This adventure was many years in the planning. It had been years I was determined to make it to a friends in New York, as their family life had shifted. Also Amanda and I had been planning to cross paths along the Kingston River for a few years as well. Finally the money was spent to get the car/chariot ready to roll, and this was the Summer! First stop, FriggaStead, in Massachusetts. Stephanie and I had long conversations about the history of the NorthEastern Heathen Community. Knowing who cleared the way, who created gatherings for like minded people to gather and the tales of the assholes who created strife. It is important to under the culture and history of any group you weave your Wyrd with. She hosted a fire, we had a “FireHorse”, my birthday Cocktail. Campari and Procecco, and did some carding of the wool she will eventually turn into beautiful knitted pieces!
Wyrd Weaving, conversations and carding wool with Stephanie
I spent two nights there, and then hit the road! I was going to hop onto Route 90, and travel across the top of New York, along the Eerie Canal for a bit, headed to the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. A lovely ride, clean rest areas and the mountains welcomed me….
I landed at my destination, it had been at least 7 years since I visited here.
Welcomed by my friend and his now graduated son, last time I saw him, he was just a boy, now a young man. I am so proud of both of them. Being the Father with custody of a child is not an easy road and he is an amazing father and brought up an intelligent, caring and contributing young man. My time here was busy with household organizing, sorting their storage shed with them, readying for an upcoming move and of deep and interesting conversations and of course, just chill time……
The drive from upstate New York, down along the Hudson River to meet up with Amanda was enjoyable. I parked to pick her up in Saugerties, and when I stepped out of the car a large clap of thunder! Hail Thor! Then us two Valkyries headed to the Cemetery where my Ancestors, the Cogswells, are buried.
We made our way through the windy roads, and beautiful scenery, all the while she was sharing history about the places we were driving. We parked just within the Cementery Gates to find where the sites were.
We didn’t have much confidence in what we found so I just drove until I saw this tree, that was Exquisite, so we parked and got out for a bit of a Wander. Amanda, here in front of this beautiful tree. The sky was dark and the rumbles were off in the distance and moving closer. We decided to have our picnic and wandered back to the car all the while scanning for the Cogswells. I went to the back of my car, and looked to the right at this tree and there was my Ancestors!!!!
I had parked right next to them! Both of these in the photo are Cogswells, and the one of the left, being marble, was much more degraded, but the maiden name on that stone was Proctor. The crows were swarming all around us, chortling while we stood there laughing and I on the verge of tears at the mystical energy of these moments.
Then the rain came! Hard and fast, thunder booming and trees whipping in the wind! We jumped into my chariot, enjoyed our shared picnic and as always exchanged gifts! We shared the tales of how we acquired the gifts we were sharing and then had a Sumbel to honor the Ancestors and our friendship. Finally it was time to wander back…..
I dropped her off then headed to visit with Nancy and Mike, back down along the Hudson then into the Mountains to their little cabin. I was so blessed to get an evening with them, and coffee and a sit on the dock in the morning. It had been too long, and this used to be a large part of my Summers before the covid times. Stories were shared and insights gathered as I took in the quiet and the peace of being with people apart of my life for so long.
Sleep found me, and I slipped into dreams of loved ones and times past….. A slow morning of coffee and good conversation readied me for the next leg of my journey.
Back onto Rt 90 and over to Friggastead for the night and to offer my helping hands. I so enjoyed sharing another evening there, before my last leg…Home!!!
The arrival home was bittersweet…I felt the joy of reconnecting with my Heathen Community, with those who have known me for decades and meeting and making new friends. I have been planning this for almost five years and finally I made that dream come true!!!
We landed about 5am local time, we had a very eventful trip from Logan! We took a bus from Portland, and winged our way through security fairly easily! We had a meal and a drink while waiting and then finally boarded! It was a lovely plane, and the Flight Attendants were so kind, and their accent was delicious! We both settled in and readied for a short night. At one point, I awoke and Lynne says” Look out the window”, I look but don’t see anything but the wing of the plane, “look up”, as I looked deeper into the dark void, there is was!! A green glowing ribbon dancing the sky!!!!
We had a coffee in the airport, then wandered our way outside, (stock photo of what Northern Lights looked like to us from plane)
Such an amazing way to get to know Iceland, the heat, the mist and the cool air. The package we bought had us receiving two drinks, while in the lagoon and four face masks. Lynne got these adorable head bands for us, we were the hit of the pool!
We took the bus to Reykjavik to our hotel, the landscape was SO otherworldly! The dark lava covered landscape went on and on…you can see the rising smoke from the active lava flow from the nearby volcano activity!!
A humble room, two twin beds, but a huge window overlooking Reykjavik! Yes, we were deep in the tourist/shopping area, but it was Iceland!!! The streets so quaint, very few cars and plenty of sidewalk!
We settled in, had a bit of a rest, then headed off for a coffee!
What struck me the most was the Mountains, every time we came to a corner, I just looked left and I was met by this sight!
The energy felt a lot like my home port, of Portland, Maine. It was much more walkable though. The sidewalks were much wider, the crosswalks were well marked, and the cute walk/don’t walk sign made us smile. None of the sidewalks were red brick, like back home, all of this were well curated stones. Each color had a variant of the textures. The texture would be a great asset when the sleet, snow and rain come to call! Unlike slippery bricks!
BRAUTARHOLT was our destination! We ordered and sat to sip.
We wandered about our neighborhood looking for food and trinkets! We made our way to a pub, Mirco Bar! It was small and brightly decorated. We wandered up the the open bar and sat down. We spoke with the awesome bartender, we came to find out her name was Sara, and we ordered up some local Gin and Tonics! So good, we had to order another! The music was 80’s America rock and the time sitting and taking in Iceland sipping the delicious cocktails was just as we had dreamed! A local bar, a local drink and a few moments to savor it all!!!!https://icelandicgin.com/icelandic-gin-list/
After our second delicious cocktail, great conversation and learning about Icelandic coins, we wandered back to our hotel room, just a few doors down, right about twilight. Settled in with snacks form the local shop and some Icelandic tv. The sounds of the street below lulled us to sleep…
We woke to this beautiful sight!!! It was such a blessing to wake in Reykjavik covered in its first snow fall of the Season!
In my research very early one I had found this Cafe! Loki Cafe! Right in the heart of the City in the iconic neighborhood where Temple is!
It was our destination bright and early on Thursday morning!
First, a stop at the infamous, Braud & Company as seen on “Somebody Feed Phil”. We had hunted it down, and our first coffee of the day was there, along with stocking up on a couple of delicious pastries for later! The tiny shop was full of tourists, as we over heard,”is this the largest coffee you have?” in a clear english voice. The locals and their dogs also were in the tiny shop as we ordered and took in the beautiful handcrafted goodies!
I had mashed fish on homemade rye bread! It was so tasty. It reminded me of being a small child and my Grandfather, Da, cooking in the kitchen. He worked on the docks in Portland and alway brought home sea food including haddock. The rye bread was so dense and scrumptious! It was almost like a canned brown bread. I could only eat half and saved the rest for later! We both had a Brennivin and Coffee. Mine was straight up, and Lynne’s a cappuccino variety. Who knew that Brennivin and coffee was so amazing!!!
We then made our way to meet up with our walking tour!
Our host Sean was amazing and the walk so interesting, life changing (more on that later) and lots of steps! After our farewells we headed to find a pint! Just a few doors down we wandered into this very local feeling Coffee house/Pub. https://www.prikid.is/
Then we made our way to our next stop on our self made tour, along the way we wandered into tourist shops looking for just the right token to remember our adventures and gifts! It is so easy to walk Reykjavik and we enjoyed making our way around places that now felt familiar after our walking tour.
We finally landed at our next stop: The Icelandic Philological Museum https://www.phallus.is/
This was the second thing on our bucket list after seeing the northern lights. I had known about this for over a decade and was excited we had booked our tickets months ago! This was the modern iteration of the previous, more campy, museum in another end of the City. The Museum was quite interesting, it included so much information of many animal species, their mating habits and exhibits. The poetic, artistic and titilating aspects were also fascinating as well as the Crypto penis’s. We settled in to have a Coffee in their Cafe after our tour of the museum. Yes, would go back again!
Onto the waterfront! First we passed The Harpa Concert Hall: https://www.harpa.is/en/about-harpa, as we had learned on our tour it was designed to feel like moving water, the glass panes to remind one of fish gills and to catch the sky in the reflection. It was so icon and beautiful, especially against the beauty of the Harbor and the Mountains across the way!
We made our way along the waterfront walkway, in the biting, bitter wind under a bright blue sky to the Sun Voyager! We. unlike some of our fellow tourists were not dressed for or prepared for how cold a sunny day would be!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_Voyager
From there we headed back to our neighborhood along the harbor, it was so beautiful, the mountains across the harbor smiled upon us. We did a bit of shopping at local thrift stores on our way back to our room, found treasures, then got snacks and back to the room to regroup before heading out again. We got a couple slice of pizza to go from the little local convenience shop, it was SO GOOD!!! I also picked up some Skyr and Keifer for the next morning’s breakfast!
We started with dinner when we made it out again, the wind was dying down, and the sky was still clear! We had found this Gelato place in our research weeks ago! So off we headed just a couple blocks away to the food hall for a dessert for dinner! https://gelato.is/inglese
We then went for a walk, the night was setting in but the shops were still open. The small street near our hotel was full of shops, restaurants and bars so we decided to walk until we didn’t want to walk any longer. Along the way we bout some traditional Icelandic chocolate bars:
We wandered to the MicroBar to venture into a flight of local Beers! Our favorite bartender in Iceland, Sara offered up some of the best local brew!
This wrapped up our full day of Reykjavik! Iceland was just so welcoming! The soft falling snow was a gift that filled my heart with the beauty of the Island. I hope to return! We woke in the wee hours of the morning to catch our bus to the airport….Good bye Iceland! You are spectacular!
