Reykjavik: day two

August 8th, 2010

Day two started off super early with a quick breakfast at the Grey Cat again (not much else was open and we didn’t have time to wander) and a meeting with Ingibjörg Hanna Bjarnadóttir at Reykjavik’s major Scandinavian design shop Epal. She is fortunate enough to have a space for her studio within their large showroom. We already carry her raven coat hangars but we wanted to meet her in person and see some of her other work.

Right after that we headed over to the brand new Spark Design Space for our second meeting with Thury from Vik Prjonsdottir – we’ll be putting in an order this week for some very awesome wintry items. This meeting was quite fortuitous, as we also met with gallery owner and the head of product design at the design school, Sigridur Sigurjonsdottir. She shared with us some recent student/graduate/faculty work. As well we learned about the current exhibition at Spark.

“For the past two years Maack has worked with the world of scents, creating fragrances for her art projects in collaboration with French perfumery APF. The scents are based on a perfumer translating the artists original drawings into scents.”

I am totally not a perfume person, but I tried one on for the day and returned later to buy “Sharp”. (photo from Spark)

From left: John, Thury and Andrea.

After a morning of meetings we went to Sægreifinn in the harbor area. They have the best lobster soup. Note baby in pram, sleeping soundly outside the restaurant. God I wish we lived in such a world.

Nom nom.

Gull beer and lobster soup. Not exactly a match made in heaven, but whatever.

That painting is awesome.

The inspiration. For some reason they felt the need to include the guy lurking in the background.

Mink whale, anyone?

Blue cat. Love the attention to detail.

A gallery and the design shop Kraum are located in this building, which is the oldest house in Reykjavik, dated to 1762.

John in shopping mode.

Off to get cultured, we stopped in at Reykjavík 871±2. I really like the mood of this exhibition, which is about the first settlement discovered in Reykjavik. It’s small, intimate and technically innovative. The above is a motion sensor video that plays when you walk past (the ghost like person and bird are the only things that move in the video).

A bit of the archeological find, with a smoking volcano in the background.

Afternoon snack at Mokka Kaffi, my absolute favourite coffee shop ever. Old timey and super cozy.

Wood, fabric woven wallpaper, aubergine carpet, steel.

The best waffles and lattes. The place was rammed when we first got there, waffles all around.

Again with the copper and black lighting. A ghostly patina on the wood slats.

Dinner was at Fish Market, recommended by Kitka friend Tyrone Warner among many. Reservation recommended.

We went with the tasting plate – which is served to the table. Kind of a greatest hits off their menu.

We outpaced most.

Our new friend Ingibjörg invited us out for a night cap at “Boston” a really cool bar on the second floor of a building. The DJ was in her 60s and playing some real classics, everyone was in a good mood and singing along.

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