Before I moved to Iceland, before I met H for that matter, I knew little to nothing about Iceland. Now I can’t get enough of Icelandic facts! A few months ago I shared a list of 10 Icelandic facts, today I am adding to this list with 10 more facts, so read on to get to know more about the land of fire and ice
1. It is often said that more than half of Icelanders believe in elves. It is up for debate as to how many Icelanders actually believe in elves, but you often hear stories of roads not being built somewhere because it would disrupt the elves, so maybe they believe more than they think.
One of my favorite stories about the Icelandic elves is from H’s mom. Her family has a summer house in the countryside and since she was a little girl her family believed that elves lived in the rocks and so they would not cut the grass around that area to avoid disturbing the elves.
The elves are said to live in these rocks
2. Beer was banned in Iceland until 1 March, 1989. Maybe this is the reason why Icelanders drink so much beer! The 1st of March is now called “Beer Day” where you can find many Icelanders participating in bar crawls.
3. It is against the law to own a pet snake, lizard or turtle. This law was put into place in the early 1990s after a turtle infected its owners with Salmonella paratyphi B. As someone with a major fear of snakes I have no problem with this law.
4. The star of the Free Willy movies, Keiko, was captured near Iceland. He went on to live in the Oregon aquarium (where I visited him several times as a kid) before returning back to Icelandic waters.
5. Iceland is home to 8-10 million puffins and over half the worlds puffin population breeds in Iceland. Must be all those stunning landscapes that make Iceland so romantic:) I have yet to see one of these cute guys but it is on my list!
6. The popular app Quizup was created by the Iceland based company Plain Vanilla. I have even met several of the companies employees, I only mentioned the fact that I was obsessed with Quizup a few times during our conversation:)
7. A spoonful of lysi (fish oil) is taken daily starting from a young age. If you ever have a cold, are feeling tired or just looking pale, you must not be drinking your lysi. I am still working on getting use to the flavor.
8. Christmas is celebrated with not just Santa but 13 Yule Lads that bring children gifts every night for the 13 days before Christmas.
9. The water in Iceland is one of the purest in the world. The cold water from the tap is pure spring water from glacier runoff and is not even chlorinated. Trust me, the water in Iceland is the best you will ever taste!
Drink straight from the river, it is complete safe and delicious!
10. The worlds first democratically elected female head of state was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. She was president of Iceland from 1980-1996 making her also the longest serving elected female head of state of any country.
Bonus fact: Iceland was just ranked number 1 in gender equality based on the Global Gender Gap report for the 6th year in a row!
Question of the Day?
What is a fun fact from your country?
Linking up with Treasure Tromp!
