Gledileg jol!!

Gledileg jol everyone! ( aka Merry Christmas :) )
Christmas is taking Reykjavik by storm so I thought I'd take the time to tell you all about what Christmas is like in Iceland! Iceland has some very unique traditions. Like most scandinavian countries they leave shoes out instead of stockings but the person leaving gifts is not Santa, nor the Three Wise men but 13 very strange little men called the Yule Lads. Each night of the 13 days leading up to Christmas one of the Yule lads stops by to leave some presents in each child's shoe and cause a little mischief while they are at it. The first to arrive Dec 12th is Sheep-botherer, who harasses the sheep. Then comes Gully Gawk who steals milk, Stubby who eats the crust off pans, Spoon-licker, Pot-scraper, Bowl-licker, and Door-Slammer who are all pretty self-explanatory. Skyr-Gobbler comes next (Skyr is a kind of yogurt here, similar to Greek Yogurt), Sausage swiper, Window peeper, Doorway Sniffer ( has an abnormally large nose with which to smell for cookies), Meathook (uses a hook to steal meat), and finally, on Christmas Eve, Candle-Stealer arrives and eats the candles (since candles used to be made of tallow and were thus edible). Christmas Eve is the night that Icelanders have their large meal and give presents. It is of utmost importance that each child receive some new clothing or else the Christmas Cat will come and kidnap them. The Yule lads are all friendly but their mother, Gryla, is not. She is a troll who captures bad children in her sac and eats them. A little more extreme than getting coal in your stocking... Gryla also eats the children that the Christmas cat catches.

Window Peeper and Door Slammer in action

Everybody after the tree had been lit

I got the chance to see three of the Yule lads come down early this weekend at the lighting ceremony of the big town tree by the Parliament buildings. It was a very cute little ceremony, with a quite impressive choir and everyone counting down in icelandic. Icelanders are very big fans of Christmas, the decorations around town are pretty insane. I have discovered why there are so few trees in Iceland. It seems they cut them all down to use for Christmas trees! Haha. There is a live tree at almost every street corner, the Harbour alone has 3 and my school has 4. On top of that it is a decorating technique to tie trees on to the wall in front of your store, so the main shopping street has a tree every meter or two just above your head. Its a little strange but really pretty. What's interesting about trees here is that for the most part they only use white lights, and the lights on the trees are usually quite big. I asked someone about it and they said it's because they still stick to the tradition of making it look like candles on the tree. Which I thought was kind of nice, but the trees do look strange to my north american eye, like they haven't finished decorating or something.

Tree with the "candle lights", notice how much it has to be tied down. That's life in Iceland for you. 

They also decorate their groceries. Everything becomes christmas themed this time of year, from the butter to the toilet paper. It's kind of hilarious but hey who doesn't want Santa toilet paper?
I'm in exam break now, which is both nice and awful all at once. I only have two exams so I am not killing myself studying like I normally am at home this time of year. However, the darkness is definitely affecting me these days. It's very disconcerting sleeping in until 1030 or even 11 and having it be as dark as 6 in the morning. It makes it so you always feel like you are waking up early no matter how late you sleep. Then you study for a few hours and before you have a chance to leave the house it's dark again. I have to say I am looking forward to Calgary's sunshine.

You can see some of the trees on the wall to the right, decorating a bank.

The square in front of the parliament buildings.

Big tree by the harbour, also chained down. 

Street decorations, another different tree. 

Another one of the three trees at the harbour.

Hope you re all enjoying your December so far! All this Christmassing is making me very excited to come home for Christmas.
Love you all!!

Average weekly temp: 2C

Sunrise: 10:57am 

Sunset: 3:39 pm 

Hours of sunlight: 4h 41min (so depressing)

Icelandic Witchcraft

      Hi guys!! Once again it has been a million years since I've written. Life is pretty crazy here, and the little free time I have I've had to spend cramming for my Human Anatomy final. Haha, because yes! I am going to school even though it doesn't seem like it. On top of my classes here I was also taking an online course from home, but now after much studying, and after dealing with the frustrating papers etc. so that I could write the exam here, I have finally completed that course at least!! Which means I have a little time to write!! Hopefully I can catch up and will not be so delinquent with my posts in the future. I also have to apologize if my writing has been a little unimpressive, I've been trying to get them done as keep as possible which has lead to kind of lame writing and some spelling errors so I've been told (thanks dad) haha. You'll have to bear with me!! Now the days are getting shorter hopefully I will have more time to actually record some of the amazing things I've been doing. But for the moment I will try to catch you up. 

In October I went on a hike to a natural hot river in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of my friends. It was such a ideal Icelandic moment. Most of the people there were locals, as we were then well past tourist season. We spent a few hours soaking in the hot water, drinking Icelandic beer and chatting with the people around us.

Two of the guys I went there with were Canadian also, making it the first time in a long while that the english speakers outnumbered the non-english europeans. We had a good time talking of Canadian things like maple syrup and peanut butter. We also had a blast singing campfire songs as we walked. It was a really funny experience. As amazing as it is getting to spend so much time with people of other cultures and learn about their ways of life, you sometimes forget how wonderful a cultural connection can be. As we were coming up with random songs to sing our european friends were all amazed that we knew so many of the same songs, and all the words to them. When you think about it, it is kind of impressive that despite being such a huge country my friend who lived in Ontario knew most of the same campfire songs as me, even though he lives so many hundreds of miles away.

 It's also fun seeing these cultural things through other people's eyes. We explained that we knew so many songs because it's really common in Canada to go either camping or to a summer camp and sing around a fire. And that it was a pretty normal thing for a bunch of friends our age to go out camping. They were amazed, very few of them had been camping. They even thought the idea of a campfire at each camping spot was strange. Anyways, we had fun teaching them all how to sing "There was a moose" and "Down by the bay."

Later that day we went caving. This was no tame tourist cave, lit up by lights with a nice flat pathway, but a pitch black twisting tunnel. Headlamps were a necessity as we scrambled up rocks and boulders. I had never experienced something like this before, but I loved every moment of it. At one point we had to walk bent in half, the tunnel was so small, and at another we were essentially climbing up a rock wall. 

The entrance of the cave

We took a moment in the middle to turn off all our lights and it was such an otherworldly experience, I've never experienced darkness like that. I don't imagine a more complete darkness even exists. All you could hear was the water dripping down the walls and other people breathing. You could feel the weight of all the earth and rock above you pressing down. I'm so happy I got to experience it. 

 The next weekend I spent up in the West fjords of Iceland with my Being Icelandic class. We went to visit the Witch craft museum and it turned out to be a very interesting trip. The town called Holmavik, where the museum was located, only had about 400 people living there. Which meant that the only restaurant in the village was at the museum. Both museum and restaurant are a one man show, run by a man named Siggi. He was museum director, tour guide, cook and waiter. And he is rumoured to be the last true witch in Iceland...

The infamous necropants

Icelandic witch craft is like no other. The charms and spells are some of the strangest I've ever heard of.  The picture above shows the most famous object in the museum, the necropants. These were the secret to never ending wealth. All one had to do was make a deal with one of your friends (they had to be willing!) that once he died you could flay his bottom half and wear his skin as a pair of pants. You then must steal a coin from a widow and put it in the scrotum of the pants along with a paper with a spell on it. From that point on you could reach into the.. ahem... pocket of the pants whenever you wanted and you would always have enough coins. 

Creation of a Tilberry

Now if you think that is strange, just wait until you hear the most common magic practiced by women. To create a Tilberry, a woman has to dig up the rib of a dead man and hide it in her shirt. Then for three communions she has to spit the wine onto the bone. After the third time the bone comes alive, from that point on she must feed it from a nipple on her thigh (so helpfully shown by the picture, haha). After all this work and effort the Tilberry will finally be mature and ready to do what it was made for, steal milk. Yep, all of that so that you can send your Tilberry to suck the milk of your neighbours cows and then have them come back and throw it up into your churn. Delicious right? Never fear though, if you suspect your neighbour to be making Tilberry butter all you have to do is draw a star above it and it will crumble into nothingness.

Me helping Siggi to return a ghost to his grave. This involved me spitting on the ghost and marking Siggi's forehead with his grandmothers blood. In return I got a protection stone also marked with blood, which I know have on my bedside table. No ghost are getting at me!!

 One last tale of weird Icelandic witchcraft as I'm sure you are all a little disturbed at this point. If however you ever are wanting to raise someone from the dead, you simple have to roll a bone over a grave while chanting an incantation. The ghost will then rise halfway through the grave, you then have to be quick and strong because a ghost comes back with 3 times it's strength in life. You have to wrestle it to the ground so you can lick the foam from around it's nose and mouth, once you've done this (if you can stomach it) the ghost is under your control. Be careful though, you may need Siggi's help to return it to the grave.

 We also visited an old Icelandic turf house that had been made up on the inside to represent what a witch's house would have looked like in the past. Unfortunately I didn't get very good pictures as the sun was already going down.

 The westfjords themselves were beautiful with high cliffs, rolling waves and hills covered in moss and berries. It's too bad I only got to see this one area. I'll just have to go back some day!

 The best part of the trip though was the time we spent hanging out in the restaurant with Siggi, my teacher, and the 6 other people from my class. It's so rare you get to spend time with your professors in such relaxed settings. I even had a heart to heart conversation with his twelve year old daughter about being vegetarian. And we managed to convince our teacher to play the ukelele for us and sing some folk songs. It was a great example of how warm and welcoming Icelanders can be once you get to know them.
I swear to write again soon!!

Average weather: 4C  

Sunrise: 8:56 am

Sunset: 5:26 pm

Hours of light:  8h 29 min 

Imagine

Hey guys! Every week there is some new experience or adventure to undertake. Two weeks ago I tried out Icelandic horseback riding. The horses are adorable, they are very small (technically ponies, but don't tell the Icelandic's that) and have very cute long fuzzy hair. Icelandic horses are famous for their extra gait called the Tolt. Which I am a big fan of, it is faster then a trot but amazingly smooth. However, when you ride Icelandic horses you don't post, you sit even when trotting and they like to move really fast. Which I am not used to, so I was in a lot of pain in the morning, haha. It was really fantastic riding through the lava fields though. 

Group riding

I also went on a field trip with my class where I got my first sight of boiling mud. Which is very alien looking, it seemed completely unnatural. 

Boiling mud pot

The area was one of the most martian locations I've been to.  Not to mention a little terrifying because this was once of the hottest lava fields, with temperatures over 200 C and the only thing separating you from it was a rickety little wooden walkway... 

We also went to see an old volcanic crater. It was beautiful because of the variation in colour in the rocks from blue to red. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but to give you an idea of how huge it is, those little dots at the top are people... 

A Huldrefolk (hidden people) farm :) 

Then completely randomly I got invited to go watch the lighting of the Peace Tower. I had no idea that this was such a big event. The Peace tower is a gift from Yoko ono to John Lennon and it is lit every year on his birthday and kept lit until the day he died in december. 

 The tower itself is made up of many beams of light and is so bright it can be seen from the opposite end of the city. Tons of people showed up to watch it being lit, including Yoko Ono herself which was very cool. They played imagine as they slowly turned on the lights and the whole crowd sang along ( haha in some semblance of english). 

Sorry this was all so quick and not very detailed but I am desperately trying to get up to date so that I can give you all a better idea of all the amazing things I'm seeing but I'm keeping wayyy to busy! So that's all for now folks!!

Average weather: 6C  

Sunrise: 7:55 am

Sunset: 6:34 pm

Hours of light:  10h 38 min

Family Visitors and the Golden Circle :)

Hello again! 

Still playing catchup unfortunately. Two weeks ago my very loving Mother, Father and Brother came all the way across the Atlantic ocean to this teeny island to visit me. :D Jared came first and we headed up north to visit Akureyri again. The drive up was beautiful and Jared got his first views of the lava fields and the stark emptiness that is Iceland. We also came across this amazing waterfall in the middle of nowhere. It was huge and yet the only thing preventing us from jumping into it was a tiny little broken cord. Which made Jared REALLY happy, not. This is apparently all the safety needed, I’d really like to know how many tourists die in Iceland every year. What with the waterfalls, and boiling hot pools that all have essentially no barriers. I’m sure some stupid tourists have been boiled here, haha. 

That night we stayed in Akureyri which despite being Iceland’s second biggest city is pretty darn tiny. We wandered around town searching for a restaurant that wasn’t painfully expensive ( very rare) or a store to in that was open after 6 o’clock on a saturday night (turns out there isn’t one). The next day we tried out one of the more famous natural hot springs in the north. 

It had an amazing view and was nice because there were so much less people there then you see at the more famous blue lagoon. We also checked out a whale museum in a town called Husavik, where they had some awesome whale skeletons and info on whaling. Whaling is still legal in Iceland though currently only Minke whale is caught, and only for local consumption but they are trying to find a market to export it. This is a pretty big controversy here though the fact that everyone that I know that has tried whale thinks it is delicious makes me wonder if maybe the Icelanders are on to something... 

Killer Whale skeleton

Sunday night we picked up Mom and Dad and we spent Monday exploring Reykjavik and I got to show off some of my Icelandic tour guide knowledge. That night they tried out some of the more... interesting icelandic food, whale and puffin. For those of you who are wondering I’ve been told whale tastes pretty much like beef, and that puffin is not at all similar to chicken but has an salty ocean taste to it. I can’t say from personal experience though... Haha, I have yet to see anyone try out the fermented shark though. 

Mom, Jared and I posing with a the Viking Boat sculpture in Reykjavik.

 The next day we did the “Golden Circle” which is essentially the 4 major sights in Iceland, Gullfoss (the golden falls), Geysir (the original geysir thank you very much! :p), Thingvellir and the Blue Lagoon. I won’t go into to much detail, I’ll just give you the readers digest version. 

 Gullfoss is a very big waterfall that some woman made a national park by threatening to throw herself in it. It’s called the Golden falls either because some rich man threw his gold in it so no one would have it when he died, or because of the rainbow that is often seen there.

Thingvellir is the sight of the originally icelandic parliament back in Viking times. It seems a guy would stand on a rock a spew out the laws of the time and then they all fought a lot as far as I can tell. But it’s pretty neat to have such ancient history kept up today. They still have some important events in the same location. Mostly though now it’s just a national park. However, it also is the sight of the continental divide. Iceland is one of the few places the continental plates are actually splitting apart, making iceland a few cm bigger each year. The cleft is so big it pretty much engulfs the whole valley, the cliff on one side being the north american plate, the other the eurasian plate. When you stand in Thingvellir park you are technically on neither and are standing in the middle of no-mans-land. It’s kind of creepy when you think about it... This area has up to 15 earthquakes a day, though mostly you can’t feel them. 

The North-American side of the continental divide

Finally we went to the Blue Lagoon, a giant hot pool made from the runoff water used in the steam electricity plant. To make electricity here they pump hot water from the earth, use that water to heat fresh water and then use the steam from the fresh water to make electricity. The original hot water is then pumped into this pool. It’s suppose to be full of minerals that are good for you and they even have buckets of goop on the side of the pools that is high in silica that you are suppose to use as a mask. However, the best part is definitely the bar inside the pool. There is nothing quite like a glass of wine while you soak with your face mask on. :) 

Enjoying our drinks that we payed for with these cool high-tech wristbands that also controlled the lockers. 

Everyone trying out the mud masks. The mud is free in buckets around the pool, and is made from natural ingredients from the water.

 Geysir is the name of a large geysir here. Icelandics get very touchy about the name because the word “Geysir” orginated from the name of this uh... Geysir. The icelandic word geysir means gusher and this term spread around the world. However, very few people know this and that gets peoples noses out of joint. Now you know! Anywho Geysir doesn’t even go off very frequently anymore but the nearby Strokkur (churn) goes off every couple of minutes. It took me like 40 minutes getting the whole eruption videotaped from beginning to end though, I’m very proud :)

The next day we journeyed east to see some amazing waterfalls ( I won’t mention all of them because there are a LOT of amazing waterfalls here), beautiful sea cliffs, and most famous of all the Eyjafjalladjokull volcano and glacier. Also known as the tiny volcano that caused all the trouble in 2010... The volcano is pretty unimpressive to look at though the glacier was pretty crazy. At home the glacier is so high up in the mountains, you have to go out of your way to see it. Here the glacier is at ocean level, you are literally driving down the highway, ocean on your right, glacier on your left. 

This is Eyfjallajokull, though you can't really see it. This farm was almost destroyed in the eruption. You should all be very proud, I have finally learned how to pronounce the name properly. :) 

We hiked up to the glacier walking past the signs talking about all the dangers (quicksand? who knew?) along with a sign with two names on it saying “missing since 2008, from your loving families.” So we were feeling very safe. I did however get close enough to touch it though not actually walk on it...  

Me touching the glacier

 The next day we arrived at Jokulsarlon, a giant lagoon full of icebergs broken off of the glacier. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Nearby there was a black sand beach where many of the icebergs washed up on, so we could stand on them and get a close look at their crazy bright blue color. 

We got back in time for some shopping and museums. Mom and Dad's last day here we got to go to a concert at the Harpa concert hall, which is one of the most famous architecture buildings in iceland. It's pretty impressive looking. On top of that the concert was a disney symphony, so it was obviously fantastic. :p It was very fun. 

Note: All the credit for the photos in this post goes to Jared and his bran-spanking new camera. 

Average weather: 8C  

Sunrise: 7:23 am

Sunset: 7:13 pm

Hours of light:  11h 49 min

Rettir Adventure

The one I was at was considerable bigger then this.
But this will give you an idea of the shape of the pen. 

 Hey there! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything! I have lots to catch you up on. On the 15th of september I got the chance to attend a local Rettir, which is essentially a sheep round-up. Every year the sheep are released to spend their summer wandering around the island. In my last post I talked about how in the fall the farmers then spend weeks going around on horseback or with quads rounding up all the sheep. Once the sheep are all collected they have to be separated by farm. The sheep are placed in a center circular pen that has other pens branching off of it like spokes. Each outer pen belongs to a different farmer and the sheep are herded into each one.  

The pen I was at was ancient and made of stone. It was very cool.

However, this is no simple organized thing. It could probably be done in half the time except for the fact that the whole family joins in. Mothers stand around holding their babies high so they don’t get squashed, 5 year olds attempt to wrestle their first sheep, older kids have sheep riding competitions, teens stand around drinking beer, grandparents give advice. Basically the pen is filled with almost as many people as sheep and most of them are just watching, drinking and singing icelandic songs. The Rettir was once one of the last chances to socialize before winter, so it has become more of a party then a job. 

 So after having had a lovely relaxing summer the sheep are put through a years worth of stress in one day. Once all the people have arrived crowding into the center pen, hundreds of sheep are herded into the pen and the free for all begins. The goal is to grab a kicking running sheep, read the ID number on it’s ear, grab it’s horns and swing your legs over the sheep. Then you attempt to hop/ shuffle your sheep to the location, weaving through people and animals all while the sheep is desperately trying to get away. I attempted once and got about 5 meters with it. :p

This is how you catch a sheep

All the crowds of people, and the sea of sheep.

These guys were just so cute and typically icelandic with their white blond hair and icelandic sweaters :)

This video shows a new group of sheep being herded in, and the sheep going insane haha.

 It was really neat getting to be part of such a real icelandic tradition, though I definitely felt like a stupid tourist who was mostly just getting in the way. It was pretty insane, loud and hilarious and I have never seen so many icelandic sweaters in one place before, hahaha. 

My attempt at catching a sheep...

I'm going to put the info for the date of the rettir. Not for todays date. 

Average weather: 10C  

Sunrise: 6:52

Sunset: 7:52

Hours of light:  13h 00 min