Welcome to Iceland Guest - Your Online Travel Guide.

Iceland Guest is an information website for your travel to Iceland. On this site you can get all the tourist information you need for your vacation in Iceland. We hope that you will find this online travel guide useful in planning your holidays in Iceland.

About Iceland
Iceland is a refreshingly unconventional travel destination. The Icelandic nature is unspoilt, exotic and mystical with its spouting geysers, active volcanoes, tumbling waterfalls, towering mountains, vast lava plains and magical lakes. Iceland’s fjords, glaciers and highland plains present visitors with some of the most beautiful and enchanting places they will ever see, as well as a rare feeling of utter tranquillity.

For travelers on a quest for action, Iceland’s pristine nature offers great potential for outdoor activities such as snowmobiling, horse riding, cave exploring, hiking, swimming, skiing, river rafting, kayaking and mountain safaris on modified four-wheel drives, to name but a few. Iceland supports a surprisingly diverse Nordic flora and fauna and is an ideal place for ornithology enthusiasts, while also offering some of the world’s best whale watching destinations.

About Reykjavik
Reykjavík sometimes feels like a cosmopolitan capital and a tiny seaside village - all wrapped up in one. But Reykjavík has the best of both worlds; the qualities of a modern, forward-looking society complemented by a close connection to Iceland‚s beautiful and unspoilt nature.

Reykjavík’s legendary nightlife is bolstered by plentiful cultural and social happenings in addition to an abundance of first-class restaurants. The size of Reykjavik city centre is also limited enough to allow for easy navigation by foot. Reykjavík has been described as a young and daring city that is characterized by strong contrasts. Conveniently small, clean and safe, it is more or less free from the major problems that haunt many other capitals. Big city events are frequent, the winter lights festival finished recently with thousands of participants and more tourist at this time of the year than we are used to.

in Focus

29.4.2007

Five-day Collaborative Songwriting Workshop Held in Iceland

At restaurant Fossatún in Borgarfjördur foreign and Icelandic artists performed songs written during a five-day collaborative songwriting workshop held at Hotel Glymur in Hvalfjördur, west Iceland, Thursday evening.

IR’s Zoë Robert and Eygló S. Arnarsdóttir attended the evening, which was the culmination of a seminar - the first of its kind to be held in the country - aimed to foster better ties between Icelandic and foreign musicians.

The initiative was organized by Icefusion Ltd founder Ginny Graham and UK artist Chesney Hawkes. Hawkes, who was made famous by his 1991 British chart-topping single “The One and Only” described the workshop, or “retreat,” as a great success. “I’m very proud - the songs are great,” he said.

Fifteen artists, including ten foreign artists attended the event. Foreign artists included Nik Kershaw, Teitur from the Faroe Islands and Young UK Indie artist Claire Toomey. The Icelandic contribution included up-and-coming singer Bryndís Jakobsdóttir and guitarist Gummi Jóns.

Kershaw, best known for his 1984 UK hit single “Wouldn’t it be good,” said, “I’ve done workshops before, but nowhere like this.” He was quick to comment on the remoteness of the workshop location. “There’s nothing else to do! We’ve tried to immerse ourselves into everything. We’ve all turned off our phones,” he said. “It’s been a great learning experience for everyone - no matter how long we’ve been doing this,” Kershaw added.

Workshop participants, all carefully chosen, established artists or songwriters, were assigned to writing groups, which were alternated twice daily. Artists were given access to instruments, an engineer and a recording studio. The collaboration resulted in over 35 songs being recorded.

“It was a fantastic experience, energetic experience. We wrote two songs a day, it was wonderfully hectic,” said Teitur. “I’m up in the clouds on a natural high. No kidding,” Jakobsdóttiragreed.

According to Graham, the idea for starting her company Icefusion, which ran the songwriting workshop, was inspired by her will to share her passion for Iceland with others. Icefusion is holding a holistic workshop around the solstice in June and a second songwriting seminar next fall.

For further information about Icefusion visit the website, www.icefusion.eu.

Source: Iceland Review (www.icelandreview.com).

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