Jujux á Íslandi

RIP...

2010-05-26T14:29:00.004Z

The volcano has stopped... at least for now. I say at least for now because during its last eruption it did stop for some time before starting again.

Icelandic pilot training simulator...

2010-04-27T09:04:00.000Z

Let's call it Kevin...

2010-04-21T08:25:00.011Z

... as Jon Stewart suggested it in the daily show. But Eyjafjallajökull is really not a difficult word to pronounce in Icelandic!

Volcanolypse 2010

In the first minutes of this segments, Jon Stewart speaks about the polution created by the volcano. The website http://www.informationisbeautiful.net presents the following diagram, which is supposed to represent the quantity of CO2 emitted by the volcano versus quantity emitted by the normal air traffic in Europe. It speaks for itself!

The same issue about the pronounciation of Eyjafjallajökull is reported on french television.

Weather outside: sunny, 0°C

Clearing up...

2010-04-20T09:27:00.006Z

... The eruption has entered a new stage. The ice, which was causing the ash on contact with the lava, has more or less stop melting. As a result, we can now see lava bombs the size of SUVs being projected up in the air.

The winds are also starting to change of direction, which should help the airlines in Europe to start some operations.

An other news that make me smile. 8 icelanders, 7 men and 1 woman, are in custody on drug trafficking charges. They are accussed of importing cocaine from Spain to Iceland. One of the man and the woman where arrest in Keflavík over the week-end...
I guess as there has been a lot less flights landing in Keflavík, the customs have been more vigilant with travellers coming in and were able to catch the culprits. Well done!

Back to the volcano, a beautiful set of photos is available on the following link: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html

Another good news for people travelling in the south of the country, "Vegagerðin" has re-opened the portion of the road n°1 that was closed south of the volcan. It is still advised to drive with the utmost care because of the ash and of the temporary repair on the road.

Weather outside: cloudy, 2°C

"Repaired"...

2010-04-19T15:41:00.003Z

... is the status of road n°1.

The "vital" link to the south of the country has been mended but it is still closed to the public.
Only police and rescue teams are allowed to use the road.

The breaches have been filled with gravel but are missing their asphalt layer. I suppose that as long as the volcano is erupting and jökulhlaups are still an eventuality, the road will not be finished.

For constant update on the road status, check the website of the "Vegagerðin"

Weather outside: Partly Sunny, 3°C

Gosið... Taka II

2010-04-15T13:25:00.008Z

The small eruptions in Fimmvörðuháls of March 21st and March 31st resulted from the lava coming out sideway and ending up in a zone without much ice.

The new eruption is considered to be 20 to 30 times more powerful than those of Fimmvörðuháls. This time the lava is coming up straight to reach the ice cap of Eyjafjallajökull. As a result, the regions North and South of the glacier/eruption suffered "hlaup" and "flóð": jökulhlaup and floods

The authorities have asked for the Þjóðvegur 1 (road n°1) to be cut in several locations over Markarfljót, a glacial river fed from the melting ices of the neighboring glaciers, in order to save the new bridge from destruction.

This little country of some 300.000 inhabitants is causing some major disruptions (and lost of money) to the rest of Europe.
The cloud of ashes moving west has caused the cancellation of all flights in the UK as well as the republic of Ireland and Norway.
The airspace of Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Belgium and Netherlands are parcially closed but will be totally closed as the cloud moves west.

For people who are incredulous about the cloud of ashes being a problem, I suggest watching the video taken by a friend during our watch on the eruption site on April 1st.

One can see the ashes "stream" coming out from the volcano at 02:54 and then the ashes coming down on the bonnet of the car at 03:20... And this was a tiny eruption, the new one being 20-30 times bigger.

As a reminder, the last eruption of Eyjafjallajökull dates back from 1821 and lasted 2 years... If it is to last for such a long period of time, this could have bad effects on the economic of the euro zone.

Gosið...

2010-03-28T21:28:00.004Z

A "small" video of a trip to the volcano on March 27th.
The baby volcano is 6 days old.

And a panorama of the area. One can see the markers of the hiking trail on the bottom left hand side of the picture. There rest of them is under the "fresh" lava field.

2010...

2010-02-18T08:54:00.004Z

... should be an "active" year. The volcano Hekla has been erupting regularly over the last decades (every 10 years since 1970). Volcanologists have reported that the pressure in the magma chamber is near the pressure measured in previous eruptions. The Icelandic Meteorological Office also pointed at the presence of snow-free spot new the volcano's summit.

Hekla is not the only volcano expected to blow. The volcano Katla is also been monitored closely. Magma intrusions are measured by the uplifting of the terrain.

This is all accentuated by the sismic activity and recently it has been quite active. In the last 48 hours, 245 tremors and earthquakes were recorded on the Reykjanes ridge (out of the 320 for the entire country). 25 of them are over a magnitude of 3 on the Richter scale: 2 of them were over 4 (10 times stronger than 3 on the Richter scale). The map available on veður.is is like a really christmas tree...

ICE-SAR...

2010-01-21T13:59:00.002Z

... Icelandic Search And Rescue team is on its way back to Iceland after having spent one week in Haiti.

from Icenews.com "The ICE SAR team decided to leave some of its equipment behind in Port au Prince worth some ISK 10 million (USD 80,000). Iceland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs has promised to reimburse half that amount. The organisation hopes the rest will be covered by donations made through the www.icesar.com website."

L'equipe d'ICE-SAR est maintenant sur le chemin du retour.
Elle a laisse sur place une majeure partie du camp; tentes, materiel de purification d'eau, etc.
La valeur de l'equipement laisse sur place est evaluee a 10 millions de couronnes.
Le ministere des affaires etrangeres a promis de rembourser la moitie: 5 millions de couronnes.
Landsbjörg (ICE-SAR) compte sur les donations pour le complement et ainsi racheter l'equipement laisse sur place.

Donations sur le site de Landsbjörg: http://www.icesar.com/Styrkja.aspx?catID=295

Art....

2009-08-24T12:35:00.003Z

This Saturday was the annual menningarnótt (culture night).

The day is traditionally started by the marathon. This year was the 26th edition of the race. To give you an idea of the event here are some figures for this year 2009

4008 kids ran the Lazy Town race.
1723 persons were registered for the Fun race (3kms)
3527 persons were registered for the 10kms
1559 persons were registered for the half marathon
670 persons were registered for the marathon
450 persons took part in the logistic, safety of the various events.

During the day, throughout town, you can go to museum for free, you have free concerts, you have street artists. One person needs to be mentioned but is remaining anonymous, is the person who painted the Hummer of Björgólfs Thors Björgólfsson (one of many Icelandic crooks). I suppose the title of such an art piece would be "people taking justice into their own hands". Some previous mural works were also done on the houses of Björgólfur Guðmundsson and Hannes Smárason, the former heads of Landsbanki and FL Group.

The day is closed by a firework paid by Orkuveita Reykjavíkur. The company spend the same amount of money on the firework display this year than last year but as the króna went down this only makes half the quantity of fireworks...

Sumarferð...

2009-08-18T08:23:00.004Z

... small video of some of the places visited this summer with other members of Hjálparsveit Skáta í Reykjavík.

Laugavegurinn...

2009-07-06T11:38:00.004Z

... is the most famous hike in Iceland. Its 55 kms strech from Landamannalaugar in the highlands to the green valley of Þórsmörk.

This hike gives a very good overall view of the different types of landscape one can find in iceland:
mountains declined in almost every colour of the rainbow, glaciers, roaring hot springs, icy rivers, canyons, lakes, desert of volcanic ash, moss covered lava, etc...

The hike is generally done over 4 days in very short hikes of about 4-5 hours daily (from www.fi.is webpage):

Day One: Landmannalaugar - Hrafntinnusker
12 km, 4 - 5 hours
Elevation increase: 470 m
Starting point is the hut in Landmannalaugar (75 beds, GPS N63°59.600 - W19°03.660). From there it’s an easy hike through the lava field of Laugahraun towards the colourful mountain Brennisteinsalda. There the gradual climb starts through dissected hills with views offering an incredible spectrum of colours. After 3 - 4 hours you arrive at Stórihver, a geothermal area with hot spring (unfortunately too hot to bath in).
About 2/3 of the way are very likely to be covered with snow until late summer. At an elevation of around 1000m fog can show up suddenly and without warning. The trail is clearly marked but hikers must be careful.
Hrafntinnusker hut (Höskuldsskáli) can accommodate 52 persons (GPS N63°55.840 - W19°09.700) and will show up suddenly and unexpected about 2 km after the memorial of an Israeli who died of hypothermia close to the track.

Evening walks: 20 minutes walk to Mt. Söðull (beautiful views) or 40 minutes walk to ice caves (collapsed in 2008). Ask hut warden for more information.

Day Two: Hrafntinnusker - Álftavatn
12 km, 4 - 5 hours.
Elevation decrease: 490 m

The first part of the trail takes us through a valley with some small ravines but be careful as they may be filled with snow. A short and steep incline leads to the highpoint of today’s walk. If the visibility is good, a side trip to the summit of mountain Háskerðingur (1281 m) will reward your with a breathtaking view. This is best done from its western slope, but care must be taken as a glacier is crossed. Ask the hut warden for further information.
If you stay on the main track, you’ll soon leave the colourful rhyolite mountains and enter an area with dark palagonite mountains and glaciers. You will also notice a considerable increase in vegetation. The trail down the Jökultungur is quite steep and care must be taken during the descent. The last few kilometers to the huts by the lake Álftavatn is on flat land. The two huts take up to 52 persons (GPS N63°51.470 - W19°13.640).

Evening walks: a hike up Mt. Brattháls, which takes 1 - 2 hours return. Wet feet included as it’s necessary to wade the little stream coming from Lake Álftavatn. Another hike is up Mt. Torfatindur (818m), estimated walking time 1 - 2 hours.

Day Three: Álftavatn - Emstrur (Botnar)
15 km, 6 - 7 hours
Elevation decrease: 40 m

The trail takes us over the ridge Brattháls into Hvanngil ravine, wading across the small river Bratthálskvísl. In Hvanngil are two huts, one built for sheepherds in 1963 and one for tourists, built in 1995. As Álftavatn and Hvanngil are only 5 km apart, Hvanngil can be used as an alternate accommodation. The huts can accommodate xx people, provides toilet facilities, showers and a small camp side inside an old lava field.

Leaving Hvanngil, a bridge crosses the river Kaldaklofskvísl. On the eastern bank of Kaldaklofskvísl the trail splits, one branch leading eastwards to Mælifellssandur (Road F 210) but the other one southwards to Emstrur, and we choose the latter. Soon, another river has to be waded.
For a few kilometers, Laugavegurinn joins a road until it separates again, leading further south than the track. It is possible to simply follow the road until a sign shows the way to Emstrur-hut.
The powerfull glacial river Nyrðri Emstruá can be crossed on a bridge. Another few kilometers on flat land and we will suddenly be overlooking the huts in Emstrur (Botnar) which can take 40 persons and offers a nice and grass-grown camp site (GPS N63°45.980 - W19°22.480).

Evening walk: small poles lead onto a panoramic walking trail to Markarfljótsgljúfur canyon. It’s an easy walk of 1 ½ hours if doing the circle or 40 minutes if going the same way back.

Day Four: Emstrur (Botnar) - Þórsmörk
15 km, 6 - 7 hours
Elevation decrease: 300 m

45 minutes on the track, a steep path leads towards the canyon of Syðri-Emstruá which then can be crossed on a spectacular bridge. A rope helps to overcome the last meters of the steep descent, so be careful. Most of the track you’ll be walking through a hilly area known as Almenningar. At the very end, the river Þröngá has to be waded which uses to be the deepest river on the track. When wading it is good practice to go hand in hand and head downstream or to use hiking poles to keep balance. After crossing Þröngá, Landscape and vegetation change once more. A walk of 30 minutes brings trough a small forest to an intersection on a hillside. Signs will show directions to different huts in Þórsmörk. From there, Langidalur hut is only a few minutes away. It takes up to 75 people (GPS 63°40.960 - 19°30.890).

In 2004, I did the hike in 3 days. This time the hike will be done in 2 days: from Landmannalaugar to the hut Hvanngil and from Hvanngil to Langidalur in Þórsmörk.

The weather forecast seems to be excellent for these 2 days but this is Iceland and anything can happen.

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 17°C

Bring it down...

2009-06-19T11:28:00.003Z

... is what an Icelander decided to do to "his" house after receiving the final eviction notice.
This happened on June 17th in the Reykjavík suburb of Álftanes. The former owner of this pile of rubbish had taken a 35 millions króna loan in foreign currency. With the devaluation of the Icelandic currency, this loan is now over 60 millions.

I can understand the frustration of the guy but was tearing down the house the best solution? The bank, which now owns the "left-overs", has lost an asset that may have been sold and the money used to repay some of the national debt.

Hopefully, the man will not go unpunished so that this behaviour is not replicated.

And while we are on the repayment of the national debt. The government has decided to increase the VAT from 7% to 24.5% on some food items. This items include biscuits, sodas, sweets, juices... The VAT on food was brought down from 14% to 7% on March 1st 2007.
The so-called "sugar-tax" will be in place as of September 1st... Tough year for cavities!

Weather outside: Sunny, 10°C

Camping...

2009-06-15T14:28:00.003Z

The cheapest "accomodation" when visiting Iceland is camping.

Fréttablaðið published, in its edition on June 11th, a small map of the country with examples of the price per person per night.

Weather outside: Partly Sunny, 13°C

Is it true...

2009-05-20T10:35:00.007Z

Iceland ended up second in this year ESC with Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir singing the song "Is it true?"
Norway won with 387 points, which is 169 points more than little Iceland (points 218).

2nd place is not 1st but it is the highest place Iceland could afford to get... Winning would have meant hosting the contest next year and surely this would not have been wise in the actual economical context.

Iceland does not have any location big enough for such a venue. Building something is out of the question! With what money???

So 2nd is very good. It's good enough as it puts Iceland on the map: something Icelanders crave for.

The "question of the day" published in yesterday Fréttablaðið was: did you wash Eurovision?... The result speaks for itself! Are we speaking lobotomy here or what!?!? ... or "Is it true?"

I was part of the 11% and enjoyed an almost empty movie theater room. Brilliant!!!

Weather outside: Partly sunny, 9°C

Júróvision...

2009-05-15T10:26:00.003Z

The Eurovision song contest week is the most anticipated week in Iceland.
Tourists who will be waking in the city center on Saturday evening will feel like being in a "ghost town".

Icelanders are hosting "Eurovision Parties", watching the contest with friends and/or family with copious amount of drinks. I guess you need a lot of drink to watch this show.

Iceland has only been participating since 1986 but every year since the country is "heavily" behind their representative singer(s).

Let's roll back the years:

1986 ICY with the song "Gleðibankinn"

1987 Halla Margrét with the song "Hægt og hljótt"

1988 Beathoven with the song "Þú og þeir (Sókrates)"

1989 Daníel Ágúst with the song "Það sem enginn sér"

1990 Stjórnin with the song "Eitt lag enn"

1991 Stefán & Eyfi with the song "Draumur um Nínu"

1992 Heart 2 Heart with the song "Nei eða já"

1993 Inga with the song "Þá veistu svarið"

1994 Sigga with the song "Nætur"

1995 Bo Halldórsson with the song "Núna"

1996 Anna Mjöll with the song "Sjúbídú"

1997 Páll Óskar with the song "Minn hinsti dans"
1999 Selma with the song "All Out of Luck"

2000 August & Telma with the song "Tell Me!"

2001 Two Tricky with the song "Angel"

2003 Birgitta with the song "Open Your Heart"

2004 Jónsi with the song "Heaven"

2005 Selma with the song "If I Had Your Love"

2006 Silvia Night with the song "Congratulations" - Surely my favorite!!!

2007 Eiríkur Hauksson with the song "Valentine Lost"

2008 Euroband with the song "This Is My Life"

2009 Yohanna "with the song Is It True?"

Weather outside: Partly sunny, 9°C

Reykjadalur...

2009-03-19T15:48:00.007Z

Here is a little video shot in Reykjadalur where we spent last weekend with other members of Hjálparsveit Skáta í Reykjavík.

We spent the evening in Dalasel's cabin and barbecued with winds between 15-20m/s.

We ended the weekend in the swimming pool of Hveragerði.

Weather outside: Partly sunny, 10°C

It could be worse...

2009-02-05T08:40:00.003Z

Shown on the "Colbert Report": It could be worse...

Weather outside: Mostly Clear, -8°C

007 in ...

2008-11-14T11:28:00.002Z

... the Fourth Cod War

Weather outside: Snow/rain, 2°C

Unemployment...

2008-11-13T08:58:00.003Z

The direct result to the financial crisis that has hit most countries and most severely Iceland is the rise of the unemployment figures.

This was not obvious yet as September was only the beginning of the crisis and with most people getting 3 months notice the unemployment figures are not yet relevant.

Everyday brings its lot of bad news about compagnies firing some of their workforce: all staff of the free TV channel Skjár 1 were let go, the electronic stores BT have closed their doors, the financial newspaper Viðskiptablaðið is not published anymore, etc... Even Stöð 2, a paying channel, has stopped presenting the news at lunch time... which is good actually!!! I was getting sick of hearing the same thing over and over and over again.

Yesterday, the Directorate of labour published the figures for the unemployment for October 2008. The unemployment is now at 1.9%, up from 1.3% last month. This is not much but when you look at the overall picture of the unemployment for the past 2 years, this is a big jump.

And the future is bleak as they are predicting the unemployment figure to be between 3.3%-3.8% and December won't be better...

Weather outside: Rain, 3°C

New Iceland...

2008-10-29T08:21:00.003Z

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...

2008-10-24T16:15:00.003Z

Today, just a cartoon:

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

Weather outside: Partly sunny, 0°C

More hits...

2008-10-17T08:28:00.007Z

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...

2008-10-02T09:59:00.005Z

-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

Strákarnir okkar...

2008-08-28T09:02:00.006Z

Strákarnir okkar, "our boys" are back. Back with their silver medal from Beijing.

Islanders were there to greet them back and a party was thrown in their honour.

The Icelandic Handball Team:
Alexander Petersson
Arnór Atlason
Ásgeir Örn Hallgrímsson
Bjarni Fritzson
Björgvin Páll Gústavsson
Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson
Hreiðar Guðmundsson
Ingimundur Ingimundarson
Logi Geirsson
Ólafur Stefánsson
Róbert Gunnarsson
Sigfús Sigurðsson
Snorri Steinn Guðjónsson
Sturla Ásgeirsson
Sverre Jakobsson

Another achievement was the completion of the Reykjavík marathon by Romana Eder, a 103 year old Austrian woman, , who completed the full marathon in just over 4 hours!

This took place last saturday, August 23rd. Over 10.000 people were registered for one of the runs: marathon, half-marathon, 10kms, 3kms fun-run, or the lazy-town run (for kids).

The marathon is taking place the same day than the Menningarnott, "culture night". One of the most celebrated event of the year. Free concerts, free museums, exhibitions and art everywhere and of course the fireworks show in the harbour.

Weather outside: Partly Sunny, 12°C

Iceland like a tourist...

2008-08-15T08:46:00.007Z

I have a friend who lives in Germany visiting me therefore I decided to go for a ride in the south of the country and do a lot of the touristic sites. I have done them several times and usually off season. This was an opportunity to see the sites as most tourists would see them.

We started by going to Sólheimajökull, a tongue of the glacier Mýrdalsjökull, accessible from road N°1. I last visited this place in 2004 and I was amazed to see how further inland the ice is. You have to walk a few hundred meters extra before reaching the edge of the glacier. Global warming!!!

Next stop, the famous waterfall of Skógafoss. This was the first time I saw people camping in front of the waterfall. This is the beginning/end of a trail going/coming to/from Þórsmörk. I stopped there in May and there was only a car or two, but this time there were about 20 cars and a lot of people were either in front of the waterfall or walking up the stair leading to the top.

Third stop on our program: Seljalandsfoss. This waterfall is really "appreciated" by tourists due to the fact that you can walk behind it. It was amazing to see the 20-30 cars and 4 buses parked in front of the waterfall. Taking a "landscape" picture was a bit of a challenge as people where everywhere.

The two last sites on the program were Gullfoss and Geysir. As they are part of the Golden Circle these two sites are constantly "crowded" so no surprise here. This was my third visit of Geysir this year.

We finished our day by stopping at the caldera of Kerið, not much people here but it was already 7pm.

This touristic day was 12hrs long and included 450kms of good and bad roads, 6 touristic sites, 2 french hitchhikers, one BBQ in the sun.

Weather outside: Mostly Sunny, 12°C

Annar ísbjörn...

2008-06-18T11:28:00.005Z

2 in less than 2 weeks... What am I speaking about? I'm speaking about polar bear. Once again the bear was spotted in the same region of Iceland: Skagafjörður.

The killing of the first bear on June 3rd made the headlines on the papers the following day and the question was asked about the necessity of killing the bear. On this question, the Icelanders who have answered are really divided.

A little over 55% were against the shooting of the animal whereas almost 45% were for it. This first killing must have trigger something because the second bear was supposed to be saved.

This was the plan (from www.icenews.is):

This time the polar bear will be saved if possible. Polar bear sightings are rare in Iceland, but over a period of two weeks Iceland has had two. According to local newspapers “it has been planned to sedate it and move it to Greenland or Denmark”. The Danish zoo worker, Carsten Gröndhal, has been sent to Iceland and is preparing the save with local help. Carsten is the head vet at the Copenhagen Zoo.

According to sources the idea is to “shoot” the bear within the next 24 hours and move him to his natural location or the Copenhagen Zoo. Habitats of the farm Hraun, near were the bear was spotted have been asked to stay in and people have been urged not to come close.

According to local newspapers the bear is living a live of luxury eating eggs and birds at a local bird area and looks relaxed.

The Icelandic billionaire Björgulfur Thor Björgulfsson has offered through his company, Novator, to pay for the saving the bear and transport to a save environment.

Unfortunately this was not a "A-Team" plan and Hannibal Smith would not have been able to say: "I love it when a plan comes together"... While trying to capture the wild animal, this one tried to escape and was shot down before he could reach the sea.

Weather outside: Sunny, 12°C

Ísbjörn...

2008-06-04T08:28:00.007Z

A polar bear (ísbjörn) was sighted yesterday morning on Þverárfjall by Sauðárkrókur in the North of the country. This is extremely rare: the polar bear gets stranded on an iceberg that some currents would bring close to Iceland.

The police was asked to kill to wild animal as shows the picture (Páll Kristinsson). A polar bear is surely not in the best of moods after having spend several days on tiny block of ice in the middle of the ocean... So no risk were taken and the animal was shot down.

The question of the day, spurning dagsins, in Fréttablaðið is: "Was it necessary to shoot down the polar bear?"
We will have to wait until tomorrow to get the final answer of the survey but already 57.3% have answered NO.

If you wonder what was the question from the previous day? "Have you eaten whale meat?" 68% Yes and 32% No.

Weather outside: mostly sunny, 10°C

6.1...

2008-05-30T07:39:00.004Z

I have been titling my last few blogs with just a figure. So was is 6.1? 6.1 is the magnitude of the earthquake that shook the southwest of the country yesterday afternoon at 15:45. The epicentre was closed to Selfoss.

I already spoke about the numerous daily tremors and quakes in a previous blog. I haven't really felt any but this one now... It's a different story. The interactive picture showing earthquakes on Veður.is is like a Christmas tree.

Every little single dot is a tremor/quake and this is in less than 24hrs!!! The little green stars represent quakes with magnitudes of over 3 on the Richter scale. Quakes between 6 and 6.9 are considered as "Strong - Can be destructive in areas up to about 160 kilometres (100 mi) across in populated areas -with frequency of 120 per year in the world"

There hasn't been any casualty, just damage to buildings and infrastructures. Schools are closed today in Hveragerði and Selfoss, which are the closest towns to the epicentre. A long crack has now appeared on road N°1.

Weather outside: Mostly Cloudy, 9°C.

25°C...

2008-05-27T12:52:00.005Z

25°C (77°F)... This was the temperature forecasted for Egilsstaðir yesterday. Egilsstaðir is located in the East of the country and tends to have higher temperatures over the summer.

Egilsstaðir did not get the 25°C forecasted but just a "mere" 22°C (71.6°F)... and we had 10/11°C (50/52°F) in Reykjavík.

The next few days are still nice in the East and still rather fresh in the West with almost always 5/6°C difference between Egilsstaðir (top) and Reykjavík (bottom).

With such difference in temperature between East and West, there is no point getting a summer house in Spain, Croatia, or any other Mediterranean country... Just head to Egilsstaðir!!!

weather outside: Mostly cloudy, 11°C

42%...

2008-05-20T11:02:00.001Z

42%. This is the percentage of French living in Iceland who forgot to fill in their tax returns!!! Way to go lads...

Þútube...

2008-05-07T07:48:00.004Z

Youtube is full of useless videos but sometimes you find something interesting. Yesterday I found a series of videos to learn Icelandic. How practical!

Here is what I suppose ought to be the first lesson: Icelandic greetings.

Weather outside: Rain, 10°C

Gleðilegt sumar...

2008-04-28T10:40:00.003Z

Gleðilegt sumar, happy summer...

Last Thursday was "sumardagurinn fyrsti", literally, the first day of summer! Icelanders do not consider June 21st, the summer solstice, as the first day of the summer.

Sumardagurinn fyrsti is celebrated on the first day of the month of Harpa from the old Icelandic calendar. Harpa is the first of the six "Náttleysi" (night less) months... It is not "night less" yet but we are getting there. Sunrise is around 05:10 and sunset if around 21:45 so we are not speaking of midnight sun yet!

Now temperature wise, there is nothing summery about them... a mere 10°C if you are lucky. This year, spring is really late to arrive. We are celebrating the first day of summer but spring has yet to come!!!...

Weather outside: Cloudy, 6°C

Aurorae borealis...

2008-04-08T09:34:00.005Z

YES!!!... I finally did it!!!...

At last, I was able to take some pictures of northern lights (aurora borealis).
It took some time but I'm quite happy about my first series of shots. I do still need to play around with the camera's settings (ISO, F-steps, shutter speed).

The shot on the right is from the little church in Búðir, snæfellsnes.

Búðir is already mystical during daylight so with northern lights waving above our heads the place just became magical.

If you want to see more shots taken that night, you can see them on my web page: http://site.voila.fr/gonguleid/lights.html

Weather outside: cloudy, 4°C

Islande, 12 points...

2008-02-25T13:20:00.003Z

Last Saturday evening was an important evening for Icelanders: they had to vote for the band representing Iceland in the Eurovision song contest.

Eurovision in Iceland is something sacrosanct. If you were to walk in Reykjavík on Eurovision night, you would have the feeling that you've entered a ghost town.

After Saturday's votes, this is what you have avoided: Merzedes Club, a group of half dressed men with a cumulative IQ slightly superior to the one of a goldfish... But I might be wrong and maybe it might turn out that they all spent 10 years in a Conservatory of Music.

Instead, we are sending the Euroband with the song "This is my life" to Serbia:

Other Eurovision related news: Ireland is sending Dusting the turkey, a puppet from the RTÉ show The Den. Here is an interview with Dustin before Saturday's show.

This is Dustin's song: Irelande Douze Pointe

Weather outside: Sunny, -3°C

Coalition of the willing...

2008-01-25T07:59:00.000Z

Whenever Iceland is featured on TV, the following day you are sure to get some email about it. This time was not different. They spoke about Iceland on The Daily Show. "Correspondent" Jason Jones states that the US are not winning the war in Irak because Iceland left the coalition of the willing. These 2 videos were shown on January 22nd and 23rd.

I searched a little bit and found that Jason Jones was here around mid-October to produce his "on location report".

10/18/2007 | 12:03

The Daily Show Urges Iceland to Dispatch Its Soldier to Iraq

Jason Jones, a correspondent of the US comedy news program The Daily Show, has urged the Icelandic government to reconsider its decision to withdraw "Icelandic troops" from Iraq.

Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Iceland’s foreign minister, decided to withdraw an Icelandic Crisis Response Unit (ICRU) member from a NATO training program for the Iraqi army in Baghdad last month. The ICRU-member, who holds the rank of major, was the only Icelander working for NATO in the country.

Jones, who has been here since Monday producing a story for The Daily Show about the foreign minister’s decision, held a press meeting at the Hilton Reykjavík Nordica yesterday. Dressed in a red robe and with a stars-and-stripes hat on his head, the comedian told attending journalists that Osama bin Laden hated Björk, according to Morgunblaðið.

Earlier he interviewed Herdís Sigurgrímsdóttir, the withdrawn ICRU-member whose name ironically means “a war diva”, and Stefán Pálsson, leader of the activist group Campaign against Militarism.

weather outside: snow showers, -1°C

35 years ago...

2008-01-24T08:35:00.001Z

35 years ago, in the early hours of January 23rd, 1973, an eruptive fissure appeared on the island of Hemaey. The eruption was to last for 155 days.

One of the most famous pictures taken during the eruption is the one representing the church covered with ashes and the volcano behind.

Heimaey being an important fishing port, it was a priority to stop the flow of lava that was risking of blocking the entrance of the harbour. Powerful pumps were flown in from the USA. Each pump had an output of 1000l per second.

Nowadays it is possible to climb Eldfell, the volcano created by the eruption. You can still feel the heat under your feet even 35 years after the event.

About 400 houses were covered by lava and ash. When you walk around the lava field you can see plates reminding you that a building used to be standing under your feet.

A project called Pompei Norðursins (Pompei of the North) started a few years back. The main goal of the project to remove the tons of ashes covering 7 to 10 houses of Suðurvegur, a street of the old town.

Weather outside: snow, -3°C

French films...

2008-01-09T09:02:00.001Z

The 8th edition of the French films festival is starting this week (January 11th). 11 films will be shown in Háskólabíó and will open with the animation film "Persepolis".

Last year premiere was the very interesting "Paris, je t'aime", which is made of 18 short films and directed by over 20 film directors. My favorite short film was the one directed by the Coen brothers (Tuileries segment) featuring the actor Steve Buscemi in a hilarious quid pro quo in the Metro station of Les Tuileries.

A part from Persepolis, the films programmed this year are:

Molière - directed by Laurent Tirard.
Promets-moi - directed by Emir Kusturica
L'avocat de la terreur - directed by Barbet Shroeder
L'enfer - directed by Danis Tavonic
2 days in Paris - directed by Julie Delpy
Serko - directed by Joël Farges
Le dernier des fous - directed by Laurent Achard
Changement d'adresse - directed by Emmanuel Mouret
Dans les cordes - directed by Magaly Richard-Serrano
Douches froides - directed by Antony Cordier

Very cold weather is announced for the week-end: a very good reason to go to cinema. Nonetheless, cold weather often means clear skies, and clear skies in means stunning sceneries. Below is a picture of Esjan taken yesterday from work around 2:30pm. The picture was taken with a phone so the quality is not there!

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 0°C

Da Vinci Code...

2008-01-03T09:04:00.000Z

It looks like 2008 is going to be a funny year....

Yesterday we were told that a group of scientists believe the Holy Grail may be hidden in Iceland!!! Icelandic architect Þórarinn Þórarinsson and Italian cryptographer Giancarlo Gianazza seems to believe that the artifact is hidden somewhere in the Hrunamannahreppur region and therefore have asked the local authority to dig around Skipholtskrókar (in green on the map).

How does someone come up with this idea??? Well, Mr Gianazza "found" important clues in poems by Dante and artwork by Leonardo da Vinci... Sounds familiar??? Sure does, it's written Robert Langdon all over the place.

One of the far-fetched clues are the fact that you can overlap da Vinci's Last Supper with an aerial photograph of the region. What are the odds?

With such conclusive evidences, they have been granted the permission to dig a two meters deep and five meters wide ditch with a condition: they have to close the ditch after the research is done. They will be looking for a five meters large secret underground dome that would be the resting place of the Holy Grail.

Now going back to new year's eve, it was not the noisiest celebration I have witnessed here. Because of the strong winds, people must have decided to blow up their fireworks the following day (as we did) but just to give you an idea here is a small video of the evening:

Weather outside: Rain, 7°C

Fireworks...

2007-12-28T10:22:00.001Z

We had our white Christmas: hvít Jól. Icelanders, and I do agree with them, like their Christmas to be white. Surely the result of global warming, snow falls in Iceland are not what they were and nowadays it is not always sure to have a white Christmas. In that case you have a red Christmas: rauð Jól. It was snowing almost all day on Christmas day and Reykjavík covered itself with a "thick" (about 20cm) blanket of snow.

Over the next few days tons of fireworks (flugeldar in Icelandic) will be sold in Iceland. These fireworks sales are organized by the Icelandic association of search and rescue: Slysavarnafélagið Landsbjörg. All profits made are going to the rescue services.

To give you some figures, it's an extimated 800 tons of fireworks that will be blown up and this figure is always getting bigger year on year. "Only 638 tons" were imported in 2005.

As a result of this huge fireworks display that last hours over Reykjavík, peaks of air pollution are recorded every year on new year's eve.

Most companies will be giving their employees some fireworks. Most of fireworks have names of famous characters from the Icelandic sagas. Last year we got from work a box of fireworks named after Hallgerður Langbrók and this year we are getting a box named after Grettir Ásmundarson, from the saga of the same name: Grettir's Saga.

FARSÆLT KOMANDI ÁR - HAPPY NEW YEAR - BONNE ANNÉE

Weather outside: sunny, -8°C
I just realized it was +7°C last week, a 15° drop over a week, not bad!

Fish à la piss...

2007-12-21T08:25:00.001Z

The dreaded day is almost upon us!!! On December 23rd, Icelanders are celebrating Þorláksmessa, Þorláskur's mass, patron saint of Iceland. So nothing wrong so far...

The problem with Þorláksmessa is what Icelanders traditionnally eat on that day: skata (literally skate in english). Nothing wrong there again with eating skate...

I do eat skate/ray wings in Brittany. We have a traditionnal dish called "aile de raie au beurre noir" (ray wing with black butter).

So what is wrong with skata???....

The skata tradition is supposedly coming from the west fjörds. A hole is dug on the beach, the fish is then buried in the hole for several weeks. Skate, like sharks, don't have a urinal track and therefore release urine through their skin. This means the flesh of the skate rotting away in its hole is saturated with ammonia. The finished product smells like... well, it smells like piss!

It's not Þorláksmessa today but it's last day before it in the company and for that matter, it will be served at lunch today. Luckily for me the skata won't be cooked here but the fumes from the "ready-made" trays will still make the building smell like urinals from the rarely cleaned bathroom of a railroad station.

Being French I should be used to strong smells. French washed rind cheeses are the smelliest cheeses in the world but they still smell way better than skata.

To read an oposite opinion about skata, have a pick at the article posted yesterday by Bjarni on Iceland Review: click here.

Gleðileg jól - Merry christmas - Joyeux noël

Weather outside: Mostly cloudy, 7°C

Jólasveinarnir...

2007-12-12T07:47:00.000Z

"Christmas" has really started today in Iceland as last night households were visited by the first Yule Lads: Stekkjastaur. These Yule lads are 13 and are the sons of Grýla and Leppalúði, two mountain-dwelling trolls. Grýla has for "hobby" of looking for kids and put them in a sack that she carries on her back. The couple owns a huge and horrible cat: Jólakötturinn. The cat helps Grýla in her task of picking children. The tradition was that kids with a new article of clothing would be safe and not eaten by Jólakötturinn. Icelandic singer Björk interpreted a song called "Jólakötturinn". You can listen to it on Youtube: here. And I'm going to throw in the lyrics with both Icelandic and English! Lyrics here.

The 13 Yule Lads are naughty characters: they steal your food, slam your doors, peep through your windows, etc... Nowadays, kids leave their shoes by the window. When they wake up in the morning, nice kids will find a present and naughty kids will find... a rotting potato!

Stekkjastaur
Giljagaur
Stúfur
Þvörusleikir
Pottasleikir
Askasleikir
Hurðaskellir
Skyrgámur
Bjúgnakrækir
Gluggagægir
Gáttaþefur
Ketkrókur
Kertasníkir

All pictures are from the Jólamjólk website.

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 2°C

Ris...

2007-12-10T09:02:00.000Z

One of most, if not the most, served desserts over Christmas in Iceland is the traditional Danish "Ris a l'amande", which is a dessert made of rice and almonds. The Danes already got it wrong when using french words to name the dish (it should be riz à l'amande) but Icelanders are really out by a mile when it comes to spelling it.

I have seen the following:

Ris ala mande
Ris a la mande
Ris alamande
etc...
but this year's winner has to be the spelling from the glersalurinn menu: Ris á l´allamande.

Here is the recipe if you want to give it a try:

Servings: 6 servings
Prep. Time: 1:00
Total Time: 3:30

Ingredients:
1 cup short grain rice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups whole milk
3 tbsp. sugar
3/4 cup finely chopped almonds
1-3/4 cups whipping cream
6 whole almonds
Cherry preserves for the topping

Directions:
Cook the rice in the whole milk with the vanilla extract at medium-low heat for around 45 minutes until tender and let cool. Add the sugar and the chopped almonds. Whip the cream until you get soft peaks then fold it into the now cooled rice mixture. Spoon a little into ramekins then put one whole almond in the center and cover it with more rice mixture. Refrigerate for a few hours to let set. Serve it cold with warmed cherry preserve spooned on top.

Weather Outside: Clear, -3°C

Best í heimi...

2007-12-03T12:38:00.000Z

It turns out that Iceland is the best country to live in for this year 2007.
For the past 6 years, the Human Development Index was topped by an other Scandinavian country: Norway.

Smarter...

2007-12-03T11:23:00.000Z

With only over 300000 inhabitants, Iceland does not have the resources to do some good television and most of what is shown is coming from the US and get subtitled.

A few examples of all that goodness: Dr Phil, Oprah, Survivor, Amazing Race, The biggest loser, High School Reunion, The bachelor, The bachelorette, America's Next Top Model, So you think you can dance, American Idol, and many more...

Icelandic version of some shows were done: 3 seasons of Idol, 1 season of "The X-Factor" and I think just one of the batchelor. The latest to date is an icelandic version of the american show named "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?", which would translate to Ertu skarpari en skólakrakki? and is shown every Sundays on Skjáreinn.

I found an small video of the original show on Fox that raises a lot of questions!

Weather outside: Sunny, -2°C

Shaking...

2007-11-28T10:26:00.000Z

On Monday, the North part of Langjökull glacier witnessed over a dozen of earthquakes with the biggest one reaching 4.4 on the Richter scale (see picture on the right).

Iceland being on the top of the Mid-Atlantic ridge makes it prone to have these earthquakes. If you check the Icelandic website www.vedur.is, you can see that about a dozen or more quakes and tremors are recorded on a daily basis. The location of the quakes is usually following the path taken by the ridge underneath the island as you can see below marked in blue.

The most dramatic place to see the ridge is the National Park of Þingvellir. This park is less than 1 hour drive from Reykjavík and is a place charged with history. One of the oldest parlement in the world, the Alþing, was taking place there around 930 AD. More about the rift in Þingvellir here.

On March 6th, 2006 an earthquake of magnitude 4.6 shook Reykjavík. It happened in the afternoon. I was at work and people came to see me to ask me if I felt the quake. I had to admit that I did not feel anything.

I'm out to the countryside with A for the weekend, just above Selfoss, on the ridge so maybe this time I will feel something. Anyhow, I did learn the golden rule in case of earthquake:

KRJÚPA – SKÝLA – HALDA
DUCK - COVER - HOLD

Weather outside: Mostly cloudy, 2°C

Blondes...

2007-11-26T13:12:00.001Z

Let's begin this week with a touch humour. When people think of Iceland, they think blonde, tall, and slim/fit women... Well I'm sorry to tell you that it is not the case. Icelandic women are far from being all blonde.

And here is the touch of humour:

Weather outside: Rain, 9°C

Mínus...

2007-11-22T08:27:00.000Z

Það er kalt úti!!!... Indeed it's cold outside. -5°C was saying the car computer this morning. Mínus fimm stig! Speaking about minus, there is an Icelandic "hard" rock band called Mínus. Here is a video of one of their song called "the long face".

Iceland had, until last year, a show similar to Jackass. It was first named 70 minútur and then was changed to Strákarnir. The guys from the show did a song called "dirty bastard" with a lot of shots similar to the video of "the long face" from Mínus. You can also find shots from a video with Madonna/Britney, a video with P.Diddy, etc... Here is the video:

Weather outside: clear, -5°C

Condom fish...

2007-11-21T07:47:00.000Z

It has started for me!... Over the next few weeks, I will go to several jólahlaðborð, christmas buffets. All companies and other associations are organizing one of these buffets.

We started our "eating marathon" on Saturday evening. We were invited to Domo by A's company. We did not get a proper jólahlaðborð but got served a lot of different dishes directly to our table instead of having to pick everything from a buffet.

The evening meal began with a mix of sushi as appetizers, then for starter we got two plates: one with kangaroo and the other one with scallops and squids.

It's funny to learn a new language because you try to find out how some words are made up. In the case of squid, the Icelandic word for it is smokkfiskur. I don't think you have to be a rocket scientist to guess that fiskur stands for fish. Smokk comes from smokkur, which in Icelandic means condom. So a squid is a condom fish in Iceland and when you think of a squid or of its shape who do see why Icelanders would have decided to name squids smokkfiskar.

Back to our dinner, the main course was served on three plates as we had cod, lamb and beef. The dessert was a tiny warm chocolate cake with a hint of ginger served with a scoop of ice-cream... Nice!

I have the rest of the week to burn up the calories in the gym before the next jólahlaðborð, which is this week-end. It is organized by Alliance Française. We like dinners organized by Alliance Française: the food is prepared by François Fons, a French chef who has been living in Iceland for years and does a "mean" lambalæri (leg of lamb).

I picked the photo from his website. There are classic dishes that you would always find on a jólahlaðborð:

Hamborgarhryggur - salted and lightly smoked pork rack.
Hangikjöt - smoked lamb.

You could also find game meat but usually you would go to another type of dinner for that: villibráðarveisla.

Bon appétit!

Weather outside: clear, 2°C

La vie en rose...

2007-11-16T08:00:00.001Z

It seems that this post is going to be about cinema again!

On Monday, I received an e-mail from Alliance Française. They had a limited amount of invitations for the premiere of La vie en rose, a film depicting the life of french singer Edith Piaf.

It is rare to have something else than american blockbusters on screen in Iceland. Luckily, there is græna ljósið, a foreign movie distributor. When you go to cinema in Iceland, you have to know that there will be break in the middle. Is it to go to the bathroom? Is it to refill on popcorn or soda? Anyway, whatever it is for, it is still a pain in the rear end... But now when you go to see a foreign film, it is rare to have a break.

The event was preceded by a little concert with actress/singer Jóhanna Vigdís who sang few classics of the French repertoire. I came to realise that she had no Icelandic accent when interpreting these French songs, the same way Céline Dion (or other French-Canadian singers) does not have the thick French-Canadian accent when she sings in French. I'm wondering if it works the other way around. If I sing in Icelandic, do I lose my French accent?

Back to our film. I must admit I'm a bit disappointed. The actress, Marion Cotillard, gives a superb performance but the jumps back and forth in time were too many and ruined a little bit the film.

Today is November 16th, it is "Dagur Íslenskrar Tungu", day of the Icelandic language. Colleagues at work have decided to only speak Icelandic with me today!

Weather outside: rain, 8°C

And the Oscar goes to...

2007-11-12T08:54:00.000Z

Last night was the EDDA night. The EDDA are the Icelandic "Oscars". This year "Grand Prix" went to Ragnar Bragarson's film Foreldrar (parents). This film is in fact the second chapter of a cinematographic diptych which started with the film Börn (children). Last year's big winner was Mýrin: the screen adaptation of Arnaldur Indriðason best-seller thriller Jar City. Mýrin should be reprensenting Iceland at this year's Oscar in the Best Foreign-Language Film category.

Here is a little (and surely non-exhaustive) list of Icelandic films you may consider renting:

Nói Albínói from director Dagur Kári (watch trailer...)
101 Reykjavík from director Baltasar Kormákur (watch extract...)
A little trip to heaven from director Baltasar Kormákur (watch trailer...)
Mýrin from director Baltasar Kormákur (watch trailer...)
Börn from director Ragnar Bragarson (watch trailer...)
Foreldrar from director Ragnar Bragarson, trailer below...

Weather outside: rainshower, 6°C

Saucisson...

2007-11-06T08:26:00.001Z

Good news for us, foreigners, living in Iceland... It has been announced that Iceland will soon join the European Food Safety Authority (ESFA). Well, what does it mean for me? It means I will now be able to bring meat from France.

No more I will be smuggling saucisson (french salami but way better!) into the country. Custom officials at Keflavík airport have confiscated around 5 tons of meat products so far this year of which 1.7 tons were salami!

I did already bring some meat product from Iceland to France. A couple of years ago, I got some hangikjöt (smoked lamb) in my Christmas hamper and I decided to bring it to France. It was an easy process. You go to the Ministry of Agriculture (Landbúnaðarráðuneyti, which is situated behind the National Theater of Iceland) and there you pay to get a sticker stipulating that the meat is from Iceland and is free of any diseases. That's it!

Anyway, the "traveling" hangikjöt was cooked and prepared in France where it did not received the favorable reception from the french palates... But my brother's dog, Sky, loved it and gave it the 2 "paws" up!

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 7°C

Icelandic stereotype...

2007-11-02T07:59:00.000Z

I was able to find a commercial that ran in Ireland a few years back. It was a bit of a shock to hear Icelandic on the Channel 4.

Just to keep the record straight:

I do not remember seeing Tennent's beer in any of the ATVRs, the state owned off-licences, only places where you can buy alcohol.
Wind-dried puffins recipe has yet to be invented. The only thing "wind-dried" so far is the harðfiskur. That said, it would not be surprising to hear that dried puffins does exist in Vestmannaeyar where most of the puffin hunting takes place.
"6 women to 1 man"... This really needs to be proven!!!
Bar-frikki does not exist. There is something call the Ice Bar in the city centre. It is part of Restaurant Reykjavík, formerly known as Kaffi Reykjavík.
Hreindýra bollur, reindeer balls, are reindeer meat balls and has nothing to do with genitalia.
And finally, a pint costs 600isk (€7/$10) in a bar... not 2000isk!!!

Weather outside: mist, 7°C

Hunting season...

2007-11-01T13:56:00.000Z

One of the most anticipated event of the year for Icelanders has started: the rjúpa hunting season.

The rjúpa, or arctic grouse, is part of the traditional dishes that will be served over Christmas. As you can see from the picture, the white winter plumage make it difficult to spot during the winter. Some hunters will spend hours and will come back empty handed. Others, with pointing dogs, maybe more fortunate.

With most of the employees gone hunting, the building is strangely quiet. Too quiet to be working...

And a little game: find the rjúpa (summer plumage)

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 2°C

Walking out...

2007-10-31T11:34:00.002Z

The news of the the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, walking out from an interview with 60 Minutes' journalist Lesley Stahl only made page 6 of yesterday's Fréttablaðið.

Most newspapers have reported the event depicting the French president as the foe during the interview. I do think it is really uncalled for: Lesley Stahl was asking questions good for the Oprah Show, not for a political interview.

In the following extract from the show, "there's a great mystery. Everybody is asking", says Lesley Stahl... Honestly, who cares!!! A survey showed that 79% of the French did not care about the divorce.

Who is more professionnal? A president answering politely questions and then decides to leave because the questions are inappropriate or a journalist forcing to get answers to personal questions? I let you be the judge:

On a different note, Andrea Bocelli is playing tonight in Egilshöll. Four types of types went on sales: 22900isk (€284 or $381), 14900isk, 12900isk and 8900isk (€102 or $148)... Guess what? it is not sold out! Just to compare: Björk's concert tickets went on for 4000isk (standing) or 7000isk (sitting) for her concert in April 2007.

Weather outside: partly sunny, 2°C

French DVDs...

2007-10-29T08:17:00.001Z

There is a DVD/CD sale taking place in Perlan (see picture ->).
I like to go to these sales because I can find french films for much cheaper that I could get them in France.

Few examples of what could be found: Les poupées russes for 590Isk (approx. €6.70). Another nice find: Les triplettes de Belleville for the same price of 590Isk. Both DVDs are over €12 on Amazon.fr...

Weather outside: fog, -2°C

Magic...

2007-10-26T08:35:00.001Z

The new, and the last, Harry Potter, translated in French Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort, is available in store since last night.

Speaking of Harry potter, the free newspaper 24 stundir had a funny story on its front page on Wednesday morning. From the information contained in the article I was able to find an English version on the net.

Our behaviours are influenced by television/movies!?!!?... In England, it has been reported that sales of pet rats are up by 50% since the release of the animated film Ratatouille on October 12th.

Now on a totally different subject, the possibility of a high voltage power line between Iceland and the Faroe islands is being investigated. This cable would run under water for over 450kms and would be the longest of its kind. Read more...

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 5°C

Voting from abroad...

2007-10-23T12:31:00.000Z

This weekend Poland had some anticipated legislative elections. The site of statice provides with a figure of about 7000 Poles leaving in Iceland. I was surprise on Monday to see on the front page of the newspaper Fréttablaðið that only about 450 did vote during the elections.

These 450 voters represents only 15% of the Polish community. What can explain such a low level? Were they only allowed to vote in the embassy? Or did their embassy "f.cked it up" like the French one did? I was not able to vote for the French presidential election this year because the consulate at the French embassy was not able to write down my address correctly... "Elle est belle la France". As a result, it is my neighbour who is getting my mail from the embassy!

Weather outside: partly sunny, 7°C

Casual Friday...

2007-10-22T10:48:00.000Z

Here is a video that was sent to guys in the company this morning. I realised after watching it that is a sketch from the British comedy show: smack the pony and I was able to find it on youtube.

If casual Fridays were like that...

Weather outside: rain, 6°C

Airwaves...

2007-10-22T08:18:00.000Z

Airwaves... No, this is not the name of a brand of chewing-gum nor the name of a bathroom spray. Airwaves is the name of a music festival taking place in late October since 1999.
This year the festival took place from October 17th until the 21st. I was in the city centre on Friday evening and I was surprised to hear so many Americans but then again, they are a lot of American bands playing and Icelandair offers very good packages (plane+accommodation) during Airwaves.

The ambassadress of Icelandic music is surely Björk Guðmundsdóttir but since the end of the 90s another Icelandic band has emerged on the international scene. I am referring the indi-pop band Sigur Rós.

I had a little discussion about music with some of my colleagues from work on Friday evening. We went to Indian Mango and while waiting for our dishes, we spoke about the Airwaves festival. Of course it lead to Björk, Sigur Rós and other Icelandic artists...

It turns out that Sigur Rós is not that popular with the Icelanders. Björk is a little bit more popular because she did Gling-Gló, an album in which she interprets popular icelandic songs.

So who is popular with all Icelanders???... It's Magnús Þór Jónsson also know as Megas. This came as a surprise to me as Megas has the worst voice ever. So what makes him so special: his melodies and his lyrics (really????). Come on, have a go: Megas extracts.

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 5°C

Never to old...

2007-10-18T09:49:00.000Z

Today France is hit by strikes in the public transport sector and energy sector. The government plans to scrap the "special regime" pension system for half a million workers in state-controlled companies, mainly the SNCF (railroad) and EDF (electricity).

Only 6% of pensions fall under the special regime, which allows beneficiaries to retire after 37.5 years worked, compared with 40 years for other public and private sector employees. These special regime pensions were created after the second world war to make sure positions in the transport and energy services were filled in and by doing so helping the reconstruction effort after the war.

In 1995, Alain Juppé tried to change the special regime system: massive demonstrations took place. In 2003, Jean-Pierre Raffarin did have a go at it.... I will let you guess the result: demonstrations/strikes.

It is crazy to think that a small group of people, only 500 000 person are on these special regimes, can cause so much disturbance. I have a lot of adjective for them: hypocrites, self-centred, selfish, egoist... How can people be so blind to fact that we live longer and the country cannot provide for you like that???

It is nice to live abroad and to have a remote view of the on-going issue in France.

The normal age to retire in Iceland is set to 67 years old. If you want you can push a little bit longer and still work until 70 years old. But there is a problem in Iceland: there is too little unemployment! In Septembre, the unemployment rate was 0.8% with only 1336 people registered as unemployed. This is the lowest rate in 19 years. As a result, the city council of Reykjavík offers now the option of going back to work part-time for people over 70 years old. Here is an extract from Iceland Review:

10/05/2007 | 11:22
Reykjavík City Approves Hiring People Over 70

Reykjavík City Council accepted a proposal from Mayor Vilhjálmur Th. Vilhjálmsson at a meeting yesterday to hire people older than 70 for workplaces operated by the city, like kindergartens, which suffer from a severe lack of staff.

It is now permitted to hire people over 70 for positions requiring work between 33 and 50 percent of a normal working day for one year at a time, but only if the applicant can submit a competence certification, Morgunblaðið reports.

Employment will not result in lower payments from the Pension Fund of City Employees.

Vilhjálmsson said he had noticed considerable interest among senior citizens to reenter the employment market and that he was convinced many would take advantage of this opportunity.

“This is one of the issues senior citizens have been fighting for. We have discussed this with them and are following their request,” Vilhjálmsson said. “I am certain senior citizens will celebrate this decision because many of them are still fully capable of working.”

Sesselja Ásgeirsdóttir, who is 70 and used to work for the Consumers’ Association of Iceland, has been hired as project leader and will be responsible for providing senior citizens interested in this project with jobs where they are most needed.

Ásgeirsdóttir is pleased with the move, but said she finds it strange that people who retire at 67, which is the norm, have to wait for three years before they can reenter the employment market without their pensions being cut.

There is currently a severe lack of staff within caretaking positions in Reykjavík and almost 200 employees are needed for the city’s kindergartens.

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 10°C
(changes from the -3°C yesterday!!!)

Winter is around the corner...

2007-10-16T09:57:00.000Z

Winter is coming.
Yesterday, the thermometer was showing a mere 3°C and today is even less with temperatures around 1°C...

I must admit that I like this time of the year. This snappy cold is really invigorating in the morning. You start your day fresh and alert. In the evening you appreciate the warmth and "coziness" of you home.

Cozy... This is a word that I rarely used before living here but it is dear to Icelanders. Not surprisingly, if you search the internet for the etymology of the word cozy you will find that it may have its origin in Scandinavia.

Weather in Iceland can change dramatically in a matter of few minutes. During the week-end temperatures were around 10 and now they are close to the freezing point. It is therefore important to be prepare when visiting Iceland. Accordingly, I propose you today the first part of Bear Grylls' show: Man Vs Wild in Iceland.

Weather outside: partly sunny, 1°C

A new major...

2007-10-12T08:41:00.000Z

Yesterday the city of Reykjavík got a new major.
This happened after several days of debate regarding the potential sale of Reykjavík Energy’s (OR’s) holding in Reykjavík Energy Invest (REI).

Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson leaves his place to Dagur B. Eggertsson, member of the Social Democrats party.

Now, let's move on onto something totally different. Iceland Review published an interesting article a couple of days ago:

Icelanders Throw Away Food

Every year, each Icelander disposes of 510 kilograms of rubbish. One sixth of this amount is food products.

Farmers’ Weekly, Bændablaðið, quotes Cornelius Aar Meijles, environmental engineer, who argues that each Icelanders throws away 82 kilograms of food in an average year. Half of this food is believed to be fit for human consumption at the time of its disposal.

Similar statistics from Norway indicate that each Norwegian throws away 90 kilograms of food every year.
Among the possible explanations are said to be lesser consumption of leftovers and recipes in cookbooks that are too large. The biggest factor is believed to be food spoilage from supermarkets, especially meat.

I laugh at the idea of "recipes in cookbooks being too large"... Aren't people able to divide quantities? If the recipe is for 8 and you are cooking for 4, just reduce the quantities accordingly unless, of course, you want leftovers.

Two days after Yoko Ono and Ringo Starr unveiled the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER, there are only few videos available on the net. I did find one where Yoko Ono is presenting the tower. I must admit that the end is a little bit strange. What's with the eye???

Weather outside: mostly cloudy: 11°C

Drug comes in, show goes out...

2007-10-10T11:07:00.000Z

In Monday's post, I spoke about all that drug coming in.

On the other hand, Iceland exports a TV show for kids promoting healthy life style in over 100 countries. The show in Iceland is know as Latibær or Lazy Town in English. The show was created by a former gymnastics champion: Magnús Scheving.

The show has been translated to over a dozen languages. I propose you two version of the same song I found on youtube: an icelandic version (with subtitles!) and an english version.

Enjoy!

Icelandic version:

English version:

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 8°C

And let there be peace...

2007-10-09T08:40:00.000Z

I'm sure everyone heard this verse from the book of Genesis:

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light"

People who know me might find strange that I quote the bible but I must admit it fits well today's event: The unveiling of the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER.

The imagine peace tower??? I will just copy an extract from the Imagine Peace website:

On October 9th 2007, Yoko Ono will unveil the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER on Videy Island, Reykjavik, Iceland.

Dedicated to the memory of her late husband John Lennon on what would have been his 67th birthday, the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER will shine as a beacon for World Peace.

Sponsored by the City of Reykjavik, the Reykjavik Art Museum and Reykjavik Energy, the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER will be surrounded by more than 495,000 PEACE WISHES from people worldwide that the artist has collected since 1981 as part of her interactive Wish Tree exhibits.
The wishes will be stored in capsules and buried surrounding the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER.

The light from the tower will be switched off on December 8th, anniversary of John Lennon's death.

I'm wondering how useful is an event like that. Can someone really think that lighting up a culture will bring peace or play a part toward bringing peace? How many people have heard of the event? People who have heard of the event are from countries without on-going wars or political instability.

Here is a picture taken by Jónas Björgvinsson during the ligth testing on September 6th.

Weather outside: mist, 6°C

On the increase...

2007-10-08T15:37:00.000Z

A murder was committed this week-end in Reykjavík. This is the second one this year.
The first one happened on July 29th and was the first in two years.

I suppose that from an outsider point of view, Iceland seems to be really quiet and safe but crime is on the increase. Here are a few examples:

- On september 20th, fifty-six kilos of amphetamine were confiscated on-board a ship in Fáskrúðsfjörður harbor in east Iceland.
- On August 11, two Icelanders, a 36-year-old male and a 20-year-old female, were arrested in Copenhagen Acarrying 1.9 kilos of a substance believed to be cocaine.
- Some time late July, a 16-year-old girl was arrested at Keflavík Airport in possession of 500 grams of cocaine. The girl and her 28-year-old boyfriend were arriving from Venezuela with a stopover in the US.
- On June 6th, a 28-year-old Icelandic man was arrested for drug smuggling at the Guarulhos Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was caught with over six kilos of cocaine.

These are just few selected examples but I think the best example is the fact that women are now scared to be alone down town on week-ends. This was not the case a few years back.

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 8°C.

And why not me...

2007-10-03T08:28:00.000Z

Blogs are now legions on the web and a couple of days ago I decided that I should add my own. Why not me?

No more big "group e-mails"! Now everything will be online. I don't know how often I will amend the blog with fresh news but I'm sure it won't be daily.

As blogs' purpose is sharing (news, infos, links, etc...), I'm going to share with you the following link that has been circulating at work yesterday: Fight For Kisses.

Weather outside: mostly cloudy, 7°C.