Guys, as you know, I went to Iceland earlier this year and in all honesty if you just want to get a real taste of
Iceland better than I could ever provide. Check out my friend, this guy, Ásgeir. Subscribe to his channel.
He helped me out when I was there and he knows Iceland. Ásgeir. Check out the Ás.
Yeah, keep that one bro. All for you.
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♫ It's time to learn Geography! ♫ NOW!
Hey everyone! I'm your host Barby. So, full disclosure before we start:
my pronunciation for Icelandic words is going to suck so bad in this episode.
I do not advise you to play a drinking game for every time I mispronounce something.
You will get alcohol poisoning and you might die.
I repeat, you could die watching this.
Iceland! Just the name invokes an obvious clue about where it is geographically.
First of all! The country is located at the confluence of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans,
east of Greenland and just south of the Arctic circle. The country is divided into six constituencies:
three big ones and three of which are confusing because they basically just split up
the most populous areas in the West. Reykjavík is the capital and the northernmost capital in the world
which is split into two constituencies: North and South, whereas the Southwest Constituency
is divided into four non-contiguous exclaves, but they still act as one
constituency, not four. So, it's six small separate entities that act as three constituencies. Get it?
- (laughs) No. - Great!
This was done to help with the imbalance of the sparsely populated outer regions with voting
since about a third of the entire country is located in the Reykjavík metropolitan area.
Nonetheless, most of the country still refers to areas being located in traditional eight
regions zones which are divided like this. The country has many domestic airports
but the one large scale international airport
is Keflavík International and the next two busiest ones are Reykjavík and Akureyri.
Reykjavík and Akureyri are domestic airports except for seasonal service to Greenland internationally.
Iceland's domain is mostly encompassed around the main island however, they do own some
smaller islands and archipelagos off their coasts. The most populated ones being Heimaey,
Hrísey and Grímsey and some in the South like the newest island that just popped up in the '60s:
Surtsey, which is off-limits to anyone except permitted scientists who study it.
Otherwise, Iceland may be rugged but the islanders sure have paved a way for you to see it all - The Ring Road.
This guy takes you all around the entire country and depending on how much time
you want to stop and see the sites, it could take you anywhere between 4-ish to 7 days to complete.
Hey Brandon! You went on the Ring Road, right?
- Yeah. - How long did it take you?
- Uh, about nine days. - Okay, uh. Maybe my facts were wrong.
Otherwise, some top, notable man-made sites and landmarks might include:
The National Gallery. The Viking World Museum.
The stone carvings of Páll Guðmundsson. The US Navy D-3 plane wreckage site.
The Höfn Viking Village. The Sea Monster museum.
Pretty much all of Akureyri. The Whale Museum.
The Design Center. All over the countryside you can find turf houses with grass on the roofs.
The country's iconic landmark and beautifully constructed icicle shaped church - Hallgrímskirkja.
Now, as interesting as those man-made sites and landmarks may be.
They pale in comparison to what the actual land has to offer.
Let's jump into the fire and ice!
Alright, let me just put it this way. Iceland doesn't need an amusement park or roller coasters
because the entire island is just like a wonderland in itself.
First of all! Iceland is the 18th largest island in the world and the second largest in all of Europe.
The entire country lies, transected on the mid-Atlantic range which divides the North American tectonic plate
with the Eurasian plate, splitting open about two centimeters every year.
You can even see the divide for yourself with your own eyes.
Nearby Reykjavík at Þingvellir with the largest natural lake - Þingvallavatn.
The land splits open and you can literally walk from Eurasia to North America.
Underneath the waters you can get even closer to the divide, at the Silfra.
(exhales) That was easy.
Known as the clearest water diving spot in the world where visibility can go up to a hundred meters.
Over 80% of the country is mountainous with the tallest point - Hvannadalshnúkur.
Eleven percent of the country is covered with six main glaciers.
The largest one in the Southeast - Vatnajökull
and the smallest one which just erupted in 2010 - Eyjafjallajökull.
With hundreds of volcanoes and about thirty of them are consistently active
as the longest river, the Þjórsá meanders through the deep, central Hofsjökull glacier to the ocean.
(exhales deeply)
So, basically the entire island is geothermal. Everywhere you go, chances are you can probably
find a natural hot spring hidden somewhere in the remote wilderness.
Not only that but Iceland also harbours and capitalizes
off of this unique valuable resource as much as possible.
When the first vikings came in, they were like:
- "Wow! It is cold in here. I mean, I knew Norway was chilly but dang!"
- "Is there anything here we can use to not like freeze to death?"
- "Hmmm..."
Yeah, they killed a lot of sheep and made more wool clothing
but then eventually they found how to generate power with the hot springs.
Geothermal energy provides about a quarter of the country's power alone
and the rest is mostly hydroelectric from dams and renewable sources.
Nonetheless, only about one percent of their land is arable.
Mostly confined to the South peripheral lowlands
where root vegetables and kale and cabbage and cauliflower are grown.
Alongside numerous geothermal heated greenhouses that harvest warm climate produce
like tomatoes, cucumbers and yes, even bananas.
Making Iceland the Northernmost banana producing country in the world.
Of course, the country also hosts a unique variety of arctic wildlife like puffins, foxes, seals
narwhals, the national animals: the Gyrfalcon and the famous, highly accredited Icelandic horses.
By the way, yes it's true. Iceland is the only country with no mosquitoes however,
they do have two species of midges.
- (laughs) He said midgets.
- Midg-ES which are similar to mosquitoes and actually one of the species
does actually bite so it's kind of like having mosquitoes anyway.
- (laughs) Iceland has biting midgets.
- Keith... Just... (sighs)
Speaking of which, traditional Icelandic food is, let's just say, even my Icelandic friend said this:
- This is so disgusting. Why would anyone eat this?
Yeah, let's just say the vikings had some very unorthodox tactics when it came to food preservation.
Dishes like: sheep's head, stock fish jerky, head cheese, sheep testicles
and the famous hákarl. What is it exactly? Well, let's just say:
- Hey! So, I got this shark but it's poisonous. How do I eat it?
- Hmmm. Oh, I know!
Let's bury it into the ground until it smells like urine then dry it out for a couple months
and then cut off the brown crust and then serve it!
- Yeah! Obviously. I knew that!
There are some delicious, redeeming Icelandic foods, though. They are known for making some amazing
smoked lamb served with bean salad and grilled haddock and herring dishes.
You can literally drink almost any water from any stream, pond or lake or river in Iceland.
The whole island kinda acts like a filtration device for the glaciers.
You have places like the smooth, conical Kirkjufell mountain.
(Brandon has a tattoo of that!)
The Skaftafell crystal ice cave in Vatnajökull.
The Kjölur trail in the Highlands. Literally like every five kilometers you'll find a waterfall.
And don't forget the geysers in the South. Pretty much all of the Westfjords region is empty and beautiful for you
to explore with no tourists. The sea monster of Hvítserkur.
Drangey Island. Grjótagjá Caves.
Mælifell, green volcano on black sand beaches.
Krafla and Námaskarð.
Drangsnes hot tubs. The largest hotspring Gunnuhver
and the open exposed fossiles of Hallbjarnarstaðakambur.
If you went against my disclaimer and played that drinking game, you should be in an ambulance by now.
Speaking of drinking. Icelanders are awesome people to socialize with. Let's meet them, shall we?
Now, if the Nordics were a family, Iceland would be like the little brother that
got lost at sea from a shipwreck, got stranded on an island and became a wild man.
First of all! Iceland has a population of about 335 thousand people and is the most sparsely populated
country in Europe. About 92% of the country identifies as ethnically Icelandic.
About 4% are Polish and the remainder are other immigrants from all over.
Mostly Nordic, West European and a few Asians mixed in as well.
They also use the Icelandic Króna as their currency. They use the type C plug outlet
and they drive on the right side of the road.
Now, being Icelandic is actually very unique, genetically in contrast to the rest of their Nordic cousins.
Basically, way back, yee-ha the vikings where like:
- "Hey, we're sick of Norway. Let's make a new home. Oh, but wait. We need women."
But most of the Norwegian women were like:
- "Uh uh..."
So, they made a quick stop to the British Isles and kidnapped a bunch of Irish and Celtic women,
brought them over. About 70% of all their women that is.
To this day, a typical Icelander actually has a portion of Irish or Celtic roots in their blood.
Now obviously, if you are one of the few lucky people that hasn't ended up in an ambulance yet,
you have noticed that the Icelandic language is incredibly unique,
often touted as one of the hardest languages in the world to learn.
I mean, half time the letters make no sense.
'F' can make a 'V' or a 'P' sound. Sometimes 'P' and a 'T' make a 'F' sound.
Sometimes the 'G' makes a 'W' sound. These two letters both make a 'th' sound
and sometimes when there's two L's it makes like a '%43#@!v93g" sound.
Most Nordic peoples have a hard time cracking the Icelandic code.
Except for the Faroese people on the Faroe Islands.
They seem to have a similar sense of pronunciation and grammar as the Icelanders.
Icelandic and Faroese are the closest languages to ancient Norse out of all the Nordic languages.
If you give them a script written in ancient Norse, chances are they could probably understand it
Whereas Norwegians, Swedes and Danes are like:
"HA! Nope."
Now, because of its small population, Icelandic culture is very communal.
Changes are everybody either knows each other or they know somebody who knows another person.
Therefore, an ingrained sense of trust kind of roots itself in the mindsets of most people.
This is why Iceland has one of the lowest crime rates in the entire world, sometimes topping off at number one.
And also as of 2014, they were elected the world's most peaceful country according to The Global Peace Index.
Oh, by the way, in Iceland nobody technically has a surname.
They just adopt the last name dependent on their father's first name and they just added -son, or -dóttir
after it. So for example, a man named Alex with a father named, I don't know, Bjarki would be named
Alex Bjarkason. Or if it was a woman, her last name would be Bjarkadóttir.
Sorry Bjarki, you just popped in my head. You rock man! Hope you're doing well.
Icelanders are thrill-seekers. They live in an extreme landscape, so they make the best of it.
And they will ski, paraglide, rappel, skate, dive, jump and experience anything that gives them adrenaline.
Some of the top notable Icelandic people might include:
Founders of Iceland - Ingólfr Arnarson and his wife Hallveig and brother Chiorleif,
Leif Erikson.
The first president - Sveinn Björnsson.
Musicians Sigur Rós, Of Monsters and Men, Emiliana Torrini, Múm, Gus Gus.
Of course, the most famous resident - Björk.
Oscar nominated director - Friðrik Þór Friðriksson.
Halldór Laxness. Handball superstar - Ólafur Stefánsson.
Magnus Örn Scheving. Fiann Paul.
And of course everyone's favorite strong man - Hafþór or "Thor the Mountain" Július Björnsson.
Now, as small as Iceland is, they've made a huge impact in the world's media outlets.
Somewhere in the like '90s and the early 2000s, words spread fast and to this day,
tourism is almost getting out of hand as they get over three times their own population in tourism every year.
Hotels need to be built, staff need to be hired and diplomacy is key and operating the whole deal,
which brings us to.
Now, Iceland has a problem. A good problem.
Too many people like him now and it's all happening too fast.
First of all, Iceland has always had good ties to the USA and Canada. The US was the first to recognize
Iceland as a state after independence and both countries, not only give some of the biggest business
but also house the largest communities of Icelanders outside of Iceland. Finland is like the mysterious cool
new rebel friend that they just made. They enjoy both being outsiders because although they are both Nordic,
they are not considered Scandinavian. When it comes to humour,
they totally get each other and click instantly with dry, semi-dark undertone jokes.
Sweden is like the older brother that they love but is too busy working on his
flowcharts to hang out with. Denmark is close although Danes practically have no idea
what skiing is, considering their flat landscapes.
Most Icelanders learn Danish in school first, before they learn English, even though they think it's pretty useless.
When it comes to their best friends, most Icelanders I've talked to have said Norway and the Faroe Islands.
As mentioned before, Icelanders have historical roots to Norway and the two have had very close relations.
Especially since they both can relate to being subjugated under the Danes at one point in time.
The Faroe Islands are like their weird cousins that totally get them and love to hang out with.
It's a magical moment when an Icelander meets a Faroese person.
In conclusion: Iceland is a land where cold meets hot, old meets new, small yet big,
horrible fermented shark meets your dinner plate.
I hope you're still alive and if you are, stay tuned, because the big guy, India is coming up next!