New Iceland...

All three banks that have been nationalised: Glitnir, Landsbanki and Kaupþing are now registered under the names New Glitnir, New Landsbanki, New Kaupþing...

The expression "New Iceland" has been used several times and I suppose it is somehow true, we are now living in New Iceland.

There is a blog on the internet New Iceland, which gives an humoristical account of the "news". The purpose of New Iceland blog is as stated on their page:

New Iceland's main goal is to publish to the world - through the glorious Internet - what's really going on in Iceland, the greatest country in the world.

Our devoted and loyal employees are hard at work gathering information from all corners of Iceland with one purpose only - to bring you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Weather outside: Overcast, 1°C

Financial Crisis...

Today, just a cartoon:

"Wasn't there a country here?" - "Indeed... Iceland"

Weather outside: Partly sunny, 0°C

More hits...

My blog has never been getting that many hits!!!... Usually I'm "lucky" to get 2-3 hits per day but it seems that the crisis really put Iceland on the map for people around the world.

I haven't written anything about the crisis, kreppan in Icelandic, because I didn't really know what to say and I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings:... they had it coming!

A couple of journalists got in touch with me. They all want to know how is daily life here. All I can say it's Business As Usual. People will just adjust their habits as money gets tight but it's not the first time this little island in the north Atlantic is going through a rough patch.

"Yesterday" Icelanders were shopping in Minneapolis, London, Copenhagen. "Today" Iceland is asking for the financial help of other countries to avoid bankruptcy. So far, responses from other European nations have not been very positive. No country jumped in to help the tiny, peaceful and helpless Iceland. So the government decided to find new friends: Russians... And now we can see the Europeans waking up and starting to provide loans: British, Danish and Norwegian opened their wallet recently.

Representative of the government are still in Russia discussing the terms for a 4 billions euros loan. Rumors were that the Russians would like to open an army base in Iceland. If it is true, US dollars and Euros would be thrown at us but for the moment it looks like our next currency will look something like that:

Weather outside: Rain, 6°C

Winter is here...

-2°C (28.5°F) was showing on the display in the car this morning. The entire country woke up to negative temperatures and some of the roads in the North already have snow on them.

Yes it chilly but it also turns out to be one of my favorite time of the year. The landscape is still wearing its autumn colors and it is not raining as much. The air is crisp and vivifying. This is the best time to go out for a walk, take pictures and come back home to enjoy a hot drink.

Below is a picture taken last Saturday going up Botnssúlur. The picture shows Hvalfell (~850m/2789ft) on the left and Botnssúlur (~1080m/3543ft) on the right with already a thin layer of snow.

Weather outside: Sunny, 2°C