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The al fresco nap is standard practice here and Icelanders clearly have it down to a science.
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Click on the picture to observe how to prepare a traditional Icelandic meal of roe and liver (hrogn og lifur). At this time of year, egg pouches are harvested from female fish, mainly cod and haddock, and sold in fish stores around the country along with the liver. The egg pouches may not look appetizing; just remember that caviar is fish eggs too.
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Fjallabyggd (“Mountain Settlement”) is a skier’s dream. Its slopes are perfect for slaloming and there are also tracks for telemark skiing. Winter sporting enthusiasts can also go ice skating or rent snowmobiles. In summer, Fjallabyggd turns into a paradise for hikers. Read this special promotion about one of Iceland’s best hidden gems.
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The first Sunday of Advent is tomorrow, so today, the inhabitants of Akureyri will welcome the beginning of the Christmas season by lighting the Christmas tree on the town square. In Reykjavík, the Christmas tree will be lit tomorrow.
The Akureyrarkirkja church.
The tree is a gift from Randers in Denmark, which is Akureyri’s sister town, and the Danish Ambassador to Iceland Sören Haslund will formally present the tree to Akureyri inhabitants at the lighting ceremony.
The program begins at 2:45 pm when the Akureyri Big Band pays Christmas carols. Then the Children’s Choir of Akureyrarkirkja church will sing, and two “fairy maidens” from the Akureyri Theater Christmas play will perform.
Mayor of Akureyri Hermann Jón Tómasson will address the assembly, after which the lights of the tree will be turned on. The Icelandic Yule Lads will come to town in a horse carriage, sing to the children and treat them with mandarins.
The heart in Vadlaheidi.
Mulled wine and gingerbread cookies will also be available on the town square, while those keen on seeking shelter from the predicted frost can have hot chocolate and kleinur (twisted doughnuts) inside Kirkjubaer by the square.
The Yule Lads’ gruesome pet, the Christmas cat—an artwork by local artists—will observe the crowd with its watchful eyes, always looking out for misbehaving children.
At the same time that the Christmas tree is lighted, “the heart in Vadlaheidi will start beating again,” a press release describes. A heart of lights has been made in the mountain slope opposite the town.
Akureyri has a thing for hearts; even the town’s red traffic lights are heart-shaped.
The local ski resort also opens today.
For further information about the Akureyri “Advent Adventure” and other activities in Iceland’s northern “capital,” visit its official website, visitakureyri.is.
A water leak at the storage facilities of the Icelandic Institute of Natural History (NÍ) on Saturday night didn’t cause significant damage, thanks to an employee’s decision to come to work early on Sunday morning.
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The Ministry of Finance proposed in December that the Icelandic state acquire Byr savings bank and that claimants be compensated by 40 percent, paid out with bonds issued by the state.
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There are speculations that some members of the Social Democrats are interested in forging a new coalition government with the Progressive Party in addition to the Left-Greens. The current Social Democrat-Left-Green coalition is described as fatigued.
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The song “Je Ne Sais Quoi” by Örygur Smári and Hera Björk Thórhallsdóttir received the most votes in the Icelandic Eurovision song contest final on Saturday and will be Iceland’s entry in the main contest in Norway in May.
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New subscribers to the quarterly Iceland Review magazine will receive the photography book Puffins, which contains a wealth of information about this colorful bird, as a gift. Additionally, all subscribers will enter a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to Iceland Review. The new issue will be out next week!
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REVIEWS
When I first heard of the photographic book Legend by Fiann Paul, portraying people dressed in Viking-style in Icelandic landscapes, I imagined it would depict scenes from Norse mythology. However, the idea with the book is to tell a story of how “The Seeker” finds “The Legend” and it feels like a wishy-washy self-help book.
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Fresh back from Brazil, where she was one of 28 international judges at the ‘Cup of Excellence’ awards, Kaffitár founder and owner Adalheidur Hédinsdóttir sat down with Atlantica’s Mica Allan in Kaffitár’s Bankastraeti cafe to talk about her passion and delight: coffee.
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“Lucy” is a video and music installation by Dodda Maggý (1981), the 15th artist to exhibit in Reykjavík Art Museum’s D-gallery project in the Hafnarhús exhibition hall. In “Lucy” the artist explores the idea of the “acousmetre,” a film character portrayed only by voice, never in body, omniscient and ubiquitous.
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