As we are packing our bags I’m reminiscing about all the interesting facts we learned about Iceland…
* The Vikings were peaceful sheep farmers. Only 1% were violent killers and they ruined the reputation (and made them famous)
* 50% of all food consumed ion Iceland is from Iceland, like fish, meat, dairy
* When the Icelandic people were convinced to be christened, they had 2 conditiones: they wanted to continue eating horse meat and the wanted to continue “taking out the babies” (release newborn babies in the wilderness, if they were born disabled, or a kind of “birth-control” if there were too many kids, especially girls in the family)
* It is illegal to bring horses to Iceland. They want to protect their pure breed and avoid contamination with any diseasesy
* Iceland used to be the poorest country in Europe, if not the whole world, but the literacy rate was always very high. Around 10% of Icelanders have written and published books. They have big bookstores with most books being written in Icelandic
* 370,000 people live on Iceland and 750,000 sheep = 2 sheep per person or 1/2 person per sheep 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
* Iceland used to be covered in forests, but mankind needed ships and firewood = that was end of their trees, they were completely gone
* The average temperature in summer is 12 degrees Celsius, in winter it is 0 😵💫 🥶
* There were no humans on Iceland until the Vikings came from Norway and settled here
* The phone book (and any other name listing) is by first name. The last name is just whose daughter or son you are, so my name would be Edith Helenasdottir and Ted would be Ted Georgsson. If you don’t get along with your father or mother, you can switch. Then gu my name would be Edith Waltersdottir and Ted would be Ted Lailasson
* Since there are only so many (few) people here, incest is a concern. You might accidentally marry somebody too closely related to you. So there is an app where you can trace your roots and it goes back to 800 CE, to the very first settlers here. Our tour guide Lalli had a list of ~ 45 / 50 names of his ancestors, going back all the way to 800 CE. He had one list from his mothers side and one from his fathers side of the family
* Iceland has its own currency: Icelandic Krona
* Up until after WWII Iceland was very nationalistic. They believed that they were the purest race with the most beautiful people and nobody should ever marry an outsider. After WWII, American soldiers were here and women who started a relationship with them were put in an asylum as punishment.
* When American soldiers were stationed here, the US was asked to only station white soldiers on the island
* Society has drastically changed in the last 50 years: homosexuality, women’s rights, gender equality, etc – it took Iceland forever to develop into an open minded modern society, but they sure did a good job!
* According to Lalli, all good products come from somewhere else, Iceland never developed their own style. When they were ruled by the Norwegians, everything Norwegian was imported. Same when they were under Danish control
* The time under Danish control was the worst: they had to pay taxes to them and got 5 ships of merchandise per year (which, some years were less or none). The Danish controlled every detail of the Icelanders lives, which were challenged anyway. This only changed when Germany invaded Denmark in WWII and the Danish were too distracted to re-new the 25 year occupancy contract.
* After all the wood was made into ships or burned as firewood, people lived in mud houses, partly underground. Wet, muddy, moldy, dark and smokey – the health department would get a heart attack nowadays. But wait: it was in the 1980s that the last person moved out of those mud houses
