This area, which is called Kaup Tun, is probably most known and traveled to because of Ikea. Because of this Ikea’s location in Iceland, it has some very odd and unusual surroundings. I find that it often looks like a theme park which was created just to entertain Ikea’s customers. This theme park happens to be Icelandic themed. There is not an erupting volcano at the entrance of Ikea, but maybe there should be.
KaupTun 1
Kaup Tun 2
Kaup Tun 3
Kaup Tun 4
Kaup Tun 5
Kaup Tun 6
Kaup Tun 7
Kaup Tun 8
Kaup Tun 9
Kaup Tun 10
Categories: Iceland
Tagged: Iceland, Ikea, Julia, julia staples, Kaup Tun, KaupTun, photography, Pictures, Reykjavik
Iceland’s lottery just hit it big! A family of 5 just won one of the largest winnings Iceland has ever seen. 64 million ISK or about 792,000 USD. You can read about the fortunate couple
here.
Iceland’s lottery proceeds go to the country’s sport’s, the youth and the impaired. Worthy causes. But no matter who the proceeds are for, the same people still are stuck helplessly gambling away all of their money.
Forever Happy - Face 1
Forever Happy - Face 2
Forever Happy - Face 3
Forever Happy - Face 4
Forever Happy - Face 5
Forever Happy - Face 6
Forever Happy - Face 7
Categories: Iceland
Tagged: Iceland, julia staples, lottery
Promise
For Sale
Hope
Restaurant
I have been collecting For Sale signs from construction sites. This last one though, I just found to be humorous. The restaurant is not for sale. I wish I had been there when the restaurant was actually open.
There have been many changes to my website, and you can see more pictures that relate to this blog on my actual website. Go to www.juliastaples.com and there is an extension of my blog there.
Categories: Iceland
Tagged: Iceland, julia staples, signs
Amazing to be in Iceland and to find areas that are reminiscent of Philadelphia.
Categories: Iceland
Tagged: Iceland, julia staples, Reykjavik
The newly built neighborhood of Hvarf is full of some of Iceland’s largest residential homes. The homes sell for 200-300 million isk (2.5-3.5 million USdollars) and are some of the largest existing and being built.
Categories: Iceland
Tagged: Houses, Iceland, julia staples, Reykjavik
Categories: Iceland
Tagged: Air Base, America, American Military, Base, Buildings, Iceland, julia staples, Keflavik, Military, Navy Base, Reykjavik
Enough said! This neighborhood is called Nordlingarholt. It is at the edge of town on your way to the South of Iceland.
Categories: Iceland
Tagged: Iceland, julia staples, nordlingarholt, Reykjavik
Living within the construction
So, some of the things that immediately strike me as strange is that in Iceland, people seem to be living amongst the construction. In this particular neighborhood. People have been living here since the construction started about 2 years ago. Their porches and backyards are made of construction materials and their yards seem to be made of waste. I am working on trying to find out why this is. It is either that the neighborhood is just that desirable, or maybe they got a cheaper deal, or maybe the promise of the end of construction was much sooner.
Promise of a new Life
So, I have been keeping a series on the side of all of the flashy signs that are made and posted everywhere of the signs which promise the fancy new stark and clean buildings. The style in Iceland right now is super clean, straight, cement style building. The pictures are sort of inviting at first. They are clean, angular and look very modern. But they also sort of remind me of Eastern European blocks. Why would Iceland, being one of the wealthiest nation in the world, need to build space and money saving futuristic looking apartment blocks?
Multiples
Many of the new neighborhoods are built with the exact same houses street after street. I am often unsure of which streets I may have already walked on, because all of the houses are the same. You can see here how similar these houses are. The next street over is probably the same.
So there you have some examples of Iceland’s newest neighborhoods. I am meeting with the Real Estate Statistics Office sometime soon to get some cold hard facts and I am hoping to meet with one of Iceland’s top economists to get some opinions and facts from him as well.
More tomorrow.
Categories: Iceland
Tagged: Hafnafjordur, Houses, Iceland, julia staples, photography
the edge of town
This is what the edge of most towns look like in Reykjavik. They drop off to the beautiful rolling hills. It seems funny that people build and live so close to one another when there is so much land. On the other hand, it makes using the resources less wasteful I think.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Hafnafjordur, Iceland, julia staples, photography
A new neighborhood in Hafnafjordur
approaching that same neighborhood
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So this was one of the first days I “officially” went out to look for answers to the questions of my project. This neighborhood is built on one of Reykjavik and surrounding suburbs highest hills. It is about 15 minutes out of the downtown area and the views from the area are of Reykjavik and the bay. This neighborhood is surrounded by other suburbs which are full of life and vigor. This new development will feed off of the neighboring areas and not need to sustain itself with it’s own new gym, school and grocery store. At this point I am not sure what sort of person will move to this area. The views and the sizes of the houses tell me that the area will be on the more expensive side. More on that soon.
Categories: Iceland
Tagged: Building, construction, Hafnafjordur, Houses, Iceland, julia staples
