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.