seltjarnarnes shopping
After an afternoon of making pizza pies for our friends from Kópavogur, E and I took a walk up the peninsula, along the sea-path that goes to Seltjarnarnes and Grótta. We passed apartment building after apartment building, most with Christmas lights in the windows, and many oriented with the windows facing away from the sea, looking across at other apartments. (An Icelander told me that it's only been in recent years that Icelanders have thought that maybe seeing out to the sea and mountains across the bay is a pretty neat view. Nobody really thought about it before.) We passed the dark sentry of the septic plant and noticed the pools of light made by the streetlights all the way out to the end of the peninsula.
Finally we came to the center of Seltjarnarnes, the Eiðistorg shopping center. I had told E of an amazing new grocery-store find and wanted to show her. (It's often the simple things that amuse in the Land.) The Hagkaup store there comes the closest to reproducing the bounty of the average non-Foodmaster Boston grocery store in Iceland. Indeed, when we entered and saw bushels of grapefruits right inside the door, E said, "Wow, this place reminds me of Stop&Shop!" Something about it is so clean, so warm, so full of treats and promise. We spent 10 or 15 minutes browsing the aisles lazily, looking at imported Italian prosciutto and the mustard offerings and the entire collection of Sex and the City on DVD, and even the abandoned and darkened combination town offices, police station, and sad mall next door. Truly an oasis, this torg of Seltjarnarnes. But we didn't buy anything. We'd been eating pizza all day, after all.
We walked back home along the ocean and looked at the aurora above the clouds while a freighter ship glided out to sea behind us.
Finally we came to the center of Seltjarnarnes, the Eiðistorg shopping center. I had told E of an amazing new grocery-store find and wanted to show her. (It's often the simple things that amuse in the Land.) The Hagkaup store there comes the closest to reproducing the bounty of the average non-Foodmaster Boston grocery store in Iceland. Indeed, when we entered and saw bushels of grapefruits right inside the door, E said, "Wow, this place reminds me of Stop&Shop!" Something about it is so clean, so warm, so full of treats and promise. We spent 10 or 15 minutes browsing the aisles lazily, looking at imported Italian prosciutto and the mustard offerings and the entire collection of Sex and the City on DVD, and even the abandoned and darkened combination town offices, police station, and sad mall next door. Truly an oasis, this torg of Seltjarnarnes. But we didn't buy anything. We'd been eating pizza all day, after all.
We walked back home along the ocean and looked at the aurora above the clouds while a freighter ship glided out to sea behind us.
posted by JB at 4.12.05
5 Comments:
I completely agree with you about Hagkaup. The best little supermarket around - my personal favourite. [Wheras Nóatún sucks with their overpriced and rotten fruit. Bah!]
Speaking of Noatun, remember when I told you it sounded familiar? It the name of a music player for Linux.
http://noatun.kde.org/
does the aurora come out more often in winter?
Alda: you should do a favorite supermarkets of 107 & 170 post, so we can compare notes. :-) How do you say about Bjarkarbúðin,... I mean, Mélabúðin...?
Anonymous Ian: I guess I'd rather play music than buy rotten oranges.
Dr. Lo: The aurora happens all the time, day and night. The amount of charged-particle activity from the sun determines its magnitude and latitude. But Iceland is right in the band where it happens quite often. Of course, it has to be dark to see it. Since it's never dark here in the summer, then yes, I guess you could say it comes out more often in the wintertime.
Northern Lights, it's chilly but crisp, the air is completely fresh, you lie down on the ground into the fresh fallen snow and you start to make snow angels!
Nothing exists but you in this universe....and that is most kids childhoods in Iceland
Making perfect Snow Angels and watching the Aurora Borealis quietly dance accross the skies. She always left such an impression on me, because she never was the same. And my Angels, although not having as beautiful names as The Lady Aurora, still left their impressions on me, as they too were perfect, yet nameless and still.
It is breathtaking!
Skrifa ummæli
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