I am in a Christmas Card!

Well we arrived in Reykjavik Iceland around 2 in the afternoon on Dec 22nd after several trains and delayed flight from London to absolutely no snow at all...I was so disappointed, however it was all waiting for me in Saudarkrokur! It has snowed everyday since I have been here. At times when out walking I sink down to my knees in the snow.

There are lots of Christmas traditions here in Iceland I have had to resurrect my Christmassy spirit which has been well buried for sometime. It is quite dark here but the town is ablaze with Christmas lights...every house is decorated with lights in the windows, all over the house and in the garden....quite amazing to see a whole town lit up. Sunrise is around 11.30 am and sunset is around 3pm, the days are getting longer by around 50 seconds each day. The days are not pitch black but twilighty most of the time.

Wednesday afternoon we made little decorated Christmas trees from Pine tree branches to tie to the crosses up at the cemetery (another tradition)....It was -10 down in the town but up on the hill in the wind it must have been at least -15 with a chill factor of -20 I have never felt so cold...but it is all oh soooo beautiful. The graveyard is alight with luminous crosses and candles.

This photo of Ross and me is around 3ish in the afternoon, it's just starting to get darker, if you look closely you can see the lights of the town.

Wednesday night after dinner we walked to some relatives of Olga's where they were cooking this stinky fish (another tradition)....you eat it when it has gone rotten! Sigga encouraged me to try some...I did taste a little bit....it tasted better than it smelled but not that great! Then Sigga proceeds to tell me that she has never tried it as she cannot get passed the smell. One mouthful was enough though as I watched people eat great slabs of it....it has a very strong ammonia smell which does clear out the sinuses. Hard to try and describe a smell but maybe Ross's face will do it!

Another tradition is everybody drives around the town delivering Christmas cards. Olga and Sigga did this while Ross and I took a long walk up a hill around the top of the town to the graveyard no wind today so not that cold....it was so picturesque it was as if we were walking in a Christmas card. The snow is soft and fluffy just like I had imagined and here are pictures of snow, snow and more snow.

Fluffy Snow!

Views of snow covered Saudarkrokur from the graveyard.

The heavy snow covered graveyard!

Snow covered Fjord

Fjord later in the day, the snow covered mountains almost look like huge icebergs!

It has snowed so much here that Ross and Olga were able to build a couple of snowmen, apparently there was not enough snow last Christmas.


"Snowman"

Olga, Ross and Snowmen stand ins for Joe and Andy!!!

Amazing things appear on the beach in Saudarkrokur, last year a Polar Bear this year coconuts!