There are probably a myriad of things unexpected to hear while picking up a rental car in a foreign country at the equivalent of 1:00am, but chief among them has to be “are you here for the CHAI?”. I initially shrugged this off as jet lag and asked for black coffee instead but the attendant clarified that a unique music festival was happening this week and the final show was tonight – including an authentic J-pop punk group named CHAI. Welp, I’m not one for rigidity in musical taste so I accepted the directions to the venue and planned to attend.

The first act was called “Dadi Freyr” which was akin to Euro vaporwave with less synth. For a crowd of multinationals, music is a powerful equalizer – the beat speaks in all languages. This was the shortest act and still early in the night so I got some prime real estate close to the stage.

The next artist was more well known judging by the crowd’s reaction: Agent Fresco. This was a hard alternative-metal band with a lead singer that boasted an impressive vocal range (in English to boot).

Next was the sleeper hit – the aforementioned all-girl J-POP group CHAI. Not to get into stereotypes, but these musicians seriously looked like high schoolers, and they ROCKED the crowd of Scandinavians. They ended the set with the whole auditorium chanting “neo-kawaii!!!”

Leading up to the main event was the next most-known group Vôk; I would’ve enjoyed this show much more if I wasn’t directly situated at eye-level with the stage lights and lasers. Their sound was known as “dream pop”, with analogs being Paramore or La Roux.

Here’s where I get into the bad news: I was exhausted at this point from being on my feet with the crowd for five hours at this point. I bought the ticket to this show with the express purpose of seeing the only Icelandic band I knew by name: Of Monsters and Men. However, I also didn’t want to doom the next few days with stiff knees and aching feet so I made the gametime decision to leave at midnight. I regret not being able to experience them live (and in a gym, no less), but the spirit of this vacation was to find genuine-ness in place of what “ought” to be seen or done. I hope you’ll understand, and if not then search YouTube for the show – it’ll be in high quality opposed to my iPhone.

I feel like going east against time zones into the polar north and flying through the night next to a toddler gives me a bit of leeway when it comes to starting late into the first day of vacation. In my defense, it was pitch dark at 8:00am when I checked into the AirBnB and sunset is at quarter til 5, so there’s an adjustment period to circadian rhythms. Nevertheless, the meager amount of daylight was burning and I had traps to tourist the hell out of so I stopped at my first destination: the Pearl. This is a combination planetarium and natural history museum with fantastic views and strong messages regarding the shrinking glaciers. This included a model ice cavern, seen below, as well as a real-time display of mass loss in the next two centuries.

Following a tip I heard getting off the flight this morning, I bought a wristband for the renowned Icelandic Airwaves music fest and headed down to the harbor area of downtown to kill time before the show. Moored next to tugboats floated an impressive destroyer (I think? I always lost at Battleship) and what appeared to be a time-displaced sloop from the Age of Discovery fighting the impending storm gales. I took a few brief shots of both along with the Harpa Music Hall and the Sun Voyager – a monument to the Viking ancestors of Iceland.

Still well ahead of schedule, I stopped at the Cathedral of the King for a few magic-hour snaps and finally arrived at the venue for the concert: a literal gymnasium converted for the show. The natives and outlanders alike made great conversation as we waited for the five-act sendoff to this year’s event. I’ll be posting this under a separate post since there’s so much to unpack there. Overall, not a bad start!

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog; I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates (hopefully daily) over the next week. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to see more of like nature photos, food pics or my sweet, sweet dance moves let me know!

The first question asked when I say I’m going to Iceland in November is “why?”. And honestly, I’ve had a hard time coming up with the ‘right’ reason that I feel people would accept (unlike my trips to Asia which were guided by a longtime desire or loyalty to a friend). Instead, I’m going “just because;” because I’m not getting younger, I have less obstacles at this point at my life, because the Northern Lights will be visible this time of year, because I like the cold and have Nordic blood somewhere in the crevices of my circulatory system. Because, because, because.

But really, I don’t have any more reason than “I want to,” and I’m getting to the point of acceptance where that’s good enough for me. So I won’t have the stereotypical profile picture of Machu Picchu, Taj Mahal, or me pushing up the leaning tower of Pisa this time around. Instead, expect some stories about getting near-frostbite while ice caving, or getting sprayed by whales, or finding out why the Vikings kept coming back to this volcanic rock (I’m sure it’s for the exfoliating steam).