I am mustering up a more thorough review of our recent trip to Iceland. For now, here is a photo and some top memories.

Flavor

The coffee, every morning at Hotel Natura’s breakfast. We had several great meals in Iceland (including all our breakfasts), but having fantastic coffee every morning was really the best part, especially after being out late, then sleeping in late. Also: beets for dessert. And yeast-battered fried redfish.

A few more senses

Fuzzy, fuzzy wool. Small, cozy bars. Soaking, meandering in slippery, salty, milky, hot silica water.

Joy

Synth pop, and a brilliantly easy and fun-to-use festival app. Sleeping past nine … for several days in a row.

Agape

Gullfoss made every other waterfall I’ve ever seen look two-dimensional. A guy on our tour bus joked that the experience “could use more dragons” but Gullfoss was plenty fearsome!

Melodies

We saw 21 bands play over five days, and many of them were fantastic sets. Una Stef’s show, early in the festival at Fredrikson Ale House was best. LOVE a horn section!

Spaces

Fríkirkjan: Moses Sumney played in a church, and it was glorious. The relatively new Harpa concert hall (a mezzanine is pictured above) was an elegant, welcoming space, inside and out – very evocative of the human relationships with ocean, and the future.

A vacation

As per our usual M.O., this was not a restful trip. But it was restorative! I feel inspired to get out & experience music more regularly at home.