Merry Christmas

I wish you a merry christmas and hope that you relax and eat a lot over the next few days!

I din't get my smelly fish, but I had Plokkfisk in stead so it was alright!

The story of the Icelandic Christmas Fish

Iceland has many traditions and specially regarding Christmas. As this will be my first Christmas far away from Iceland I made some special arrangements to get all the traditional food that is required. One of that is a fish called SKATA (not Wanda). This fish is traditionally eaten on the 23rd of December on the day of holy Thorlakur which is our only saint. When you cook the fish the whole house smells and when you eat it then it cleans your "guts", very good. After eating this fish you cook the meet for the 25th and get a nice smell again to your house.

Anyway back to my story. I made arrangements to get this fish. Friend of mine aggreed to take it to Copenhagen where Alfheidur's (my girlfriend) cousin would take it to Leiden. In all this master plan included four people, what could get wrong? Of course something went terrible wrong and my friend didn't get is baggages when he lended at Kastrup airport in Copenhagen. So now I don't know if I get my fish and my friend lost his Christmas food as well.

I'll keep you posted but at the moment it's not looking good...

Jólasveinninn - the yule lads

The Icelandic Jólasveinn (Yule Lads) have arrived to town - for further information go to this site.

Jólasveinar (Yule Lads) first appeared in the 17th century as the sons of Grýla and Leppalúði, who themselves had appeared in the 13th century and had earned a reputation for stealing and eating naughty children.

The Jólasveinar were tallied at either nine or thirteen, but their names are at least 70.

Thirteen of the most commonly accepted names of the Jólasveinar are:

December 12th Stekkjarstaur - Gimpy
December 13th Giljagaur - Gully Imp
December 14th Stúfur - Itty Bitty
December 15th Þvörusleikir - Pot Scraper Licker
December 16th Pottasleikir - Pot Licker
December 17th Askasleikir - Bowl Licker
December 18th Hurðaskellir - Door Slammer
December 19th Skyrgámur - Skyr Gobbler (Skyr, an Icelandic yoghurt-type)
December 20th Bjúgnakrækir - Sausage Snatcher
December 21st Gluggagægir - Window Peeper
December 22nd Gáttaþefur - Doorway Sniffer
December 23rd Ketkrókur - Meat Hooker
December 24th Kertasníkir - Candle Beggar

the Dutch way

Being a foreigner in a country gives you a new perspective of that nation. I thought that the Netherlanders where free spirt and would allow anything. What I learned the past four monthes is that is not the case. They allow anything but they put a limmit to it and think that by that they will manage to control the issue. For example the prostitution is allowed after 10 pm, Marhijuana is allowed in Coffee shops but you frequently meet people smoking on the street and so on. It turnes out that the Dutch way of doing things is not the best! What is the best way then? What they do in Iceland is to forbidd everything and that is not working either!

Thinking about going to Romania?

I would think twive. Those guys managed to wander around the airport in Buckarest as they wanted. This video is unbelievable!!!

Heima - trailer

Although I don't like the band or the music then I must opmitt that this film looks promising. I'm going to see you next weekend in Rotterdam, till then enjoy the trailer.

Do they speak Icelandic everywhere

Business as usual last Friday when I took the train from Leiden to Ams Zuid to my University. I had to meet my work group there to do an assignment, we where not that successful this time around but that's another story. At 15:00 I decided to go back home and ran to the trainstation and just managed to catch the 15:11 train directly to Leiden. Found my way to the lower deck and sat down on the first seat that was free. Suddenly I hear someone speaking close to me in Icelandic, my curiosity went to the roof as I tryied to figure out if I should assist thouse guys or not. I suddanly said "Yes Schiphol is the next station" thay both looked at me wondering what to say. We had a nice 5 min discussion until we arrived at Schiphol airport.

Icelanders are not that many and this was the first time I heard someone speaking in the train Icelandic. But it was funny that yesterday was the day to honor the Icelanic language in Iceland, so I managed to do that although I was in Amsterdam. They do speak Icelandic everywhere!!!

Where am I going

It's Wednesday and I'm going to Dublin this weekend. My tour will start to morrow and I should have Friday to wander around the city. Saturday is the Irish leaders meeting which ends with a big celebration in the evening and on Sunday I'm flying back to Amsterdam.

I never been in Dublin before. Just heard stories from my parents and friends that have been there for mad Icelandic shopping trips. I will report about my trip when I'm back home.

Later this month I'm going to Kandersteg for another scout meeting. Kandersteg is a wonderful place and I will hopefully see some snow there. It's strange the things you miss when you live in a country that does'nt have any snow during the wintertime, at least a very little.

The time since I left Iceland there hasn't been any storm or anything funny that you can expect back home. So that's thing I really miss. Today it was a bit windy so it was hard to cycle around but that's nothing.

I will try to blogg more and write something interesting next week!

Fyrst course is finished

I've managed to finish my first course. It was Management studies and during that course we had to publish on a weblog, take challanges and write an essay. I'm so happy that now I finished the first course of my Master studies. Oh time passes quikly it will be over before I know it...

This is my English blog

Hi I'm back and now in English. We'll I still have my Icelandic version but I decided to try out an English version of my self. My plan is to write something every week at least for the trail period over the next month or so, let's say until christmas.

As you probably know then I'm living in the Netherlands at the moment. There are lot of funny things that happens when you live in a new country and are getting used to new customs. For example then I'm a very spontainious guy normally but the Dutch are not, here you have to plan everything ahead. You can not drop by your friends house for a coffee unless you've planned at least week before. We'll I'm still managing and living here with my girlfriend Alfheidur (alfheidur.blogspot.com).

That's all for now...more coming soon

Farinn yfir á moggabloggið í bili

ótrúlegt en satt að þá ætla ég að prófa Moggabloggið í bili. Slóðinn er http://joningvar.blog.is