Reykjavik, Iceland, March 8th 2010

Allora, my first impression of this Iceland and of the Icelanders: it’s a warm isle, and the Scandinavian world looks so far away from up here.

The Icelanders are not as tall as I had imagined, and there are a lot of people with brown hair, much more than the average of the people at this latitude. And what’s more, they are happy and open people, they wait for the world to come and visit them in order to welcome it with wide open arms.

They look like they are stubborn and proud, but also friendly and open to new relationships. I don’t feel alone walking in the streets of this town, even if it’s small and its streets are quite empty.

The town is small and colorful. The roofs in red, pink, blue and green clash with the sky, always gray, that dominates the landscape. The town is warm, even geographically speaking.

A system uses the warm water of the underground to warm up the streets so that there is no snow downtown.

I hope I will get to see the Aurora Borealis one of these evenings, even though it seems like it will be difficult.

And then, there is the concept of “space”, that here you can barely understand, and that seems infinite compared to the number of people you meet on the street. You can feel it in the air, and as soon as I cross the border of Reykjavik to go up North I think I will experience it fully.

So, I feel pleasantly welcomed and cuddled by this town, so particular, so unique and precious, so open to the world and also proud of its uniqueness, of the Nordic world still all its own.

Let’s see….