The land of Eyjafjallajokull

By now, almost everyone knows we went to Iceland. My husband wanted to go there for his 70th birthday, and he dragged me along, kicking and screaming, because I had never thought of visiting Iceland. It sounded very cold, and we were already very cold here in Alberta.
Dick was captivated by all the compound words in the Icelandic language, and I almost learned to pronounce the name of the volcano which erupted in 2010, wreaking havoc with the airspace over all of Europe. Eyjafjallajokull.
Say that three times quickly. It doesn't get terribly difficult until the end.
Eye-yah-fee-aht-lah-yo-kutl. The final two consonants are pronounced as they are in at-lah, but sort of swallowed, a soft explosion of the T and L sounds.
So, home again, I have been hoping for Words Count with Mama Zen at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads.
I got my wish today.
MZ has asked us to write about April, in 66 words or less.
We were still in Iceland at the beginning of the month, so here are my 66 somewhat bilingual April words. (If you speak, read, or are Icelandic, please forgive me for playing with the language. No harm is intended at all.)

From Vinnufatabúdin

it isn’t very far

to the Buxnadagar,

you won’t

need a car.

By the

Balkanika Cafe,

Gjaldskylda

says pay and display.

If you have time

on your hands

get a cut at

Hárskeri almúgans.

The Bílaleiga

Akureyrar Holdur

in this picture tells us

the temp is

plus ten Celsius.

 

If you decide

to go out

to Kringlumyrarbraut,

we’ll go along,

give us a shout.

Photos

by Richard Schear

March/April 2014

Ditties by Kay, written today.