Back home!

We flew back from Iceland at 8:00am this (Monday) morning, but we were up at 4:15am to catch it. Both of us are knackered now. Think the temprature was about 6 degrees celsius at Keflavik when we left Iceland and -5 when we flew into Glasgow with freezing fog. Everything was covered in ice, it was really pretty.

Day 3

Back at the hotel for a wee bit before we head out to the Blue Lagoon. Ólöf and the guy from her record label (sorry, forgot his name) recommended that we head out to the National Park today, but we've run out of time so we'll have to settle for a hot thermal pool.



Yesterday was nice, we spent a lot of time exploring Reykjavik. Better go, will post more details later.

2nd day

Wee vid of some of what we got up to Day 2. Mostly exploring Reykjavik and then our private concert with Ólöf Arnalds.



After that we headed back to a nearby bar and decided to get something to eat...

The first day...

Niki here...well it's been amazing - it's cool to come somewhere different, although it's strangely familiar at the same time (quite Scottish). we had a lovely evening last night- had a wander around. It's beautiful. Kind of quaint and sparse, functional yet christmas picture post card. We went for something to eat - I had fish stew and Rhys had a steak sandwich (not very Icelandic but he said it was yummy)- we drank Viking beer to see if it would make us strong and wild (it didn't but I reckon that's cos we're strong and wild already:). We went to a trendy local bar after that but didn't stay long as it cost £8 for one vodka and coke!!!!! People seem really friendly - the bus driver from the airport was lovely, telling us a bit of history and about the areas we drove past. It's low built and flat and spread out and today we're going to explore some more - it's kind of quirky. Both just had a shower - man it smells like eggs (euugghh eggs) and filled up with a nice breakfast and now are ready to go out. I want to find out everything, it's an intriguing place. Will let you know what we find out later.
Am looking forward to the concert tonight. A fun day ahead...

We're here!

We've just checked in to the Plaza Hotel, Reykjavik. Seems nice enough - like an upmarket Travel Lodge. Boo to twin beds in the room though.

Flying in over Iceland, it looked strange and beautiful. Black (volcanic, I guess) soil, low grey clouds, leaden sea, camouflage green and brown landscape. A lot flatter in the bits we flew over than I thought it would be. Wee bit of Reykjavik we saw looks lovely.

Need to go get something to eat and drink. Oh, when you run the hot tap it smells of eggs. Mmm, eggs.

3 days to go?

Yesterday was crazy, Edinburgh and Glasgow were brought to a standstill by an outbreak of SNOW! There was like a 40 mile tailback on the M8 (that's pretty much all of it) between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Some people were stuck in their cars for 18 hours.

Took me over 2 hours to get into work, with 1/2 an hour of that spent inching up (and sometimes sliding down) the steep hill at Orchard Brae. Halfway through the day we heard that all the buses and trains were cancelled. So at about 3pm me and workmate hiked home, stopping at Hector's in Stockbridge for a couple of pints of Staropramen on the way.

I emailed the PR company to ask what would happen if we can't make our flights to Iceland on Friday. They've said we could reschedule, which is cool but then there'd be no guarantee we'd get to meet up with Olof which would be a shame. My mum (hi Mum!) was going to come down from the Highlands to help out while we're away but it's looking more and more like she might not be able to make it what with the roads being so bad.

But even though if feels a bit like everything is conspiring against us to stop us from going - I still think we're going to make it!

5 days to go...

We're due fly to Reykjavik on the Friday the 10th, which means that we'll be there for the arrival of the first of the Yule lads.

The Yule lads are like an Icelandic version of Santa Claus. Every night, between the 12th-25th December a new Yule lad arrives and stays for a fortnight. Children leave their shoes in the window every night and if they've been good the Yule lad leaves a present. If they've been bad, they get a potato.

In order of their arrival, the Yule lads are:

Stekkjastaur (Sheep-Cote Clod), Giljagaur (Gully Gawk), Stúfur (Stubby), Þvörusleikir (Spoon-Licker), Pottaskefill (Pot-Scraper), Askasleikir (Bowl-Licker), Hurðaskellir (Door-Slammer), Skyrgámur (Skyr-Gobbler), Bjúgnakrækir (Sausage-Swiper), Gluggagægir (Window-Peeper), Gáttaþefur (Door-Sniffer), Ketkrókur (Meat-Hook), Kertasníkir (Candle-Beggar).

Those ð and þ characters in the Icelandic names are eth (Ð, ð) which is pronounced like the voiced th of "them", and thorn (Þ, þ), which is pronounced like the unvoiced th of "thick". Icelandic uses the Latin alphabet and includes characters that have long since been lost to English.

Their names are great - really evocative, with a heavy emphasis on food theft. Even Candle-Beggar is food related - he steals candles off kids to eat (candles used to be made of tallow, which is edible). Says a lot about Iceland I guess. It must have been a hard place to live back in the day.

Stekkjastaur or Sheep-Cote Clod is the 1st of the Yule lads to arrive. Apparently he likes to harass sheep but is impaired by his stiff peg-legs. He arrives on Sunday the 12th. I think we should leave our shoes on the window that night (I might sneak a potato in Nix's for a laugh).

Yeah, that's peg legs. Two of them.

The Yule lads used to be a pretty nasty, mischievous lot: nicking food and playing pranks. These days they're cute,cuddly and commercialised. A lot more scary is the horrifying Yule Cat, Jólakötturinn. A giant cat that eats people who don't have item of new clothing (?). I can't find out much about it... I think anyone who knows anything must have been eaten.

7 days to go...

So I'm getting a bit carried away with filming now. What started out with me just trying to find the charger for Joe's camera so we could take it to Iceland has ended up with me carrying it in my bag into work every day. But it's good I did.

Last night I walked the 6 miles back from work cos I wanted to see it in the snow. When I got to Inverleith park I cut through it and about halfway through I saw a strange glowing light in the distance...



I couldn't tell what it was until I got right up to it. Someone had built a wee plinth in the snow and topped it with a pile of snowballs and then lit the whole thing from inside with a couple of tea-light candles. It looked really pretty in the dark. I don't how long it had been there and I wonder how long it lasted but I'm glad my curiosity led me to check it out.

I love that someone took the time to make it and left it there for people to discover. I want to make one too. So yeah, it was lucky I had the camera with me.

8 days to go...

...and it's still snowing in Edinburgh. I love snow, it's great. Every time I look out the window and see it's started snowing again it makes me smile.

After demonstrating my ignorance I thought I'd try and learn a bit more about Iceland so I've been searching and reading up about the place.

3 Things I didn't know about Iceland

1. They have no army, air force or navy - military spending is 0% of GDP. Peace.
2. The phone book in Iceland lists people by their first name.
3. It's the most sparsely populated country in Europe

When Iceland became a republic in 1944, they passed a law that described the flag like this: "The civil national flag of Icelanders is blue as the sky with a snow-white cross, and a fiery-red cross inside the white cross." which is nice and poetic and appropriate: sky, snow and fire.

Sky, snow and fire

If we'd done the same in Scotland we'd have ended up with a totally different flag than we've got: "The national flag of Scotlanders is as grey as the sky with a muddy brown smear and a few rainy-grey splashes".

I'm kidding. I love the Scottish weather really. Actually no, I don't. I hate our climate - it's cold, damp and windy and usually I moan about not even getting a proper winter. This year though eh?

9 days to go...

...will we get there? We're starting to worry if it's going to happen. The weather here is mental. It's the most snow I've seen in Edinburgh in a long time. At this time of year it's really unusual.

This morning I had to walk to the Dr. to pick up stuff - taking the car seemed like a bad idea and I didn't fancy the bike. Took some footage on Joe's wee camera which I've dug out to take with us to Iceland.



There was even loads of snow on Ferry Road (it's a busy main road, with a lot of traffic). On the way it snowed pretty heavy but for a moment it brightened up and the sun broke through over Calton Hill...

Iceland

What I know about Iceland:

• It's greener than Greenland
• there's thermal springs and volcanoes and stuff
• their banking industry went tits up recently
• It's home to the lovely Björk and popular beat-combo Sigur Rós
• Alcohol's really expensive, like a tenner for a beer or something

So, you can see I don't really know anything about Iceland. I've always thought it'd be a great place to go but I never thought it'd ever happen. Living in Scotland and being skint, it's hard to think about spending money to go somewhere that's even colder and windier than it is here. When it comes to holiday destinations I think most Scots are drawn like moths to the heat and light of the Mediterranean.

Getting to travel to Iceland is a great opportunity and we're going to try and make the most of it. In the couple of weeks between now and when we go, we're going to try and learn a bit about Iceland and Icelandic people and culture and then when we're there we're going to try and take in as much of it as we can.

And then of course on top of that we get a "private concert" with Ólöf Arnalds! More about that later...

Here's a nice slide-show of photographs of Iceland (thanks to YouTube user Extolement).

So, Ólöf Arnalds...

So yeah, I'd never heard of Ólöf Arnalds before. I guess she's not that well known in the UK (yet). So the first thing I did after reading the email saying we'd won was Google her and listen to some of her tracks on Spotify.



I bet her voice gets described as 'ethereal' a lot by lazy journalists. It's lovely; clear, high and pure.

She has two solo albums, Við Og Við (2007) and Innundir skinni (2010) and has worked with loads of other Icelandic musicians. We're supposed to get two signed copies of Innundir skinni as part of our prize!

Iceland, ho!

How cool is this? Me and Niki have won a trip to Iceland for a private concert with Icelandic folk-singer/songwriter Ólöf Arnalds.

You know, Ólöf Arnalds? The Icelandic folk-singer...

I saw the competition in an email from Zavvi.com (they sell films, music games and stuff online) and remember thinking at the time "Wow, cool prize - but who is that?". It seemed obscure enough to make it worth a go.

So, a couple of weeks ago I'm checking my Gmail and there's a message:

Congratulations! You are the very lucky winner of our “Win a private concert with Ólöf Arnalds in Iceland” competition! The Prize includes:

• 2 x flights to Reykjavik, courtesy of IcelandAir.
• 2 nights at the Reykjavik Plaza hotel,
• A private performance from Ólöf Arnalds
• 2 x signed copies of Ólöf's new album "Innundir Skinni"

Awesome!