firstofmay23

[firstofmay23]

Akureyri: Day 1

The trip to Akureyri was started with strong wind and hail in Blönduós. The wind blew so strong I didn’t even realized I dropped my phone on the was to the bus stop, but luckily I found it before the bus got there so I managed to catch my bus on time.

I arrived at Akureyri around 3pm, it was drizzling but sunny. You have no idea how happy I was to finally be able to see something resembles a big town (let’s face it, it’s still Iceland. It’s no metropolitan city). I turned on Google maps to find Izza’s place, while enjoying the paved roads and cute shops on the way. I was soon faced with my number one obstacles: uphill street and heavy backpack. After what felt like half an hour of ‘hiking’ and losing my breath, I soon heard someone shouting my name.

I first met Izza when she was in Bali. Her boyfriend at the time did my tattoo, and she was there to assist him. She’s originally from Poland, but moved to Akureyri. As a housewarming gift, I gave her the best present I could find from my luggage: A packet of Indomie. After a quick catch up and a house tour, we went back downtown to the restaurant she’s working at. On the way there I found this very cute yarn Bonn installation on the side of the road right in front of the Akureyri Art Museum. After a few minutes we arrived. The whole street was filled with clothing stores, bookshop, gift shop, bars, even ice cream shop. We went in few of the stores to look around, and I found some cute small gifts to bring home.

She went to start her shift, but I went around to enjoy the streets. There’s this big bookstore that sells not just books but Scandinavian-style home products, office supplies, even vinyls. I took a quick look at the vinyl and found a complete discography of Rammstein! I tried hard not to scream but I was visibly shaking, partly because I haven’t eaten anything since morning. But instead of vinyls I ended up buying a book about Icelandic jumper. Bye boys.

I went back to the restaurant to get some food, and was greeted by Izza. I ordered the house burger and a beer that she recommended, and insisted that it’s all on the house. The place itself was very crowded, the most crowded place I’ve been since I’ve landed in Iceland. She served my the food and beer, and in my opinion the beer was the best one I’ve had here so far. The taste is pretty similar to Small Hazy so it kind of cured my homesickness a bit. After I finished my food I went to the bookshop to read the book I bought at the coffee shop inside. The book was so interesting I didn’t realize that the place was closing until the waitress came up to me. I went back to Backpackers to hang out there while waiting for Izza to finish her shift. I wanted to get White Russian for the evening but they ran out of the main ingredients so she made a custom cocktail that’s basically coffee liqueur plus Baileys: a Spiked Iced Latte. I enjoyed my ‘coffee’ while reading my book. Few minutes before closing time one of the waiter asked me whether he could take my half-empty chocolate milk. I immediately apologized and told him I’ll finish it as soon as possible. He apologized for disturbing me and went back to the bar. It was pretty awkward. Few minutes later, while I was busy with my book I caught him sneaked on me and took my glass while he thought I wasn’t looking. Later I learned that his name is Tobias.

After everyone was done for the day I was invited to the back door and we were planning to go to some music event. Izza brought 4 bottle of mini Prosecco to drink on the way. The rest decided to split up, but me, Izza, and Johana went to Kaktus, a place next to Akureyri Art Museum. Turned out there was a small rave and we went in. Everyone knows everyone there, as a complete stranger who can’t even speak the language strangely I didn’t feel anxious at all. It felt familiar.

I have to admit, it was so nice to be around this kind of crowd again after getting holed up in Blönduós for three weeks. It was mostly locals, and I managed to talk to some of them. I shared a cigarette with Monica. It was a very cold night, and even with an extra layer I admitted to her that I still feel chilly. She put her jacket on me, and she only wore a tank top and a bra. I insisted not to, but her jacket was super warm it felt like a hug. We were talking about Bali when all of the sudden her boyfriend came to us and started arguing with her. Things got a bit awkward for us who had to hear that convo, but luckily the tension was broken when someone started a conversation with me.

That night I learned so many crazy things about Icelanders, but the one that gave me culture shock was when I was talking to this 31 years old guy named Benedict. He’s very friendly and eve though we just met, after a couple minutes we talked as if we knew each other for a while already. At first when he started talking to me I was a little cautious, but then he revealed his ring finger and told me he’s engaged with three kids.

“This is the second and the third. Four and two years old” he said, while showing me the picture of his boys.

I did a quick math in my head and got slightly confused, “how old were you when you had your first?”

“Fifteen”

I almost fell off my seat.

Later when I was queuing for the bathroom he came up to me to show me the picture of him and his 15 years old daughter.

After dancing and finishing the rest of our Prosecco, we head home and went to bed straight away because we have an adventure waiting in the morning.

[firstofmay23]

Another visit to Istex Wool Washery

I've been getting so busy lately it's hard to keep up with this blog. I'm two weeks behind, so what I'm writing about right now is something that happened two weeks ago.

As agreed with the factory, we revisited the wool washery to look at the proper Icelandic wool being washed. It was only me, Brandy, and Sage who were able to visit the place. Sage and I got there first. When we entered the factory, the smell of sheep is unmistakable. We were greeted by (not sure but it must be) the manager, and he offered us coffee from the pantry thermos. It wasn't bad actually, and I love the fact that people here are big on coffee. We were introduced to a younger guy operating the washery that day, and you have to forgive me for not remembering his name. I should've written it down, to be honest. After a few minutes, Brandy arrived, and the second tour began.

Since we've seen the whole process of the washing, this time it's more to look at the varieties of Icelandic sheep wool. he was showing us the difference between adult sheep wool and lambswool. It's amazing how soft and fluffy lambswools are, even before any treatment. He was also showing us some lower-quality wool as well, which in my opinion would be great for home decor, such as rugs or seat covers.

Left: Lambswool, so fucking soft. Right: I'd steal those for carpets tbh

We were also taken to the freshly shipped container containing a new batch of recently shorn sheep. These were shorn around two months ago and come in many different colors. My favorite is, of course, the black and grey ones, can't go wrong with those two colors. So most sheep were shorn twice, the first one is in winter. So that when they were shorn in spring, they wouldn't have matted wool from the winter to ensure good quality wool. After the washing of the wool in Blönduós, they were shipped To Reykjavík for spinning and we were able to visit that one as well by appointment. That adds one more list of things to do in Reykjavík. More free wool here I come!

I'm a slut for monochromatic colors

Sheep farmers in Iceland usually don't only do farming for a living, but they also do other jobs too. The guy who took us on the tour even said that he juggled between 4 jobs! Istex is his main job, but he also takes care of his own farm filled with sheep, goats, and horses, works as a carpenter, as well as doing maintenance work too. Farmers in Iceland cannot rely on farming alone, as the profit for farms is very low and the demand for Icelandic sheep meat is low compared to imported meat from other countries. Due to the meat processing system that's more ethical compared to other countries, the price for the local stuff is understandably higher. Also in the past few years, fewer people are taking up farming and even quit working on a farm. This makes whoever remains must work extra hard to cover the lack of manpower in the industry.

On the plus side, the knitting trend that rose during the pandemic has increased the demand for Icelandic wool. This shifted the main goal of sheep farming from meat to wool, and that gives a glimpse of hope for the Icelandic sheep farmers.

Happy place

And of course, we asked if they got some discarded unprocessed wool that they don't mind us taking, and they did! So towards the end of the trip, he took out a one big bag of wool and let us dig in to get some for us to take home. We ended up using the whole floor to sort out what we wanted to take. In the end, I took a whole bag of black and white wool to wash and process myself as part of my farm-to-clothing project by felting and hand spinning. It was truly an experience.

[firstofmay23]

A trip to the bank

If there is one thing that you need to prepare before your trip abroad, it's cash. Although I'm going to a country that uses Krona (and Euro a little bit later), I happen to have mine in an envelope full of American Dollars. Don't ask why.

Of course, this poses a problem, especially in a world where everything is cashless. An even bigger problem is when you forget to sort this problem out before your flight. One easy solution to this is of course to find a money changer at Keflavik Airport and exchange everything. But me being me, and it was cold at midnight in my defense, I didn't do it. Another reason is that the airport fee is usually pretty shit, and I would like to avoid that situation. This left me with a small problem, which will grow bigger very soon because I didn't have much in my debit card to survive a couple of weeks. Even better that the bank in Blönduós doesn't have a currency exchange service. The best solution: go to the next town and exchange my $$$ there. Here is where the 5 hours adventure to Sauðárkrókur started.

Around 12 am, I went to the bus stop to check out the bus schedule, and I bumped into Lucy, Bethany, and Carolyn, other artists in residence filling up the gas. We happened to go in the same direction so she offered to drop me at the town next door. But since it's a private car instead of the bus, we managed to stop at a few spots and took some really cool pictures.

Majestic.

One of the stops was this monument in Skagafjörður. At first, I thought there was a bird sculpture on top of it. At closer look turned out it was a raven on the lookout. It was my first time seeing a raven in real life, and it was magical too. A few seconds later it cawed and fled into its nest on the cliff nearby. For a moment I believed it was an Old God. I was too busy finishing my hot dog to notice the details on the monument though, and it was very windy too.

The raven flew off the rocks

my Icelandic hot dog with onions

The second stop was these small houses that looked like hobbit houses minus the circle door. According to The Iceland Museum Guide, it's The Skagafjorður Heritage House. The houses were closed when we were there but the gate was open so we were able to look in from the window. Also there was a small church next to it, with small cemetery lot. I noticed that most people buried there were very old, born around the early 1900, with some passed away in the 2000-2010's. Amazing.

A few minutes later we arrived at Sauðárkrókur. They dropped me off at the bank and continued their trip. It was a nice town, definitely way bigger than Blönduós. The road was more lively, and more businesses as well. It felt weird when I entered the bank, although there were only 4 people in the room I can feel that they were staring at me. There were two bank clerks, one was a middle-aged lady and one is a younger guy. The lady doesn't seem to speak English well so she told the guy to speak to me. I remember he was humming the entire time. It was quite an easy exchange, though I wasn't able to exchange all the money I have. They only allow a maximum of US$380 on one time--a maximum of six times in the span of six months. Alright.

After my bank visit, I walked to the gas station to wait for the next bus, it was 1pm and the bus back to Blönduós doesn't show up until 6. So I decided to do the unthinkable: hitchhike. I quickly found out that in order to hitchhike you have to talk to strangers, a subject I'm really bad at. After spending an hour getting my shit together, I decided to walk to the end of the town and tried to get a ride from there. Bad idea. After what felt like a couple of hours I decided to give up and went to the grocery store to stock up the fridge now that I have enough to spend. Luckily, Bethany texted to offer to pick me up. So I prefer that than waiting for 4 more hours.

Waiting with a view

After waiting a while we're back on the road, with one final stop. We stopped by the side of one of the hills to take pictures. I got out of the car to enjoy the view as well, but the wind was too strong, and I didn't prepare enough so I decided to continue the sightseeing from inside the car. But it was beautiful, I think every corner in rural Iceland is just magical. Lucy managed to get some really cool images with her drone as part of her project.

We head straight home after, and just as we passed by the bus stop we saw the bus that was supposed to take me back to Blönduós was already there. At least I got to see some nice places, and it was free too.

[firstofmay23]

Day 1: a visit to the textile museum

The second activity of the day was a visit to the textile museum just next door to the Kvennaskólinn. This museum was dedicated to this one woman called Halldóra Bjarnadóttir who lived in the area and helped preserve the Icelandic heritage and craft. The museum itself was very small but pretty. There's a hall with a wax figure of the woman and it was placed facing the river, with glass walls on both sides.

We were allowed to touch the exhibits in this museum but with gloves which provided by the museum. One of the halls features a room with handwoven fabrics in a variety of pattern and thickness, but one room that caught my interest the most is the embroidery room, with handsewn historical garment along with handmade embellishment such as cutwork lace, tatting, and crochet lace. I kept going back to that room over and over again, wondering if I could make one myself.

They also exhibited this beautiful christening robe for a baby, or as I almost said it, the one where you dip the baby in water. What I don’t get about christening robes, which are extremely beautiful and delicate btw, were made for baby who would probably going to throw up on it. Christians who can answer this please reply.

[firstofmay23]

Day 1: Wool Washery and something else.

I woke up at 2 in the morning, with a bad headache and dehydration. After eating the cold chicken tikka wrap I bought the day before and a painkiller, I felt much better. But I couldn't fall back asleep so I decided to unpack. After a while, the sleep started to set in again and I woke up a few hours later.

After bracing myself to take my first shower on the island (which wasn't as bad as I thought) I got ready for the first activities as an Artist-In-Residence: A trip to wool washery. It's a place owned by Istex to wash the freshly shorn sheep before going to the next step of production. After shearing, the factory purchased the wool from the farmer to send to this place. Not only Icelandic sheep wool but sometimes they wash wool from other places as well. During our visit, they were processing wool from the UK. "Bad wool," the factory guy said. He also told us to come again on Monday because that's when they're going to wash the Icelandic wool, or in his word, "the good wool". He also gave us a big pile of Icelandic wool to use in our project, for free!

After the short trip, we went back to the house. I took a little detour to the bank nearby to exchange some USD. The bank in this town only opens on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is strange. I went there and outside the door, there was this middle-aged man also waiting outside. I was about to knock when the guy was talking to me in Icelandic while doing the 'phone' gesture. Apparently, the clerk was on a phone call and no one else was there so I had to wait outside. While we waited outside, he asked me what my name is. I told him mine, and I asked for his.

"Ibrahim", he said. Turned out he's from Syria, probably moved as a refugee, and now working in Blönduós. He asked where I'm from, and when I said Indonesia, he said it back in Arabic. I thought he didn't catch what I said, turned out it was me who has never heard the word "Indonesia" in Arabic. His face lit up, smiled at me, put his hand on his chest, and greeted me,

"Ahlan wa Sahlan"

I smiled back, "Ahlan"

Moments later, another clerk came through the door. I asked her about my cash exchange situation but turned out this branch is unable to do currency exchange and I have to go to Skagaströnd, about 30 minutes away. Great.

I walked back to the house. The weather was nice and not too cold, probably the hottest so far up until I'm writing this. I unlocked the door to my room and went inside, and went out to the kitchen to get some water. One thing you need to know about this house, there's this setting at the door that automatically locks the door when it's closed and you'll need a key to be able to open it from the outside. Long story short, I locked my key inside my room. After some emailing with the project manager back and forth, I waited in the studio while experimenting with the wool that we acquired earlier using the drum carder. It was my first time using a proper carding tool, and it wasn't my best work but I think it wasn't too bad either. An hour later, the caretaker of the house (Marcella, I kept forgetting her name) came in and helped me in with the master key. And I decided that my room doesn't need locking because it's not worth risking locking myself out every single day, because I know myself too much to be sure that it will happen again very soon. Anyway, I got my room back, just in time to get ready for the visit to the Textile Museum next door.

[firstofmay23]

ICELAND!!!

When I stepped off the plane, my ear was immediately hit by the cold wind. Seemed like it was raining not long before I arrived. Quite a welcome for a tropical island girl. Luckily, my luggage made it all the way to Reykjavík.

Immigration through the border was very easy. When the officer asked me how long I'm going to stay, I said, "Until the 28th of June"

She looked up at me and say, "You?"

I grinned and replied, "Yes"

As a visual guide. Imagine a tiny girl carrying a huge mountain backpack and huge jumpers, possibly underdressed, and saying that she's going to stay here for two months. After checking my visa, she stamped my passport and let me through.

After getting my luggage, I hurried to the shuttle bus stall to get to the main terminal in Reykjavík. First mistake. I should've waited until at least the sun went up to leave. Reason number one: I forgot to exchange my cash so I'm left with a small amount of money I have in my card to survive for at least until the end of the week. Reason number two: the main bus terminal is freaking closed!!! I thought the bus terminal is supposed to be open 24/7 but no. So, like any other good tourist, I waited outside in the middle of the night in 5° weather. As a reminder, this is the first time I have ever been in any place lower than 15° so you can imagine the silent freak-out I was having. I saw a car stopped by, he's been coming in and out of the staff door of the terminal. After half an hour of making weird eye contact with each other, I braced myself and asked about the terminal opening hours. He didn't seem to understand my question, only told me that the bus station is closed, smiled at me, said "bye" and left. Well, that's informative.

First picture of Iceland that I took. You can see the famous church in the background

After an hour of waiting (and pacing in and out of the terminal), I decided to walk around the building and find someone who might have a little more authority to help me out. And I found someone, he was on the other side of the station. At first, he suggested that I walk to a hotel nearby and get some rest there. When I went to fetch my luggage, somebody opened the terminal door for me! And he let me stay inside to wait until my 8am bus, which was 6 hours away. And there I waited.....

I remember I fell asleep with my head on my luggage and when I woke up I realized I broke one of the luggage feet. The sun went up but it was still a couple hours before I was able to catch the early bus at the station nearby. And that's when I realized I was unable to purchase my ticket. How was I supposed to buy my ticket if I can't authorize my card? I was panic-calling some people back in Bali and was about to give up when suddenly I heard my name called. I thought I was hallucinating, as people who are sleep deprived and out in the cold usually do. But then it was getting louder and when I looked to my right, I saw my friend! What are the chances of people I know ending up at the same bus station 12,000 km away from home????

After some jumping around and Instagram posting, I asked to borrow his card to purchase a ticket. It worked, so that's one problem sorted out. Moments like this made me believe that I have angels watching me, it's always at the right time. Except for love, my angels do NOT give a fuck about my love life. But we're not talking about that now

Thanks to a random dude who offered to carry my luggage up the stairs to the bus stop, I managed to get on the right bus at the right time. And I switched buses to go out of the capital, managed to have a couple hours of sleep, awake just in time to not miss my stop, and grabbed a sandwich at one of the gas stations. As well as admiring the view and gasping at the sight of unmelted ice along the way

The bus number you have to take to get to Blönduós

Not long after, we arrived at Blönduós. And there was another artist that was on the same bus as me! Soon as we got off the bus, somebody greeted me. Turned out someone was already waiting for us. So me and Jess hopped on Sigrun's car and was taken to our place. She also gave us a short introduction about the town and our place as well. Soon after that me and Jess had a little trip to the supermarket nearby to get something to eat later for dinner. When I finally got into bed, it was 3pm and I didn't care if it was very bright outside. I want my bed. I got my bed.

[firstofmay23]

Day 2 part 1: Changi-Heathrow-Keflavík

Landed in Changi airport at midnight. I was worried that I might need to book an overnight room which might bankrupt me. But turned out everyone is just sleeping on seats and sofas so might as well do the same. And some of the table were equipped with power plug and since it was midnight finding a decent spot was very easy.

I also realized that in my flight I was the only one carrying mountain backpack in the plane, oops.

But of course, I wasn’t able to sleep properly so I decided to find something to eat

I also bought the fish skin chips to eat later on. Heaven.

And that is only hour 4 of my 12 hours layover. Luckily Changi was pretty convenient so I managed to sneak some more rest, do some work, and get myself coffee. Took a while to board the next plane but I finally did

The flight from Singapore to London was done what…interesting. I sat next to these lovely old Australian couples, didn’t catch their name but I’m pretty sure the wife is called Edna. And in front of me there is this Singaporean family with a very loud kids, and this is where the drama started.

I couldn’t tell you the details because I was half asleep during the whole thing. So the kids in front of my seat was shouting and yelling and to be honest it was pretty annoying but I had zero energy to deal with it and decided to put on my earbuds and get some rest. She was also pushed her seat a little too way back, so when I got my food I was unable to pull out the tray. The wife and husband probably had enough of it and told off the parents that their kid was misbehaving. The flight attendant was there of course, because he was giving out lunch on our row. He tried to talk to the couple and ask about what was happening and managed to calm them down. Very good for him, I would never had the patience to be honest. But after that things got more relaxed, except the occasional crying baby on the front. But then again, earbuds and Rammstein did their thing. As well as my second glass of wine

The rest of the flight was just me eating, drinking wine, watching sandman, wondering when we will land, and an occasional check outside the window to see where in the world am I (literally)

Somewhere in Middle East

Finally it was a couple hours before landing. I’ve been wanting to go to the loo but I don’t feel like moving across two people so usually on a short flight I just wait until we land. But this is a 13 hours flight and I just have to. So when I told the couple that I need to go, their reaction was “so finally you’re going to the loo! We thought you’d never go!” Which was funny to me because they’re probably looking at the amount of drinks I had and was wondering if I was ever going to go. Curious to know what the convo was like.

So finally landed in Heathrow, and sparing no time to rest I went as fast as I could (which was not fast at all) because it’s almost boarding time to Reykjavik, while taking a few pics of the airport for my ‘mom I made it back to London’ moment. And me being me, of course I took a wrong turn and had to walk all the way to the OTHER end of the terminal because I misread the sign. When I finally got to my gate, it’s boarding time already

I don’t know if because it’s my first time flying with it or because it’s a night flight, but Icelandair is a very cute airline. Like small but elegant in a non flashy way. I can’t think of a better way to explain it. I think it’s partly because how the cabin was lit, it was this nice white light with slightly bluish tinge to it. I wish I took some pictures of the interior.

The turbulence was worse than the previous flight. Maybe because we’re going up north, or because the plane was smaller. But when we were about to land, my God it was beautiful. It was dark on one side and sun was setting on the other. But when we finally landed, it was midnight and dark.

[firstofmay23]

Day one

I’m typing this on the taxi to the airport. First time ever going abroad by myself at the age of 26. Wow.

Funny enough, I couldn’t stop crying as I’m typing this. The anxiety, the excitement, fear, heartbreak all mixed into one (we will talk about that last part later). Usually the uncertainty of the future doesn’t really bothers me, but somehow this time it really gets under my skin.

Also, mountain carrier is heavy as fuck. I’m going to need a lot of painkiller for the next few days. I hope the airplane serves alcohol tho

Last night was really fun. First time for me to host something like that. Black Sands, I’ll see you in July

Cards Against Humanity is the way to do it

…

Typing this part in the gate waiting for boarding. When I arrived at the airport I was sobbing to the point it was kind of embarrassing, but feelings right?

The queue at the international airport were painfully long, as well as it took twice as long for the airline to check in my luggage due to airline change and visa and yadda yadda yadda but so far so good

Let’s just hope they bring my luggage all the way to Iceland

It’s still 8pm as I’m typing this but I’m exhausted already thanks to the crying. Not even half of my 40 hrs journey this is

[firstofmay23]

19.04 Intro (warning: too much venting not enough prepping)

I made this blog as a travel journal for my upcoming Iceland Residency and a little sightseeing in Europe, as well as documenting the creative process behind my future pieces. But I guess it’s also good to write down everything that’s happening prior to the trip, so here we are.

Of course, there's a lot of preparation involved before I can embark on this journey. I've been busy planning my itinerary, making travel arrangements, and gathering all the necessary supplies for my projects. It's a lot of work, and to be honest it chipped a little bit of my soul. I’ve burned out before, but this year it felt so much worse and this whole thing might contribute to it. If you ever find yourself googling “How to cure burnout when you can’t take a break”, you need immediate help.

This is supposed to be an exciting period in my life. I chose May as my starting month because I'll be celebrating my birthday overseas. Exciting? sure! scary? hell yes! I started to receive emails from fellow artists so we can arrange a meetup beforehand and find a travel buddy for the trip to the town, and I have to admit it gives me so much anxiety. Look, I'm not a professional artist. I'm just a small-town print designer who can't even send the correct file to the supplier. And my body has already given up. My acid reflux has gotten worse it hurts my muscle. My right eye cannot see properly even typing this feels uncomfortable. My stress level hasn't gone down since January I kept having partial seizures every now and then.

I promise I'll write another post when everything feels much clearer, but for now, just let me vent. This is my blog. I do what I want.