Kva ho Ragnhild Rostrup driv på med

Vopnafjörður in East Iceland, Yet again! All sheep be afraid, very afraid....

Let us explore the stages of remoteness in Iceland

1. To Icelanders, Reykjavik is obviously the Mekka of civilisation, and not very remote at all..

2. The second stage is beyond knife and fork.  You have now travelled away from Reykjavik and ended up in an area where you can happily eat with your fingers.  people in these areas do not really care how you eat your food.

3. The last stage is beyond underpants.  You are now very far away from civilisation, so far away that nobody is about and you can just stroll around naked and enjoy the rain lashing down on your naked butt.

Anyway, I am in Scotland now, finished my building job in Iceland yesterday and brought a bottle of redwine with me to drink in the lunch-hour. mmmm.  I am in the airport now awaiting my bus to Fort William. sweet!

Got to Fort William, but in Glasgow airport I got very hungry and since I had finished all my skyr (icelandic yoghurt stuff), I started cutting into my Icelandic blood pudding whilst I was waiting for the bus.. ooooh, what a sight. This strange woman sitting on her tattered backpack and slicing a fatty blood sausage with her dirty knife. Mmmm nice. But it was just the protein kick I needed. excellent. Gorging on blood, fat and ryeflour. I actually quite like slátur, but unfortunately I cannot get any whey (mysa) to put it in..

I am just on my way to hitchike to the ferryport Mallaig now (80km).  I am checking the internet in the local library where to my surprise I had an unexpected overdue-bill. DAMN!  But the weather is excellent, sunshine and about 16°C. Green leaves on all the trees. yup.

Is in fact sandals.  I stupidly left my hikingboots behind at work and started hitchiking north towards Vopnafjörður. 

I spent the night by Akureyri and hitchiked further the next day.  Snow, cold and miserable. It was -2 and windy. I was wearing skirt and sandals. Very stupid. I think I should know by now what the icelandic weather can be like.  I was lucky though, I found a nice petrol-pump that I could hide behind at Laugar and get away from the terribly cold wind and I hid behind a hill at another junction and flagged a car down out of desperation and cold.  I got to Vopnafjörður in the end and met up with my excellent lovely superb slaughterfriend Anna. She is working at a farm with sheep, Mmmmmmmmm. I watched them mark the sheep by burning numbers into their horns.  All my clothes had the same smell as the sheephouse afterwards. We soon hit the vodkabottle and made our way to the womans night.

There was no stripping, no make up or creams. Just  a good dinner, fashion show with some tasty men wearing only underwear. rrrrrrr and a supposedly famous icelandic guy making loads of jokes in icelandic that us foreigners did not understand at all. Our table was pretty quiet whilst the whole room was filled with laughter. The only option we had was to drink and hang at the bar. yeah.

Anyway, met loads of people I know and I enjoyed myself VERY much. I love Vopnafjörður. The people there are wonderfully friendly. A surprising amount of people knew exactly where I have been since my last visit because they have read my blog! Surprising! There was an afterparty and I drank beer until 06.30. Eventually I fell asleep in an uncomfortable chair and in the same room there was an icelandic guy snoring very loudly on the sofa.  Amazingly he managed to snore both on ingoing breath and outgoing breath and the result was a constant roar that actually managed to wake me up in my drunken state.  Wow, amazing. I had only been sleeping for 1 hour when I got woken up and I started walking (still in my stupid sandals) out of Vopnafjörður.  I was wearing 3 skirts because of the cold. The time was 08 on a Sunday morning. No traffic, no-one about.

But then this lovely man turned up in a snow plough to clear the roads from snow.  As I entered the vehicle he recognised me and said "did you not work in the slaughterhouse?" ooooh yes I did! We chatted all the way, I was still a tiddely bit drunk and overly bubbly.  He gave me a lift up to the ringroad where I got out.. -2°C and a nasty wind blowing. No traffic. usj, why the hell am I doing this again and again? hitchiking in the cold?

But, I am born lucky and after 10 minutes dancing in the road to keep warm, a minibus turned up and the seven pensioners gave me a lift all the way to Reykjavík! I am SOOOO lucky. They decided that I must be a valkyrie or an elf (one of the hidden people) because of where they picked me up in the middle of ice country. "and you are wearing slippers!" one of them pointed out. Hahaha! yeah yeah. 600km later and I have arrived in Reykjavík again. only 3 days then I go to Scotland. whooohooo!

The nasty cement dust at work is really irritating my skin, particularly around my eyes.  The skin  is red, swollen and strangely burnt. I look like shit, like I am 15 years older.  Jesus, I will wear sunglasses at the womans night on Saturday. Bad bad bad building job! :( But I have only got 4 days left at work.  I wonder if my skin will stay like this forever.  oh NOOOOO! What a terrible destiny.

I am hitchiking to Vopnafjörður tomorrow after I finish work at around 4 pm. I think I might stop and camp somewhere on the way, because it is unlikely that I will get a ride all the way.  We´ll see.

Been working up high again today, on scaffolding about 5 metres up.  I am scraping the ceiling of a future gallery and get covered in a tar-glassfibre mixture and dust that gets absolutely everywhere, even in my underwear!  I end up being all black and sticky and dusty after each working day.  Yesterday I caught the bus home and my eyes just decided to start crying. It was all that nasty glassfibre that was messing with my eyes. Aj AJ!

Today I was wearing goggles so the glassfibre did not bother my eyes at all. So I sit in the coffee breaks with the earprotection on my head, the goggles on my forehead, the dustmask under my chin and rather grey-black dusty shade in my face. What a sight! But good fun. I kind of like being black, sticky, dirty and dusty.

Yep, working during the week and sometimes on Saturdays as well.  It´s fine.  I mostly work with a 50 year old Icelandic guy who takes pleasure in introducing me to new aspects of building work.  He let me weld some metal posts a couple of days ago. That was good fun, but quite difficult because you can´t see a lot through the black glass. And then I keep learning how to operate different tools.  I really like it apart from when I get fibreglass insulation under my clothes and in my eyes. yuck.. Only 8 days left to work before I shoot off to Scotland. yiiiiiiippppppiiiiiiiiii

Went north to Laugarbakki this weekend. We ate loads of delicious food and I had a go at playing baseball. 

And winter has come to Iceland. It is snowing today. I am heading to Vopnafjörður next weekend to party with all the women.  It is called Women´s night. I have never been to such an event. What will be different apart from the obvious lack of men? Perhaps all the women will give eachother group hugs and gossip and eat kakes and drink baileys? hm, I hope they won´t have a make'up and cosmetics show. uhu uhu. Fortunately my slaughter friends Anna and Rikke will be there, so we will have shedloads to talk about (just Men Men Men Men of course).

OOOps I could not help myself, I just went and booked myself a flight. I am leaving Iceland on the 12th of May and flying to Scotland because there is an amazing traditional music festival on the island where I once lived, the Isle of Rum.  This is the first ever music festival to be held on the island and of course I have to be a part of it!  Yes.  I know just about all the bands.  30 people live on the island and there are over 500 people coming to the festival. Imagine THAT!

And then I fly to Norway on the 19th of May hoping to meet up with that Alaska man who I am going to sail up the west coast of Norway with. yep. My travels are going just great. I am going to spend the summer in northern Norway rolling on my reindeerskin in the midnight sun. Ha Ha.

And in the end of August, I travel back to the east coast of Iceland to slaughter sheep of course.

By the way the antibiotics are working.  I am feeling much better.

Oh, I added even MORE Greenland pictures here and here´s another one below from my skiing trip on the ice:

I am ILL!

My kidneys are on fire and I feel like shit. Never have my body hurt so much as now.  I first thought the pain in my back was due to my new job at the buildingsite, but today, when the terrible pain spread to the other side as well and I got a fever, I went to the doctor.

The doctor tried to be funny by speaking to me in Swedish (not funny) and he had a plastic model-kidney on his desk (!!??..) After testing they found blood and bacteria in my lovely piss.  Pyelonephritis (a sort of kidney infection, nyrebekkenbetennelse in Norwegian) was the answer I got.

I crawled out of the clinic and shakingly popped some pills outside the chemist like a true desperado.  I have to be on antibiotics for 10 days.  shit.  Why didn´t my body stop the nasty bacteria getting there in the first place.  I thought my body was strong. hm, damn.

Oh well, below, I added 2 more pictures from Greenland. and I also added Greenland pictures here.

Yes, this is exactly what I am trying to do. Today was my first day at work after returning from Greenland. I have just worked in this place 5 days and by boss let me go to greenland for 2 weeks, what a NICE man!  When I turned up today, he was so happy to see me.  hahaha that´s a lovely feeling.

I have saved a Mandarin language course into my Ipod and during today, I learnt to count to 20 in Mandarin.  Great?  YES! But you should have seen the faces of my fellow workers when I explained to them what I was listening to.  hihihihihi.  I think they must assume I am mad.  But hey, why not learn Chinese whilst you are working.  It´s better than listening to the shit that´s on the radio, that´s for sure.

I was operating a huge hoover today sucking up water from big holes in the concrete, great job,  This machine is just like "Noo Noo", the sucking machine in telly tubbies (I doubt anyone knows what I am talking about..)  And I was breaking planks away from cement with a wrench. I get strong strong and before you all know it, I will have become a man, sorry. ................MOHAHAHAHAHA (evil laughter)

Well, building work is not all what I thought it would be.  Here I am, working away in -5°C, chucking boards of wood about and lifting all sorts of rubbish, I am wearing very unsexy builders clothes and all the men believe I am some sort of man-woman. 

This is me going to work at 07.30 in the morning (-9°C):

In breaks we sit around a scruffy homemade table with loads of half empty sodabottles on it.  We drink strong coffee made on a rather disgusting coffee maker.  All of us wearing our thick clothes as there is no heating in the "break room". 

I am the one closest to the camera.

I breathe in the nasty cement fumes, my lungs are sometimes hurting. 

I miss wearing my colourful clothes.  I miss wearing skirts.  I miss being clean at work.  I miss thinking.

Yep, I have got a job, that was bloody quick!  I am going to help building a gallery/restaurant and will work from 08 till 18.  Superb.  and this will definitely sort my finances out. Yes.  I am surprised how easy that was, getting a job.  I am going to start making the walls together with some men tomorrow. excellent.

Hello, I have had my first day at work and I really enjoyed it.  It was snowing outside -2°C. I was carrying loads of sheets of woods for shuttering (cement) and being a very good worker. brilliant. . 

Yep, walking down the streets of Iceland sure is a cold experience. I have forgotten about needing a scarf to keep the cold out, and having to wear long johns under my skirt. wow. It´s so cold! You can´t sit out on the street and eat your sandwiches. Not really.

But you know, this place has it´s charms as well. The scenery, all snowy and sunny at the moment.  The yellow buses in the town centre, Icelandic icecream sold to people in temperatures below zero, the big jeeps driving down Laugarvegur and people trying to be hip and live like as if Reykjavík would be a city in the middle of Europe. Strange. 

Hopefully I will be able to find myself a job, because my money is running out FAST!! I am going out now for a walk and perhaps dropping into a few offices and trying to get a job helping people to build houses. hm, who knows.  I find it difficult to try to look for work in a city, I would be looked upon as "anotherone of them job seekers".  I do not fit in a group. If only it was warm outside and I could live in my tent near the sea and eat fish for my dinner.

jau, det er ein 50 år gamal bondemann som gjev meg mange saker og ting.  I går gav han meg to store lammalår som er röykt på ein spesiell måte i vekesvis.  Lårene heiter Hangikjöt.  jævelsk godt og no står dei og småkokar heima.  eg skal laga middag til alle som eg bur med.  det vert ein bankett.  Eg burde jo gifta meg med denne mannen, men han er nok litt i eldste laget og so tenkjer han berre på sauer og so bur han i eit skur.


Her er han, sjå kor fin han er i sin islandske gens; lopapeysa

Snöstormen er over og alle kan slappa av.  avisene har kome til butikken att. elles so gler eg meg enormt til å reisa til Noreg og til New Zealand.  Anna frå sverige som jobber saman med meg har tenkt seg dit også for å plukka mandariner.  tenk so kult.  ho er full av attitude og spiser menn til frukost. Her er eit bilete av Anna og eg då me var på Quadbike tur oppe på eit islandsk fjell:

grrrrrrrrrr