All the reasons we should love Iceland & Berlin

Iceland:

1. They kicked the Danish out! If that's not a good enough reason, I don't know what is.
2. They have a really awesome English newspaper with actual articles, interviews, and news worth reading called The Grapevine which comes out in a weekly edition, this in a city of less than 200 000 people. We get... the CPH post. (」ﾟﾛﾟ)｣NOOOooooo━
3. Most awesome woollen goods you have ever seen. Man oh man. I think they were born with knitting needles for fingers.
4. Fantastic design and fashion on their main shopping street. Nary an H&M to be found. And nary a McDonalds, either!
5. Beautiful landscape from top to bottom. Not a single boring moment driving from one end of the country to the other. 
6. Pickled Ram's Testicles. The fact that these people eat such a thing is a testament to their hardy natures. It freaks me out just to hear that this is actually a meal and not just a joke to play on foreigners.
7. SKYR! (curds fermented in the stomach of a sheep). You wouldn't believe it to hear it, but it's super delicious. Things Iceland can do to improve their economy: start exporting skyr!
8. Geothermal hot springs. Ohhhhhhh baby.
9. Seeing volcanoes, glaciers, iceburgs, waterfalls, lava fields, and mountain ranges all in one day.
10. The list goes on but I'll conclude with: 24 hour sunlight! I bet it gets annoying after a while, but it sure was amazing to see.

Berlin:

1. Dang, could I eat me some good food there for cheap. 
2. Regularly priced coffee. No such thing as a $7.00 coffee there. It rarely exceeded EUR 1.50
3. Really great parts of town, very VERY reasonable rents. 4 room apartments for EUR 700/month? YES PLEASE!
4. German was like a blessing to my ears. It is so sensible and enunciated. 
5. People were able to watch World Cup Soccer without breaking out into idiocy.

ETC.

Sadly part 1 of my epic summer adventures came to a close today saying goodbye to mom at the airport... hope she gets into Toronto okay with all that crazy rioting going on about the G20!

AMAZING NEWS! The weather has achieved appropriate heat levels for 'summer' here in DK and so we actually went to the beach today. 

And. Tomorrow Jed is renting a cargo bike... The primary purpose of this is to cart all his school stuff home (and my chair, if possible). The secondary purpose is joyriding in the front wagon.

OH yeah. It will be done.