Wednesday 24 September 2014

Skàl

Here they are! We finally got our visas to India! To celebrate, we went to the sea swimming, to the church and to a pub. We also chased city gosses and saw a helicopter landing.


Speaking about celebrating : I would like, before to leave, to talk about an important matter : Beer.
Iceland has good beer. In comparaison to other scandinavian countries, we could even say Iceland has very good beer. I will introduce you to some of our discoveries (many of them you can actually try in Tallinn!).

First Icelanders are crazy about stout beer, and they do brew some tasty ones. Two stouts stand out of this dark crowd :
  • Lava : a smoked imperial stout from Ölvisholt Brugghùs. Very specific and original smokey taste.
  • Borg Nr.19 Garùn : This is a great Icelandic stout! Nr.19 has a rich aroma of coffee, licorice and alcohol. It tastes really intense. But beware the combination of caffeine and 11.5% of alcohol, it can loose the best of us!


To carry on with dark beers, Iceland also brew nice porters :
  • Borg Nr.13 Myrkvi : From the same brewery than the previous one. Quite an intense taste as well, with roasted and bittersweet aromas. This one really got Tince into dark beers!
  • Einstök toasted porter : Dark and rich taste, yet easy to drink. Very nice to drink with dark chocolate.


And let's finish with some refreshing wheat beers :
  • Einstök White ale : This one is indeed refreshing! Very light with a subtile note of citrus, this beer is perfect for hot summers ...so not for Iceland!
  • Borg Nr.25 Solveig : This one is not my favorite, but it tastes interesting. It smells like banana and the beer itself is very hoppy.

A pair of Einstök white ale in local gay queer bar


There are many other beers here. Most of the beers people drink are average tasteless lagers and pilsners, such as Gull or Viking. Not much to say about those ones. But I was very surprised that in EVERY alcohol shops you may find Saku originaal...


Skàl!

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Es gribu braukt ar savu velo!

Vakar mēs vēlreiz devāmies uz netālo pilsētiņu Grindavík. Šoreiz nolēmām nestopēt, bet gan doties turp ar velo (30 km turpceļa, pastaiga pa pussalu un 30 km mājupceļa šodien atgādina par sevi sāpošajās kājās). Mūsu brauciena galamērķis bija Hópsnes pussala, kas ievērojama ar tur notikušajām daudzajām kuģu avārijām. Ik pa gabalam krastā redzami izsviesti kuģu vraki, un priekš tik mazas pussalas to tur ir patiešām daudz! Šeit arī pāris foto no šīs dienas.



 



Monday 1 September 2014

C'est la rentrée!

Today, 1st of September, is a special day. C'est la rentrée – the first day of school! As long as I can remember, this day has always been important, as pupil, as student, as teacher. It feels kinda weird that I'm gonna miss school today. It's strange that today for me, is just a day.

J'ai néanmoins aujourd'hui une pensée spéciale pour ceux qui ont préparés cette journée, et avec qui je passais d'habitude mon 1er Septembre, mes anciens collègues, mes anciens élèves, mes anciens professeurs.
Nevertheless today i have a special thought for the ones who got ready for this day and with whom I would have usually spent my 1st of September, my ex-collegues, my ex-students, my ex-teachers. 

And for the first day of class, I have a special treat for you : Let's learn some Icelandic!

I selected 7 words I would like to teach you. So far, after two months and a half here, it seemed to me that those words are some of the most important to know here in Iceland. But let's play a little game first. Please read this text. Some hidden icelandic words sneaked into it. Can you understand them?

Hi! My name is Sigurður. I live in Iceland, in the hraun fields. I love to go fishing in the fjords or in the vatn. I made my fishing rod myself, out of björk. My favorite fish is the þorskur. On my way back home I stop at the búðin to buy some mjölk. Takk!

You can now check out below the words you understood. You can find here the translations in the three most used languages of the visitors of the blog (in order : latvian, french, estonian), plus english for the ones who don't speak any of those.



Islenska
Latviešu Français Eesti English









Hraun Lava La lave Laava Lava
Vatn Ūdens / Ezers L'eau / Le lac Vesi / Järv Water / Lake
Björk Bērzs Le bouleau Kask Birch
Þorskur Menca La morue Tursk Cod
Búðin Veikals Le magasin Pood Shop
Mjölk Piens Le lait Piim Milk
Takk! Paldies! Merci! Aitäh! Thanks!