Casual observations are usually only that: casual and observances of fleeting impressions. Iceland was not that icy or that cold. The weather was interesting to experience, as it could be everything all at once, or everything over a period of a few hours. It could rain, not rain, be briefly sunny, deeply cloudy, gusty, intensely windy, icy, still, beautiful and bleak all within a few moment's time. The temperature was not any colder that it usually is in March/April in Washington, DC. Next observation: it was not, as was once reported to us, "The Whitest Place on Earth". There were many people of a non-white, non-blonde variety. In one of the more remote places on the West side of Iceland, we ran into a "Taste of the Philippines" restaurant which was, unfortunately, closed. We saw dark people, Asians of various flavors, what I guessed was a Turk but could've been a Greek, and several many Slavics (Russian? Who knows). Of course, there were also many, many, beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed, thin, energetic Scandinavians. All of the above were people who lived in Iceland. Not just passing through like we were. Observation three: Seemingly everyone spoke either some, or fluent, English, although the Icelandic language is a delight to hear spoken. It's a lot to put your mouth around and I, wisely I think, didn't try in public to make my mouth torture their words, but Nicki did a fairly good job of wrapping her lips, teeth, and tongue around it. As a friend said: "We have to speak many languages, because who is going to speak Icelandic outside of Iceland?” Observation 4: There is art everywhere. Iceland takes good care of its artists, especially their sculptors. There are random sculptures--abstract, not abstract, small, and large--everywhere. In the middle of nowhere you might see a sculpture waiting to take you by surprise. Observation 5: Like the Hawaiians, who also have volcanoes in their world, folks in Iceland stack slabs of rock to make spontaneous artwork that says, among other things, "I've been here". Some of these piece, often found literally in the middle of no place, are quite large, the rock too heavy for one person to lift and position. But there they are anyway. Observation 6: Some places, and we didn't see everything or anything even close to everything, actually does look what I would imagine the Moon looked like if it had moss growing up there. But much of what we saw was still oddly, fiercely, bleakly, beautiful. There is not much need for a lawn mower from what I could tell. But that would leave more time for other, more important, pursuits. Iceland is closer to me than the moon is, so when I need another hit of that moon-like wonder, I will probably choose to go back there for it. Following are a few snaps from Reykjavik.

Stumble It!