I’ve come to the conclusion that Scrabble skills might come in handy in trying to decipher Icelandic words. I’ve found the street signs fascinating - as if I’ve just been given my first 7 tiles - or in some cases, 14 - and I have to try and make a word out of them. Suffice it to say, I’m guessing consonants are the Icelandic languages best friend! Thought you might find the pictures interesting..... make sure to read the menu special - yummy!!
On a side note, the other thing I’ve become very aware of is to be mindful of doorways and thresholds. I can’t remember if I noticed this as much in Europe and other countries, but here it seems like every doorway is either raised up or not very even with the street. Talk about a tripping hazard! I suppose it could also represent a difference in cultures, but maybe if you trip in a doorway in another country, you might think that you just need to pay more attention rather than thinking that you should sue someone if you fall because the entry wasn’t just right…..interesting.....
These are the things you think about when it's 3 a.m. and you can't sleep because of everything going on in the street below you.......
You see, apparently, Icelanders really love to party on the weekend - and during the week for that matter. Our hotel manager explained sympathetically that when Finland’s economy went into the toilet, Finlanders get drunk and depressed. On the other hand, with Iceland’s economy not doing so well, he said they tend to get drunk and rowdy thinking they can really effect some change. Well, good on you mate, but it does make near impossible to get any sleep when your hotel room overlooks the main party street. The partying doesn’t actually get started until midniight and continues until about 4 a.m. You can imagine that this, combined with the ever present daylight outside, made it quite challenging to get some quality sleep. So we tackled this on several fronts: We would insert the earplugs to about our eardrums (but no further since our health insurance policy hasn’t kicked in yet), making sure the light blocking curtains were pulled tight and finally, turning the t.v. on. Believe me, at 3 a.m. I’d much rather have CNN in the background than the yelling and partying from the street. The one problem with this, however, is the light from the t.v. then creates another obstacle to sleep, so our solution to this was to take the bed spread and hang it over the t.v. to darken the room once again. I guess that’s the price you pay for being in the middle of the city…..and to be honest, if I were 25 again in a city that never gets dark in the summer, I’d probably be doing a little partying myself!!
On a side note, the other thing I’ve become very aware of is to be mindful of doorways and thresholds. I can’t remember if I noticed this as much in Europe and other countries, but here it seems like every doorway is either raised up or not very even with the street. Talk about a tripping hazard! I suppose it could also represent a difference in cultures, but maybe if you trip in a doorway in another country, you might think that you just need to pay more attention rather than thinking that you should sue someone if you fall because the entry wasn’t just right…..interesting.....
These are the things you think about when it's 3 a.m. and you can't sleep because of everything going on in the street below you.......
You see, apparently, Icelanders really love to party on the weekend - and during the week for that matter. Our hotel manager explained sympathetically that when Finland’s economy went into the toilet, Finlanders get drunk and depressed. On the other hand, with Iceland’s economy not doing so well, he said they tend to get drunk and rowdy thinking they can really effect some change. Well, good on you mate, but it does make near impossible to get any sleep when your hotel room overlooks the main party street. The partying doesn’t actually get started until midniight and continues until about 4 a.m. You can imagine that this, combined with the ever present daylight outside, made it quite challenging to get some quality sleep. So we tackled this on several fronts: We would insert the earplugs to about our eardrums (but no further since our health insurance policy hasn’t kicked in yet), making sure the light blocking curtains were pulled tight and finally, turning the t.v. on. Believe me, at 3 a.m. I’d much rather have CNN in the background than the yelling and partying from the street. The one problem with this, however, is the light from the t.v. then creates another obstacle to sleep, so our solution to this was to take the bed spread and hang it over the t.v. to darken the room once again. I guess that’s the price you pay for being in the middle of the city…..and to be honest, if I were 25 again in a city that never gets dark in the summer, I’d probably be doing a little partying myself!!
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