Only one thing has inspired me to break my blogging silence of more than six months: Iceland. Wow. I got a last minute invite for the Reykjavik Film Festival, and figured why not? (I know, I know, I should never complain about my job again). I have to say that Iceland is probably the most amazing place I've ever visited in my wide-ish travels. It's like nowhere on earth, and that's something rare these days (the more I travel, the more towns and cities all start to look the same...even Hong Kong has 7-11s on every corner!)

Iceland is still wonderfully idiosyncratic. The people are cool and friendly and funny, the music is good (and I saw the Sigur Ros film and one of the band guys in a supermarket! Anyway I can recommend the film, Heima, if you are a fan of their music.), the landscape looks like nothing else. And I got to go visit hot springs (the fab Blue Lagoon - even if it was a bit gross that there was a couple shagging in there) AND dive bars (a shout out to Sirkus), saw a Viking settlement and avoided eating boiled sheepshead. Oh yes and I saw some good films, met some nice filmmakers and got to see Aki Kaurismaki across the bar. If you ever get a chance, Iceland will rock you. I am ready to go back and do a full tour outside of Reykjavik!