...missing Iceland Airwaves

We went to Iceland for the Airwaves music festival last October. It was my first visit and I fell in love with the frosty city. Sam has been there countless times and I've been desperate to go but it hadn't worked out until last year.

It was a short flight just an hour away and when we disembarked the plane I braced myself to be hit by a wave of steely cold air, the complete opposite to a warm holiday. But it never came, at 5 degrees the weather was quite refreshing. This soon changed when we were hit by the tail end of Hurricane Sandy lashing out whisps of 75mph winds which blew a car and me across the hotel car park.

Here is my take on Reykjavik...

The main high street is Laugavegur and there are a lot of cool boutiques to check out there. It’s the strangest capital city – quite small and not very busy, hardly any cars but this only makes it more magical to me.

12 Tonar is the best music shop in the world. Icelandic artists just drop off their home produced records for 12 tonar to sell.

Sightseeing

You can see the best views of Reykjavik from the top of Hallgrímskirkja - the cathedral.

It almost goes without saying that everyone who goes to Iceland must go to the Blue Lagoon 

We hired a really cheap car from sad cars for a day and went on a mission around the golden circle. 

I’m sure the tourist information will let you know all about the golden circle - the geysirs, Gullfoss etc but check out the black beaches of Vik and the beautiful little church on the coast of Gullbringusysla.

Bars

A great daytime hangout for food (amazing pulled pork sandwiches), drinks, free wifi and people watching is Kex 

Ólafur Arnalds played a beautiful afternoon gig there while we sheltered from the wind

Kaffibarinn is a bar that is part-owned by Damon Albarn and hosts lots of live music from locals. Sam Amidon surprised me by playing my favourite song Louis Collins in these really intimate surroundings. I haven't heard him play it live before, pretty overwhelming, made me cry.
 
Boston is a new bar which according to locals is the favourite haunt of Jonsi from Sigur Ros and Bjork at the moment

Check out the architecture of Harpa - it's a beautiful venue for gigs 

Food  

Sam has been going on about Saegreifinn's lobster bisque and he wasn't wrong it is mighty fine and not too rich or creamy so a real hit with me.

Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur serves the tastiest hot dogs, which are great to eat when you are out drinking. It basically a hot dog van in a car park - the beginnings of street food right here. I had quite a few while I was there – they are quite addictive and my vegan friends had the crunchy onions and sauce in the buns without the sausages.

The Noodle station serves cheap and spicy noodle soup, great for refueling when you are rushing around.

Remember to keep looking up at the sky at night, because you are sure to see the northern lights. Sam was complaining to a guy we'd just met that he'd never seen them and the guy told us to look up and we saw them.

Music 

The best gig was Daughter who played in a church in the centre of Reykajvik. Everyone was so quiet and the music was so powerful it felt like this is the best use for a church. It made me very thankful that I was there to experience it.

It really is my favourite city.

...enjoying the sunshine at the Burley Cider Festival

...browsing twitter on Saturday morning, I came across tweets from @lostinthelarder and @thelarderhouse (thanks guys) about a cider festival in Burley. So we rounded up our cider loving friend Will & the dogs and went to sample some cider.

Roscoe the whippet having a little drink

Roscoe the whippet having a little taste

Not having a taste...

Smooching on the haybales

After the festival, we got a bit lost as we always do driving out of the New Forest. The boys brought home 10 litres, yes 10 litres of New Forest cider and we stopped off at St Catherine's Hill to take the pups for a sunset jaunt.

We found a wigwam and Will fiddled with the camera settings until it looked like daylight

As the sun set, we set off for cocktails at the Larderhouse

...frustrated by my lack of End of the Road photos

Well, i guess it serves me right for being so lazy and not bringing my camera. I would so love to pepper my post with pics from End of the Road festival but alas, my friends haven't posted any yet and I don't have any. I promise to update this post as soon as I can lay my hands on some.

The highlight for me was definitely Sam Amidon on the Friday in the teepee tent. After a bit of banter with my Sam about who was more pleased to have him there, he delighted us with his beautiful voice and banjo strumming. For the finale, his rendition of R Kelly's Relief was punctuated by my friends singing back at him at the top of their lungs, only a few were in tune but that's all part of the fun... unless you were the guy giving us evils... Sam seemed to enjoy it, and with a mischievious glint in his eye, coaxed them on to louder volumes.

As all my friends arrived, finding us with ease to the left of the sound desk as usual, Beirut played a blinder of a set and wouldn't stop, with encore after encore. Dancing with your darling friends in a field to incredible music - really can't get better than this.

Saturday was more about the frolics in the firefly forest than the music for me. Just amazing fun.

Firefly forest photo borrowed from Huck magazine

Joanna Newson headlined the Sunday night and even though it was so cold her fingers turned to blue plucking her harp, she completely enchanted me. I was so happy that we had the new album so I recognised the new songs which she sang so beautifully, remembering all the words to such epic lyrics.

This year's End of the Road was the biggest yet - going hand-in-hand with the incredible line-up. I do think it has a real charm as a smaller festival with more almost unknown bands for us to discover, so fingers crossed it remains relatively small and that the rocky road around the site is rectified before next year, ouch.

The only sad bit is that I have to wait another year to do it all again.
x

...listening to Jake Bugg's 'Someone told me'

Just beautiful, a haunting folk song which reminds me a little of Tim Buckley.
Really putting me in the mood for End of the Road Festival. Just collected my tickets from the post office today, so can't wait.

My friends Natasha and Woody at End of the Road

It's always been my favourite festival as it's so intimate and luckily pretty much at the end of my road (definitely at the end of Sam's parents road). But this year they've really excelled themselves. If I curated an ATP festival, this would be it. My wish list for the line up has come true.
Sam Amidon, Joanna Newsom, Beirut, Wild Beasts, midlake...the illustrious list goes on.




Seeing Joanna in the stunning surroundings of Somerset house was incredible, but to be honest she even managed to make the reds bar of Butlins look good. I have butterflies thinking of her set against a backdrop of peacocks & parrots. I have my fingers crossed that Sam Amidon will do his falling dance and play Louis Collins and the two sisters.



And in return, this year I vow we will not break any saplings and leave the tent in good time to not miss any music...i promise...