northernlightenment: Snow, parties and ladies, Iceland

Working has a way of weaseling it's way in to the week - severely restricting the number of days in my weekend. Luckily for me 'work' this week involved heading down to Reykjavík (about 3.5 hours drive south) to go fishing. I found something unnervingly pleasant about driving icy roads through a snowstorm in the dark listening to Sigur Rós and contemplating just how in the hell I ended up here. Never the less, I had a job to do and I was happy to get out of Hólar for a few days.

Loaded with Arctic charr from the University of Iceland, Reykjavík

There were a few hundred dwarf charr to be picked up from The University of Iceland, and still more to be electric fished from a lake in Straumsvík, and brought back to Verið Station in Sauðárkrókur. The truck was outfitted with oxygen bottles, containers and of course waders, nets, electric fishing gear and plenty of warm clothes. Everything went smoothly, and I even managed to squeeze in some Christmas shopping for some of you people out there. It was lucky I decided to head home on Tuesday night because by Thursday the trip would have been impossible.

One day I'll look back on this and laugh ... maybe

Look at all that powder though huh ...

It snowed so much on Wednesday that by Thursday morning it was impossible to leave Hólar because deep snow drifts had blocked the road and buried cars in the car park. While I was pleased to be having my first official snow day, I was less than enthusiastic about heading outside to enjoy it. The amount of powder that gets dumped does mean however that there should be some very very nice snowboarding to be had once the whiteout ends.

After being trapped inside for a few days, everyone was excited about the Christmas Party being held in the school gym on Saturday night. On Friday Beer Club was bustling with at least 20 people keen for a warm up session. We even trimmed Dan's hairs for the occasion.

Dan's beard is now longer than his hair

The Christmas Party was a smorgasbord affair, with delicious offerings such as fresh salmon, goose soup, roast pork and turkey, reindeer pâté, cold smoked lamb and pork, pickled herring, mushroom jelly (WTF?!) and of course baked potatoes caramelised in sugar. Fortunately there was no rotten shark or boiled sheep's head in the mix. All in all not a bad party - but not a great one either.