Iceland

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On a map you can spot Iceland, just east of Greenland. It is one of the Nordic countries like Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. We have similar standard of living as they do. The first settlers came in 874 from Norway. They were Vikings and we are mostly descended from them, but also from Ireland where they took some slaves! The Vikings ware merchants and travelers. They had good ships and sailed all the way to North America. Later on the descendants wrote the sagas about these travels.

There are almost 300.000 people in Iceland. Most of them at the area in Reykjavik and surrounding towns. At the rest of the island there are scattered towns of up to 10 - 15 thousand. The towns/villages are mostly by the seaside. Average temperatures are around 0°C in the winter and around 12°C in the summertime (June, July and August).

Iceland is a mountainous country and the people density is very low and so is the quality of the roads. It is situated in the middle of the North-Atlantic Ocean. This picture from Iceland at NASA Visible Earth Web shows a photo taken from space. The picture is taken in the early spring and shows how snow is covering most of the country and blends in with the icecaps and glaciers.

Iceland is truly a volcano or rather a collection of volcanoes. It is situated right at the center of the Atlantic ridge that divides Europe and N-America. It is moving apart by 1-2 cm a year. The mountains are young in the center and older at the west and the east. We have frequent earthquakes, mostly small. The houses are well built with concrete reinforced with iron bars and can usually withstand the quakes.

Winters in Iceland can be harsh and snowy and we have by far the largest icecaps in Europe. Beside the active volcano's there are the hot water springs like the famous Geysir.

The language we speak is Icelandic and it is almost the same as over thousand years ago. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are also descended from that language but has been influenced more by German.

It is not so cold in the summertime because we have daylight at night! In the winter it doesn't get very cold either because of the ocean and the gulf stream it brings us from the gulf of Mexico. As the gulf stream meets the cold arctic sea, we get some great conditions for cod and other fish. Cod export is one of the biggest source of national income. Whaling has started again in a small scale recently. It is also popular to get out on a boat to fish as a hobby. Still more popular (and more expensive) is salmon angling in the rivers.

When I was a kid I was with my parents in a small island I caught some fish from the local dock. You can only get there by boat or a small aircraft. I like to get out on the sea but I am not much of a fisherman myself.

Iceland is a pretty safe place to stay in most regards. The people are friendly and usually won't rob you! As an example there have been unusually many bank robberies lately. The robbers are often drug addicts and in one case the robber had a getaway bike! In another the bank robber got caught waiting at the next public bus station!