The Landscape
You don’t get dubbed the land of Fire and Ice without having pretty amazing scenery. We’d seen pictures and ‘YouTubed’ some of the hot spots before we set off, but nothing could have prepared us for the sheer rugged beauty of the place.
Put bluntly, the pictures and videos don’t do it justice. They just don’t!
The place was magnificent. From the chilled out super quirky capital of Reykjavik set against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains - to the famous, almost Oreo-like, Black Sand Beach. It was a sight to behold.
We did the usual sightseeing-y things…Golden Circle Tour for example, visiting the geothermal Geysers, Gullfoss Waterfall and Thingvellir National Park, where there’s a rift valley between the tectonic plates of North America and Eurasia! If you’re after a whistle-stop tour of Iceland, this is definitely the way to go.
Wanting more of that addictive Icelandic scenery, we also did a Southern tour of the island. We visited the charming town of Vik which was a stones-throw away from Black Sand Beach with its iconic hexagonal basalt pillars – for those of you who’ve visited Northern Ireland, think Giants Causeway on steroids.
If you were around in the 90’s you’ll remember TLC warned us not to chase waterfalls – they clearly hadn’t been to Iceland. You definitely should go waterfall hunting here, and the south of the island has some of the best ones to offer including Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss, which were just idyllic.
The Food
The culinary experience of Iceland can be summed up in one word… Marmite (or Vegemite if you’re from down under). You either love it or you hate it.
They’re big on fish and they’re big on lamb – if you’re into these then you’re already winning.
You’ll see plenty of heart-warming soups and stews on the menu, not surprising given the cold climate. Fried fish, fish kebabs and even fish jerky are popular choices, again not surprising given Iceland is smack-bang in the middle of some prime ocean real estate.
There was one culinary delight which surprised us though…hot dogs. Yep that’s right – hotdogs. Not something we expected to be chowing down on in Iceland but man, they have them down to a fine art. Even the ones at the petrol stations were delicious – seriously, try them.
One thing you definitely shouldn’t try is Hakarl – that’s fermented shark to you and me. We didn’t try it, we have more sense than that, but we did witness a few tourists sample the delicacy and well, let's just say their reaction was priceless. Locals do not eat this stuff.
We want to do a quick shout out to Café Loki – best coffee in Reykjavik and their Rye Bread Ice Cream is to die for! Seriously, sounds weird but it’s amazing.
The People
What can we say? They’re just lovely. That chilled out Nordic vibe just makes for a super relaxing and laid back visit. They’re polite, funny and friendly – literally nothing is too much trouble.
Given the total population of Iceland is around 365,000 I guess it’s important to get along – heck there’s more people jammed into the city of Liverpool where we live right now.
Another thing you should know about Icelanders is they’re strangely super proud of their ‘per Capita’ status (often referred to as small nation complex), which is quite amusing in itself. They claim they’re the best country in the world because they always come out trumps when using ‘per capita' statistics. For example, they have the world’s most Nobel Prize winners per capita, in spite of only having one winner…ever.
On a serious note, a big plus for us was that almost everyone was fluent in English. This made getting around and asking for help super simple and convenient. Though saying that, do make the effort to learn a few phrases if you visit – they really appreciate it.
The Environment
We don’t want to get our soapbox out and start preaching, but we just wouldn’t be us if we didn’t point out some of Iceland’s fab environmental facts.
Whilst on our travels we learnt that:
- No other nation on the planet uses as much renewable energy as Iceland
- 80% of all energy is a mix of hydro-power and geothermal
- 99% of all electricity produced is hydro-powered
- They frequently use alternative fuel sources such as electricity, methane and hydrogen
- They don’t filter their water…they don’t need to, its naturally pure
Go Iceland!!
VEGVISIR
An ode to our Viking forefathers and now an ode to Iceland – the magical Viking stave intended to guide the bearer through rough weather.
When we launched our VEGVISIR limited edition print early February – we’d intended for it to be just that, limited. But now that we’ve fallen in love with Iceland and you’ve all fallen in love with VEGVISIR, we’ve decided it’s here to stay.
It’s available on some of our t shirts, long sleeves and hoodies but we’re in the process of rolling this print out onto our other items and colours, so watch this space!
If you’ve made it this far then congratulations, your attention span is pretty good. We hope you enjoyed reading our highlights and we hope you get to visit Iceland someday. We finally got to scratch it off our scratch map which felt very satisfying!
Although the current climate means we can’t travel for quite some time, those epic Icelandic memories will keep us going for now!
Take care everyone. Takk.
Sara & Paul