Iceland: Life on Hrísey

For those of you just tuning in I’m in Iceland for a one month painting residency in the far north off the coast of Akureyri.

We’ve made it to the island of Hrísey!

The island is so beautiful with natural landscapes of birds, sea life, and a lot of flora and fauna all around.

The landscape is very similar to Alaska once again. Mountains, fjords, northern lights, Autumn is on the verge with much foliage turning orange and red. I picked some black eyed Susan’s, yarrow, poppies, and pansies for the table the other day and was reflecting on how similar and different the two places are.

Josh, Jonah and I have spent much time wandering around town, taking in the sites. Lots of blueberry picking and hiking are happening. Jonah likes to chase ptarmigan (strike that, actually Josh and I are the ones chasing ptarmigan more than he has!) we saw a dozen ptarmigan passing over us this morning, you won’t see that in Alaska, that’s for sure!

We head to the store often for hot chocolate, it’s a sweet little space. 

Life is slower here as well. The grocery store is open 3 hours a day (from 12-1 and 4-6). It has novelties such as dried, packaged white fish, frozen white fish from the island, and tiny painted Icelandic houses you can buy. My favorites are the fabric nomes you see everywhere, we definitely have to buy one of those for the house.

In Hrísey everyone has painted houses of blue, red, or beige. The last name of people who live at the house is on the front of the House predominantly written, no house numbers, just the last name in this town of 160.

We asked at the grocery store where we might be able to get fresh fish, they stated that at the local pool the man who runs it goes out every morning fishing and comes back to the harbor at 2 pm might be the best chance we have. Josh may pursue asking him about this this week (a bucket list item for him us to go out on a boat with someone local to fish.)

We did have a delicious lamb burger though!

Cucumbers, tomato, mayonnaise and Gouda cheese grace the top of a lamb burger!

IN true Scandinavian fashion, mayonnaise is served with everything, including French fries. With the Lutheran churches, white fish, and mayonnaise I feel at home reminiscing of items prevalent in Minnesota!

Jonah is a fan of lamb 🙂

We’ve been painting a lot. This is what my studio table looks like.

Beautiful ocean views can be seen from the window.

We enjoy evenings in the dining room with roommates from NYC and Washington State. The most wonderful light glows at night in this retro designed space.

I will be checking in throughout the month 🙂