After having brunch with our cool hosts, they graciously offered to take us to the Árbær Open Air Museum. The concept of the museum was very interesting because it portrayed the history of Icelandic lifestyle through houses, barns, costumes, and tools. As we understood it they formed the museum by literally picking up historic houses and moving them to this site. There were very interesting patterns in the wallpaper and decorations within the houses. Our favorite, however, was the turf houses which were extremely small and had a grass roof.
The next day we were planning to go to the Photography Museum at some point. While we were in the city Nazli was looking for a bathroom as usual and we found the Photography Museum instead which solved both problems. These bathrooms were a lot nicer than the tubular spaceship looking one near the bus station that Nazli just had to use (you push a button to let yourself into a tiny space that you cannot move in, with no sink or toilet paper). In all seriousness the Photography Museum was awesome. We were lucky to find an exhibition about modern Icelandic women called WOMAN (Who is the she? Where does she come from? What are her dreams and longings?) by Berglind Björnsdóttir. Each portrait featured women of all different backgrounds but each had some connection to Iceland. There was also a description for each photo typically answering those questions. We found it interesting that many of the women were flight attendants or in training to become one. One criticism was that we felt some photos were reflecting the same characteristics again and again. However, maybe that was the point of the exhibit.
On Tuesday, we took a chill day and went out to KEX Hostel to hear more live jazz. We heard the Flosason-Olding Kvartett who really like playing Stablemates a Benny Golson tune (they played it the other day when we heard them outside). Matt also liked that they played Beatrice. KEX has a very good vibe to it as you can see in the photos. The decorations could have been done by Nazli as it looked like her art (bathroom doors covered in book texts). If you want to hang in a one of a kind spot go to KEX Hostel located on Skulagata 28. Its a very artsy area as well cause there is the Living Art Museum right next door. There will be live performances there as well on Tuesdays for the next couple of weeks which we will check out as well.
