Celebrating summer in freezing cold

[dropcap style=”one” color=”grey” text=”B” /]y now you should be well aware that Icelanders, on average, are a strange lot. Incest-warning apps, rotten shark meat, belief in elves and trolls. And we are probably the only peoples to celebrate the first day of summer in freezing cold.

Yup, it is that time of the month, or year to be exact. The first day of summer is upon us in Iceland and to no one´s surprise the temperature is about two degrees and the wind is biting hard. Today is, as locals refer to it, a fine window day meaning the weather is fine but only through the windows of a warm home. Yesterday it even snowed quite a lot in many areas of the country.

Although quite a few media outlets make a lot of noise about this day you should not be fooled. We honestly do not celebrate this day much and certainly not when it is this cold. No, for a real summer day you will have to wait two weeks more at least.