Reykjavik Iceland

I recently visited Iceland to attend a conference called the Nordic Educational Research Association (which I blogged about here). Iceland is home to 320,000 people, but their population over doubles because of tourism, which reaches around 500,000 people per year. Historically, Iceland was a fishing country (and is still so today at around 70% of Iceland’s income), but today it has developed good cattle ranches, as well as has pigs, goats, sheep, and of course, the famous Icelandic horse. The only native mammal to the island is the fox, which allegedly crossed over during the last ice age.

It’s not hard to see why, with Iceland’s famous geysers, waterfalls, mountains, glaciers, and volcanoes. In fact, the whole island is made up of volcanoes, many of which are still active today. One of the most famous volcanoes, Eyjafjallajökull, exploded in 2010, leaving many planes around Europe and America grounded because of all the debris. The ash still lingers in the air and is evident as the snow (in 2013) still falls to the Earth partly black.

I spent most of my time in Reykjavik, which is the capital of Iceland and home to 120,000Icelanders. Most people drive cars, as oppose to bikes (because of the enormous amounts of wind) or buses (because Icelanders need vehicles to get around the remote countryside).

Taking a bus from the airport to your hotel is easy (on Flybus). You buy a ticket in the airport (round trip tickets are cheaper than buying one way [each way]) and then tell the bus driver which hotel you’re getting off at. I was quite nervous at first, since the bus didn’t have permanent stops, but it landed right in front of my hotel, per my request!

Naturally, one of the first restaurants I see says American Style. I travel all the way to Iceland, only to have the same cuisine–not on my watch! Having said that, I never saw a McDonalds or Burger King while in Iceland, although I did see Subway–so the Americanization hasn’t completely taken over Iceland…yet.

But then Reykjavik opened up and showed me some of her true majesty. It’s not hard to see why people would live in this picturesque city.

This mountain is called Esja and is a central mountain of Reykjavik. Picnic anyone?

See my other posts on Iceland by checking out Reykjavik Iceland, The Blue Lagoon, The Golden Circle, The National Museum of Iceland, and Accommodations in Reykjavik (Boholt Apartments mainly).

I attended a conference called the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA). See the Keynote Speakers or my research on Preschool Teacher Retention.