Winter, however, in my opinion, gets soon a bit boring here. Mostly because of the constant "snow on off problem" here. Since october, temperatures have been constantly varying between several minus degrees and several plus degrees bringing snow which the next day transforms into rain which the next day transforms into ice and into rain again. The landscape seems constantly switching from brown to white to brown to white and so on. Which annoys me a lot. I am very much a "Snow, yes, as much as possible, and crispy cold, please!" person when it comes to winter. But I think I am quite lonely with this opinion here. So am I with my cross-country ski. The type I have are no "real" cross-country ski since they require trails in the snow. And "real" cross-country ski wouldn't work well here either because there rarely comes enough snow to build up a solid cover. A lot of long brown grass halms are sticking out here and there. Not to forget lots of stones. I recently did a little cross-country skiing trial and it was okay but not especially fun. It doesn't get so funny when you have to make big steps over little unfrozen water streams and ski through snow drifts.
Iceland is not a big island, however, the climate varies quite a bit in the different areas. In winter, the South, Reykjavík and a great part of the West get lots of rain and occasionally snow while the North and East get snow which stays for a great amount of time. And this is what I these days long so much for. Especially with the long stretches of darkness. Snow does lighten up everything so much more.
The little town Akureyri in the North, cuddled between mountains. holds the biggest skiing area of Iceland which is open from December to April. And they have cross-country ski trails! In the beginning of November I made a weekend trip to Akureyri which was great! While the landscape along the coastline was mostly brown characterized by dead grass halms, Akureyri and its surrounding mountains were white. I had chosen the bus for this trip (the long distance bus network of many areas of Iceland is not too bad!) and was on a cosy ride for four and a half hours through the brown-white-brown-white-brown-white landscape (read: brown lowlands, white highlands). In Akureyri I had enjoyed a few cosy walks through the little town's centre. Visiting the book shop Eymundsson which holds a good selection of Icelandic and English books which you may browse through while enjoying their good coffee and cakes. I walked along the water side looking at the propeller planes flying in and out of the fjord. I bought a handful of tasty things in the local organic grocery store (I get very happy when I find an organic grocery store in Iceland). I walked the stairs up to Akureyri church and enjoyed the view over the fjord and the lights of the town glowing in the dark. And when I was there I didn't want to leave again. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my camera (I was practicing "travelling lightly" and only took a tiny backpack with me. But travelling without a camera is defintely travelling too light for me.) So I did a thing which I hate: I took some pictures with the phone on the journey over Öxnadalsheiði, the highland valley that has to be crossed to reach Akureyri. At coastline the landscape had been brown. Half an hour and several metres of height later, it was like this (in typical phone picture bad quality):
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