Bolludagur

Today is Bolludagur, or Bun Day, and as you can see a certain 8 year-old I know got her mitts on a hefty cream and chocolate number! This odd semi-holiday revolves in whole around eating puff pastries...not too bad a concept, eh? You can read more about it on the The Icelandic Canadian Homepage, a charming resouce for North Americans of Icelandic origin, nicknamed Vesturíslendingar or Western Icelanders.

Tomorrow, then, is Sprengidagur, or Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday (sprengi=bursting, dagur=day) when we are to overindulge in salted lamb meat and split pea soup. And the day after is once again Ash Wednesday, or Öskudagur, which you can read more about in this post from last year.

In less pleasant news, this year's false spring has caused not only a serious shortage of snow, but glacial melting as well. On Saturday a trio of off-roaders decided to drive Hofsjökull, which only a week before had been, according to this photo travelogue, decently safe to travel over. Unfortunately, Icelandic Nature, ever fickle, swallowed one of the jeeps into a snow-covered crevace. Hundreds of mountain rescuers with helicopters, 4x4's and snowmobiles set out on Saturday to save the two men trapped 20 meters deep in the massive crack in the ice. Only the driver lived.

I always wonder at the stupid risks humans (read "men" - excuse the honesty) take for adrenalin rushes. Was a 4-wheel spree over an always-precarious glacier worth the loss of a 21 year-old's life? This wasn't an instance of new discovery or scientific exploration. This was just for fun. I suppose you can submit to the Reaper playing tennis if your time is really up, but something about giving up the ghost while taking heavy, pollutive machinery for a day tour over one of the most unreliable types of terrain in the world seems ridiculous. Call me crazy...