When I am in the Westfjords and I look out my window and watch the sun at noon slightly rising from behind the mountains that surround the fjord, I get a pleasant feeling. “Happier days ahead and flowers in the pasture” is an Icelandic proverb that says everything you need to know about this. The winter has been chilly here in the Westfjords of Iceland, but not quite as chilly as it has been in many other parts of Iceland. This winter has been particularly harsh in some areas of the country.
This morning, I was reading in the news that sea ice had recently come close to the Westfjords and was around 25 miles away from land. In the past, it was typical for there to be sea ice that arrived from Greenland and settled on the shore here on land during the frigid winters. I have spent the last 22 years of my life living in the Westfjords, and during that time I have occasionally witnessed a few icebergs crash ashore. However, this winter has been exceptionally cold, and the cold periods have been very protracted, so perhaps things are about to change.
In the news, you may also see and hear that the incident that took place at Keflavik Airport over the past weekend is being looked at, in which hundreds of passengers were forced to wait for up to ten hours in order to deplane from their flights.
This event shows that the weather this winter has been very different from other winters in many ways. The weather was much better elsewhere in the western part of the country as well as in the Westfjords, despite the fact that severe storms raged in a specific region on the Reykjanes Peninsula, which included the airport.
In addition to this, we are getting over the disappointment that was brought on by the Icelandic national handball team’s performance at the World Championship. But even though our handball team is made up of some of the best players in the world, we weren’t able to live up to the high expectations of bringing home some medals. Even if the world championship is still ongoing, Icelanders are already looking ahead to the next competition, which will take place in one year, and have high expectations for that tournament. That is just the way we are. 😀
