Thursday 21 January 2010

As Joanna Lumley said "I can die happy now"

Well last night we got to see the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis which was absolutely fantastic, we drove up to the graveyard where there were no town lights to diminish the experience, it lasted for several hours building up with intensity as the time went on.  I didn't have my camera set at the right shutter speed so did not get any photos, however I have pinched a couple of Olga's which turned out quite nicely.  The camera is now set correctly and if they come again I am ready!
 
Yesterday we also took a drive to Akureyri which is the largest town outside of the capital Reykjavik with a population of around 17,000...just a tad smaller than Geraldton.  The drive there is absolutely spectacular with mountains on each side of the road and takes a bit over 2 hours to get there.
The snow had started to melt on some mountains creating zebra patterns.  These pics are taken whilst in a moving car and through a dirty window.

However, in some areas the mountains were still covered with snow and the fjords were frozen.
The town of Akureyri has some great views from the main shopping area.  This is a photo from the carpark.
 The town also has a logo which is a red heart and heart stickers are on many of the shop windows and doors, also traffic lights.
 
Also once again the colour blue appears!

Last Sunday Olga's family have a get together once a month and this month Olga's amma, Kristin provided a traditional Icelandic feast known as Þorrablót, which consisted of such tasty delights as, sheeps heads, rotton shark, whale, diced pickled rams testicles, I tasted everything except the whale, after the rotton shark I could not stomach it, however, the rams testicles were not too bad!
Fortunately there was still plenty other food I could fill up on, smoked lamb, lamb cutlets, dried fish and homemade Rye bread which is delicious with lots of butter of course...thank goodness I have'nt come across a set of scales!!!
Lambs head!
Looks innocent enough but looks can deceive, this is the rotton shark which I found to be nearly indigestible!
 After the rotton shark I could not bring myself to try the whale!
But the diced pickled Rams Testicles weren't too bad, they have very much the same texture as sheep's brains, not sure what that might mean!!!



3 comments:

  1. Very, very jealous...of the lights, not the food!!

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  2. Vicki,

    I am enjoying this so much. I look every day to see what's happening and loved today's posting. I am also very jealous of the lights - but I would love to try the food too!!

    Boring back here at ECU, I am contemplating
    moving to the Easter Islands on a whim!!

    Gill

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  3. Gill are you serious about the Easter Islands?

    ReplyDelete