17/10/2017
WEIRD FACTS ABOUT ICELAND
As most people know, Iceland lies in the middle of the north Atlantic, distanced from it’s Nordic countries and cultures. So it’s not surprising that Iceland have developed a few quirks and cultural oddities (not odd here). We compiled a list with 30 facts many new visitors finds odd but fun (in most cases). Enjoy!
1. Iceland got the newest land on earth when Surtsey erupted in 1963 and created an island but we have the oldest parliamentary institution in the world.
2. Vatnajökull is Europe’s biggest glacier.
3. Beer was illegal here for 73 years but became legal again on the 1st of March, 1989.
4. Iceland is one of the few countries in the world that has black sand beaches.
5. Icelandic is one of the oldest languages in the world.
6. Iceland has the longest work week in Europe.
7. People in Iceland don’t say “You are welcome” as a response to “Thanks for dinner”. They say “Verði þér að góðu” which can be translated to “Hope the food will do you well”.
8. Icelandic horses which are transported abroad are never allowed to enter the country again.
9. The geothermal water which are used to heat up houses here, must be cooled down before entering the heating systems.
10. When looking up people in a phone directory, names are sorted by their first name, not their surname.
14. Iceland has around 120 active volcanoes.
11. When babies are given names, the names has to be approved by a special naming committee.
12. Icelanders like to drown any food in sauces. Fish, meat, poultry, desert. Anything that goes into the mouth can be drenched in sauce!
13. 100% of Icelanders have Internet.
14. There is an Icelandic anti-incest app to prevent relatives from dating each other.
15. Leif the lucky, son of Erik the red, arrived to North America some 500 years before Christopher Columbus.
16. Professional boxing is forbidden in Iceland.
17. In marriage, women do not take their husband’s last name. (rarely)
18. The last Icelanders who lived in caves left the caves in 1922 to live in Reykjavik.
19. The alphabet in Iceland has 32 characters and has a lot of vowels: a, á, e, é, i, í, o, ó, u, ú, y, ý, æ and ö. The letters c, q, w are not used. Z was used back in the day..
20. You can drink from any tap in Iceland. (don’t waste money on bottled water)
21. There are no trains in Iceland but that might change in the near future with a high speed train going between Keflavik and Reykjavik.
22. There is no army in Iceland and the police force are unarmed.
23. About 85% of the houses in Iceland are heated with geothermal heat.
24. There are 13 Yule lads (Santa Claus) in Iceland and they are all bad.
25. The eruption of Laki volcano between 1783 to 1784 is believed to have triggered the French revolution.
26. The colors in the Icelandic flag symbols fire and ice. The meaning of the blue color is not clear. Some say the ocean, some the sky and others it’s the blueish tint mountains in the distance can create.
27. For many years, Iceland had the biggest banana plantation in Europe.
28. 65% of Icelandic children are born outside marriage.
29. When you arrive at BSÍ bus station in Reykjavik, you can order Kjammi og Kók which is half a sheep’s head and a Coca Cola.
30. Iceland has 5 prisons and two of them has no guards and criminals are put on a waiting list to serve their time in prison because there aren’t enough available jail cells.
Which of these facts did you not have a clue about? Feel free to comment below!
