Sinister: things to do in Reykjavik and the Botanical Gardens

[Antti Tapani Koskiranta]

Hello lovelies,

I decided to stop lurking, at least for this one post.
The reasons for my bravery are resent requests for advice for what to do
and see in Reykjavik AND the fact that I am myself in Scotland, and
Glasgow for this weekend.

I know this comes a wee bit late since it's already Friday night but if
anyone of you going to the Botanical Gardens tomorrow happens to notice a 
boy looking a little lost and carrying an "Interflug" bag come over and
say hello. I will keep my eyes open for upside-down badges :) You could
also write me. I'll check my mails sometime tomorrow.

So.. about Reykjavik then. I was living there for nine months, from
September to May and am now on my way home to Finland.
I could recommend several bars but in my opinion the best are Prikid (on
Laugavegur) and Sirkus (on Klapparstigur). Prikid has a very comfy
atmosphere and old wood interior, and it has a good offer for beer before
10 pm (250 Icelandic kronur). Only downpoint is that like in any place in
R-vik, there's hardly any other people before midnight...

There's an absolutely wonderful small cafe called Mokka on
Skolavordustigur (2nd "o" should have 2 dots on top but I can't find them
on this keyboard :P Oh well..). Get waffles, everyone seems to love them.
Up the hill on the same street is 12 Tonar record store. Ask the helpful
and well-informed staff for recommendations, listen to cd's and get some
complimentary espresso. It's possibly the best record store I've ever been
to. Not big, but very comfortable.
You could also see Hafnarfjordur town south of Reykjavik. It's close and
very cute. City bus lines 140 and 150 go there. On the way you can go to
the Kringlan shopping mall if you like, but it's nothing special. Just a
mall.. I went there once during my stay. So there.
Last summer there was a flea market behind the Sirkus bar. It was a lot
better then the "official" flea market, Kolaportid.
For daily events listings, see one of the newspapers (Morgunbladid,
Frettabladid or DV) or ask the guys at the record store. During summer
months there is also a free fortnightly magazine called Grapevine which
also has events listings.

I have to say "sael!" to Edda and "saell!" to Gummi and apologise for not
ever getting around to contacting you two while I was in Iceland... I
wasn't feeling too social at times. I guess that's typical for Iceland. It
is for finland, anyway ;)

Bye now. I'll continue my (futile?) search for Belle fans among the hostel
guests. Take care!

Antti

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
        +---+  Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list  +---+
     To send to the list mail sinister at missprint.org. To unsubscribe
     send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
     majordomo at missprint.org.  WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister
 +-+       "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper           +-+
 +-+  "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+
 +-+    "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000     +-+
 +-+  "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000  +-+
 +-+  "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001   +-+
 +-+               Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa                 +-+
 +-+               Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut!                +-+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+