Easter one more time .. now how I spent it

Hey everyone,

my Easter was kind of busy as I had to work almost every day (except Saturday). There were many tourist in town so I had to work a lot ... never mind, at least will have a bit more money (so can pay debts from conference to Lithuania).

On Friday evening we wanted to have AIESEC Easter party, but as almost everyone was out of town or had own programm, there was just me, Kristín and Guðrún Helga. Never mind, we had small girls party end went home early. Non of us was in big party mood to go downtown.

On Saturday Andrea dropped by and she cut my hair a bit and I dyed my hair afterwards (intensive red).

New look :)

On Sunday at work I got an Easter egg from my boss. He got two eggs (approx. 30 cm high) from one Whale watching company, it´s trips we are selling to our guests. I was really happy and looked forward to eat it :)

My Easter egg, yummy!
On Sunday I had Czecho-Slovak party with my friends. There were Czech: me, Andrea, Renata, Míra and Marketa and Slovaks: David, Dano and Jaro. We were at Míra´s and Andrea´s flat and drinking some hot wine, beer, white and red wine, eating some chips, Jidáše I made and Easter egg (which i got from my work) and having fun together and chilling out. Some of them went partying downtown afterwards, but I was already bit drunk and had to go to work next day so decided to go home.

On Monday I had small hangover, wanted to sleep but unfortunately I had to go to work as well. So immediately after I got home from work I ate a bit and went into bed and sleep till the evening. Now I am fine :)

Czech Easter (Velikonoce)

I am posting here some info about Czech Easter for my foreign friends.. so you will know more about our traditions :) I "stole" the article from www.myczechrepublic.com because I really like how they wrote it and it´s really, really true (mainly the end of the story ;)). I just added some things ;) which I think are also important. Enjoy reading!

Czech Easter

In the years before 1989 when Czechoslovakia became a free country again, the meaning of Easter (Velikonoce - from Veliké noci or Great Nights) was limited to the welcoming of spring. The religious connotations of Easter were suppressed under the communist regime. Nowadays, people are again aware of the religious origin of Easter, but Easter has not become a serious religious holiday.

Easter in the Czech Republic is a fun time. Many traditions are still observed and practiced, especially in villages, and different regions may have their own traditions and customs. The annual Prague Easter markets are popular with both locals and visitors. The largest ones are those on the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square.

Many symbols of Easter are related to the spring and beginning of new life. In the Czech Republic, Easter symbols include:

Eggs and "kraslice" - the hand-painted or decorated egg (kraslice, on the picture) is the most recognizable symbol of Czech Easter. Easter eggs are decorated by girls to be given to boys on Easter Monday. There are many techniques to decorate Easter eggs and they usually require a certain level of skill. Different materials can be used, such as bee's wax, straw (hay), watercolors, onion peels, picture stickers. There are no limitations in creating pretty, colorful eggs. A nationwide Easter egg contest is held in Prague and other Czech cities around Easter time.

Baby animals - lamb, bunny rabbit, chicken. One Easter tradition is to bake a lamb, but in the Czech Republic real lamb is usually replaced by one made from gingerbread ;).

Pussywillow and "pomlázka" - young, live pussywillow twigs are thought to bring health and youth to anyone who is whipped with them. A pomlázka (from pomladit or "make younger") - a braided whip made from pussywillow twigs - has therefore been used for centuries by boys who go caroling on Easter Monday and symbolically whip girls on the legs. Boys used to make their own pomlázkas in the past (the more twigs, the more difficult it was to braid one), but this tradition and skill is long gone and pomlázkas can be bought in stores and on the streets. Some men don't even bother and use a single twig or even a wooden spoon!

















(picture of traditional Easter at the end of 19th and beg. of 20th century, author is Josef Lada)

Dousing - dousing a girl with water has a similar symbolic meaning as the pomlázka.

The color red - Red and other bright colors symbolize health, joy, happiness and new life that comes with the spring.


The Days Before Easter Sunday
Children finish school on Ugly Wednesday (Škaredá středa), which is a good idea because they need to spend some serious time on making Easter what it should be. You are not suppose to be sad and have bad mood on this day or you will be in a bad mood whole year. In the evening of Green Thursday (Zelený čtvrtek), every boy in the village equips himself with a wooden rattle (řehtačka), which is specially made for the purpose, the boys form a group and walk through the village, rattling their rattles vigorously so the noise can be heard from afar. The meaning of the rattling is to chase away Judas. You are suppose to eat something green on this day, usually there is served spinach for lunch. The same procedure with rattling repeats on Good (Big) Friday (Velký pátek) and then one more time on White Saturday (Bílá sobota) when the boys don't only walk through the village but stop at every house in the morning and rattle until they’re given money which they then split between themselves.

Easter Sunday
Easter Sunday (Neděle velikonoční) is a day of preparations for Easter Monday. Girls paint, color, and decorate eggs, if they haven’t done so before, and boys prepare their pomlázkas!

Easter Monday
Easter Monday (Pondělí velikonoční) is a day off, the day of the pomlázka. The origin of the pomlázka tradition (pomlázka meaning both the whip and the tradition itself) dates back to pagan times. Its original purpose and symbolic meaning is to chase away illness and bad spirits and bring health and youth for the rest of the year to everyone who is whipped with the young pussywillow twigs. In the past, pomlázka was not only used by boys to whip girls, but also by the farmer's wife to whip the livestock, as well as everyone in the household, including men and children. Boys would whip girls lightly on the legs (bum) and possibly douse them with water, which had a similar symbolic meaning. An Easter carol, usually asking for an egg or two, would be recited by the boy while whipping. The girl would then reward the boy with a painted egg or candy and tie a ribbon around his pomlázka. As the boys progressed through the village, their bags filled up with eggs and their pomlázkas were adorned with more and more colorful ribbons.
This tradition is still largely upheld, especially in villages and small towns, although it may have lost its symbolism and romance and is now performed mainly for fun. Some boys and men seem to have forgotten that the whipping is supposed to be only symbolic and girls don't always like that. The reward has also changed - money and shots of plum brandy are often given instead of or in addition to painted eggs and candy. So by early afternoon, groups of happy men can be seen staggering along the roads... All that aside, Easter still remains one of the most joyful and fun holidays on the Czech calendar.


Happy Easter! - Veselé Velikonoce!


Who is coming to whip me this year? ;-)

Some Icelandic traditions I should mention ...

End of February

Bolludagur or "Bun Day" – Monday, 27.2. - homes, restaurants and particular bakeries, overflow with delicately made cream puffs or "buns" (cesky: větrníky).
My friend Kristín invited me to her parent´s place and we had dinner together. We ate fish balls, brown sauce and mashed potatoes. And at the end we had coffie (most common icelandic drink ;)) and delicious sweet cream puffs with marmelade and whipped cream (yummy;). It was very nice evening! Takk kærla fyrir Kristín.

Sprengidagur or " Bursting Day" - Tuesday 28.2.- every Icelandic home and most restaurants flood with the aroma of salted meat and peas. The name Sprengidagur refers to the idea that the individual feasts on this hearty dish to the point of bursting.

Öskudagur or Ash Wednesday - Wednesday 1.3. - is celebrated in Iceland with a unique custom that is very entertaining for children. Ashes are collected into small bags known as "Öskupokar" or Ash Bags. As a prank, these bags are secretly pinned onto people's clothing. The day is also marked with children singing and parading around the streets and shops, begging for treats.


EASTER (13.4. - 17.4.)

We Icelanders often enjoy an Easter holiday that lasts longer than Christmas, since Maundy Thursday (Skírdagur), Long Friday (Föstudagurinn Langi), Easter Sunday (Páskadagur ) and the following Monday (Annar í Páskum) are all holidays, giving most people a five day holiday and students even longer.

These days, the only real Easter food tradition is that of eating Easter eggs. About 3 weeks to a month before Easter, chocolate eggs of all sizes begin to appear in supermarkets, making it very difficult for parents to take their children along when they go shopping!
These delicious eggs are filled with candy and there is also a strip of paper with a proverb or saying, somewhat like the ones you find in fortune cookies.
Parents usually wake up children in early morning of Easter Sunday and they have to search for the eggs hidden somewhere in the house. After they find them there is big breakfast with whole family.

Nowadays there are mostly families going to their summer cottage somewhre in the countryside or go skiing to the North and having relaxing time together.


First day of Summer (20.4.)
In the old days, the Icelanders divided the year into only two seasons, winter and summer. After the long winter they still celebrate this first day of "summer" with parades, sporting events and organized entertainment, held in various places around Iceland.
I am looking forward for some activites in downtown :-).


Info taken from www.iceland.is

Big fire in western Iceland

In western Iceland in late March 2006, a large fire broke out in the grasses of a wetland area, which had been dried out by a period of persistent north winds. According to local reports, some farmers in the area had to evacuate their livestock to protect them from the fast-moving, wind-driven blaze.

The fire took four days to control, and it burned somewhere around 67 square kilometers, the largest fire recorded since the island was settled in the 9th century.

In this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite on March 30, 2006, a long plume of smoke blows westward away from the fire, whose location is marked in red in the image.


This info is from Earth observatory of Nasa (click here to know more: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17235).

Snæfellsness, Sunday 8th of April

Finally I got out of town after few weeks again. Me and approx. 45 other people made a trip to Snæfellsnes, peninsula on the west side of Iceland. Trip was organized by University of Iceland for exchange and foreign students studying at university.

We started our trip at 9.15 in the morning. Right before I got on the bus I met three girls studying at University of Reykjavik (from Finland, France and Greece). I only knew one person from whole trip so it was nice to meet new people right from the start.

During whole trip we had really good tourist guide, who was telling us funny and interesting stories about places, people, sagas …. All what we saw on our way was commented by something.

From Reykjavik we went to the direction of Borgarnes. To get there we had to go through the tunnel under the fjord. It takes about 20 min to get to the other side under the tunnel. We got to know that this tunnel was build in 1998. It was at that time really expensive building, costs were 5000 million kronas. Worries at the beginning, that it will not be profitable were gone soon. In average there is going very two seconds one car. So it paid off. Fee for one way is around 1000 kronas and it save around 50 kms of additional drive around the fjord.

Our first stop was in Borgarnes where we had “toilet” brake (there was no stop in next 2,5 hours). I was talking with Sladjana (from Serbia, member of @) and we realized that each of us wants to meet a person from our delegation. She said she know that there is one girl from Serbia, but she doesn´t know who it is and I also saw on the list one Czech girls´ name. We asked our guide if we can make a round of countries during our way and he was very open to that idea.

So as I mentioned we made a country round and it was really great to see how many nationalities are in one single bus. There were people from: Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, UK, USA, Scotland, Greece, Finland, Russia, Serbia, France, Spain, Thailand, Brazil, Holland, Germany, .. well maybe some more, I don´t remember.

We made a small “picture” stop to make a picture of Eldborg. It is nonactive volcano (active 10.000 years ago), it has rounded shape and this is also reflected in it´s name (“borg”).

After country round in the bus I found that Czech girl and on our stop at Gerðuberg I started to talk to her. Since then we were sitting together in the bus and chatting and chatting .. all the way around Snæfellsness and back to Reykjavik ;).
Gerðuberg is a rock formation, created naturally .. I don’t remember details how it is that possible as I didn´t really understand how it was made (I am not geologist so I have not clue about those special words …). You can see it on the picture below. We could climb up totally to the top. There is nothing there, just nice view. Top is all flat.

Next stop we made was on “golden beach”. One of the few beaches in Iceland where you can find yellow sand (in other places sand is black because of lava). Here we got pretty close to seals so finally I saw in my life this animal also “live”, not only in TV or ZOO. We had to go over stones in water, which were covered by algae so it was pretty slippery. Yeah and I, as usually, had to experience it on maximum. I slipped over one stone on the back way to the bus so I had totally wet shoes and socks (mi taky mohli rict zrovna ze si mam poridit gumaky ...). And it wouldn´t be me not to forget warm socks at home. But I saw a light shining form me – to put my shoes and socks on the heating in the restaurant during lunch break ;-).
After longer drive we got to Arnarstapi, small village with nice “mini-harbour” and also with the restaurant where we had our lunch (and where I could dry a bit my shoes and socks). For lunch we could buy a soup here for 650 kronas (offered and announced before trip itself). I really expected typical Icelandic soup from lamb meat, but unfortunately it was simple onion soup. But it was tasty so it was ok.

In Arnarstapi was apart from harbour some stone-monument for someone who died there at the beginning of 20th century (so nothing special, but anyway..). So we just made a picture over there. On the picture you can see me and Lenka.
After lunch we get on back to the bus and almost all the rest of way we spent there. We were driving to the north of the Snæfellsness and made a round trip around this peninsula. We saw nice views of glacier called Snæfellsjökull (see pictures down). Nowadays if I remember well it takes place of around 11000 km2 but earlier it was much more (on glaciers generally you can see effects of global warming). Snæfellsjökull is a part of the youngest national park in Iceland called Þjóðgarðurinn Snæfellsjökull. This national part has as the only one national park in Iceland border with the sea on it´s west side. A part of it is also Snæfellsjökull (glacier).
Our last stop on the Snæfellsness peninsula was in one Icelandic farm. Actually this farm specific by one think – making a hárkál. It is a shark which is graved into the ground for some months and then taken out, cutted on small pieces and sold as a delicates). Some Icelanders love it, some hate it. It has specific smell (really disgusting honestly …. like some pee) and taste is also awful (well, not that bad as smell but also not very good). I tried this “speciality” of Iceland as I wouldn´t be right tourist not to do that. Yeah, I have to say this is not my favourite food from Iceland. .. Taste is like a gum or something chewy but … well it´s pretty undesirable, I would say much more bad than some sea food. But on the other hand I am proud of myself to try it J.

You can see on the picture how does this shark look like. We could even touch it. It was amazing to see it on my own eyes. Shark is not actually flat skin animal, it has some “mini needles” and gummy skin. We saw also shark teeth (also on pic) and we made a “visit” in sheep´s house and in mini museum which belongs to the farm. Here we got to taste this shark and also dried fish. I have to say I´m starting to like this dry fish although I was always saying that it taste like paper. But luckily doesn´t. I realized that it really depends on what kind of fish it is made from and also brand is important. I wouldn´t trust Bónus hard fiskur at all.

Well, that was end of our discovering Snæfellsness peninsula and within 2,5 hours we were back to Reykjavík.

I have to say that this tip was not really what I expected but on the other hand I am happy with visiting Icelandic farm, seeing glacier for the first time and also seals. And importantly also getting to know new people. And all in all, it was just from 2.500 kronas which is not much for going so far so I am satisfied.

Maybe I should mention few words about Lenka. She is 26 years old student from Philosophic faculty at university in Prague. She is studying “religionistika” … hmm something like history of religions. She is working on her master thesis here at University of Iceland. She came to Iceland 7 months ago and she really enjoys it here, unfortunately she leaves at the end of June. I got to know many new interesting things about Icelandic sagas and also about some religions from here. She is very nice girls and I want to keep in touch with her for sure. I already promised her some party with my other Czech friendsJ. Most probably we will spend Easter holiday all together :))))