Iceland, episode 4. In which I speak in tongues.

This charmingly colorful little guy was among the first items liberated from the overflowingly eclectic mix of souvenirs, collectibles, and ephemera on display at Reykjavik's weekend fleamarket.

Now, I know what you are thinking. 

Why the heck would you shlep yourself and your American-sized luggage all the way to Iceland to buy a tiny little Barcelos rooster candle holder that is obviously not from Iceland?

There's a story.

Among the many talented, lively, and friendly vendors Mari and I had the pleasure of interacting with that Sunday morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find a Portuguese transplant with a definitively diverse collection of used household items for sale. It's just the type of booth I love discovering and diving into and this barely three-inch tall souvenir rooster, colorfully emblazoned with the traditional hearts, flowers, and bright blue base was first to meet my collector's gaze shortly after the market opened at 11:00 AM.

But there's more to the story of this very traditional very symbolic souvenir of my family's homeland (as you suspected there would be)...

As I picked up this miniature version of my own full-size Barcelos (authoritatively perched atop a rooster display cabinet in our kitchen 4,000 miles away), the charming booth proprietor started to inform me that it was a traditional souvenir from Portugal. The huge smile already on my face grew ever larger as I detected her familiar accent and then cut her off by proudly proclaiming, "Eu sou portugues." I was emocionado to call upon my mother tongue as I embarked on a colorful exchange with my new friend, a Portuguese native who had emigrated to Iceland long ago and was a regular weekend vendor of bric-a-brac (my favorite hyphenated fleamarket find in any language) at Kolaportið. I discovered that my compatriot was originally from Aveiro, a colorful and ancient city of canals along the coast of Northern Portugal with which I was most familiar from childhood family visits.

After our exchange (which included the exchange of Icelandic króna for the new miniature addition to my coleção de galos), Mari and I were wished a pleasant and safe journey and I was encouraged to take my wife to visit my family's homeland.

I know. It's on my list.

I'm not embarrassed to admit that a visit to Reykjavik's Kolaportið fleamarket was near the top of our travel wish list as soon as I discovered during my obsessive travel planning that there was indeed a fleamarket. We also arranged our summer itinerary to include a weekend stay because, as you know, we are serious about fleamarketing.

One of the first photos I snapped that Sunday morning is the one above, just inside the market entrance. As you enter the market and pass the first room of stalls and shops on the right, you will find yourself in the large main area of the building with fleamarket stalls on your right and the entrance to the food market at left. More out of curiosity than a need to stock up on fermented shark or spectacularly speckled puffin eggs, this foodie foraged the food market first to soak up some very colorful local flavor (and snap these first few photos).

The flea turned out to be the best location to purchase locally-harvested lava salt which was in abundance at street souvenir shops in a wide range of flavors and prices. An intensely savory and naturally smoky bottle of black "volcanic" sea salt made its way into my ever-expanding salt collection which is threatening to take over an entire kitchen drawer.

My mini Barcelos now stands perched atop a wall cabinet with its previously posted (London, episode 9) distant cousin, but he was not the only addition to a favorite collection that day.

Mister Hani also stands about three inches high and is a gently glazed ceramic rooster in a traditional Icelandic design.

Purchased from a local vendor's discount table for all of 100 króna (about a dollar), Hani made the bubble-wrapped transatlantic voyage to South Texas with his fleamarketed Barcelos brother and a third colorful sibling plucked from a St. Petersburg souvenir shop early in our summer adventure.

The rooster brothers are patiently awaiting their own blog moment, so maybe I'll scramble up a kitchen photo shoot soon.

Mari and I had another lovely lively language exchange a few days prior to fleamarket Sunday at Reykjavik's Hard Rock Cafe of all places. As you know from our Vienna visit, Mari and I enjoy treating ourselves to a taste of "home" when we are lucky enough to find a Hard Rock when traveling abroad.

I especially enjoy sampling the "Local Legendary" burger to get a taste of local flavors and inspiration. My last was the Vienna legendary topped with ham schnitzel, but I had previously passed on the not-so-tempting haggis-topped local in Edinburgh. Expecting some kind of surf and turf combo or smoked fish component to my Friday evening burger, I was instead treated to a sundry sampling of toppings on my organic beef burger including smoked bacon marmalade, pickled onion, roasted wild mushrooms, and Béarnaise sauce.

Hvað?!

Perhaps the seemingly motley mix was a reflection of the growing eclectic nature of the local melting pot population itself. As we were greeted by our spirited young waitress that busy evening, Mari and I detected an accent and I responded to her request for our drink order in my best Spanish (with my charming Portuguese accent, of course). A beautiful smile came over our waitress as she relaxed her hurried Friday night frenzy a bit. We asked her where she was originally from and she responded with a very enthusiastic, "Sevilla!"

From there, our evening became much more than simply having a burger at the Hard Rock. We conversed with our very attentive and friendly waitress in Spanish throughout the evening in the middle of downtown Reykjavik surrounded by tables of local friends who had gathered to celebrate the end of a busy work week and by a diverse mix of out-of-towners, tourists like us who were enjoying familiarly danceable classics, affectionate fellowship, and the local Béarnaise.

We set our sights on more local sites next time.