My year in Iceland

Some useful links about Iceland.

2009-03-22T13:49:00.002Z

I decided to share some links which you may find helpful while you're in Iceland. Enjoy!

http://en.vedur.is - best weather forecast you can get in Iceland. But beware, Icelandic weather is really strange and I would not trust the forecast for more than 2 days up front.

http://www.vegagerdin.is - info about driving conditions and closed roads - very important before planning to go anywhere - some roads may be closed even until the end of June.

http://www.ja.is - phone book, yellow pages and very good map of Iceland - useful for finding restaurants, companies, planning routs, trips etc.

http://www.midi.is - website for concerts, cinema, theater and other events ticket reservation - be quick as sometimes tickets for concerts of international or very popular bands disappear in couple of hours

http://www.akureyri.is/hlidarfjall - info about Akureyri ski slope Hlidarfjall, and here you can see the slope yourself thanks to four web cams.

http://www.straeto.is - useful for those that want to visit Reykjavik, but they don't have a car (or they are too drunk to drive :P) - bus schedule and map of the bus routes. If you want to buy bus pass (ticket for one, two or more weeks) you should look for it at the main bus station (Hlemmur) or at the swimming pools (sic!).

http://www.icelandgourmetguide.com - your gastronomic guide to Iceland :)

http://www.swimminginiceland.com - pictures and description of all of Iceland's swimming pools - very useful site :)

Bonus and Vinbud - two most popular brands of shops in Iceland :)

http://www.icelandreview.com - news about Iceland in English

http://icelandweatherreport.com - very good blog about Iceland - mostly politics and crisis :P

http://www.port.is - list of all cruise ships that will visit Akureyri during the summer

And if you want to escape the island or just go somewhere - http://www.icelandair.com, http://www.icelandexpress.com and http://www.airiceland.is

Bye Iceland!

2009-03-22T12:21:00.003Z

Pictures from last days I spent in Niceland ;)

RES welcome event for new students.

Management at work.

205 precious collection.

Last pub quiz.

Graduation Ceremony.

Well that's it I guess... I'm not sure what to do with this blog... I may post some stuff here connected with Iceland or RES, but I can't promise anything. It was fun to run it and I hope I helped some people looking for info about Iceland or the school. Good fight, good night :)

Master of Science in Renewable Energy!

2009-02-13T18:18:00.000Z

Preparing for Thesis Presentation.

2009-02-12T01:00:00.000Z

This is how I prepared for thesis presentation :P
First of all - I will have to leave my precious bike - I hope new owner will take care of him!

Waiting for opening ceremony of 2009/2010 year - good luck guys!

Get-together beer after the ceremony.

Too many pictures :P

Hardly working...

I love this sport!

Last days in Reykjavik.

2009-01-30T23:57:00.000Z

Time for a small picture update. These are from my last few weeks in Reykjavik and Mosfellsbaer.
Back to Iceland - somewhere over Denmark.

Evening walk in Mosfellsbaer.

Japan festival hosted by University of Iceland.

Some pictures from work.

My desk in the office.

Wii Remote offtopic.

2009-01-16T18:53:00.004Z

Today one of the employees in Innovation Center showed us how one can use a Wiimote controller in the serious, professional research :) This way I found the website of a guy who does amazing things with Nintendo controller. I really recommend to see the video with head tracking! Just check this out:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/

Christmas and New Years Eve in Poland.

2009-01-09T11:44:00.005Z

Good morning everybody :P and Happy New Year. It's been a long time since I have published something here, but you have to excuse me - I was on a small winter break in Poland and I didn't have much time to do anything with the blog. I, however, had some time to shoot number of pictures with my brand new Canon EOS 450d :D

First of all I had a funny trip to Copenhagen from Reykjavik - there was a band performing on the plane during the flight - Icelanders are crazy :)

My mom and my brother playing with my dog during our stay at my mom's family house in Sudety mountains.

Mi familia.

Everything covered in ice...

My parents 25th year anniversary party for a small group of friends.

Beautiful day for a walk.

New Years Eve trip to Ustrzyki Dolne in Bieszczady Mountains region with a group of my friends.
Seba :P

Friends!

Śmieżymy :P

-15°C barbecue.

My beer!

Yummy!

Slope.

True winter sport!

So that's it, of course there were many more thing happening but it'll remain private :D I had a great time in PL and I can't wait to go back. I mean Iceland is beautiful and so on, and I will never forget this country and people, but after this visit I really realized that there is no place like home.
Anyways, I'm back in warm and rainy Iceland (it's 8°C here comparing to Poland's -15...) and now probably, there will be no more updates until February - I have to write the thesis finally :P

Something about the protest in Reykjavik.

2008-12-12T11:37:00.001Z

There was a small thing I didn't notice when I went to the protest in Reykjavik - it was backwards to me... :D

November in Reykjavik.

2008-12-07T14:56:00.004Z

I know, I've become very lazy in updating my blog, but it's just not too much happening here right now. We spend most of our time at work doing the project and on weekends we are so lazy to do anything :P Anyways, here are some pictures I was able to take in November. Enjoy!

Saga Party @ Innovation Center. People were dressed as different characters from Icelandic Sagas - vikings, elves, witches etc. There was some traditional Icelandic food, like smoked lamb, dried fish and other, not necessary, tasty things; a lot of alcohol, singing and a realistic viking fight.

In Iceland during Christmas all kinds of shops are releasing Christmas line of products. They not only look different, but also sometimes taste different.

Hjaltalin concert @ NASA, Reykjavik.

Best burgers in town.

My 4th flatmate...

Yoko Ono's Imagine Peace Tower on the small island of Videy near Reykjavik. You can read more about this project here.

Sweet tasting in Innovation Center - Iceland cake :P

Because of the economic crisis, which struck Iceland very hard, people are angry on government, that they didn't do much to protect country from the after effects. Situation here is really hard for some people. A lot of them lost their jobs and because of the fact, that it was really easy to get a loan from the bank, they find it really hard to afford paying interests. Every weekend people are gathering on the main square in Reykjavik, in front of parliament and are protesting against Icelandic Government.

Walk around.

2008-11-11T14:52:00.004Z

On Sunday the weather was quite good, so I went for a short walk. I took some pictures on the way :) Enjoy!

Our car.

Our flat.

Some sculptures in front of the house.

View on Reykjavik from the hill next to Mosfellsbær.

Mosfellsbær.

Yes, this picture is actually taken in Iceland :P

My next 3 months.

2008-10-25T19:44:00.002Z

This company:

This "washing machine" :P

And this city:

Bloodgroup concert.

2008-10-16T14:02:00.000Z

On Saturday (10.11) we went to a Bloodgroup concert in Akureyri. I heard this band first time on the concert in Reykjavik, during the Art Night Festival. I mentioned it already in one of my posts, so just to remind you, this is their MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/bloodgroup. They play good, "ear-catching" (I hope Magda, I can use your expression also here? :)) mix of electro-pop and alternative rock. They really kick ass on concerts, I bought their CD and also got their autographs :)

They had two bands playing before them as a support - first one was DLX ATX, a new formed band playing strange, but interesting mix of drum and bass. You can check one of their songs on YouTube:

Next one was Skátar, Icelandic viking rock band. They were wearing really funny clothes :)

And then the Bloodgroup - they gave a great concert :)

Small off-topic - picture from a strange accident which happened next to our dorm - apparently guy tried to escape from the accident he caused few minutes before that one.

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Rafting in Iceland.

2008-10-05T22:18:00.002Z

On Sunday we finally went rafting. We were planning to do this for a long time and finally it happened! Just one word to describe it - AWESOME!

Guides were from Nepal - great guys. They actually do that all year long - during the summer they work in Iceland, and the rest of the year - in Nepal. They said, that they never did this at this time of the year here, they were going home the following morning :)

Zipping the dry suits required some help.

Some quick instructions.

Then we were rafting - great experience, I don't have many pictures, but we order a movie which the guy was shooting during the trip. I'll try to post it here when I get it. I hope they recorded our fall in the spot called "Green Room" - it had to look great.

Movie is here!

At the end of the raft we had opportunity to jump from the 8m rock!

Great thing to do here - I highly recommend it. The best period to do rafting is between June and July. Then the current is strongest and the water has higher level. You can also visit their website - www.rafting.is.

Simply the RES!

2008-10-03T04:15:00.002Z

On Friday, 3rd of October, the Sprellmót - department fight - took place on University of Akureyri. Because RES is not so small school (in Icelandic standards) and we actively participate in students live at the University, we had our own team. We started from helping Stafnbui, friendly Science department, to protect their beautiful sex-doll from nasty Nurse department. So we gathered in one of the buildings and put some of our "dirty" thoughts on the doll :)

Then we went to the city center, where the screaming contest took place.

After that, all a bit drunk already, we left for the sports hall near Akureyri, to continue with other contests:
Beer relay.

Shot relay.

As you can see some of us were really thirsty :P

Tug of war...

...and eating competition with Iron-Stomach Pedro as our representative.

After that we had a small break for visiting Vinbud (liquor shop) and restocking our supplies for the evening. We went to Sjallin, nice club, in which the last two contest took place: singing and beer-bong competitions.

With this great song we won the singing contest!
The jury counted the points and we scored second in the whole day (we were also first in shot relay). Not bad for the first time, huh? :)

Winter is back!

2008-10-02T17:45:00.002Z

Laugafell trip attempt :P

2008-09-27T17:18:00.000Z

During last weekend we decided to go to highlands once more, to see hot springs in Laugafell and Aldeyjarfoss waterfall. We checked road conditions, the weather also seemed not bad, so we left Akureyri in the morning.

Mountain tops in snow.

Sign warning drivers, that they'll have to cross the streams on the way.

Well not only crossing, but actually flowing on the road :P

The higher we were going, the more snow was appearing.

On the top - it was starting to get really dangerous - the weather became terrible and amount of snow on the road made it almost impossible to drive on summer tires.

And as a result at this point we had to turn back.

Well, maybe we didn't see what we wanted, but I gained a lot of experience in driving and we learned that you shouldn't mess with Icelandic weather and sometimes it can be really dangerous.

Fuel Cells go to Reykjavik... again.

2008-08-18T11:53:00.001Z

Fuel Cell concentration is a bit specific and different from others, that we have here at RES. Some courses are taking place in Reykjavik, so we have to go there quite often. This time we went there for two weeks. It's good to leave small Akureyri for some time and go to the "big city" :P
On the way to Reykjavik we tried to see Glymur once again (the highest waterfall in Iceland) and we finally succeeded :D The path was quite dangerous and hard to access for a typical, lazy tourist, but as we are pretty experienced in hiking we managed to get there safe :) I also found some eatable mushrooms near the waterfall!
We spent first week mainly visiting different companies. We had some fun too, in ÍSAGA, a company which produces different types of gasses, we had a show of what liquid nitrogen can do (nitrogen ice-creams are quite tasty).
We also went to see Stokkur and Gullfoss again, this time without any hurry.
On Sunday we attended a huge festival in Reykjavik, called Reykjavik Culture Night. There were many concerts all over the city, and also one main, on a big stage, with most known Icelandic bands, such as hjaltalín and Bloodgroup. There were also many exhibitions and events connected to any kind of art. At the end there was a big fireworks show.
We spent next week on courses in University of Iceland. We had some laboratories there and we got to know some methods of how hydrogen dissolves in metals.
But besides that, we also visited some museums and galleries we didn't have chance to see before. One was really interesting, kind of "skansen", with old houses, but you could actually touch and try everything that was inside of them. So we were able to play on a good, old Nintedo in Mario Bros., try our drums skills or check how the discotheques looked like in 60-s in Iceland.
We left Reykjavik on Friday, with a huge storm and very strong wind which made driving very hard, but after 400 km we reached sunny Akureyri again.

Click here for full screen.

Climbing Súlur.

2008-08-17T16:53:00.001Z

On Sunday (with terrible hangover after the party, cheers Seba! :) ) we decided to have a hike to a peak near Akureyri - Mt. Súlur, about 1200 m over the sea level. Weather was perfect and I managed to take some good pictures. Part of the collection is also Michał K. work :)
In the slide show, there are also pictures from the week before the hike. Many things happen and most important we moved to a new dorm! Also Grand Princess, one of the biggest cruise ships in the world, came to Akureyri.

Click here for fullscreen.

Trip to the polar circle.

2008-08-04T20:50:00.001Z

We planned this trip for a long time. There is an island, about 50 km north from Akureyri, on the open sea, laying directly on the polar circle - Grímsey is it's name :P Since the ferry goes there only on week days, and we don't have any vacations or holidays, our only opportunity was 4th of August - one of Icelandic national days, free of school of course. So we packed ourselves in the cars (we were more than 30, they had a discount for big groups, quite nice one) and went to Dalvík, from where the ferry was leaving. Along the way, we spotted some dolphins jumping near the ferry. Visiting the local toilet also payed off, as I noticed that pissoirs were made in Poland :P As it occurred, not everybody was sea-sick proof, but we got to the island safe and sound.
Grímsey is very small, with population of about 100 people, it seems a bit deserted. But not people are main inhabitants of this small island, but birds. There are millions of them, majority are Puffins and Arctic Tern. We spent about 4 hours on the island, and we managed to walk almost all the way around it. There is not much there - airport, some houses, one shop, petrol station (I really don't know why they need cars out there), bar, guesthouse and a post office. But the trip was a great experience and I managed to do some nice pictures which I present to you just below:

Click here for full screen.

And small off-topic - last week we had a workshop on electrolysis in one of the high schools in Akureyri - it caused some interest from the local and national press:

Shot from the local newspaper ...

... and from Icelandic News.

Askja.

2008-07-26T23:32:00.002Z

This Saturday we went for, I think, last trip with our beloved cars. We took Askja as our destination. From the beginning we knew that it can be one of the toughest trips we had here and we weren't far from the truth as it occurred. Askja is a stratovolcano situated in a central part of Icelandic highlands. It wasn't known until enormous eruption which took place in 1875. In the center of the volcano there is a lake - Öskjuvatn - which is also the deepest lake in Iceland (about 220 meters). Next to it there is a smaller explosion crater - Viti. It's filled with rich-mineral water, but unlike Öskjuvatn, it's maintained at the comfortable temperature for swimming. The area around Askja looks like desert. Covered with black sand and pumice, it looked like a moon surface. Actually it's not only me who noticed that - NASA used it as a training ground for astronauts before Apollo missions :) Who knows maybe this "fake" shots of the moon-walking were taken there? :D
To get to Askja we had to cross some rivers, they were actually quite deep. Good that we didn't get stuck there, although we lost a car front plate on one of them :)

Click here for full screen.

Laboratory in Reykjavik & Landmannalaugar.

2008-07-24T21:12:00.004Z

This week we had visited Reykjavik again because of the laboratories we had there. I finally had an opportunity to work on a real fuel cell. After 3 days of taking measurements and testing, we had to go back to Akureyri. We decided to take a road through the interior and visit Landmannalaugar on the way. Landmannalaugar area is famous for its incredible natural beauty. Many mountains around come in all the world's colors; pink, brown, green, yellow, blue, purple, black, white and more. Although the weather wasn't perfect and the way was rough (we had to turn back and take another road, because of the river) we got there after 4 hours drive. There were many tourists there, but luckily for us, the sun started to shine and we could experience the beauty of the place. We didn't have much time there, so we left the place and took F35 road back to Akureyri.

Click here for full screen.

Weekend trips.

2008-07-13T22:34:00.009Z

Soon we are going to move to a new dorm, to the "city center" of Akureyri. RES will probably take our cars, as we won't need them anymore for transportation. That's why we decided to organize trips each weekend, to just use the opportunity, and see as much as we can.
First one last weekend (Sat. 12.07) was to Húsavík, for Whale Watching and to see Dettifoss, the mightiest waterfall in Europe. The road there is only available for cars couple of months a year, because of the mud from melting snow and rivers, which are becoming impossible to cross.
I decided to change a bit the form of my blog, it takes a lot of time to put all of those pictures directly on the site, I'll just post them as a slideshow from my Picasa web albums along with some movies I record.

Click here for full screen.

Next weekend (Sat. 19.07) we took a famous and popular F35 gravel road which connects north and south of Iceland through the interior. Nowadays it's even possible to cross it with normal 2-wheel drive car, because of the bridges they built on it. The road, which is also called Kjölur, is entirely gravel and it crosses highlands between two glaciers - Langjökull and Hofsjökull. We decided to have a hike near Langjökull glacier and after that have a barbecue and a bath in hot springs in Hveravellir.

Click here for full screen.

All the way to the West.

2008-07-07T14:56:00.001Z

We planned this trip for a long time and we were also told that this is one of the most beautiful regions in Iceland. Because of the distance, we decided to make it over 2 days in the weekend. We booked rooms in a hotel in Ísafjörður and, in the early morning on Saturday, we left our beloved dorm in Skjaldarvik.
Map of the route.

First stop on the way - farmers moved horses from one field to another.

Lunch break - by accident we stopped near, what looked like, a sheep cemetery...

Near Drangajökull glacier. If you look closer you can see a man playing piano carved in this stone. It's one of the most famous Icelandic composers.

RES jump!

On the way to a glacier.

Stop by a waterfall.

Way to Ísafjörður.

Barbecue in the hotel's garden.

Ísafjörður by night :P

Our group in front of the hotel - Sunday morning.

It was a foggy day.

Near Dynjandi waterfalls.

Airport in the middle of nowhere.

Sandy beaches :P

Látrabjarg, marks the western-most part of Europe. It hosts millions of birds, sometimes up to 40% of the world population for some species e.g. the Razorbill. It is Europe's largest bird cliff, 14km long and up to 440m high. On the picture - Atlantic Puffin - symbol of Iceland.

Puffins weren't scared of us at all, we could approach them very close.

"Cucumber" :D

On the way back we chose an "F" type road, which means it's only suitable for jeeps or cars with 4-wheel drive. We had a lot of fun there :)

Into the valley near Akureyri.

Nattura!

2008-06-30T10:50:00.008Z

On Saturday, just the day before we were about to leave we went ta a concert organized by Bjork, to focus people's attention on degrading Icelandic nature. A lot of aluminum smelters are being planned to build, therefore a big amount of energy is required to run them. To supply their huge demand, Iceland plans to build numerous dams, which can change environment forever.
But before that, we had some time to walk around Icelandic Art Gallery.

Concert.

According to organizers there were about 20 000 people there.

Sigur Rós.

Björk.

FC Reykjavik :P

A Journey to the Center of the Earth.

2008-06-27T11:51:00.011Z

On Thursday we had planned a trip to a Snæfellsjökull - glacier which is in a distance of about 190 km from Reykjavik. In sunny days you can actually see it from the city. It is one of the smallest glaciers in Iceland, but also one of the best known, because it inspired Jules Verne to write A Journey to the Center of the Earth.
On the way we stopped at some interesting sites - one of them was Eldborg - a small volcano crater. Walk from parking to the top took us about 40 min.

On the top.

Some rock structures - it's hard to believe that all of this was created by nature!

Near a glacier.

Hellnar - we stopped there to see the cliffs on the coast.

There was a nice cafe on the beach.

Way to a glacier.

We tried to go as far as we could - in the summer the cracks in the ice are opening and it becomes dangerous.

Hmm, remember Jurassic Park? Maybe it still has a blood of some dinosaur :P

One of the cracks - they're quite deep...

Glacier from various sides.

Way back to Reykjavik.

Mars?

We made a short stop on a wish-fulfill hill. To wish become true you had to walk there without saying a word, you couldn't turn back and you had to say your wishes on the top facing east.

View from the hill.

Looong Days in Reykjavik.

2008-06-25T21:50:00.002Z

Conference has started and on one of the breaks we decided to check some unexplored areas of Reykjavik surroundings. We ended up in some park, looking for some caves but no luck in finding them :P

Polish presence is felt everywhere - cheers for the heroes who came with this car here :)

Midnight in Reykjavik - sun never goes down.

National Museum of Iceland - close to the conference building. Very good organized and also very interesting. I wish all museums were like this one!

Around Reykjanes Peninsula.

2008-06-21T16:42:00.001Z

During our stay in Reykjavik we spent three nights in Keilir base in Keflavik, the same in which we stayed during Study Tour. This allowed us to explore Reykjanes Peninsula better than before. The pictures are from various trips during this few days.
This is Mid-Point - the place in which North Atlantic Continental Plate meet European Plate. As you probably know, Iceland lays on 2 continental plates, that's why it has such a high geothermal, seismic and volcanic activity.

Steam discharge near south-west end of peninsula. It emitted a strange, base-like sound, like the devil was speaking to you :D

Cliffs on south-west end.

Tomek in the steam :P He was actually running from birds which defended their nests :)

This is the trip from summer school - lake Kleifarvatn. It slowely started to disappear because of the crack that was created as a result of a so called "silent earthquake". Now the situation stabilized and the water level almost returned to its normal state.

Mud pools.

"Brithest mind of the 21st century"...

Blue Lagoon - this time the weather was a lot better and I had opportunity to take more pictures.

Þorbjarnarfell - on 21st of June, longest day of the year, there is a tradition of a walk from Grindavík to Þorbjarnarfell hill and than to Blue Lagoon. On the hill Icelanders sing traditional songs and have a fireplace. We decided to take a part in this unique event :D

Back to Reykjavik!

2008-06-17T14:38:00.001Z

After the exams mine concentration (Fuel Cells) was supposed to start next course in Reykjavik with Summer School and International Conference on Materials for Hydrogen Storage. We left Akureyri after the lunch and took Ring road to Reykjavik.

There is a tunnel under one of the fjords near Reykjavik, which makes the trip much shorter, but we decided to take a longer rout to see Iceland's highest waterfall Glymur.

Icelandic bank?

Abandoned farm near the waterfall.

Crossing the river.

We didn't have a map of the area so we took a wrong turn by mistake :D That's why we just saw waterfall from some distance :P

Instead of the waterfall we climbed one of the nearby hills - the view was breath taking.

Crossing the stream this way was easier, but on the other way I got a bit wet :P On the picture Tomek "The Jumper".

In the farm.

After the first day of school we went to see artificial beach in Reykjavik. They're pumping hot geothermal water into the bay so that the temperature is not so low. "Almost" like Spain.

The beach is next to the domestic airport.

On the top of Perlan.

Grill Your Exams!

2008-06-16T14:04:00.000Z

Exam period started and we were still thinking about Study Tour we had for previous 2 weeks. We came up with the idea to make a BBQ party after the exams to, sort of, officially finish 1st semester. We decided to invite also RES staff and their families. But before that there was beginning of EURO 2008 and the first match, which Poland played, was on Sunday evening. This interrupted a bit with our dinner so we made a fast pizza instead of 3 course meal we usually had.

When we came back from Study Tour, first cruise ships arrived in Akureyri.

Preparation for "Grill Your Exams" event.

Actual party.

Don Birek :P

Fireplace we did - we gathered wood from the fjord as Iceland has almost no trees :P

Just day before we were to leave to Reykjavik, me and 4 other guys went to the sailing club to do some kayaking. Despite big waves and strong wind we had some fun. Of course I finished in the water finally, but luckily we had our wet suits on.

Study Tour - Golden Circle & Biofuels

2008-06-05T17:03:00.000Z

Today we went to a trip called "Golden Circle". It focuses on the beautiful area east of Reykjavik and includes Þingvellir National Park, Geysir and Gullfoss waterfall.
Map for last two days.

Þingvellir National Park- it's one of Iceland's most important historical sites. The parliament was founded here around 930 AD and assembled each summer until the end of the 13th century. After that time it's functioned as a court of law until 1798. Many important events took place here, such as adoption of Christianity in 1000 AD, and the foundation of modern Iceland republic in 1944. In 2004 it was added into a UNESCO World Heritage List. The natural environment of Þingvellir is unique in the world. It lies on the junction of two tectonic plates on the Mid Atlantic Ridge which is more clearly visible here than anywhere else in the world.

Suicidal jump over the "river" :P

Geysir, the oldest known geyser in the world. Unfortunatley it's not active anymore, but in the years of the greatest activity it shot water on the hight of 60 meters. It now errupts only with earthquakes - last time during the big earthquake near Reykjavik - it shot water on 45 m.
On the picture, Stokkur, another geyser, just few meters from Geysir. It shoots water on the hight of 20 m, but does it really frequently - about every 5-10 mins.

Geysir - now inactive.

Stokkur shooting water on 20 m.

Gullfoss - one of the most popular and most beautiful waterfalls in the country.

Way back to Reykjavik.

After the trip we went for a walk around Keilir - former USAF-NATO base. The base was huge and in the most "busy" moment there were 8000 soldiers there. Now there are plans to utilize facilities of the base for Research and Developement Industry.

In the evening we had a quick trip to Garðskagi which is a lighthouse at the nort-west end of Reykjanes Peninsula.

There was a broken window in the lighthouse so we just went inside and climbed to the top :P

Last day was really boring - we spent most of the time in some biofuel companies, the rest travelling back to Akureyri so there is not much to write here :)

I think it was a great expirience and now I can really say that I saw some part of Iceland.

Study Tour - Geothermal and Hydrogen Companies

2008-06-03T18:21:00.000Z

We started from visiting ISOR which is an Icelandic drilling company. They are also partly funding RES School.
Map for next two days.

After short introduction in the company we went to see a drilling place near Nesjavellir geothermal power plant.

It was a unique opportunity, because normally nobody is allowed next to a drilling machine - it's very dangerous due to possibility of sudden steam blowout.

Diesel engines which run the drill.

Operators room. The guide told us that operators usually have to be very good at console games :P

Next to a working drill :D

The next day we went to University of Iceland for a lecture about ongoing research that takes place there for finding new materials for hydrogen storage. We also had a small tour around the laboratories.

Iceland Center of Innovation - one of our cooridnators is a general director there.

:)

Hydrogen refueling station in Reykjavik. It's the only one in Iceland and one of the few in Europe. It was used to refill hydrogen buses but now it's mainly used for small passenger cars - there are about 12 in Reykjavik. You can actually rent one in Hertz rental cars.

After that we went for two hours to walk around downtown of Reykjavik.

Hot dog stand - Bæjarins beztu pylsur - which in English means: Best hot-dogs in town. Among famous people who have eaten at Bæjarins beztu are Bill Clinton, former president of the United States, and James Hetfield from Metallica.

Convenient way to transport beer :D

Exhibition of Viggo Mortensen's photos in Iceland Gallery of Photography.

This was another exhibition, also very interesting.

Beer brake.

Study Tour - Trip to Hekla

2008-06-01T14:48:00.009Z

Long time no speak :) Well, I'm having conference now in Reykjavik and also some problems with Internet access, so I wasn't able to update my blog. I hope I'll still be able to catch up :)
After the trip around Reykjanes peninsula we decided to organize something by ourselves.
We chose the surroundings of Hekla volcano and decided to leave early in the morning. As I came back at around 5 o'clock to the dorm I had only 2 hours of sleep, so I had to take a nap in the car on the way.
Map of the trip (click to zoom).

Short stop next to a small river.

Hekla is a stratovolcano with a height of 1,488 m. It is Iceland's most active volcano; over 20 outbreaks have occurred in and around the volcano since 874. During the Middle Ages, Icelanders called the volcano the "Gateway to Hell."
Last eruption took place in February 2000. During this eruption, a NASA DC-8 plane accidentally flew through the plume with all instruments switched on, resulting in unprecedented measurement of a young volcanic plume.
The next eruption is believed by locals to be due some time in mid to late 2008, so maybe we'll get lucky :D
View on Hekla volcano.

Þjófafoss waterfall on Þjórsa river near volcano.

Quick lunch before hiking.

Refilling bottle with a fresh water from the spring.

Small "forest" near a lava field.

Walking with a strong wind in the face, exhausted and starving we reached top of the hill :P

Panorama from the top.

Our team resting on a lava field covered with some kind of a grass - soft as a carpet :)

On the way back.

Study Tour - Reykyanes Peninsula

2008-05-31T22:03:00.002Z

In the morning we left Keilir, the former USAF military base, and went to visit a geothermal power plant called Svartsengi.
Map - click to zoom.

Svartsengi power plant is located on the Reykjanes peninsula. It currently produces 76.5 MW of electricity, and about 475 liters/second of 90 °C hot water. Surplus mineral rich water from the plant fills up a nearby lake and popular tourist bathing resort Bláa Lónið (Blue Lagoon), which we visited in the evening.

After the visit we went for a trip around peninsula. This photos are taken on the far south-west end, near Reykjanes.

Take a wild guess what is this white stuff on the rock ;)

Next stop was a High School in Keflavik, in which father of Arnbjörn works as a headmaster. As I'm computer engineer, I took a closer look on the computers they had there. And well, for a High School it's not bad ;)
Server room.

All students can use laptop computers.

On the classes of technology, one group of students had to construct a fuel cell remote controlled car. I wish we had this kind of exercises in schools in Poland...

We also visited Arnbjörn's mother studio - she's a painter :)

In the evening we went to Blue Lagoon - one of the most known tourist attractions in this area. Blue Lagoon was actually an environmental disaster. It was made of the waste water from nearby geothermal power plant, which was supposed to soak down into the ground, but instead, it stayed on the top. As people were coming more and more to this "artificial lake", some business men thought of creating a spa resort here with swimming pool and clinic. They now even produce their own line of cosmetics and some pharmaceutics.

In the night (of course it wasn't dark) we went to Reykjavik with a group of guys to have some fun :).

Study Tour - from Höfn to Reykjavik

2008-05-30T00:23:00.002Z

We left Höfn in the morning and head west along road 1 which is kind of ring road for Iceland because it circles whole island.
The map - click to zoom :)

The first stop was Jökulsárlón - best known and the largest of glacial lakes in Iceland. The lake is filled with icebergs, which are calving off the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier.

We spotted a seal swimming in the lake.

Next stop was Skaftafell National Park. We had an about 1.5 hour walk with a guide there.

Glacier in the back :)

They actually filmed "Batman Begins" in that location :D

Vik, one of the towns we stopped by on the way. They had Vínbúð opened only for an hour during the day, but we got there on time luckily :D

Skógafoss - an impressive waterfall, I just love them here in Iceland :D

Notice the face-like rock looking in the direction of a waterfall :)

Seagulls have their nest in the rocks surrounding the waterall.

Another waterfall on the way - Seljanalusfoss. You were actually able to walk beind it - amazing expirince :D

After that we went to a ghost center in Stokkseyri. Wasn't really scary though, but beer was included in the price ;). We left our bus in Reykjavik, took 3 cars and went to Keflavik, Keilr - old USAF base for a sleep. We were to stay there another 6 days.

Study Tour - Kárahnjúkar dam, way to Höfn

2008-05-29T22:57:00.002Z

Fourth day began from a visit to a biggest power plant in Iceland - Kárahnjúkar dam - hydro power plant which supports Alcoa aluminum smelter with electricity.
Map of the trip (click to zoom).

On the way we spotted a group of reindeers. Reindeers are not originally from Iceland - they were "imported" from Greenland to enrich the island with new species.

Kárahnjúkar dam - the reservoir was still frozen.

The dam. On the place they had to build 3 dams, divided by one big hill. An island was also created in the middle of the reservoir, which before was a mountain :)

Me, Tomek, David Dvorak - our Fuel Cells coordinator and Kasia.

They also build additional small dams to support water supply to a power plant.

This is the way back - you can see Lagarfljót lake in the background. It's surrounded by the biggest forest in Iceland, which they don;t have many anyways ;)

Visitors center.

Power house - it's inside the mountain, we got there driving inside with the bus. It's in some distance from the dam. All the water for the turbines is supplied through a tunnel drilled in hard rocks which has a length of about 40 km!

Access tunnel.

After the visit we went all the way to the south to Höfn for a dinner and sleep after a long day. Views on the way were amazing, but unfortunately it was raining almost all the time, so I couldn't make good photos.

Study Tour - Alcoa Fjarðaál, Egilsstaðir

2008-05-28T01:44:00.001Z

Previous night was the last one spent in Skjaldarvik during this tour. In the morning we left Akureyri and went east through flatland, which rather seamed like desert sometimes, with density of 2 people per 100 km. After that we reached a beautiful valley, which lead us to a city called Egilsstaðir. We were to spend a night there, but before that we had a vist to a newly build (by Polish workers of course) aluminium smelter.
Map of the trip (click to zoom).

Valley on the way.

Alcoa aluminium smelter is located in Reydarfjordur. It's powered entirely by hydro power plant and consumes about 570 MW of energy. It's really huge. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I took some from the outside.

Safety first!

After the visit we went back to Egilsstaðir to take a quick bath in a swimming pool and have a small reception and dinner at Mannvit company. Then we went to a place where we spent the night. It was a camping place with small cottages near a lake.

Study Tour - Mývatn, Krafla

2008-05-27T17:53:00.000Z

Second day of the trip also began in Skjaldarvik. In plans we had a visit to Krafla power plant near Mývatn lake and surrounding areas.
Map of the trip (click to zoom).

On the way.

Skútustaðagigar - pseudo-craters around the pond Stakhólstjörn. They were formed when eruption occurred in wet areas or around the lakes.

Sheep run freely around the place :)

Boys band near one of the volcanoes in the area.

One of the geothermal power stations.

Mud pools.

Steam discharge near Krafla power plant. The noise was horrible, without ear plugs it was impossible to stay there longer than 5 seconds.

View on Krafla.

On the drilling site.

Turbine in the power plant. We got there during the meintanance time, so we had an unique opportunity to have a look on the things that usually are covered.

After that we went for a walk to a volcanic site close to the power plant. The erruption that occured here in 70's delayed the opening of Krafla by couple of years. Landscape here was very unusual, I felt like I were on the moon :)

As you can see life is slowly comming back on these grounds.

On the way back we stopped for a small bath in Mývatn swimming pools. Quite nice experience, but expensive - good that RES paid everything :P
Way back - sunset near Akureyri.

Study Tour - Húsavík, Ásbyrgi

2008-05-26T09:56:00.002Z

Our plan for the first day was to see greenhouses and Kalina power plant next to Husavik, fish farm in Silfurstjarnan in Öxarfjördur, Ásbyrgi canyon and Húsavík itself. The trip started at 9.00.

Here's a map from the first day (click to zoom).

View on Akureyri from the other side of the Fjord.

Bee house in one of the Greenhouses in Reykjahverfi.

Geothermal spot next to greenhouses.

Lunch break near small lake.

Kalina power plant not far from Húsavík.

Húsavík surroundings.

North Iceland.

Fish farm in Silfurstjarnan in Öxarfjördur.

Ásbyrgi canyon - part of a National Park. It was created by water melting from a glacier, which coused an enormous flood thousands years ago. Because of the hill in the middle it has a funny, horseshoe shape. At the end of the canyon there is a nice, small waterfall. Also, many birds set up their nest on the cliffs surounding the canyon. Really, when you're there you feel like in Jurrasic Park :)

Húsavík - small town with about 2000 people, but one of the biggest in north Iceland. Mainly, inhabitants live from fishing, but also tourism. Whale watching is one of the main attractions, but in the world Húsavík is known because of Phallus museum situated there. It has a biggest collection of penises of all kinds of animals in the world. They miss a crucial one - human, but the owner already have two donnors, who offered their "organs" for the museum. The funny thing was that the owner opened the museum espacially for us, we just had to call him - this is Iceland :)

The owner and his phone :D

Signing the guest book.

Sperm whale penis - 170 cm long :D

Húsavík.

French dinner.

2008-05-25T20:18:00.000Z

Just a quick post before I start with a study tour. Last Sunday before our 2 weeks break we had French dinner. Here are some pictures from it :)
Tomek and tarta with apples.

French onion soup.

Quiche - two types - Lorraine and Provence.

And Nice salad.
Next - study tour. I'll try to do it as fast as I can :)

Art week.

2008-05-17T21:16:00.000Z

Couple of weeks ago I promised to write something about distribution of alcohol in Iceland so here it is. The only place you can buy "normal" alcohol in Iceland is, so called, Vínbúð. It's a company owned by ÁTVR, which is a government company, who has a monopoly on the sale of alcoholic beverages in Iceland.
Iceland has very high taxes on alcohol. Tax rates in stores are not a percentage of price, but are proportionate to the alcohol content.
Usually there is only one of this kinds of stores in each city (maybe besides Reykjavik), so on Friday evening it can be pretty crowded there.
Besides Vínbúð you can always buy alcohol in pubs, clubs and restaurants, but it's even more expensive.
Vínbúð in Akureyri.

Later on this week there was an opening of a new exibition in Akureyri gallery. Mainly, there was a presentation of some work from Chineese artists. Some of the paintings:

On the bienalle there were many officials, president of Iceland was one of them. I had an opportunity to speak to him :)

Later on there was time for some refreshments.

Some pictures from my walk in the evening.

As promised - our Sundays dinner - Italian cuisine.
Minestrone soup.

Spinach lasagna and mozzarella salad.

Tiramisu.

Group eating.

Next week - french cuisine.

WE Knights!

2008-05-13T14:19:00.014Z

Last 2 weeks were sort of a "party weekends" type. We had a second party at our deans place (I mentioned it in the last post) and the week after we went to a concert of Echoes - a cover band of Pink Floyd's. They were actually pretty good, far from original, but they were trying to keep the atmosphere of old time Pink Floyd kind-of-show concerts (lasers, movie clips in the back and so on).

On the way to Dr. Björn Gunnarsson's house (our dean).

Our dean in action ;)

The Mist - if you haven't seen the movie - don't watch it :P

The concert.

A week ago there was a goodbye party for international students from university (mainly Erasmus), of course RES students were also invited. It occurred, as usual, that we were the biggest group there, because most of the International students were already gone. Free beer, a lot of fun, and way back home at 4 A.M. :)

9 th of May - middle of spring, beginning of the summer some says - not in Iceland. There was a quite big snowfall, and we had a bit of taste of old-time Icelandic winter again :P I'm wondering, how many times it'll happen again...

Pictures made with waterproof camera - well not water proof anymore :P

As I promised - our Sundays dinner. We aimed on making it typical Greek meal - well it finished with more Balkans cuisine, but you can get most of this stuff in Greek restaurants too.
Pictures are not made by me (I was so busy of making the food, that I forgot to take pictures :P), but they're not far from the way it looked on our plates.

Ćevapčići - our appetizer. A Balkan dish made of grilled minced meat.

Tzatziki - made of strained yoghurt — in Greece and Turkey usually sheep's-milk or goat's-milk yoghurt — to which are added cucumbers (either pureed and strained or seeded and finely diced), garlic, salt and usually olive oil, sometimes vinegar, and dill, parsley or mint. Olive oil, olives, and herbs are often used as garnishes as well.

Moussaka - a traditional eggplant (aubergine)-based dish in the Balkans and the Middle East, but most closely associated with Greece and Turkey. The Greek version, which is the best-known outside the region, traditionally consists of layers of ground (minced) lamb or red meat, sliced eggplant and tomato, topped with a white sauce and baked. For our purpose, we had to use zucchini instead of eggplant, because of lack of this vegetable in our wonderful store - Bonus.

Greek Salad - doesn't require explanation I think :)

Of course we had also a dessert - great cake made by Kriszta :)
Next week - Italian food :)
Cheers!

Hydropower trip.

2008-05-05T10:19:00.003Z

Last week we had a course in Hydropower. Since 1st of May is also free here, RES planned for us a trip to a hydro power plant, about 60 km east of Akureyri. Supplied with a lot of sandwiches for a lunch, we got our asses in the vans and left to the power plant. The weather wasn't bad, but you can still see snow everywhere here, I think it'll never disappear.
The power plant wasn't so big and it's not operating on full capacity, because of the problems with buying the land from local farmers. Some of the space inside became a sort of exhibition area, so there were many sculptures all over the place.
One of them here :)

Some part of the power plant was underground.

Sir, yes sir!

Turbine.

Green grass!

Generator outside.

Power plant from the outside.

Dam.

On Saturday we had a party at our dean's house (imagine that in Poland to have a party with your dean :P) - as well as the previous one this one was also great.
Also, I have an idea - since we have a 6-8 people group of hardcore cookers, every week on Sunday we prepare a dinner to escape from Universities Cafeteria routine. I decided that I'm gonna put some recipes of the food we're eating. This Sunday we had a bit of taste of Spanish cuisine - tortilla batata, rolls with dates and bacon and orange - asparagus salad. Next Sunday it's gonna be some Greek stuff. Stay tuned!

Reykjavik - the nightlife capital of the north.

2008-05-03T14:13:00.022Z

Finally we had an opportunity to leave small Akureyri and visit Reykjavik - the famous nightlife capital of North! I have to mention, that we'll (and personally me) have more occasions to see that city in the next few months thanks to the study tour we'll have at the end of may, and two weeks course that'll take place in Reykjavik at the end of June.
The main purpose of this trip was to attend NAHA (North Atlantic Hydrogen Association) conference about Hydrogen. The conference was a part of our course in Fuel Cells, which is quite important to me, because this is what I'm going to be involved in for the next 2 semesters.
First let's see where Reykjavik is:

Reykjavik is the capital of Iceland, and it's biggest city as well. With a population of 119,000, it is the heart of Iceland's economic and governmental activity. Today, Reykjavík is the centre of the Greater Reykjavík Area which, with a population of 200,000, is the only metropolitan area in Iceland. As a highly modernized capital of one of the most developed countries in the world, its inhabitants enjoy a first-class welfare system and city infrastructure. Its location, only slightly south of the Arctic Circle, receives only four hours of daylight per day in the depth of winter; during the summer the nights are almost as bright as the days. It has continued to see population growth in past years as well as growth in areas of commerce and industry. (More here) :)

So let the photo story begins!
Before we left, I tried some tricks on a new-found scooter.

Picture of the group in front of the Air Iceland plane in AKureyri.

The flight.

Iceland from above...

...and Reykjavik from above.

Hydrogen and plug-in vehicles in front of the conference building.

Fuel Cell A-Class - $900 000.

Reva - electric car.

Inside the building.

Foucault pendulum (PL & ENG description) in the building. It is named after the French physicist Léon Foucault and was conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth.

Conference hall.

After the whole day of presentations there was a time for some "refreshments". As you can see, some people joined us only for that.

Brand new hydrogen refueling station :P

Perlan (English: The Pearl) - a landmark building in Reykjavik. At the beginning there were hot storage tanks there but in 1991 the tanks were updated and a hemispherical structure placed on top. On the fifth floor there is a fancy restaurant in which we had our dinner. The rotating floor does a complete turn in two hours. It offers a good view of Reykjavik and the nearby areas.

Some statues in front of the restaurant.

Interior.

View from the viewing deck.

After a great dinner we went to the city to have some fun. Reykjavik is really a "party city". There are so many clubs, pubs and cafes there, that everybody can find something for him/herself.

Walk back to the hotel - 4 A.M.

After-party :P

In the morning there was a launch of the first ship that used Fuel Cell to generate electricity on the board. It was a small unit used by the local company for whale watching.
Surroundings of Reykjavik.

Höfði - house built in 1909. Initially, it was the house of the French consul in Iceland. It was the place of the Iceland Summit when Reagan and Gorbachev met in 1986.

Sad rock :(

Sólfar, made by Jon Gunnar Arnason.

Harbor.

The only locomotive and rails in Iceland.

Whale watching boat.

Hydrogen refueling station.

During the test ride.

Fuel Cell displayed under the deck.

Captain on the bridge!

View on Reykjavik.

After the boat-ride we had an opportunity to test-drive FC cars again.

Segway - this is really cool :D

After that we had a presentation about the first Fuel Cell powered car, Ford 999, that joined the 200 miles club in Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The lecture was given by Scott Stanley, the Chief Engineer of Fuel Cell Vehicle Technology Development in Ford Company.
"Trzech Czarnych Orłów" :P

Some random pictures from Reykjavik.

After entire day I was so exhausted that I felt asleep 5 second after I boarded the plane.

What can I say - Reykjavik is a great city and I can't wait to get back there!

Spring in Iceland!

2008-04-20T13:22:00.013Z

Yep, that's right, although it's hard to believe it actually exists here! But first things first. Last update was like 3 weeks ago, so there's a lot of things to catch up with. After the Easter break, we had really hard time in the school, but we managed to do other activities as well. We had a small meeting in one of the banks organized by the students union, visit in local brewery, we also had an excursion around Akureyri connected to our course - Geothermal Energy. Of course we had also some parties, and finally, I was able to go snowboarding!

After the bank event we went to cafe Akureyri for karaoke and poker game. As usual, party afterwards :)

The day after, we went to a brewery - Vfilfell. It's the biggest one in Iceland. I don't know if you're aware of that, but making beer was forbidden in Iceland until 1989! The brewery makes normal beers, as well as so called Jolabjör and Paskabjör, beers available only during Christmas and Easter. The company itself also makes sodas, mineral water and imports wines.
Buying alcohol in Iceland is not a very easy thing, but I'll write about that in the next post maybe.
We had a guide, who told us the story behind the beer production in Iceland, and also showed us the production line.

During our geothermal course, we had a small excursion. We went around Akureyri to see how they supply city with the heat. Our guide was a worker from a company named Norðurorka, which means "North Energy" and supplies Akureyri and surrounding villages with heat and electricity.
As you can see from the pictures, spring has finally come!

The oldest control panel in the world :P Our guide looked like a serial killer to me ;)

I finally managed to find some time to go snowboarding - after the classes me & Magda went to the slope near Akureyri. The price 1600 kr. for renting a gear + 1100 kr. for a ski pass didn't discourage me. It could've been the last opportunity to do some winter sports this season!

Luckily the weather was still great on Saturday, so we decided to go again, this time for longer time and bigger group :)

From left: Petr - Czech Rep., Me, Sebastian - Germany, Tomek - Poland.

Glider between the mountains.

Best driver ever!

As you can see, we got some suntan :)

Fireworks near our dorm, don't ask me about the occasion :P

Other pictures:
Our board. We write everything there - from important announcements to completely bullshit.

As my hair grew to enormous size, I had to get it cut finally. Barber, as everything, is extremely expensive in Iceland. Luckily, we have some experienced :P hairdressers in our group, so for 2 beers I had my haircut done :)

Our new inhabitant :P

Gaming corner.

We had also some visits from authorities.
Polish consul.

Icelandic Minister of Industry.

Extreme sleeping position.

That would be all. Next post will be about Reykjavik. We're going there for a conference on Hydrogen.

Happy Easter pt. 2

2008-03-28T17:05:00.020Z

Second part of Easter stuff - a bit late, but it's better than never :D

On Friday the weather was awesome, but since we had a sports hall booked, we decided not to go anywhere. After some matches in volleyball and football, we chilled out in the swimming pool. I didn't see it during the day yet, cause we always go there in the evening.

After that we had a dinner in a restaurant near the city center. We decided to dress up nice, because most of us bought a lot of suits on the sale in one of the shops (they were like 1000 ISK each which is less than 10 E).

Snow man in the center.

On Saturday we wanted to go for the trip again, but, as usual, we had no luck with the weather.
We got a nice RES Toyota Prius for us to drive during the holidays. I had some luck to test it :)

Small church about 4 km from our dorm.

On Sunday we had an official Polish Easter breakfast. Tomek made a delicious Żurek from some bags we bought in local Polish / Croatian store :)

Easter eggs.

In the afternoon we had a trip to Laufas & Kaldbakur. Laufas is an old Icelandic farm. We had an opportunity to go inside the buildings in which Icelanders lived not longer than 60 years ago. And now it's the country of the highest standard of living in the world...

The next stop was the Kaldbakur mountain. Its peak is at the altitude of 1140 m. above the sea level. It doesn't seem much, but the ocean is just couple of km from the mountain and it looks absolutely amazing. First we got to the top by the cats (ratrak in Polish).

The weather was beautiful and the view was breathtaking.

But the best part waited for us at the end. We had to go down sliding with plastic sledges. Since I didn't predict that part, I was completely unprepared for that in terms of clothes. The result was that I got completely wet when I got to the bottom.

Toi Toi in the middle of nowhere.

After exhausting day we had a barbecue accompanied with a lot of beers. We finished with a round of poker - playing for a real money is pretty cool :)

Happy Easter pt. 1

2008-03-21T01:04:00.015Z

Finally we have a break from school longer than 2 days!! We're trying to get as much from it as we can (a lot of sleep!). Unfortunately whether doesn't like to cooperate with us in this matter...
Our break started on Tuesday. Arnbjörn, our Director of International Relations came back from Mexico, and brought us some "presents" which we had to consume immediately :P So we had a small party in our beloved living room. Here are some pictures:

As you can see we got ourselves a nice projector! We're watching huge amounts of movies here, so it's gonna be used very often. We just finished watching "Californication" - small TV Series with David Duchovny, I highly recommend it!

On Wednesday we wanted to go skiing, but it started to rain, so we changed our plans for a swimming pool. The next day we planned a nice trip to the North of Akureyri, but again whether didn't allow us to fulfill the plan :P

Our driver didn't care about the road much, as he couldn't see a shit anyway...

Again we had to change the plans, so we decided to finally go skating. There is a big skating hall near Akureyri, and they have students discounts, so we made a quick decision, and after the lunch everybody was ready for some ice experience.

Typical outfit for this kind of weather here...

Skating hall - well, I don't actually remember when was the last time when I was skating, so it means > 10 years, but it's like with riding a bike I think. After couple of tries, I finally got it and we decided to play a small hokey match with a group of 10-year old kids. Well, needless to say, they bit the shit out of us ;)

Speaking of sports, I don't think I mentioned that, but we have a opportunity to go to the sport hall once a week. We fight hard sometimes, but always fair :P After that, we usually relax ourselves in a nice swimming pool next to the hall.

Typical for me - cramp.

Heineken commercial...

One evening we made a small golf course in the living room.

Other pictures:

This one is from the trip guys had one day, it's about 8 km from our dorm, one of the drivers decided to drive on the beach... well he dug himself up in the sand, and as the water was coming closer and closer to the van, it started to be scary. Finally they found a farmer with a huge tractor to get them out of there.

A morning before one of the exams.

Night - near the dorm.

Nice...

And some artistic stuff :P

Trip to Mývatn.

2008-03-12T11:09:00.016Z

So we had this trip on Saturday. Forecasts weren't so good the day before, but we decided to go anyway. As it occurred later, Icelandic forecast sucks :) We planned to go to Godafoss - the waterfall of gods first, then visit Dimmuborgir - which is the area created after the eruption of volcano. The Norwegian melodic black metal band Dimmu Borgir took its name from this place. Later we went to see a part of Mývatn lake. It was created by a large eruption 2300 years ago. It's very shallow, mostly 2-3 meters deep. During the winter most of its part is frozen. It's also surrounded by many volacnos. At the end we wanted to go to Dettifoss - the biggest waterfall in Europe, but as i t occurred later the road was closed because of snow, so we finished watching snowmobile competition :)

Our team - we took 2 cars = 18 people (one is missing on the photo).

Restaurant near Godafoss - as you can see weather was better than they said in the forecasts.

Godafoss - waterfall of gods.

On the way to Mývatn - motor bike racing on the frozen lake.

Dimmuborgir - satans fortress :P

Gates to hell!

Geothermal power plant.

Hot muds near Mývatn.

Snowmobile competition.

Back of our truck after the trip...

Other pictures:

Putting competition :P.

We recycle!

Dr Dean Abrahamson on the dinner in our dorm. I chose the wine :P

Dr Paulo Ferrao during the classes.

Working hard or hardly working?

Our small gym, I'm there at least 3 times a week :D

More pictures.

2008-02-25T11:21:00.010Z

Time for a small update. Pictures are from almost all three weeks of me being here. I got some stuff from my friends, so I'm putting it here.

First the small night trip we had on Saturday.
View from other side of the fjord on Akureyri.

Me and guys.

Our dorm from different angle.

Some of the local specialities. Yummy...

We tried also the famous Icelandic shark... You have to drink it with special kind of Brandy called Black Death. Otherwise, it's kind of hard to swallow this shit :P

I love RES :P

Most popular beers in Iceland.

Some night pictures from around the dorm.

And again Northern Lights :)

Some photos from classes and other stuff.

2008-02-13T20:40:00.012Z

Some of you asked me to write also in English, so, as I am very lazy person :P, from now on, I'll be posting only in English.
The classes have finally started - 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours after the lunch. First subject is with some American guy, he's kind of old :P, but his classes are also interesting. I don't feel so tired after them, as I usually felt in Poland. We got our first project to do - we have to describe energy situation of one of the countries - it's India for me... Classroom is well equipped in all kinds of stuff, and the chairs are very comfortable, you can only dream of this conditions in Poland. I don't have much time for more details now :P So let's see some pictures.

First the classroom.

Dorms of the University of Akureyri.

This is the cheapest beer we could find :D

And finally - beautiful Northern Lights :)

Some new photos.

2008-02-10T18:45:00.006Z

It's time for a small update. Pictures are from Friday and Saturday. A lot of things happened from the last time. We tried the famous Icelandic shark (horrible experience), some smoked lamb (surprisingly good), first parties are already behind us, we were at the open swimming pool, we locked our keys in the room etc. :) On Saturday there was also an official opening of RES School, all the students are finally here. There is not much photos though, you know, I'm lazy, and i prefer to have fun than make pictures. Besides that, we have a guy who's doing great pictures and has a quite good camera, so maybe later there will be more stuff to put on here. But let's get to the point.
There are no pictures from Thursday, cause my camera stayed the whole day locked in my room.

My kingdom :P

And here is the swimming pool - it was about +1 outside, the temperature of the water varied between 29 - 47 degrees, depend on the pool. There was also a nice steambath :). It was funny anyway.

Sausage party in jacuzzi :P

Hardcore porn...

Some pictures from the bus trip around the town - panorama of Akureyri.

Official opening of the school - a lot of speeches, VIPs (Minister of Education for instance), drinks and food. Quite a good day :D Of course there was a party afterward.

See You :)

Trip around the dorm :)

2008-02-06T15:18:00.007Z

The Dorm.

This is what I see from my window.

Kitchen - has everything you need :)

Living Room.

There are three corridors like this.

Tires of our car - without spikes you can hardly drive here :)

Rise and shine.

2008-02-06T14:25:00.008Z

So, I got up and this is what I saw...

It's nice here :)

University of Akureyri

Our ride. You can't lock it, but they said they don't steal here. Maybe there's not enough Poles here yet.

Fjord near Akureyri.

View on the town.

So here I am!

2008-02-06T11:20:00.007Z

So I'm finally in Iceland. I took like 4 flights today, so I didn't have much time to make some photos. When I got to Akureyri it was already dark, then they took us for the dinner and It was hard to shoot any photos :P
Here we go:

Airport in Copenhagen.

And this is Keflavik. Don't ask what is this sculpture...

On the way from Keflavik to Reykjavik. Kind of a desert landscape...

Birds eye view on Reykjavik :P

This was our plane. At the end we had some tough moments :P

Akureyri International Airport - they said it's the hardest winter since 1998...