Archive for August, 2015
Reciting Icelandic poetry. Posted by hulda on Aug 27, 2015
If I had to describe Icelandic as a language, one word would come to mind immediately: poetic. For most of their existence Icelanders have always valued poets highly, so highly in fact that an important person was practically assumed to be a skilled poet and even the poorest farmer could (and often would) show off…
Destroying Iceland for charity? Posted by hulda on Aug 20, 2015
This week arrived with troubling news: the police were investigating two Scottish men who had apparently driven quite a long way off-road in Iceland, which is illegal. Let’s repeat, it’s illegal to drive off-road in Iceland, everywhere, no exceptions. Why the general ban? It’s because Iceland’s highlands are moss and lichen -covered, and the damage done…
Laugadalur – hot spring valley Posted by hulda on Aug 13, 2015
Near downtown Reykjavík is a historical site that’s almost hidden by all the other activities around it, though the whole area takes its name from this place: Laugadalur, the valley of hot springs, is now better known for the Botanical Garden, one of the best swimming pools of Reykjavík, an ice skating rink and a…
Icelandic donut craze. Posted by hulda on Aug 6, 2015
A few days ago a friend of mine who lives in the UK contacted me and made some complaints about the state of affairs in their home country. “What about Iceland”, she then asked me, “what’s in the news?” I quickly opened a news site and found out the day’s main news were someone stealing 60…