December, 2015 |

12 Dec

So Naughty!

Yule_lads_in_Dimmuborgir In Iceland we don’t have just one Santa Claus with a nice beard, dressed in red. Nope, we have thirteen troll like creatures, Yule Lads. They are not the nicest chaps either, really mischievous and bear names like Window Peeper, Stubbs and Meet Hook.

However, kids wait eagerly for their visits this time a year. Each evening in the 13 days before Christmas, Icelandic children place their shoe in the window. If they’ve been good the Yule Lad of the day will put a small present or a candy in their shoe. But, if they’ve been naughty all they get is a raw and preferably rotten potato.

You can read more about the Yule Lads and their horrific parents, Grýla and Leppalúði on the homepage of The National Museum of Iceland.

Yule Lads in Dimmuborgir, North Iceland.

08 Dec

Christmas in Iceland

388431_2744590688033_340345582_n According to The Icelandic Tourist Board Iceland has become increasingly popular at Christmas. A record number of tourists is expected to spend the holidays there this year. It used to be a problem that restaurants and shops were closed for days during the festive season, but apparently that’s not the case anymore. If you are traveling to Iceland HERE’S a useful list of places open these days.

It can also be useful to learn some Icelandic phrases and in THIS ARTICLE you can learn 11 of them, such as;

‘9. “Verða rauð jól í ár?”
Do you expect a snowless Christmas this year? – Every year, Icelanders (mostly Southerners) hope and dream of a white Christmas because in Iceland, it really isn’t Christmas unless the ground outside is covered in beautiful, white snow. A snowless Christmas is called ‘a red Christmas’, or rauð jól.

10. “Áttu malt og appelsín?”
Do you have malt and appelsín? – Once a year, Icelanders will mix two popular soft drinks together to create what’s called ‘jólaöl’, meaning Christmas ale (non-alcoholic). Malt and appelsín are drunk separately all year around, but ‘jólaöl’ is reserved for Christmas only. Every family has their very own secret ‘jólaöl’ recipe and the ratio between malt and appelsín differs from one family to the next.’

02 Dec

Life Will Never Be the Same

Screen Shot 2015-12-02 at 10.08.06 The Australian photographer and travel blogger William Patino recently visited Iceland. Some of his photos are among the best images I’ve seen portraying my homeland. William claims after ten days in Iceland, his life will never be the same again. You can read about it and take a look at his amazing photographs on Bored Panda.

In a comment to a Aurora Borealis pic on his Instagram account someone asks; ‘Out of curiosity, of all the places you’ve been in the world, is there something special about Iceland that yields a burning daily desire to return?’

And his answer goes like this; ‘Watching the Northern Lights dance intensely across the sky for hours on end was a pretty surreal moment. That couple with hundreds of miles of vast, dramatic and unique landscapes with permanent golden light. That pretty much does it for me.’

I hope he’ll be able to visit Iceland often in the future.