Land of Fire & Ice

As the year 2024 closes, I celebrate more than 4,900 visits to this blog. Thanks to the visitors from Barbados, Germany, Ireland, Israel, the United Kingdom and United States of America who helped to make this achievement a reality.

So as I reflect on the past year, I'll share on one of my trips. Of all the places in the world I never expected to visit was the "Land of Fire and Ice" -  Iceland. Thanks to my work, I went there. It was a very short trip but quite pleasant. 

As luck would have it, there were volcano eruptions some weeks before my trip and there was even evacuation of the nearby community. Luckily, the country is huge and the eruptions had settled by the time of my visit. 

Preparation was another matter. Temperatures in Iceland don't get very high and I am not a fan of the cold. Moreover, I have a habit of losing gloves so my challenge was to find a pair of gloves to wear. I resorted to female biker gloves - purchased the day before travelling. It wasn't easy finding warm gloves locally. My winter coat is only hip-length, but it was good enough. I bundled up like an Eskimo to be honest - winter bonnet, biker gloves, short coat. Not sharing any photos of me though.

In our moving around I tried to get a photo of at least one snow-covered volcano.  This was one of my better efforts.  

While there it also snowed - not heavily but a steady flurry for a few hours. Another photo op.

A virtual aerial tour of Iceland was awesome. The country is beautiful in the summer and a visit then would certainly make my to-do list.

Equally fascinating is their folklore - elves, trolls, sea monsters.  They're quite happy to share their stories and I just had to take a photo of this giant Troll figurine.  

Those who know me would be aware that I've been watching Korean dramas for a few years and more recently Chinese "costume dramas". One of the actors, whose dramas I watched recently was Liu Xueyi. To my surprise, I discovered his VLOG on a trip to Iceland - it's sponsored. (Follow the link to view.) He did quite a good job. Informative.

                                                   Chinese Actor, Liu Xueyi

While writing, the year has turned which means it's time for me to wish everyone a Happy New Year. May 2025 prove memorable for all the right reasons.

Cheers.🍷