- Iceland is in a funny spot where it as a developed Western country is pushing its tourism HARD, and, even stranger, the locals like it. In most of the other places I've been in Europe there's been a vague feeling of the locals resenting the tourist industry, but all the Icelandic people I met seemed genuinely happy to have me there. No one minded speaking English, several people who had every reason to grumble at the American tourist instead made a point of welcoming me to their country, and people were just all around friendly.
- I swear there's a special fraternity that comes from visiting Iceland. I can say I've been to Spain, Japan, wherever, but on this trip whenever I tell people I just came from Iceland, they IMMEDIATELY perk up and want to swap stories (if they've been) or ask for help planning a trip (if they haven't). I think this comes from their recent big tourism push; everyone's heard of it by now, but it's not been going long enough for everyone to have gone yet.
- It's a land of contradictions, and not just the obvious fire and ice one. It's a country that's super proud of its green energy, clean air and water, and efforts to reforest the island from previous generations' deforestation, but it also doesn't have a problem hunting and serving endangered species to tourists. It's got some of the most amazing natural wonders in the world, but to get to them you drive through areas wiped out by a glacial flood or eruption that they say won't be habitable by *anything* for another century or two at the earliest.
- Following that last line of thought, Icelanders have an entirely different scale for what's a normal scale of natural disaster. When Mt. Kalta erupted, the Kalta glacier did a number somewhere between exploding and catastrophically melting, wiping out a few hundred kilometers of the countryside in a glacial flood (which, again, won't recover for a couple centuries).
- It is hard to capture how TINY the population of the island is. Once you're outside of the Reykjavik area, the roads are so empty that it's genuinely surprising to pass another vehicle. Out bus spent most of the day smack in the middle of the road, since there wasn't any oncoming traffic to worry about. Even inside Reykjavik, it feels more like a small town than a city. Even at 9 am on a workday or peak dinner time, the streets are very sparsely populated, and most of the people I did come across seemed like tourists.
- I'm guessing that's even worse in the winter. I got a sweater from the Icelandic Handknitter's Association (an actual thing), and the cashier was knitting a cardigan when I went to check out. I asked her if it was always slow enough to do that, and she said that since it was shoulder season, she would knit in the front. During the summer they were so busy she didn't have time, but during the winter they were so dead that she'd just knit in the back until she heard the bell.
- A fact I find incredibly amusing is that Iceland has a...let's say "genetic diversity" problem. It's an isolated island with a small population, so the probability of bumping into a second cousin or two at a bar on a Saturday night is quite high. Iceland's system of last names (everyone's last name is their father's first name + "son" or "dottir." So if your name is Jane and you're the daughter of Erik Odinson, then you're name is "Jane Eriksdottir") doesn't necessarily lend itself to easily discovering these relations. As such, some enterprising app developers made an app that will help you look up how closely related to someone you are. Somewhat disturbingly, this app is most used on Sunday mornings. I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that.
- Iceland's hooch of choice is Brennivin, which they say is "caraway schnapps." In America, we'd call it 'aquavit' (akka-veet), which is basically the same thing. It's really popular in Ballard, which is unsurprising given that areas Scandinavian roots. It tastes like drinking rye bread, just with a horse kick to the head.
All in all, I'm curious to see what happens to Iceland in the next decade. I definitely plan on coming back at some point. I didn't see the Blue Lagoon this time, since I don't like soaking in a hot tub without company, and I still want to see the northern lights. The week I was there was actually the week most companies were running their last Aurora tours, but everyone I talked to said that you really only saw a flash of green here or there. Next time, I think I'll come in the winter, see the lights, see Reykjavik all covered in snow, and maybe check out some other outdoorsy, wintry things as well.
For now though, it was an excellent visit, and I'm super happy I went :)
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