Poland rulezzzzz! :D

Iceland aside, last Saturday the attention of many Europeans was focused on yet another Eurovision contest. Not mine though - to make it clear :P ...until I read in the news that Poland won!!! Yey! Hummm, I'd have a look at what was going on, I thought. AND I LOVED IT!!!!




I feel like I need to excuse myself before I lose face in front of the readers;) - I think Eurovision Song Contest is crap and promotes low quality entertainment, even though it occasionally does happen to be entertaining. Instead of promoting beautiful traditional songs that every country most certainly has to offer, singers usually end up performing some silly things in English, no matter the nationality; making the so called "show" often seems to be more important than the music itself.

Pretty similar accusations could be fired at the Eurovision dancers - but this show I somehow liked very much! (after seeing everything later on on youtube:)) The reason for that is not the fact that Poland won the competition :P I think it's simply because I love dancing just as much as I love watching others dance. And people's feel for the rhythm is universal across the countries, even more than the taste for music is, I'd say. You don't need to be an expert to see who enjoyed the dance that Saturday night!

And last but not least: my personal favourites! Surprise, surprise, proud of the Polish dancers as I am, my vote goes to...

......
...........
(drumsssssss....)
...

LITHUANIA!!!!!! :D


They were absolutely amazing! Beautiful and variable choreography, lots of difficult figures (I still open my eyes wide at that trick with rotating the bodies by 180 degrees while sitting!!! - 55th second:)) and so much grace combined with sex-appeal! Plus a beautiful traditional song they danced to! They had everything in their show to get the first prize... but we had Michael Jackson! :P

Sons and daughters are a mess!

Even though there are so few Icelanders living on this planet, identifying who's who can be little troublesome in the beginning, at least for a foreigner. Icelanders themselves somehow seem to be going around "the problem" pretty well:) Hundreads of Haraldssons, Bjarnassons, Kristjansdóttirs or Petursdóttirs can look kind of all the same - but that's a mere pretence;)
The reason for, at least my confusion, is the fact that few Icelanders actually have surnames. They use patronymics instead.

Patronymic name is your second name built on the root of your father's name. Using patronymics used to be a popular practice in all Scandinavian countries. For example the famous Danish fable writer Hans Christian Andersen must have apparently been the son of Ander/s (Andrew). Patronymics are also common in Russia, as the middle name.

If you have a patronymic, you are referred to as a daughter or a son of your father. Seems simple and clear? - hold on, the story is yet not over! :P


Now, let's take a look at a random Icelandic family. We've got a dad, let's call him Pétur, mom's name is Margrét. They have two children, a boy - Magnús and a girl - Anna. To make the story complete we need to add that Pétur father's name is Birgir and Margrét father's name is, say... Ragnar.
If we want to introduce our Icelandic family of four by their full names, we would most probably have Pétur Birgirsson (the son of Birgir), Margrét Ragnarsdóttir (the daughter of Ragnar), Magnús Pétursson and Anna Pétursdóttir :) As you can see, even though they make one family, each member has a completely different name!
Now put yourself in a position of a boy who likes Anna and wants to take her out. He doesn't have her telephone number though, she lost her mobile anyway... so he needs to find her landline phone number. He opens a telephone directory and decides to play Sherlock Holmes;). Ah, we forgot to mention that Pétur's family lives in
Reykjavík together with other 100.000 people:) So here we have our "boy-in-love" opening Símaskráin - Icelandic telephone directory:) What does he see there? Most probably something like 357 Pétursdóttirs ;) Beeeeeeng - wrong answer!:P First of all - he would search for Anna under "Anna" because the directory lists Icelanders by their FIRST NAMES!!!:) There we have like 511 Annas but only some 23 Anna Pétursdóttirs! Uff, what a relief!:P But he can sigh in relief only in case the landline was registered on her name! If it's on her father's though, the whole game starts again with 672 Péturs living in Reykjavík :) Hahahaahahahahaha, ok, enough, I'm getting confused myself now;)

Anyhow, this crazy system seems to work in Iceland! And it can't be that bad if they still keep it! Well, as for directories, of course except for the patronymic you have the address of the person listed, often also occupation - if you know those couple of details about the person you're looking for, the search narrows down to a reasonable number of blind guesses:)

I looove traveling! :D

A word for today: "Tyrkjaránið"

Here in Iceland I usually work in the afternoons until late evenings, when happy and full people finally go to sleep after talking their lives over and over - over a dinner:). Sometimes slower days happen too - then I have time to pick up some Icelandic. Hófi, an Icelandic girl that worked in the restaurant with me, would take those little scraps of paper from ordering pads and write different words and expressions for me to memorize. Once, I asked her to translate (into English this time) titles of 3 traditional Icelandic folk songs that I have in my music files. One of the songs was called Völluvisa - a poem about Vala, the other Trollaslagur - troll fight (Welcome to Iceland! :P), and the third one Tyrkjaránið - the invasion of Turks.

WHAT???

And then I learned what the Turkish and the Icelandic had in common - here's my lesson on Icelandic history:


Those invasions, properly called "The Turkish Abductions" happened in 17th century. Both Austurland (the eastern part of Iceland) and Vestmannaejar (islands off the south coast) were raided by Barbary pirates. Many people were caught or kidnapped and later sold into slavery. I don't want to dwell into all the atrocities of the past. Two things I'd like to mention, though. The first one is not actually a thing, but a woman:). Guðríður Símonardóttir. She was in the group kidnapped from Westman Islands (Vestmannaejar) in 1627. She was a wife of a fisherman. After the Abduction, she was sold by the pirates as a slave and concubine in Algeria (It's funny that the whole raid is called Turkish Abductions when in fact the raiders were Barbarians i.e. from the northern African coast mainly - from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia... even though some Turkish must have shown up too;)). Anyway, Guðriður was among the very few who were brought back by Kind Christian IV of Denmark, returning to Iceland almost a decade later. She was then sent to Denmark along with some other former slaves to relearn her religion and native tongue. [How can you forget your native tongue in 10 years only???]. But here we come to the love story:) In Denmark she was taught by Hallgrímur Pétursson, who was then a theology student (also of Icelandic nationality). After getting pregnant by him [let me remind you, 17th century, she was married to another man!!!] she found out that her husband had died - so she married Hallgrímur. The other Icelanders though saw her as a whore. She was twice as old as Hallgrímur, which was considered a disgrace.

Humm, that's what you call a liberated strong woman!:) And the immediate thought that speeded up through my brain - what was the thing that attracted a young man, half her age, to her? Ahahaha, yah yah... me and my twisted brain :P ;)

Another funny thing that Hófi told me: yet about 20 years ago it was allowed in Iceland to kill Turks without any serious consequence! After Tyrkjaránið the bill was passed allowing such murders (probably in self-defence?). Then the bill came out of use and was long forgotten as non-applicable... but what if?

Ogry, elfy i trolle

Daaaawno juz nic nie pisalam... Zeby nie bylo, ze moj blog przekszlatca sie powoli w blog o Sigur Rós [;)], dzis dla odmiany bedzie o ograch, elfach i trollach:) I, rowniez dla odmiany, post bedzie dluuugi i caly po polsku - bo mam zamiar zacytowac swoj polski przewodnik po Islandii, w ktorym zamieszczono garsc ciekawych informacji o tych magicznych stworzonkach. Jesli ktos jest zainteresowany zrodlem - jest to przewodnik po Islandii z serii Podroze Marzen wydany przez Gazete Wyborcza:) Tekst jest bardzo interesujacy i mam nadzieje, ze tresc wynagrodzi Wam te lamana polszczyzne bez polskich znakow - niestety islandzkie komputery uparcie odmawiaja wspolpracy i mimo usilnych prob, nadal nie wiem, jak je zmusic do produkowania tych wszytkich ogonkow tudziez paleczek nad s c n z a e o oraz l :)

Na kazdych 500 mieszkancow Islandii przypada jeden duch. Jesli wierzyc Árniemu Björnssonowi, autorowi traktujacej o islandzkim folklorze ksiegi "Vættatal", na wyspie zyje ponad 500 upiorow, trolli i innych nieludzkich, czy raczej niematerialnych istot. Tak wysoki procent mieszkancow o naturze duchow czy zjaw nie powinien dziwic, jako, ze Islandia jest dla nich naturalnym siedliskiem. Obecnosci ogrow, elfow i trolli sprzyjaja zwlaszcza dlugie zimy, mnogosc groteskowo uksztaltowanych skal, lawa zastygla w przedziwne formy, odludne przestrzenie i idealne kryjowki.
Czlowiecza czesc populacji najwyrazniej cieszy sie dobrosasiedzkimi stosunkami w relacjach ze swiatem duchowych bytow. W przeprowadzonej w Europie Zachodniej ankiecie dotyczacej spotkan z tym, co ponadnaturalne, Islandczycy znalezli sie na pierwszym miejscu: 41% z nich twierdzi, ze widzialo ducha zmarlej osoby.

Zazywczaj jednak duchy nie przychodza z przyjacielska wizyta, lecz przyjmuja postac "afturganga" - zmarlego zamienionego z zombie, ktory moze zabijac ludzi lub, co oczywiscie gorsze, porywac ich do piekla. Koszmarnej zjawie potrafi sie przeciwstawic tylko duchowa wladza ksiedza (pastora) lub sila fizyczna prawdziwego mocarza.
"Afturganga" odznacza sie bardzo niesympatyczna cecha: nawiedza swych bliskich, zanim sie dowiedza, ze zmarl. Tak bylo z pomocnikiem proboszcza z Ciemnej Rzeki. Utonal w drodze po swoja dziewczyne, ktora mial zabrac na tance. A jednak przybyl po nia. Nieswiadoma niczego, nieszczesna wsiadla z nim na konia. Jadac w ciemnosci uslyszala, jak jej wybranek mruczy pod nosem:
"Ksiezyc sie skrywa, gdy smierc przybywa,
czy nie widzisz bialego znaku na moim czole, Garun, Garun".
Na szczescie udajace czlowieka zjawy mozna rozpoznac po dwoch rzeczach: po pierwsze powtarzaja to i owo, a po drugie, nie moga wypowiedziec slowa "Bog". Dziewczyna miala na imie Guðrún, co po islandzku znaczy Bog. Przerazona zdazyla zeskoczyc - doslownie na chwile przed tym, jak kon z jezdzcem znikneli w otwartym grobie, wiodacym prosto do piekla. Nigdy juz nie byla soba, a niektorzy twierdzili nawet, ze zupelnie postradala zmysly.
Nieczlowieczymi istotami sa tez "fylgja" i blisko z nimi spokrewniona "móri" lub "skotta". Te mroczne, zlosliwe istoty, jesli sie na kogos uwezma, beda scigac jego i jego potomkow do 9-go pokolenia.
Miedzynarodowa slawa ciesza sie niezbyt rozgarniete trolle. Za dnia kryja sie wsrod skal, a jesli slonce zastanie ich poza kryjowka, same zamieniaja sie w kamien. Skamieniale trolle mozna znalezc w calej Islandii, jest nawet trollowa krowa Hvítserkur, ktora zbyt dlugo zabawila poza domem, pijac wode morska u poludniowo-zachodniego wybrzeza.

Ze wszytkich ponadnaturalnych sasiadow Islandczycy chyba najbardziej lubia elfy. Te zas - podobnie jak hollywoodzkie gwiazdy - wygladaja jak ludzie, ale sa bogatsze, bardziej wystrojone i zazwyczaj zupelnie pozbawione moralnosci. Legenda mowi, ze elfy to te dzieci Ewy, ktorych nie zdazyla umyc, gdy mial do niej przyjsc z wizyta Bog. Poniewaz nie byly gotowe, zeby je pokazac Stworcy, musiala je ukryc. Dlatego tez sa znane jako Skryci Ludzie i najwyrazniej dobrze sie ukrywaja, skoro zaledwie 5% Islandczykow deklaruje, ze choc raz w zyciu widzialo elfa. Niemniej elfy sa darzone wielka estyma. 53% Islandzkiego spoleczenstwa wierzy w ich istnienie albo przynajmniej nie zaprzecza, ze zyja.
Wedlug legendy ten, kto odwiedzi elfy i wyjdzie z tego spotkania calo, wraca do swiata ludzi niezmiernie bogaty, ale tez dziwnie odmieniony. Niemal we wszytkich przypadkach to elfy decyduja, gdzie i kiedy ukaza sie ludziom. Zazwyczaj przychodza wtedy, gdy czlowiek potrzebuje pomocy. Podobno elfowi mezowie zabieraja czasami ludzkie kobiety jako akuszerki, gdy ich zony maja trudnosci podczas porodu.

Jedna z prominentnych osob, jakie w XX wieku spotkaly skrytych ludzi, byl przywodca zwiazkow zawodowych Tryggvi Emilsson - jako mlody czlowiek zostal ocalony przez elfidke, gdy spadl w przepasc. Mowil, ze jej pieknosc utkwila mu w pamieci na cale zycie. Podobno elfidki wchodzily tez w zazyle zwiazki z ludzkimi mezczyznami. Byly zdecydowanie bardziej wyzwolone od kobiet i z reguly opuszczaly swoich kochankow, zostawiajac ich z dzieciatkiem na reku. Pewna pocieche niosl fakt, ze dziecko urodzone z elfidki zazwyczaj bylo obdarzone nieprzecietnymi talentami i bardzo urodziwe. Elfowi mezczyzni zas - jak utrzymuja nieliczne kobiety, ktore mialy okazje to sprawdzic - byli troskliwymi i lagodnymi kochankami.
Islandzkie elfy traktuje sie z ogromnym szacunkiem. Chroni sie pilnie skaly i wzgorza, o ktorych wiadomo, ze sa zamieszkane przez elfy. Jesli ktos bedzie niepokoil swych skrytych sasiadow, spotka go wielka krzywda. Szosy omijaja lukiem kazde znane elfie wzgorze. Jedna z takich drog, prowadzaca z Rejkjawiku na przedmiescia Kópavoguru, nosi nazwe Álfhólsvegur, tj. Droga Wzgorza Elfow. Przy glownej ulicy miasteczka Grundarfjörður, miedzy domami nr 82 i 86 stoi skala - pod numerem 84 mieszkaja elfy.
Mimo tych wszytkich "aktow wiary" dr Árni Björnsson uwaza, ze tak naprawde w elfy i duchy wierzy niewielki odestek ludnosci. "Wiekszosc z nas czynnie nie potwierdza wiary w te wszystkie stworzenia, ale z drugiej strony niechetnie zaprzeczamy ich istnieniu. To taka forma sceptycyzmu. Zyjemy w wielce nieprzewidywalnym kraju: to, co dzis jest trawiasta laka, jutro moze byc polem lawy i popiolu. Z tego powodu nauczylismy sie nie polegac zbytnio na tym, co mowia nasze zmysly".


A istnienie elfow to przeciez taki sympatyczny pomysl. "Ludzie mysla, ze byloby zabawnie, gdyby naprawde istanialy, dlatego udaja, ze w nie wierza. W przeciwienstwie do innych narodow, nie wstydzimy sie tego w najmniejszym stopniu. W rzeczywistosci jestesmy dumni z naszych elfow". I dodaje: "Islandia to duzy kraj, a ludzi w nim malo. Mamy mnostwo miejsca na wszelkiego rodzaju sasiadow".
Taka postawa nieingerencji jest zakorzeniona w tradycji ludowej i poswiadczona w sagach. Zyjacy w sredniowieczu biskup Guðmunður Dobry wyprawil sie raz na Drangey, aby wypedzic stamtad rzesze upiorow, czartow i diablow, ktore rozpanoszyly sie na wyspie. Kiedy pelnil swoja powinnosc, sposrod skal rozlegl sie glos: "Dosc juz Guðmunðurze, wiecej nas nie swiec! Zle duchy tez musza miec dla siebie miejsce". Biskup odniosl sie do sprawy rozsadnie i szybko wrocil na staly lad.


Koniec i bomba
A kto czytal, ten traba!
W. G.

;)

a bit of their Home...

"Heima" trailer... enjoy! :)

Svefn-g-englar (Sleepwalkers) = almost 10 minutes of bliss...

oh, I love this song sooooo much that I just have to share it with you!!! It's Sigur Rós again and their amazing "Svefn-g-englar". I decided to learn to sing it in proper Icelandic, you can imagine the effort!;) But what an experience it is to let "Sleepwalkers" walk from your headphones into your mind and screeeam - Tyyyouuuhoohooo, tyyyouuuuhoohoo!!!!:)

And it's way better to host them with your mind and ears open but your eyes closed... only if it wasn't for the fact that the videoclip is a piece of art itself!!!:) So - enjoy the art and then play the song again... close your eyes... éeeeeegg er kominn aaaaaaaaftuuuuuuuuuurrr / iiiinn íííí þiggg

Icelandic Victory Rose

I'm still not sure if I actually like their music but it´s definitely something I cannot pass by being ignorant. Sigur Rós. Have you heard about the band? After Björk, the most famous Icelander outside Iceland, Sigur Rós are I think second most popular, at least when it comes to music.

Sigurros is the name of the singer's younger sister and the band was named after her because it was formed on the same day the girl was born! (cute, huh?:))

Below you can watch the clip to one of my favourite songs by Sigur Rós called "Viorar Vel Til Loftarasa". At first sight the title "Good weather for air strikes" has little to do with the song really. In 1999 the weather forecast presenter on Icelandic TV said something like Today is a good day for air strikes which was related to the ongoing war in Kosovo at that time. Apparently guys from Sigur Rós liked the weatherman's sense of humour:)

It's a really good song and a great video too but as my case with many Icelandic songs shows, it may need some patience and a few attempts to get something out of there... hope you´ll enjoy it! Or just skip it if you're in a hurry or in a very energetic mood today;)





Tomorrow I'm going to Reykjavik to see a concert "for nature":). Björk, Sigur Rós and Olöf Arnalds are uniting their forces for raising awareness about environmental issues in Iceland. I´m excited to see them all on stage just as much as I am about shopping!!!:D City!!! People!!!!Ehehehe, staying in my sweet middle of nowhere for quite some time now makes me convinced that I'm a rather city person:P

behind these two hills.... there's an entirely new world

I'm really fascinated by Icelandic music these days. And it's a completely new and unexplored world to me so I'm discovering a lot, listening to a lot of new stuff and am watching clips on youtube more often than ever before;)

I think it's demanding music though. I cannot hear it as a background "noise" while doing something else. It needs undivided attention on my part, otherwise its squeaking, buzzling, murmuring and slow pace annoy me. But as I concentrate on it and let the sounds flow in me, the whole new serene world opens. It's a world where nature makes its voice heard and speaks in a language of poetry and myths. Melodies fly to mountains and volcanoes and bounce back carried by the whistle of the wind. They raise high like geysers and calm down in emptiness. They bring peace but sometimes stirr it too...

Down from my... ceiling
Drips great noise.
It drips on my head through a hole in the roof.

Behind these two hills heeere...
There's a pool.

And when I'm swimming in
through a tunnel....
I shut my eyes.

Inside their cabin I make sounds
In through the tubes I send this noise.

Behind these two hills heeere...
fall asleep.
And when I flood in green grass of tunnel...
It floods back.

Down from my... ceiling
drips great noise.

It drips on my head through a hole in the roof.

Behind these two hills heeere..
there's a pool.
And when I'm swimming in
through a tunnel....
I shut my eyes.
"Green Grass of Tunnel" by Múm

Incredible Iceland :)

Yes. The "I" experience keeps going on and after a month in Iceland I must say I'm pretty much settled in here already:) The first euphoria and amazement are behind me I guess, even though there are moments that still make my heart-beating stop and my jaw drop:)
Iceland is so beautiful!!! And different from any other place I've been to (even though one couple told me that they see some similarities in landscape with those in Chile! :O :)). Anyway, I just thought that maybe it would be a good idea to come back to blogging - this time about Iceland - for all those who are looking for some traveling tips;). Expensive and weather-unfriendly as it is, Iceland would definitely be in the top of my to-recommend-list!:) Few people know much about it and me myself am learning new things every day!!
So.... with the first go I'm gonna share with you some facts and interesting info about the island - hopefully interesting enough for you to find out more by exploring the country yourself one day!:)
People, travel if you can!!!:)


- earthquakes are frequent in Iceland but rarely harmful (the last one we had was some 3 weeks ago near Selfoss in the south-west of the country - no one died). Also most of buildings are constructed to resist the earthquakes so they don't get severely damaged either
- submarine eruptions are frequent off the coasts of Iceland and the most recent one took place near the Westman Islands and started visibly on 14 November 1963, building up 3 islands. One of them endured and was named Surtsey, with and area of nearly 1.5 square miles. The eruption continued for more than 2 years and attracted scientists from all over the world, in particular to study how vegetation and birds colonize new land
- close to 90% of housing has geothermal central heating
- the Vatnajökull glacier near which I'm staying, is equivalent in size to Corsica!
- the Snæfellsjökull glacier inspired Jules Verne´s novel "Journey to the Centre of the Earth"
- Iceland's fresh water is probably one of the purest in the world and you can easily drink it from almost everywhere: taps, springs, rivers. Well, with the exception of glacial waters that are turbid and full of little bits of debris :)
- 54% of land in Iceland make barren fields on which hardly anything grows. If you add glaciers, lava fields and lakes to it, there's little land left that is actually arable. Still, Iceland grows lots of bananas, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes in greenhouses heated up by waters from hot springs
- comparing to European standards Icelandic summer is pretty cold with an average temperature of about 12 degrees (in Reykjavik). Winters though are warmer than European average with temperatures around 0 degrees Celsius!
- life expectancy in Iceland is among the highest known today, around 76 years for males and 81 for females
- the total population of Iceland counts 300.000 people and more than 1/2 of them live in Reykjavik and its vicinity
- around the year 1000 the Icelanders became the first Europeans to set foot on the American continent, 500 years before Columbus! However, their attempts to settle in the New World failed
- Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was the first woman in the world to be elected as a head of state (in 1980). She was holding the presidency for 16 years!
- the Icelandic language hasn´t changed much throughout centuries and contemporary Icelanders can read Sagas (classical Icelandic literature that dates back to 12th century) in original!
- Icelanders are a very educated nation. Practically everybody speaks English and many also Scandinavian languages. Nowadays more books are published per capita in Iceland than anywhere else in the world!
- these days the number of sheep in Iceland is double to the number of people. Yet a few decades ago the difference was even greater.
- almost all farms in Iceland are standing apart and isolated, which makes it a peculiar Icelandic rural feature
- one of the most recent boom segments in tourism is whale-watching, with the most reliable sightings in Europe!
- Icelanders have won the title of the world's strongest man several times. 3 Icelandic women were claimed Miss World and 1 Miss International!

... to be continued :)

the rest of the trip comes with pictures! :)

hello everybody,
I posted 5 new albums on Picasa - there you can also read a little more about the rest of my traveling in April (i.e. what happened after Sikkim).

Next week I'm leaving to Iceland (yes!). This time the reason is more prosaic - work:). I don't think I'll keep posting in the blog (or veeery rarely) but definitely some new pictures from that beautiful icy and deserted island will come on Picasa!:)

Thanks for everybody who was/is/will be reading about my life in India. I sometimes read this blog myself, especially the first posts - quite a lot has changed since then:) It was a real fun to write it all, in the beginning I didn't even expect how much I would enjoy it!

:*