Marlous Heemstra | photo blog

Beestjes

2012-06-24T10:42:00.001+00:00

Oldambt

2012-02-27T20:23:00.000+00:00

waiting for the rain

hello from Borgsweer

2011-12-01T19:22:00.000+00:00

2cv world meeting 2011

2011-10-30T16:50:00.002+00:00

Photo collection of the 2cv world meeting in Salbris, France.

Dynjandifoss waterfall

2011-06-05T20:36:00.005+00:00

..the greatest waterfall (height 100 m) of the northwest peninsula

Run forest

Both were in line to get scratched

Pink mountain saxifraga

Lonely barn along the road

The German delegation

Follow the blue jacket

The Russian delegation was present as well

Creeping buttercups

It looks much greater in real life than I can capture

Moss mosses

Before the fall

Can you see the man?

From another point

Waterfall drops

If you don't watch your back you might lose it

Trying to get the best shot...

of this beauty

A look in the garden

2011-05-27T19:16:00.001+00:00

Making the garden ready for summer.. unfortunately summer is coming through slowly

Have a good weekend

Who said students are lazy?

The best steersmen are on the shore

Neighbor's cat looking through the mesh

Blurry frisbee play

2011-05-26T11:27:00.001+00:00

Bright night II

2011-05-25T02:37:00.000+00:00

Starting to become a nightwalker. The town is so small, it's very likely to bump into someone you know.. even at 02:00 in the morning, 2 nights in a row :-)

01:45

Walking the streets

02:00 - Ryan

Bright night

2011-05-24T18:11:00.002+00:00

Since classes have been cancelled - due to the volcanic eruption I had no reasons to wake up early and couldn't really sleep either. Together with a bottle of tea I enjoyed the bright night at the breakwaters.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who had trouble sleeping - Ingrid showed up after a while, spending her last night in Ísafjordur before heading back to Norway some hours after..

02:10 - as dark as it gets

02:25

02:40 - its light again - Ingrid & me on selftimer

Sunday evening in your street

2011-05-15T22:32:00.001+00:00

Kids getting into the swing

Swimming with 5°C

2011-05-14T01:26:00.004+00:00

The beach, sunshine and a drink.. what more do you want?

C-celebrity

Jump

Warming-up sessions

Therese the Norwegian queen

Keeping the reputation high

Losing sense of time

2011-05-13T22:44:00.001+00:00

Hey all,

The darkness is starting to dissappear. I just made this picture 10 minutes ago (22:30) showing that the sun is still shining and my neighbour is fixing his garden as if it is daytime!

My body is also evidently confused by this brightness, I did not manage to sleep before 3:00 in the morning the last couple of days :-)

Have a great weekend!

22:30 at night

Most westerly point of Europe - Bjargtangar

2011-05-08T15:41:00.013+00:00

Hello cyber world,

This weekend we went to Bjartangar, which is the most westerly point of Iceland and therefore of Europe (and only 300 km's away from Greenland). The sheer cliffs are a continuous rock wall and extent for around 14 km's, with the highest point being 400 m above sea level.

On the cliffs a huge number of sea birds nest and breed. In the past men from local farms collected the eggs and caught birds along the cliff face, descending by rope. The cliffs are the country's largest cliff-bird colony and are unique even by world standards.

The weather was more than beautiful and while driving we fell from one amazement into the other with those rapidly changing landscapes..

Marlous

Sit and drive.... Vamos

Km's driving without oncoming traffic

Perfect weather to spot whales (we saw one porpoise)

One of the many waterfalls

A farm dog checking out on us

Oldest steel ship in Iceland, from Norway, stranded in 1981

A lot of oyster catchers breeding next to the road

S P A C E

The clearest water we have seen in the Atlantic

An ''ohhh'' moment. We did not expect to see this

Beautiful farm

Moss, moss and more moss

Stranded whale.. stretching on a soft bed

More space

White sandy beaches.. in Iceland

Job in his element

..and Suse as well

Fulmar (can you see him?)

Ohhh..

Looking into the depth

Team birdwatchers

Laying on the edge

You should not be afraid of heights

Gracefully floating through the air

We also had some time for sunbathing

A wealth of beautiful views and colours

The first puffin I have seen in my life

The Bjargtangaviti lighthouse

Enjoying the abundance of Sun

On the way back we passed many fjords

....and different types of terrain and roads

Blonde haired Icelandic ponyhorsepony

We are almost home now.... it is 21:00 and still light

Today's photos

2011-05-07T01:10:00.002+00:00

Photos made this Friday during a random ride through the area with Suse and Job. It is so beautiful here that it would be impossible to ever get tired of it.. don't you think?

Cross

The night starts to ''fall''

Traditional houses

A self-timer moment

Beautiful lighthouse along the road to Bolungarvík

Suse

Couple

A random feather

Saxifraga oppositifolia

These have been used to shoot birds

One of many quick stops

Breeding fulmar

Another waterfall

You have to love it....

A day in the Bolungarvik Natural History Institute

2011-04-18T21:20:00.005+00:00

Today Suse and I went to the National History Institute in Bolungarvik. A great day for Suse as we could pick up her Fulmar birds which arrived for her research. Unfortunately she could not start with the cutting work as the poor animals were still frozen. Nevertheless we had a fun day, playing around in the museum and in the lab as illustrated below ;-)

A chunk of frozen birds

Most of them being hooked

Look mommy

The freezers

Arctic foxes embryos

Suse standing next to enormous whale jaws

Chick's with long legs

The polarbear did not survive his trip from Greenland

We found these spidercrabs next to the birds

Modeled to dry

Tubes

Halfway through April

2011-04-16T18:41:00.002+00:00

Hello cyber world,

Some of the pictures I made this friday. Have a good weekend!

Tchau!

Falling of the night

2011-03-25T22:39:00.007+00:00

Some of the photos I took this night. Enjoy the weekend!

One of the awkward poses I have for selftiming

Big layers of snow on the breakwaters

Total silence

The harbour

The first day of spring!

2011-03-21T18:37:00.001+00:00

I am not sure about the weather in the rest of the world but here in Ísafjörður it was a brrright, sunny day. Since we didn't have class we took the opportunity to spend the day outside, playing around and celebrating the arrival of spring ;-)

A little bit of frontdoor ice-licking

It's all about finding a balance

Suse rocks

Purple sandpipers snacking shrimp-trash

Eating fest

Fish factory

Hooks and lines

Wearing my sunglasses

1..

2..

Out of use boat

Pretty old Mercedes

Suse liked it as well

Bi ba babies

Kitty cat

House out of shipping containers

2011-03-20T22:06:00.000+00:00

The subject I am currently in at school is about maritime transportation. The lady who lectured us, told us about the container problem the shipping industry is facing. This problem simply implies that more containers are being transported from Asia to Europe than vice versa. Result: a great abundance of containers for which no solution has yet been found (!!)

In Holland there have already been some initiatives to place students in containers due to a housing shortage, but while surfing the Internet I came across something more interesting and creative. A house constructed of shipping containers – I would sign for one!

(Photo: kchandg.com)

Uh-huh portrait

2011-03-18T11:34:00.000+00:00

Already halfway through March - Happy Friday!

Making days longer

2011-03-16T22:18:00.000+00:00

Ísafjördur ski-resort

2011-03-11T14:30:00.000+00:00

Some of the photo's I took on wednesday at the Ísafjördur ski resort. It was a beautiful, sunny day with fastly changing skies. It is hard to think of something better to do after school than this!

Worth looking back!

As it is in heaven

Perfect conditions

View on Ísafjördur

Ryan

With Carla, Ben and Alex (Photo: Ryan O'Connell)

Downhill (Photo: Ryan O'Connell)

What youre waiting for? (Photo: Ryan O'Connell)

The local supermarket – Samkaup

2011-03-07T17:53:00.000+00:00

One of the things I am always curious about while travelling is how the supermarkets look from the inside – do they sell similar products to home? And more interesting – what odd things do they have in their assortment.

The first thing I noticed here was that groceries are 20-50% more expensive than in Dutch supermarkets. The Icelandic króna (1 EU = 160,55 ISK) makes it easy to fool yourself and actually feel a little wealthier with all those 1000 and 500 bills in your wallet. However, it has the reverse effect when you have to pay 1200 for a piece of cheese.

Here in town there are two supermarkets: Samkaup and Bónus. The latter is the cheapest option but simultaneously the one that takes you half the world to get there – unless you have a car or a passion for walking (or a beautiful appearance that could be used for hitchhiking). Since I have neither, I went to Samkaup, a 5-minute walk from our front door. The products are kind of similar to what I am used to and I was not able to find the seal flippers, whale or head cheese that I thought I would find.

The Samkaup

Plenty of fruits and nice drinks

Pieces of shark - kind of odd to me

My favourite place in the supermarket - the cheeses

Svid - Sheephead.. Icelandic delicatesse

Dairy products

Skyr is a sort of strained yoghurt, very popular in Iceland

Hardfiskur - wind dried fish

Where is everybody?

Light beers - the only alcohol available in the supermarket

People here like knitting - there is even a knitting café

Today's photo's

2011-03-04T18:52:00.000+00:00

Below are some of the pictures I took today during a long walk and hitchhike trip from Ísafjörður to Bolungavik

Northern lights ETC

2011-02-27T23:37:00.000+00:00

Hey cyber world..

2 weeks have passed since my last message, when we arrived in Ísafjörður. I was planning to post more often but you know how it goes..

Things are going very well and to be honest above expectations, I think I can speak for the three of us. It is amazing how fast you get all settled in such a new environment.. and it is a new environment.

The weather so far has been great and even though the city is so small it does not suffocate, at least not till now. It is funny as no matter where you go you will always bump into some people you know - for some this would be a reason to not like it. I also start to recognize cars.. not sure if this is truly interesting info, but at least it shows the size of this city.

These last two weeks have been quite intense as we had to introduce ourselves over.. and over.. again. Also, our first subject started: coastal and marine conservation, which is taught by the man I met on the airport. The courses here are intense as there are only 3 weeks per subject, so we have class a few hours a day. The rest consists of a lot of reading, discussions and by the end of this week we will have to hand in a paper.. luckily enough no exams. Our class consists of a wide variety of interesting people, having all sorts of educational backgrounds, and coming from all over the globe. The school is small and cozy, people do not wear shoes inside the building (for those who wondered why I was not wearing shoes on one of the Facebook pictures) and there is yoga class two times a week during lunch-break.. sounds like the perfect school?

Of course, we have also explored the nightlife. Besides the ability of hanging in other students’ houses, the city has 2 bars - less is more, right? One organizes a quiz night each Thursday, the other one has a beer-bingo night each Friday where you can, as you might have guessed, win beers. Compared to Germany and Holland the beer prizes are high so the bingo is well attended.. by both Icelandic and foreigners.

There are a million things to think of on how to spend your spare time. Every Sunday morning you can go sea-kayaking in the fjords with a group of people. I found this so cool that I am planning to do this each Sunday. The water is so clear that you can see till the bottom and we were surprised by the seals swimming around our kayaks. We also tried out the swimming pool which has a sauna and a hot tube.. the hot tube was great, usually you get disappointed once you step in one cause the water is always less hot than you expected it to be. This hot tube is HOT, so hot that it made me faint - this is another story, available on request. We have also skied in the Ísafjörður ski resort, which is like a big playground for adults, there were almost no other people, just us.. powder snow and absolute silence.

There is probably enough that I forgot to mention right now.. yea, something just crosses my mind: the northern lights! I finally saw them, fast moving green strings and curtains, beautiful.

With the image of the northern lights in my head it is a good time to start making a way to my bed.

More news will follow soon(er or later).. J

Our cozy living room

View out of our kitchen window

The church and beach right behind our house

People you don't know

Music performance in church

Bingo

Suse and the instructor

We were drifting somewhere

View from the top of the ski resort (Ísafjörður in the back)

Empty

High view from the mountains