Random Trivia Time. Iceland. The average person probably knows one of three things about Iceland: it’s the home of Bjork, the country went bankrupt in 2008, and in 2010 its unpronounceable volcano disrupted air travel in Europe and North America for several days. Iceland is one of the most diverse countries on Earth. An hour’s drive can take you across glaciers, over lava fields and black sand beaches, up mountains and over rivers, through prairies and rolling meadows, over volcanoes and in caves, or even in between two tectonic plates. It sits on a rift between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates—plates that are slowly moving apart, widening Iceland by a few centimeters per year. It’s their movement that makes geysers shoot water 120 feet in the air, hot springs bubble up and create steam that provides electricity for the whole country, volcanoes explode, and islands rise from the sea. It’s their movement that shakes the ground in dozens of small (usually unnoticeable) daily earthquakes and gives Iceland its striking, at times other-worldly, appearance. Iceland has a foot in two worlds in less tangible ways as well. It’s at once provincial and modern, traditional and progressive. It’s one of the most technologically connected countries in the world yet the phone book is still organized by first name. It was one of the first countries to legalize gay marriage but families still have to choose baby names from a list of “approved” Icelandic names. The “land of fire and ice” is a land of contrasts—both physical and cultural—that make it a delightful, quirky, enchanting surprise just waiting to be discovered.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 12:15:06 +0000
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