Letter from Iceland #71
The Little Book of Icelandic—Plus, how I sleep at night
Hæ!
The summer solstice has come and gone and we are drifting slowly into the darkness once more, but for now we are still in those magical days of midsummer where we have 24 hours of daylight.
This photo was taken during our West Fjords tour a couple of week ago—on 15 June, to be precise, at 10.27 pm. And no, it did not get much darker than that, even in the middle of the night.
When I posted this on Instagram, someone asked how we Icelanders manage to sleep during the night when it is this light outside. Good question. I think many Icelanders are acclimatized to it, and sleeping in daylight does not bother them or interfere with their rest.
That said, lots of people have daylight blinds installed in their bedrooms.
Me, I use an eye mask, and can’t really sleep without one—but then again, I don’t consider myself a 100% Icelander, since I was raised in another country that had dark nights throughout the year. Yet I wouldn’t change these nights for anything. This is my absolute favourite time of year because the light is so enchanting, so magical.
Meanwhile, today’s Little Book of Icelandic* section is a continuation from last week with a few more words that are quintessentially Icelandic. They have nuances that can’t easily be translated into other languages and require a longwinded explanation—which I most helpfully provide in this post, along with an audio file so you can hear those pesky words spoken 😜.
*affiliate link
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Letter from Iceland to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.