Iceland

a journey of a lifetime

On my way!

Kategori: Allmänt

What have i learned here?
Well, I have learned the most important thing a good chef must have in order to be great: creativity!
Let me explain with a picture:
Think of a child riding his bicycle with support wheels, thats the same as cooking using recipe, as long you use the recipe you will get a good result. But if you discard the support wheels there will be a risk that the child will fall, with other words, the food may not succeed. But it drastically increasing the chances of great success. it's good to start with the support wheels. but if you want to become better, you should try to balance with your own strength. I hope you understand the metaphor. I have learned to inprovise more, to dare make choices that i normally would avoid. I have not exactly learned so much new things. But my skills has been inproved, think of it as an upgrade of my cooking skills.
I can't believe that i have been on iceland cooking food, it feels unbelievable! of all the places in europe i could be, im glad that i wanted to fly to iceland. I'm actually missing working with nico and the others, i have have get to know new friends who also are swedish. I can say that this will not be the last time i travel to iceland.What have i experience here during these past weeks?I have seen the northern lights, eating puffin bird, whale and local specialty, I have seen the mighty Gullfoss and geysir. See whales and bathed in the blue lagoon. Riding icelandic horses and learned to tölt.I am really pleased that i could experience all of these! And my best friends, Samuel, Linnéa, Alfred, Sofia and Linda came here for 4 days and we had a awesome time together! I hope that you guys had a great time. This has truly been a journey of a lifetime!
This will also be my last post on this blogg, but if you want to learn some nice recipes you can follow my other blogg:
Im flying back to Sweden tomorrow so now is a good time to think: What have i learned here?
Well, I have learned the most important thing a good chef must have in order to be great: creativity!
Let me explain with a picture:
Think of a child riding his bicycle with support wheels, thats the same as cooking using recipe, as long you use the recipe you will get a good result. But if you discard the support wheels there will be a risk that the child will fall, with other words, the food may not succeed. But it drastically increasing the chances of great success. it's good to start with the support wheels. but if you want to become better, you should try to balance with your own strength. I hope you understand the metaphor. I have learned to inprovise more, to dare make choices that i normally would avoid. I have not exactly learned so much new things. I can work longer hours now, and make tomatoroses but most inportantly: my skills has been inproved, think of it as an upgrade of my cooking skills. Im a little better then i was before i went to Iceland...I think! :)
I can't believe that i have been on iceland cooking food, it feels unbelievable! of all the places in europe i could be, im glad that i went to iceland. The best way to describe how it was is by this song:
I'm actually missing working with Nico and the others, I have have get to know new friends who also are swedish. I can say that this will not be the last time i travel to iceland.What have i experience here during these past weeks?I have seen the northern lights, eating puffin bird, whale and local specialty, I have seen the mighty Gullfoss and geysir. See whales and bathed in the blue lagoon. Riding icelandic horses and learned to tölt.I am really pleased that i could experience all of these!
And my best friends, Samuel, Linnéa, Alfred, Sofia and Linda came here for 4 days and we had a awesome time together! I hope that you guys had a great time. I sure had a great time with you! :)
This has truly been a journey of a lifetime!
This will also be my last post on this blogg, but if you want to learn some nice recipes you can follow my other blogg:
http://matnicho.blogg.se/

1 Month!!

Kategori: Allmänt

One month! I can’t believe that I have actually been working on Iceland one whole month! Time does fly when having fun. J

Yesterday (26/4) I had my last day off so I rode a horse in really bad weather, although it is very cool to ride in really bad weather. Then I went to Gullfoss waterfall, and it was really nice. Bad weather but it was really cool to see that humongous waterfall!

I started to wonder what I have learned and if I have changed as a person. I know that my experience in working in a kitchen has grown over this past few weeks, (obviously, or else this trip would have been for nothing.). And the only new different in my self is that I miss Sweden not to much. I will be happy leaving Iceland but I will also miss all the nice people here. Well I’m not leaving this island until the beginning of May.

Tomorrow is my last working day here. I will travel to Reykjavik on Sunday and going to enjoy a week here with my friends. But first, I will sleep, then I will work, and finely, I will write about what I have learned here! That’s going to be my last post on this blog.

Blue Lagoon!

Kategori: Allmänt

Ah, another day off, I dint know what to do but when I heard that my friends will come here in like, 2 weeks. I want to see if the blue lagoon is worth it. So I decided that I would go to the blue lagoon today and I did, FOR FREE! Because I work at hotel Eldhestar.

And that was an amazing day! When I arrived to the destination, we were in the middle of nowhere, the lagoon is surrounded by volcano rocks, dark brown rocks everywhere, I walked a small corridor of rocks to a building, inside it was very sophisticated felt like traveling 10 years in to the future. And the keys, of the keys, the man who invented them must have been a genius, because you use it for everything, it has a chip that you can use for purchases and locking your locker. Now that’s cool.  And the water temperature was so warm (in difference to the temperate in the air) so it smoking. It felt amazing to just swim in extreme pleasant water. Warm, but not painful.

They have lots of stuf, like a steam bath in a cave, that’s was also nice. The blue lagoon is not a place for a kid, because kids want to jump and splash and stuff like that, here it’s more like a spa. There are many boxes with some Silica mud; they say it’s good for your skin. You put it on your face for 5 – 10 minutes then wash it away then you have nicer skin apparently…

And I meet some really nice people, they are there for relaxing, so they just want to talk and talk, one older man and I sat in the steam cave and talked about different age, young men and older men’s advantages and then he said: “if you have the advantages of every age, then you have a good life.”

It was nice, but it would have been more fun if I had some more company, so to you who are going to Iceland soon, bring with you your swimsuit and a towel, I vote for bathing in the blue lagoon!

Here is their website: http://www.bluelagoon.com/


The rose

Kategori: Allmänt

Working alone is so boring! Nico had his day off today so I had to work alone, boring! But it’s quite good for me actually. It puts me in the position there I must remember the rhythm of this kitchen. You see, every restaurant has it own way to cook, it depends mostly on how much space you can work on, what ingredients you have usually and how many guests there are.  So now it was like a trail, to se how much I know and if I will screw up or succeeds. Of course I don’t fail when it comes to the important parts. It went well and the guests was pleased with the dinner

Oh, one other fun thing of today: I mastered the way of the tomato rose, I made some tomato roses for our guest and now I can do it good! Maybe I can use it for our big cooking exam later ;)

Now I have talked to one of my friends in Sweden and he and other friends are coming here when my internship is over. We are going to have a wonderful time! And before they arrive I have to check out everything that is fun and with a reasonably price. :D

See you another day, for now I will hunt northern lights before I go to bed.

Happy easter! (too late!)

Kategori: Allmänt

I haven’t written anything for days, opps! Well I could say a good lie but the truth is that I’m lazy; I am not really a blogger so to speak. I don’t take so much pictures of the food anymore because we don’t have the time to take pictures; we work at a fast rate. I didn’t celebrate Easter last Saturday, because I was working. It sounds really sad I know but I had at least some company, one other intern sat with me during a break and we ate some pannacotta. All days are work days here it seems. Then I met my family in Reykjavik when I had my day of, it was really nice, we ate some good food and my desire to meet my friends grows even more.

I hope that you had a nice påsklov, mine will start after my internship and that will be so awesome, I hope. And for the last couple of days I have been working the afternoons rather then the evenings, why? It is nice to work a little different then usual and I get to know the new interns. They are also from Sweden. But starting tomorrow I will work evening and maybe take some good photos as well.

I have a great time here and I just love this landscape, one picture is like one pixel its beauty!

I hope that you will travel to Iceland, it is so worth it!


Sunshine!

Kategori: Allmänt


I’m so lucky with the weather here on Iceland, I keep hearing about snow in Sweden and the only snow here are on the mountains, so basically its warmer here and in Sweden,  This weekend was pretty nice, I went to Reykjavik to meet my family. It was nice to see them again after only 2 weeks. We walked around I Reykjavik and I got to say, there are many weird looking houses in Reykjavik. Almost every house is unique, in a really visible way. Some houses were very green, others were strangle formed and so on, there are a huge variation of houses so its hard to get lost in Reykjavik.

Then we ate at a nice restaurant and I slept at downtown hostel. Early the next morning we got picket up by Eldhestar. We were very lucky with the weather Sunshine, calm winds. Everything you need for a nice ride although I worked but my family rode Icelandic horses while I cooked food.
Now today I have a day off so I will go back to Reykjavik and spend some more time with my family, usually where my family is, my friends are not far away. Sadly they are. But I have a good time here and can’t wait until I see my friends again.

Amazing horse.

Kategori: Allmänt

What a great day. Well, I had not so much to do in the kitchen because there was no guest how stayed over for lunch. So after the staff ate lunch I went out with them and rode an Icelandic horse! I have never actually ridden a horse before. That was quiet the experience, to ride and watch the beautiful landscape around you. That’s also something you should do if you want to travel to Iceland.
Happy! :)

Rainy day

Kategori: Allmänt

Today has not been so much work, because we have so much food left from the previous days that we could heat up for the staff so it would seem like a waste to make more. Except for our guest, It’s obvious that our guest will have proper made food so I made some simple potato soup. No complains from the guest so I take it as a good sign. After lunch and lots of dishes and cleaning, I went on a walk, the plan was to take lots of pictures but it rained. Call me crazy, but I love rain. It makes me think more than usual.

Then we went to Selfoss (the village west from the hotel) and there I found Reykt hrefnukjöt. This means: smoked minke whale meat. It was the first time I ate whale and it was kind of weird. it tasted very smoked (obviously) and a flavor unlike anything I have tasted. I strongly recommend whale meat for you who want to travel to Iceland.

<- Whale slices and Croquettes

Good week!

Kategori: Allmänt

What a weekend. We had a lot of guests on Sunday so I and Nico made a huge buffet and we worked really hard. It went well of course, It is always nice with some challenge.  The day before I spoke with some swedish friends over Skype and the “Hunger games” came up as a topic, I was told that it was good so I and some of the staff went to Reykjavik and saw the movie.

My opinion: good, not the best movie but still worth the money. And the seats were very comfortable, but the thing that blew my mind was after one hour in the movie…they switched to commercial for 20 long minutes, apparently they always have 20 minute break on Icelandic cinemas.

While on our way home from the cinema I remembered that I will work alone in the kitchen the next day (Monday). It was little weird to work alone but the weather, oh the weather, It had been snowing all night so the mountains were covered by snow and it was beautiful. And I heard some good old classic music, for example, Celine Dion´s “Near and far” and “Ghostbusters theme”. On the radio!

Great view at the mountain, sunshine and good food. It felt like there was a absolute peace around me. Oh, right, and I heard the song “Fix you” when I was fixing a broken pie, felt like a good timing with the song.

Free day

Kategori: Allmänt

I can’t believe that it has been almost a week since I arrived here. I have learned much and I will learn more.

I have taken so few pictures of the beautiful landscape so today which is my day off I will take many more! I took a really long walk along the road to just enjoy the Icelandic landscape and got many lovely pictures.

It’s so peaceful to watch the majestic mountains around you while walking on the road, its so different from Sweden, and I just love it! Tomorrow I will work, And if im lucky, I will be able to see the movie The hunger games with some of the staff if I work hard.

Here are some nice pictures of today:


A picture says more than a thousand words

Kategori: Allmänt

Looong day...

Kategori: Allmänt

I can’t really say much about today. We started at 8.30 and finished at 22.00. I´m not used to the long hours but I will manage, I am actually not that tired. I am learning much and will learn even more tomorrow.

One more thing, it is very hard to show you guys the beauty of Iceland... my camera can only capture so much beauty, its nothing compared to the human eye. With other words: Go to Iceland!

Here are some pictures of today:

The first day -Rocked!

Kategori: Allmänt

Oh my goodness what a day! Not a bad start for 5 weeks of working. You see, The other cook is also called Nicolas/Nicholas. So its very confusing when the others are yelling Nicho yet it´s quite funny. So I got my own nickname :).
It was so comfortable to work in the kitchen at the hotel because its a very nice kitchen, its kind of hard to say exactly why its so nice but im just happy right now!

But that's not the end of it, oh no! We had a staff day, that means we the staff have some kind of activity. It was a surprise activity but we got our packing instructions. Guess what? We went to a cave! 8 meters below the surface, our only lightsource are the lamps on our forehead. It was amazing that we could see the awesome rock formation that began around 2000 years ago, I should bring my friends there someday.
And after that, we went to a swimming pool like the one in Norrköping. it was nice to relax in a hot tub after bending my back in that cave.
And then we went to a fancy restaurant and had a nice dinner.
Now im here in front of my computer and will fall asleep any time soon.

Here are some pictures of today:



P.s: Some people thinks it´s anoying to read this in english, please tell me if I should change to swedish or not.

The Arrival

Kategori: Allmänt

Ah, What a day! I really just want to sleep right now but I should write about my arrival before I forget the details.
I woke up early cause I was so nervous for my life's first travel to a another country by my self.
I went to bed almost to late the night before but it was worth it, three good friends of mine turned 18 and there was a big party :)

Anyway, after my three hour long flight (all thou, from my clocks perspective i have only been on the airplane for one hour.
When I finally arrived i got on a buss to Reykjavik and from there I travelled with eldhestar to the main building,
the landscape is truly beautiful, such a wasteland, but still so full of life.
We entered a fog so thick that we could barley see 10 meters ahead.

Now im here, Tired and can´t wait to get some sleep, then early tomorrow there will be much work to do.
I can´t promise that I will write everyday but I will try

Welcome to my new new blog!

Kategori: Allmänt

Hi. My name is Nicholas Woodhouse and this will be my blog about my journey to Iceland.

Maybe you wonder why this is in English and why I am travelling to Iceland for 6 weeks?
Well, Thats easy to explain. When I´m on Iceland I want to avoid using the Swedish language, and I think I need to write more in English for my grades sake.

Im a student from the Hotel and restaurant program and for the next 6 weeks we are having our practice. Which means that we are working at restaurants so we can gain experience for future work. I am one of the students who wanted to work on Iceland and got the honour to travel to Iceland.

You can follow this blog almost everyday and I will tell you about how its like to live on Iceland. There will be many pictures on this blog I can assure you of that. I fly to Iceland the 25th of Mars.

 

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSXdbMBYyf3k_PvcXrF7cuqnyDF9LoQGObbrKV9X6GkXR1oBbAoAP_RpiH4 <--- My work place. :)