In Munich, Germany!

     On the first of June, my day started very, very early. About as early as you can get, actually, 12:01 a.m. I was getting on an airplane in Reykjavik (technically Keflavik)  to fly for three hours to Munich, Germany. My family and I were riding on a plane that was scedualed to take off at 1 o'clock in the morning, but it was a little late. Despite the minor set-back, we acutally arrived on time or early because the winds were apparently in our favor. I only remember the take off and landing because I managed to sleep most of the time so that I didn't have a night of no sleep.

     Once my parents picked up the car in Munich, we all drove over to my dad's friend's (Hape) apartment. Hape Zinc has a wife named Martina Zinc and a seven-month-old baby named Julie Zinc. After a some discustion, everyone decided to go to the zoo in Munich. To get to the zoo, we had to take the subway and walk. I realy liked the subway because there are some new trains down there that are all one car, so you can see how the tunnel is turning or going up and down.

These are some very pretty flowers at a flower shop
that we passed while walking around.

     Walking let you really get a feeling for the city. The streets were very curvy and somtimes really narrow. My mom and dad explain to me that is because Munich was built while people mostly walked or rode on horse carriges, so the road didn't have to be very wide. Also, flowers were all over; either climbing up the walls of buildings, or at peoples window sills.

Here are some Pigmee Goats at the zoo that you
could go into their pen to pet them.

     The zoo had animals from all over the world instead of just animals from the surrounding country side like the zoo in Reykjavik. My favorite animal probably was the penguins. Because of the almost sleepless night, it was good to keep moving. Still, though, my brother, sister, and I were very tired from all of the walking through out the zoo. That night, we ate at a brew pub with extremely good German food very close to our hotel (Hape's appartment is too small for all five of us). What I find really funny is that brewery has been in business longer thatn the United States has been a country!

I have only been to two zoos that acually have penguins,
and this zoo makes the second.



The baby elephant here was kind of shy, but very cute.



     Day two of my amazing Eurpian tour started out a lot later than day one did; almost nine and a half hours later! My dad and mom showed my siblings and I to a bakery where we all bought pasteries to eat on the way to the Zinc's house. This day, we decided to do some more sight seeing downtown. Martina had to go to a birthday party in the morning. Everyone but Martina again traveled on the subway, except this time to the Glockenspiel. We made

This is the Glockenspeil.

in time to go shopping and see the twelve o'clock show with about 1,000 other tourists. The Glockenspiel is kind of like an enourmous cookoo clock with the exception that it doesn't pop out. There are jockers, servants and two knights that dance around a duke and duchess for thier wedding. Below them are some more people dancing around. The whole time that the figures are dancing, bells are playing nice songs. Besides being built for the wedding of a duke and duchess, the Glockenspiel was also built to amuse the people of Munich because a horrible plauge had came through.

     Next to do was to see the main church in Munich. There were a lot of very old grave stones on the outside and inside of the church. This particular church was very large (like most churches in Europe), but not very heavily ornamented. Yes, there were a few things to look at along the walls and of course the elaborate stained glass. Spencer had absolutly no intrest in the church what so ever, so instead amused himself with playing with the cords along the side of the walk ways.

     After the old church came a much newer attraction - toys! Specifically, Playmobile. Playmobile is a type of German toy that is kind of like Legos, but less building and more differse obtions. Anyway, Spencer, Joslyn, and I really like it and wanted to get some from its original country. Once everyone bought their fill of toys, it was time to move on to an outdoor market.

Here is a stand of fruit. I think that it would be awesome
if Gunnison would get a market like this.

     This market had practically everything from decorations to toys to food. There were tables full of things like tea, fruit, and beans. I loved all of the bakeries there that had all sorts of different food. Probably the coolest thing about the market was that it was all outside and the tents were so close together that it could get pretty crowded.

Here's the park in Munich.

     One of the nice things about cities are their parks. The bigger the city, typically, the bigger the parks. So, because Munich has about two milllion people, the parks are very large. One thing that I really loved about Germany was the trees. Germany had so many big, leafy trees everywhere, so the park was no exception. Hape led us along a path that wound around open fields, segments of forest, some little ponds or rivers, and last, to a beer garden. This beer garden had a mostly red Chinese tower in the center where a band played to all of the surrounding tables. Joslyn, Spencer, and I all got a drink called Zitrone Limonade (in German). My parents and Hape all ordered beer. Last, we walked and went on the subway home to the apartment.

The China Tower here made it feel
like we weren't in Munich anymore.

     On day three, the adults had to decide what to do today. In the end, they thought that going to Olympic Park and the Olympic Tower would be a good idea. The day was overcast and a little rainy, but we still walked quite a lot. Martina was with us again, but the Zincs had to wait a little bit longer than my family and I to get up the Olympic tower because they had to put Julia's stroller somewhere. At the top, I could see everything! Lots and lots of very, very tall buildings that look modern or old are all over the landscape and I could even see the park that we had walked in yesterday!

     The reat of the park was very neat because we all got to see the apartments and area where the Olympics were held.  The buildings that housed the Olympic althletes are now used as apartments, but there is a sign that shows where the athletes from different countries used to stay. Chinese food and then we all went to see the some cars and motercycles. Almost all of the motorcycles let people get on top of them to see how they feel. The hotel room was the next attraction until seven o'clock to get rested up for dinner at a pizza place.

From left to right: Mom, Dad, Hape, and Martina.

     At the pizza place, it was pretty busy, but we had a table and ordered quickly. My parents just love to hang out with Hape and Martina because they haven't seen each other for about twenty years. I at when I come guess that it will be like that when I visit my friends in Iceland in a few years (or more, like my parents, but hopefully not that long). An old lady noted to Martina that she had her baby out after nine o'clock!

This is Martina and the very cute
Julia.

     On day four, my family and I had had breakfast over at the Zinc's house. We said good-bye to them even though my we would see them again in a couple of days because we had to come back down to Munich to pick up my grand parents. So, we said good-bye and Joslyn and my mom loaded up the car while my dad, Spencer, and I went back to the area by Glockenspeil to get me a new charm for my bracelet because I accedently broke mine the day before. When my dad, brother, I got back to the car, it was packed and ready to go. Good-bye Munich, for a few days at least.

Icelandic Goat Ranch

     On May 2nd, I went to a ranch with Icelandic goats living on it! The very nice women who runs it, Jóhanna, talked to my family and me a lot about how she runs it. A lot like the goat farm in Gunnison, she rents goats out to people. They then come to her farm to help with the goats. This breed of goat was apparently brought over from Norway with the Vikings, and has been here ever since. My family and I came to the farm with another group of people, and everyone was very excited to see all of the goats, especially the baby goats! Jóhanna breeds most of her goats so that they have babies in the spring, but that means that she would have a lot of goats up there. So, instead, she makes soaps and ointments out of them. Thankfully, my parents drew the line at buying goat meat. Anyway, the baby goats were adorable! Some of them were so calm while others tried to eat your ears. While we were talking about the goats, Jóhanna informed us that she is the only farm in all of Iceland that has Icelandic goats in a particular brown color.
     Once we were done seeing the baby goats (though I doubt that I would never get tired of seeing the baby goats), people started heading over to see the big boy goats. Most of them were really shy, but there were two that came right up to you. One of them was twelve years old and HUGE! His name was Prins. The other friendly guy was a yearly. He was super cute and my siblings and I could just walk up to and pet him. After we got tired of trying to pet the other bucks, my family and I bought our goods and left for Bifröst. Before we left, though, Jóhanna offered for me to come out and help her on her farm sometime if I want. I believe that I will take her up on her offer.

Birds of Iceland

This is a Whooper Swan at a big pond in Reykjavik.
There are a lot of Malerd ducks in the pond, too.

     During my stay so far in Iceland, I have seen many different species of birds. Some birds, like the Whooper Swan, we don't have in Gunnison, so they have been very fun to see. My mom is really into birds, so she also enjoys watching the birds, too. My family and I saw some Whooper Swans a couple days before the news paper said that the first Whooper Swans were spotted. The news paper made a point in announcing the arrival of the Whooper Swans because it means the coming of spring.

     Some other birds that I have seen include the Eider duck and the White-tailed 'Sea' Eagle. Eider ducks make their nest with the down from their chests that is very soft. Eider duck hunters collect the down from the ducks' nest and sell the valuable feathers while the Eider ducks make a new nest. The White-tailed Eagle is an endangered species native to norther Europe. In Iceland, there are as few as 140to 200 birds in the Westfjórds (the 'claw', or piece that sticks up in the west of the island) and surrounding area. I was lucky enough to see four or five of these rare birds with my family in the spring.

     Despite Iceland being known for its large puffin population, I have still not seen some puffins! My dad has, though, while he was out with his friend Alison. I am SO jealous! Here are the pictures,

Bless,

Alex : )



Traveling Iceland

     Hi again! Okay, this is the blog about when I was traveling around Iceland. On Saturday, my grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousins, mom, dad, sister, brother and I all drove down to Reykjavik. We saw the church and horse parade, and we toured 871+/- 2. 871+/- 2 is a building in whose basement was found the ancient remains of a Viking long house. Saturday night we slept at a very nice guest house.
     Sunday, we toured around the Reykjanes peninsula. There was a cliff that would have had puffins on it in the summer, but we were there too early in the year. Other than the cliffs, there was a very steamy mud field thingy. Basically, it was a wet field of mud with lot of steam pouring out. Apparently, there is a ghost that lives there. On the way, we stopped at the Blue Lagoon just to look at it.  Also, there was a very interesting museum about a 30 second drive away from our guesthouse A boat, lighthouse, and indoor museum were all present on the very tip of the peninsula. Again, we stayed at the many-bedroom guest house.
     Monday, we packed up and moved on farther east. Of course, swimming at the local pool was a must. This pool, translated, was 'Water World'. It definitely lived up to it's name. There was a playground structure designed for water, a seal and turtle that shot out water, and a mushroom with an area inside of it that kids could get in. There was also 'stair steps' of pools of water, and some buckets of water that occasionally tipped over and drenched the kids underneath. My cousins, siblings, and I all enjoyed playing there for about 45 minutes when it was time to go.
     After our swimming fun, Misty (my aunt), my grandma, my mom, cousins, sister, brother, and I all took a shopping trip. We went to a gift store where I got a puffin stuffed animal. It's not four feet tall, though. Anyway, we couldn't really go anywhere quickly because there were nine of us and our car only held seven people. We did, in fact, make it to Hagkaup, which we did have to drive to in two rounds.
     That night, we went to a new guest house. This guest house was enormous. It was like a mansion with really cool stuff in it, such as a zebra skin and fancy, matching couches. About eight chickens were full-time residents at the guest house. Tomorrow, we (the kids) would have a fantastic time with the chickens.
     Tuesday morning came bright and early. Spencer and Kailey were up the earliest of everyone. Monday night, Joslyn, Spencer, Kailey, Stacia, and I had been awaiting the arrival of morning because then we got to go collect eggs. Finally, everyone was up so we could rush out and grab the eggs. The hen house had the nests by a wall with circular pieces of wood that came out to get the eggs. These were fairly high up, so only Stacia and I could reach into them, and then not even very well. In the end, we came up with about seven or eight eggs, not including the ones in the fridge collected before our arrival. Everyone, the adults and the kids, enjoyed a breakfast of eggs and different bread products.
     The chickens lived up to their name. My companions and I (Joslyn, Spencer, Kailey, Stacia, and I) ran around after the chickens, sometimes yelling or barking. Our goal was to, of course, catch them, but we had a couple of unique ways to capture them. Our first genius idea was to herd them into a corner of the house's deck. Second, we tried simply chasing them. Neither of these thoughts worked out well, but we were able to draw some conclusions: A. The smaller rooster is very smart so separate the chickens from him to catch them, and B. the smaller chicken sticks to the rooster like glue (I think that she was his girlfriend or something). In the end, Spencer and I caught two chickens.
     The same day, we all toured the Golden Circle. The Golden Circle consists of Geysir, Gullfoss, and þingvellir. First on our list was Gullfoss. All of the females spent an excessive amount of time in the gift shop, much to the annoyance of my uncle and grandfather. Geysir never goes off anymore, but it's neighbor, Strokkur, blows about every five to ten minutes. We did not venture into this gift shop. I have already visited þingvellir, but I still love to see the ancient mounds, staircases and continental drift. Back at home, we dropped my dad off at the house. My dad got really sick and couldn't walk from his bed to the bathroom, which was only about 15 feet away. Thankfully, he was more or less better in the morning.
     Wednesday we packed up and moved on again. This time we moved into tiny, three room cabins in Vík. Emma and Pálmar, some of our friends, had told us about them because Emma's aunt owns and runs the farm where the cabins were and where we were staying. Today, we didn´t do much because we were moving where our 'home away from home' was.
     Thursday, we split up. The Fritzes (my aunt, uncle, and cousin's last name is Fritz) and my grandparents all took a ferry out to the Westman Islands while my mom, dad, sister, brother, and I drove for two and a half hours to a glacial lagoon by a black sanded beach. It was a very beautiful area and there was a large colony of seals living there. We saw a lot of seals while on the beach. They were playing in the water very near the shore, so while Joslyn, Spencer, and I were waiting for the waves to come to run away from them, we saw the seals a lot. Then, we got back in the car and drove the two and a half hours back to the guest houses (I really think that it was more like three hours, not two and a half). That night, the Fritzes and my grandparents returned to the guest houses and we rejoined our little groups.
     On Friday, we split up, again. This time, the Fritzes, my grandparents and my dad went to the glacial lagoon, and my mom, Joslyn, Spencer, and I stayed to 'help' with the horses. Basically, our help was riding some horses bareback down from the winter fields. Our friends, Emma, Pálmar, and Þorsteinn, were there, too. On the way out to the field, I go to ride in the back of the pick-up with Jakóbína. Then, Joslyn, Spencer, Þorsteinn, and I got on horses while another person lead the horse. Once on the horses with some one leading, the rest of the horses followed us while everyone else rode in the car back. 'Everone else' was Emma and my mom. After riding the horses down to the barn (which really wasn't that far away), we all rode on the horses around a small pen. Over all, there were probably 15 horses at the farm. Jakóbína demonstrated her amazing horse skills by standing up on a horse. After playing in the horse pen about half an hour, my sister, brother, mom and I went back to the cabins to relax a little.
     Back at the cabins, we had lunch. The other companions on our journey still had not returned from the glacial lagoon. My mom, sister, brother, and I walked back to the farm and there four horses were saddled up for Jolyn, Spencer, Emma's aunt, and me. My siblings and I were all guided by Emma's aunt along the black beach each on our own individual horse. My horse was named after one of Odin's horses. Joslyn and my horses were always competing with each other to be in the lead, so we were always pulling way ahead of Emma's aunt with Spencer's horse tied to her saddle despite our attempts to slow down. We made a large loop going through the black beach, starting and ending at the farm. After my siblings and I went on the ride, my mom, Emma, Pálmar, and Þorsteinn accompanied Emma's aunt on the same trail that I had taken with my siblings. Because there were only four saddled horses, Þorsteinn rode with Emma on her horse.
     Finally, at about five in the evening, the Fritzes, my grandparents, and my dad returned from the glacial lagoon. The wind had picked up by the time that my aunt, uncle, and cousins started their trip on the horses. As I said earlier, there were only four horses, so Kailey had to ride with Emma's aunt. Friday was my first time riding an Icelandic Horse.
     Saturday came pretty early. It was the day when my family had to leave for Denver. We planned to make the most of that day, though. At about nine in the morning, we all left for Reykjavik. The drive took about two hours, but we made it to Reykjavik in time to go swimming. Only my aunt, cousins, siblings, my mom and I went swimming. The pool that we went to in Reykjavik had an indoor area that was connected to a larger outside section by a hole in the wall with water going through it. Once we finished swimming, all of us got a Popsicle before meeting up with everyone else to head to Keflevik. The Keflevik airport was the only stop on our trip there, and that is where we left my aunt, uncle, Kailey, Stacia, and grandparents. That night, my parents drove my siblings and me back to Bifrost.

More Soon,

Alex : )

Family Come and Gone

     Hello! I'm VERY sorry for not writing in such a long time. I have been extremely busy here in Iceland. The week before my family arrived was basically just a regular week; I went to school and kept on trying to learn Icelandic. That's the thing with school here for me. All I do is try to learn the language, day after day. And I really don't see the point. I guess that when I come back, I can speak to the locals, and it is good to be able to think in a different way, but still. Having six to seven hours five days a week devoted to learning a language can get kind of tedious. Anyway, my family stayed at my house in Bifrost for the first week, then all of us (my grandparents, aunt and uncle, cousins, my parents, and my siblings and I) traveled in the south. I will split that time into two blogs: at Bifrost and traveling.
     On Sunday, my grandparents, aunt Misty, uncle Greg, and cousins, Stacia and Kailey, all arrived at the Keplevik Airport at 6:45 a.m.. Despite them being very tired, they all toured around Reykjavik. First, we took them to our favorite place for breakfast, then fed the ducks and went to the flea market. At the flea market, I bought a lot of Icelandic stamps. With bread from the restaurant, Stacia, Joslyn, Spencer, and I fed the ducks at the city hall. Also at the city hall had an activity to build houses. My mom and I stayed to make a house while everyone else toured the Icelandic Museum. Finally, everyone packed up and headed to our house in Bifrost.
     My grandparents, Misty, Greg, Stacia, and Kailey slept in really late on Monday morning. Joslyn, Spencer, and I went to school. After, school everyone was awake and ready to go site seeing.
     It wasn't really site seeing, but we went to the Settlement Center that was a museum and had an audio guide tell you all about the different exhibits. It was all in a very cool gift shop/green house area connecting two buildings. Plus the exhibits were cool, too! Like was of a miniature viking ship that would have been used to sail from Norway to Iceland with people on it. It even showed a person pooping and peeing off the ship (SO disgusting, but very cool! It showed the whole crew a long with passengers)! Another exhibit was the front of a boat that moved and you stood on it while listening to the audio guide talk. The ship rocked a lot and even creaked in the audio guide. At other exhibits, my mom and I (the space was pretty small in there so you could only go in two at a time) pushed buttons to light light up areas on a map representing homesteads, rivers and other farms. We also saw wildlife on T.V.s in rooms that were 'forested'. Over all, it was just an awesome museum!
    On Tuesday, my brother, sister, and I were taken out of school to tour Snæfellsnes peninsula with my family (all of it that was here). The main reason that we left originally was to see a beached whale. Well, we did get to see the whale along with a lot of other cool things. At the first stop, I thought that we were going to see the whale, but it turns out that we saw seals instead! There is a large seal colony at that beach actually. After that, we found the whale. The whale smelled a little bit, but I could see this Sperm whale smelling a lot worse right now. His (everyone is almost positive that it is a male) mouth had his insides spilling out and the water around him was blood stained. He was a big fellow, probably (I'm not good at judging length) over 30 feet long! The hike to the whale had ruins right by it. Also, after we saw the whale, Joslyn, Stacia, Kailey, Spencer, and I found a rock sorting pen that might still be used to sort sheep. Then, we all drove home.
     Wednesday was basically a regular school day, but after school I went out to eat at Hraunsnef. Thursday, again, I went to school. But Stacia and Kailey also came to school with Joslyn and Spencer. Because Stacia was with Joslyn, I didn't see her very much. I did, however, see her at breaks and lunch. She seemed a little surprised with all of the attention, but I guess that she wasn't completely prepared for it. Anyway, after school, everyone (all of my family in Iceland) drove to the wool and agriculture museum. My grampa and Greg stayed there a long time while the kids went and played around a troll garden. The troll garden was a walking path with big troll statues beside it. My favorite statue was of the hideous Grylla who had a large pot in front of her that kids could get into and pretend to be eaten. After a day of trolls and school, everyone went to go have fast food and ice cream. Some of us got hot dogs; Iceland is known for its hotdogs.
     The Akranes museum was on the to do list for Friday. Thankfully, I was pulled out of school. I really like the Akranes museum, but I didn't get to see much of it on Friday because we didn't stay very long. Joslyn, Stacia, Spencer, Kailey, my mom, and I spent most of our time in the coffee shop because the waitress was very nice and made it feel like we were at a fancy tea party.
     Saturday, we all packed our bags and drove to Reykjavik. That's all for this blog, so

Bless,

Alex : )

Bingo, Family, and More

     Hello again! On Friday the 16th, I went to a sleep-over birthday party for my friend Kristίn. At the birthday party there was Brenja, Imba, and her half-sister and friend from Vίk. Everyone pretty much enjoyed them selves while we played a lot of fun games and joked around. When it was time to go to bed, everyone settled down to watch Brides Maids. I fell asleep right after the movie ended - at three o'clock a.m.! Saturday morning, we all woke up at about 8 to 9 o'clock!
     I was planning to go home on Saturday, but after a quick phone call, I was staying the night again! Kristίn has a puppy, a cat, some horses, and a lot of sheep - 60! Her puppy is SO cute! Saturday afternoon, we (Brenja, Imba, Kristίn and I - Brenja and Imba also stayed the night) made pancakes and a carrot cake. I got to shred the carrots with a cheese grader. Most of the day we just played Wii, and Kristίn's little brother, Daniel, is very good at it. That night we all watched Shallow Hal. Brenja said that we fell asleep at 1 o'clock a.m., but I think we slept a little bit later.
     Sunday I went home. Then, at 3 o'clock, my family and I all went to bingo. I got a bingo when four other people did, too. Everyone drew cards and I got a ten, but somebody else got a queen, so I didn't  get the gift basket. Instead, I received a cool, pink hat with reflective bunnies on it. I really like it because it is very comfortable.
     This coming up Sunday, my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins are all flying into Iceland. I'm very excited.

Okay, that's it.

Bless,

Alex

Family In Iceland

    I'm very, very, very sorry for not writing in a while, but nothing very interesting was happening. Two of my best friends here got sick from Tuesday, February 28 and only came back to school on Monday and Tuesday of the next week. Saturday and Sunday, we just drove around and looked at historic sites. One site was really cool because it a recreation of a Viking Hall and we got to look at the real site of the hall as well. The hall was built by Erik the Red and Leif Erikson was born here before moving to Greenland and exploring the Canadian (and maybe the US) coast.
     On Wednesday, my Nana and Papa Bill flew in from Denver to Boston, from Boston to Iceland. They got here at 6:45 a.m.! Joslyn, Spencer, and I all got to skip school to go have fun in Reykjavik with them. Nana and Papa Bill are the first family that I've seen in two months (besides my mom, dad, sister, and brother), so I'm very happy to see them. They will leave on Tuesday evening. Then, in the last week of March, my other grandparents, Grammy and Grampa, and my cousins, Stacia and Kailey, and my aunt and uncle, Misty and Greg are all coming up for two weeks!
     On Thursday, I went to Reykjavik with my class for a sporting competition. Seventh through tenth grade went to support our team. We had four people from our school that competed. They competed in pull-ups, just hanging there, push-ups, pushing your self up and down on some bars, and an cool obstacle course.
     I can't wait to ride an Icelandic horse! Stacia wants to ride an Icelandic horse, too, but we are not sure if people will be giving rides that soon. Oh well. We plan to go to a horse show with some of the best horses in Iceland there. The best horses in Iceland never go to international competitions because Iceland does not allow horses to be imported into the country because they want the Icelandic horse to stay pure and keep the fifth gate. Only Icelandic horses have a special fourth and fifth gate.
     The weather here is not beginning to look anything like spring. It might even be getting snowier. The days are getting longer, though. School is still awesome, and my Icelandic is getting better. If you have have questions, please just post a comment.

Well, that's all for now.

Alex : )