it, and simply framed the fault as a conversation starter. As a concession to safety, they did eliminate the planned second and third floors.

    Over in the corner is a big plywood box, about four feet square. This is the earthquake simulator. About 1997 they had a fairly severe earthquake, in town. It pretty much levelled the place, I was told, but no one died. So they built a big box that simulates what the residents felt. One pays a kroner, and you go inside and close the door.
    There are handrails. First you hear a roaring sound in the distance, coming closer, and then you are shaking like mad and grateful for the handrails. This goes on and on, but I was told it’s only 45 seconds. That’s 30 seconds more than I really wanted. And then it stops, but your legs don’t, and you come out of the box breathing hard.
    These are things Icelanders believe should be in a tourism office.

  • Kat in Indiana June 5, 2021, 4:18 PM

    The volcano in the video is “Bob”. It was the first one to form late March. Geldingadalir has gotten a whole lot more exciting since then. I recommend Tokolosh, GutnTag (if your motion sickness isn’t easily triggered), afarTV, and the Reykavik Grapevine, all on YouTube (yes, there are a few things worth watching).
    Yep, Geology Nerd here…
    No, the degree was NOT from the People’s Republic of Bloomington.
    Speaking of which – from one of the Indy stations…
    “Bloomington creatives launch pop-up cicada dining experience”.
    Nope. Ain’t gonna.