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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

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.





12 comments:

Sherry Blue Sky said...

I love these, and love your intrepid adventures!!!!!

Maude Lynn said...

Yikes! That's like an explosion of consonants and vowels. What a hoot, Kay!

Susan said...

I will go along, but silently humming while you sing the tune.

Kay L. Davies said...

I don't know, Susan. You'd probably run in the opposite direction if you heard my singing, which is bad enough in English, never mind Icelandic.
K

Yvonne Osborne said...

I always wanted to go to Iceland. But what a difficult language!

Margaret said...

Ah, I read it like I have a mouthful of marbles! ha ha

Susie Clevenger said...

I love it...although my tongue can't twist around those Icelandic words... :)

Sumana Roy said...

beautifully exotic and love that temperature display...cool

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Wonderful use of a recent experience, sharing it with us and combining it with a challenge - more power to you. ...and holey-moley, it was warmer than here!! YAM xx

Frostbite and Sunburn said...

Only just catching up - looks like a really interesting (and unpronounceable) place to visit Kay - hope you had a great trip.

Leslie: said...

I've read several crime novels by an Icelandic writer and it seems so dark there. But it made me wonder what it's really like and we did see a documentary on it. A very interesting place, indeed!

Jenn Jilks said...

You are good at this. Well done.
Luv,
Jenn