Let me start by saying that Iceland is quite endearingly, the least pretentious place I've ever visited.
It started with my experiene of Iceland Air. The staff were polite and professional looking. On the flight, I listened through a range of Icelandic artists (none of whom I'd heard of), and the obligatory Bjork back-catalogue. The nifty touch screen showed a choice of films, TV, 'What to do in Iceland' and a history of Iceland Air and I'd have been happily occupied if the flight had taken twice as long as it did (just 2.5 hours).The view over the interior of Iceland as you fly in is majestic - it's like a snowy kind of moonscape. The interior is completely uninhabited but you can pick out mountains and craters and volcanos.
First impressions are important. Reykjavik airport is smart, wooden-clad and scandinavian-styled and I immediately noticed an absence of advertsing on the walls. You don't realise how submerged in ads you are in the UK (unlesswell, you've just experienced the virtual assault of flying Fly-Lo, er, I mean EasyJet or Ryan Air).
Iceland Air bought out Reykjavik's largest tour operator in the 90s, so they're pretty vertically integrated. There probably isn't much space for competition anyway, which might account for the lack of ads on arrival. There aren't even any billboards on the drive from the aiport into the capital, and the whole drive threw up just one KFC and a branch of Subway.
The next thing you quickly realise is the reality of it being January. Although Iceand is known as 'Land of the midnight sun' for its 24 hour daylight from June to August, during the winter months, the sun rises at about 11am and sets about 3pm, giving you less than an hour of real brightness.Strolling around Reykjavik is a low-key experience. In contrast to the ususal high-rise development and showiness of a typical city, the shopping and eating district of Reykjavik feels like a small town. Houses and shops are nestled in side by side, in the past constructed largely out of driftwood (Iceland ran out of trees when the Vikings settled), and now clad in corrugated metal.
The main shopping street doesn't feature a single recognisable european or american brand - no Starbucks, no MacDonalds, just charming, diverse and independent cafes selling yummy cakes and pastries and really good coffee. Icelanders take their coffee very seriously, so as a confessed coffee snob, I was easily satisfied.
On the doorstep of Reykjavik is a wealth of impressive landscape, as Iceland's unique location straddles the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. The geology creates a seismic system including volcanos like the unprounanceable Eyjafjallajokull (responsible for the 2010 ash cloud that grounded my flight to Istanbul), geysirs and frequent minor tremors.Thanks to it's natural resoures, Iceland relies on hydro-electric power and geothermal power - energy derived from the wells of pressurised hot water below the earth's crust. Apparently, for years after Iceland's forests were depleted by early settlers, homes went unheated until the harnassing of geothermal and hydro-electric power in the last century.
Icelanders also benefit directly from geothermal activity by using it to heat swimming pools. Across the city are several geothermally heated pools, the most well-known natural pool being the Blue Lagoon. Its water is maintained at a constant 37-39 degrees celsius, so it feels like a giant bath.
The milky blue, steaming lagoon is surrounded by blackened volcanic pumice stones which at water level are covered in bright white deposit left by the water. The pool itself is in the middle of a lava field and through the steam you're overlooked by looming dark mountains. Even at it's zenith, the sun didn't really light up the lagoon, but as it set, sunlight streamed over the mountains and we had about half an hour of sun 
whilst everyone rushed for their camera.The strange white silica mud reputedly has health benefits for psoriasis sufferers, but its also used as a face mask, so we wiled away the day swimming around to search out the hot streams, squelching in the white mud under water and slapping it onto our faces for a quick treatment (we had super soft skin afterwards). Another guest at our hotel told me his friend had recently proposed to his girlfriend in the Blue Lagoon. He'd primed the staff who were on hand with champagne to celebrate, and coupled with a successful viewing of the Northern Lights that evening, it must have been a perfect proposal!
Speaking of the Northern Lights - although we drove for 4 hours... we didn't seem them. I wasn't really expecting to, because the weather had been cloudy and overcast, so I'll have to get the much talked0f Joanna Lumley DVD instead...
Whilst I was there, I started to wonder about Iceland's economy.... With a total population of 320,000, an icey landscape and a 2.5 hour flight to the nearest decent-sized country, how could a domestic producer develop enough economies of scale to make production profitable? (You can tell I was reading The Economist on the plane). And isn't their food ludicrously expensive if they have to import all their vegetables? But then I found out that their food solution is amazing...
Near Sellfoss (the largest town outside of Reykjavik with a population of... 8,000), they have some greenhouses. But not just any greenhouses. These glass houses make up an entire market-gardening economy which feeds the country. One thing which isn't expensive in Iceland is energy, so this geothermal resource is harnassed to heat and light these greenhouses... all day and all night.
Approaching the greenhouses at night, the landscpae looks like something dreamt up for the X-Files. The area is blanketed in darkness, punctuated by glowing orange greenhouses. What's even more surprising is that the whole area is constantly seismically active, with 10-15 small tremors every day. How that works for greenhouses, I'm not sure, but the larger shakes reportedly do bring them to their knees. Consequently, all new build since the 60s is built to withstand shakes of up to 6.5 on the richter scale.
With Reykjavik being such a dinky place, most people head out on a tour, the most popular being the Golden Circle. It takes in the famous Geysir (after which all geysers in the world take their name), Gullfoss - a spectacular multi-level waterfall and Thingvellir National Park.You're guaranteed a spectacular site when you arrive at the Geysir. It spouts hot water and steam about every 5-7 minutes, signified by an ominous bubbling of the puddle that covers the geysir. It smells like rotting eggs (as do most hot water taps), because of the sulphur in the water, but when it blows you see several vertical metres of hot water and steam - to the admiration of the crowd.
Second stop on the tour is Gullfoss, the great waterfall. Its difficult to apreciate the scale of the falls, until you see some people walking down the track beside it. When we saw it, the rocks of the falls were covered with gigantic, fat icicles and the whole scene took place under a flurry of snow. The river cuts down deep after the falls and carves out a steep-sided valley with rock walls on either side. Its' incredibly impressive, and I imagine even more so in summer, when glacial melt water keeps the rivers high and the volume of run-off is significant.On route to the national park, the guide filled us in on some history. (Incidentlly, if you ever go to Iceland, book the Golden Circle Tour with the smaller company 'NetBus', and see if you can get Ratner Torrson as a guide - he's the best and most knowledgable local guide I've ever heard).
In absolute brief: Iceland was settled in about 871 AD by Vikings who headed out from Norway. It was broadly under Norwegian control until it fell to the Danish. Eventually, many years later it regained independence and re-instated its historic parliament, which had been founded in the 900s - the first parliament in the world. I think that's incredible and Icelanders do too - so they've enshrined the rock where the parliament used to meet within a national park and that's also been protected as a UNESCO world heritage site.
To reach the famous parliamentary meeting point, we set out on foot across the rift valley. The valley formed as the two tectonic plates drift apart (about 2cm a year). As a geographer I was in my element getting to see geological features you only really see in a textbook. The view from the parliament site is incredible. Behind, is the towering rock face of the North American plate, and in front, looking towards the Eurasian pate is a vast valley with views over mountains, volcanoes and an enormous glacial lake. Its must have been chosen as a place that would inspire people to make wise decisions.The Golden Circle tour is an absolute must-do. It's breath-taking seeing nature and the elements at work in such a powerful way.
Now on to food... I'm pretty keen on sampling the weirdest things on any menu, I'll be honest, and this trip was no exception. We ate at the fairly posh Hereford Steak House, which offers two distinct 3-course set menus: Whale and Puffin. I went for the puffin.
I started with smoked puffin, which was dark red plummy in colour and pretty tasty. Second course was puffin breast, which was served as you would duck breast, but with a kind of steaky, gamey taste. Really filling and really delicious.
My friend had the lobster soup and the whale steak for main, and like true tourists we sampled each others. Whale was also very tasty, again kind of steaky, but it looked like a tuna steak. It wasn't until a few days later when someone started asking the tour guide questions about whaling, that I started to wonder if we'd done the right thing. But apparently, Icelanders only hunt whales to keep them from preying on the smaller fish and disrupting the food chain. Dessert was typical Icelandic Skyr which is like a stiff yoghurt. Not too sweet, but it came with ice cream and fruit coulis. Not that I'm a restaurant critic ;o)Other bizarro snackettes included; fishybites (dried fish served in a bag, like crisps - salty but yum), boiled head of sheep (I looked at this in the bus station but inconvieniently had just eaten lunch, so I had no room), curried guillemot (I wasn't 100% certain I knew what a guillemot was, but its basically a seagull, nice), and chocolate with licorice pieces (surpsingly good).
You'd think it was a cliche if Icelanders wandered around in the traditional icelandic woolen clothing (think knitted Christmas jumpers with a pattern yoke round the neck), but lots of them do. Iceland does well out of their sheep; delicious lamb and lots of wool. All the shops sell gorgeous but highly priced (£100 a pop) knitted jumpers, cardigans and dresses - all fashioned from the local wool. I even saw a toddler on the plane home wearing a tiny yoked jumper - adorable! Bring your credit card if you fancy a souvenir - most were out of our price range.
Talking of expense - although the financial crash of 2008 did a lot of damage (Iceland's basically bankrupt), it did bring down the price of airfares and hotels for foreign visitors which are unprecedentedly affordable right now. Food and souvenirs are still pricey - you're going to be paying £25-30 a head for 2 courses and soft drinks, and alcohol is highly taxed, although we evened that out with some hot dogs and a noodle bar visit.
I'd say that the charm of Iceland is that its a country you can wholehertedly describe as unique. Geologically, there's nowhere with quite so much activity. Socially and linguistically, there are no divides - no class system, no dialects and it's not a big enough place to become factional. Everyone is embraced. Icelanders know who they are and know here they came from, which seems to given them a quiet and friendly confidence.Credit cards are accepted absolutely everywhere from hot dog stands to tourism mini buses. They operate everything with an enviable and seemingly effortless efficiency which makes you wonder why we don't follow suit and save ourselves the aggro...
...Until you remember that their tiny, almost tribal population is 0.5% of the UK's.
