Wandering in Wonderland

I thought I'd share a few pictures I took in 2004 while visiting Iceland.

Have a nice Sunday & a wonderful week!

Við siaumst

Gnomes Facts

From the book Gnomes a few Gnomes facts:

Males indulge in pipe-smoking.
Males think of marriage about age 200 years.
Gnome women deck themselves out with blossoms or berry-bearing twigs for the celebrations.

Greetings, farewells and goodnights are expressed by rubbing noses.
Gnomes are 7 times as strong as a man.
Urine can be contained for a whole day.
Brain capacity larger than man’s.
Hair grays very early, baldness unknown.
Life-span is around 400 years.
Fingertips as sensitive as those of a blind person.
Fingerprints are mainly of a circular pattern.
Heart attacks unknown.
Capable of smelling 19 times better than man.
Sense of direction (as good as a homing pigeon).
Weather forecasting.
Visit their birthday tree yearly...often live under it.
Birth of gnomes is always twins.
Pregnancy lasts 12 months.
Girl children are raised by their mothers and neighbor women in homely arts.
Boys at age 13 are taught the manly ways and their fathers' trade.
Boys at age 75 are introduced to the members of the Regional Council (they may already know a few).
Gnomes love to dance and fine occasions to celebrate.

Gnomes Time

When I visited Iceland, our tourguide spent a lot of time talking about Gnomes and the important role they have in Icelandic culture. We even visited a "Gnome village" with its little condominiums...

Though I am not strictly a believer, I have always liked reading about them and listening to folklore stories narrating their adventures.

Everytime I hear them mentioned, the part of me that is still anchored to my childhood resurfaces. When I was a kid, Gnomes populated my imaginations, and where my favourite fantasy characters togehter with the Smurfs. I have always envied their ability to talk to animals and their total and absolute blending with Nature.

Back then I had a favourite book about Gnomes I am sure many of you have read: Gnomes, by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet. I still have this book, and I do still read it once in a while, whenever I want to feel a kid again.

Velkomin! Komð þið sæll og blessaður!

Velkomin! Komð þið sæll og blessaður!

First of all I have to apologize for having opened my blog with something that did not have a specific relation to the blog's theme (See previous post).

The truth is I am new to the blog universe, and I wanted to post something original and new; then I came back to my senses and relaized that with the Internet nothing is so original anymore, but it needs to be accurate (or at least this is what I expect from it).

The second obstacle was the fact that I have tons of interests, from foreing languages (my first and probably truest love) to music, cinema, sports, animals, geology, & so on. Choosing what to talk about was really hard.

Third problem: I have never kept a diary, not even when I was a teenage dreamer and had such hope in the future of humanity. This means I am terrible at keeping a daily record of my thoughts, especially since I don't think they are any better or any more special than the rest of the world (with a few exceptions, that is).

That is why I turned to traveling, the second biggest love of my life, and one of the things that has helped me avoiding traps such as ignorance and disdain: the more I traveled around the world, the less I perceived the others as something REALLY different form me or my fellow countrymen. Not that I had to start traveling to realize that, but living side by side with other people in their own countries helps you to get a better understanding of their realities and cultures.

Somebody (I think it was Confucio) once said: "Every journey starts with a first step"; and the first steps that brought me to Ireland and Iceland had me fall in love with both countries (I have a separate blog on Ireland: diadhuit.splinder.com), with their people, their languages, their folklore and music.

This is the main reason why you will read about Iceland and her beauties: possibly once a week I will manage to post more infos about her. I hope my stories will intrigue you enough as to decide to go and visit the country: you will then experience the magical power of the Icalandic lanscape and of its wilderness, and you'll get witchcrafted just like me.

Við sjáumst!

Visiting Frankfurt am Main - A rewarding experience - Part I

Visiting Frankfurt am Main - A rewarding experience - Part I

At the beginning of December 2006 I spent 5 days in Frankfurt am Main, mostly attracted, I have to confess, by the possibility of visiting the historical towns in its nearbys, such as Mainz, Fulda or Worms. My original plan was to take a quick tour of the city and then spend the remaining four days touring around Essen and Saarland.

Aside knowing that Frankfurt is where Goethe was born and the European Central Bank is based, I knew fairly nothing about the town. What I discovered visiting it amazed me and impressed me positively enough as to say that I regret not having spent more days in Frankfurt.

First of all let me apologize to all the German net surfers for having underestimated such a beautiful city. My memories of the German I had at school are very blurry, so much as to allow me to forget the grand history implied by the city's very name: Frankfurt, the ford of the Franks, the town where Karl der Große (Charlemagne) built himself a royal court. I am a fanatic of the Middle Ages period, and I was particualrly ashamed of myself for forgetting about these important historical events.

I have chosen to begin this post with a picture I took of the Römerberg area, in the historical heart of Frankfurt. We have been told the buildings are not original, as the entire area has been bombed and destroyed during World War II. There is a good history museum in the area, right next to the little precious church of St. Nicholas', hosting a reconstruction of Römerberg in its antique splendour; there is also a section showing the damages done by the bombings: the impact on the town was massive, and it has made me think a lot about the horrors we humans have ruthlessly and constantly inflicted upon each other since our very first day on Earth.

I know I will sound rethorical to many of you, but wathcing the videos of buildings being bombed and of people searching throught the ruins for their beloved ones and their few belongins increased my sickness and tiredness of the world we live in, of the attitude of absolute neglection those who governed and govern us show towards their people and their sufferings and necessities.

The worst is I don't see a way out, and there is probably none; all I know is that the world I'd love to live in has never existed, does not exist and will probablay never exist.

I'll be back with more on Frankfurt and on the wonderful time I had in Germany pretty soon. Meanwhile, may God bless us all.