The south coast has endless stretches of black sandy beaches where the waves of the Atlantic thunder ashore. The contras in scenery is amazing, each area having its own distinguishing features and allure. Sometimes we joke and say Iceland is a country inhabited by lots of volcanoes and a handful of people! Bear in mind that this is a large country with a very small population at 103,000 square kilometers it’s nearly the size of England but has a population of only 320,000.
![long forgotten fields dreamscape long forgotten fields dreamscape](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A3LycumER5I/U6eAe6MWrXI/AAAAAAAABZE/zBBvbJIsLGw/s1600/Front.png)
When i first started to explore Iceland four decades ago I was immediately struck by its unrivaled beauty, the diversity of the landscape and the opportunity to get far away from the madding crowd and be one with nature. Surveys show that eighty percent of foreign visitors to Iceland come for the nature, and understandably so.
![long forgotten fields dreamscape long forgotten fields dreamscape](https://s3.eu-central-1.wasabisys.com/makefilms-uploads/uploads/2019/01/Long-Forgotten-Fields_ThumbnaiL_v2-1400x788.png)
And there are daily connections to all major cities in Europe and the US with a number of international airlines. in a fit of pique he gave this newly discovered land the name Iceland.Īs to Iceland being faraway, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to know it takes less than three hours to fly from London and just over five from New York. Tradition has it that the country got its icy name from an early ninth-century Viking pioneer who failed to save sufficient hay to maintain his livestock over the long winter and after they died he had no option but to return to Norway. And of course Iceland has those special seasonal attractions of being able to gaze skyward in winter and see the Northern Lights dance across the northern skies, or in June enjoy the wonder of the Midnight Sun. Granted, it never gets hot in summer, the average temperature being around 12 degrees Celsius but hey that’s the ideal weather for hiking and most visitors see the cool refreshing air as a welcome respite from the oppressive summer heat of big cities. Yes, we do get snow in wintertime, but the capital Reykjavik is not at all as cold as other cities on a similar latitude, e.g. Thanks to the tempering effect of the Gulf Stream current the average winter temperature is around zero Celsius. Who knows, like me you may fall under its magic spell and throw away that return ticket! First off let’s get two widely-held misconception about Iceland out of the way, i.e. What I’d like to do is list some pretty convincing reasons why you should take a decision to visit this amazing country aptly known as the Land of Ice and Fire, just as I did as a young boy. In 1986 I became an Icelandic citizen and today I’m a lecturer in the state guide school and a guide both in Iceland and its nearest neighbor, Greenland.
![long forgotten fields dreamscape long forgotten fields dreamscape](https://live.staticflickr.com/4115/4774678515_4b19b08ddd_b.jpg)
Iceland is my home, a country whose stark natural beauty I fell hopelessly in love with and whose hardy people and rich historical heritage I greatly admire. Yes, Iceland, of all places! Forty years on and I’m still here. Then, as though ordained by fate, a formal letter arrives from the Department of Education in Dublin telling me I’ve been awarded a scholarship to study history in Iceland. I’ve just graduated from university in Ireland with a degree in archeology and history and uncertain as to what my next step in life should be. Otto Lindenbrock did in Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the center of the Earth.įast forward fourteen years to nineteen seventy-four. One day, I vowed, I’ll go there and maybe even find the entrance to the center of the earth as Prof. One country that particularly fascinated me was Iceland, no doubt because the accompanying pictures showed active volcanoes and glaciers and whales in the surrounding seas.