Iceland, the land of fire and ice, is full of fascinating and sometimes strange facts. In this podcast episode, I’m sharing 15 surprising facts about this country that you probably have never heard about. I know that I was surprised by many of them when I first heard them, and I hope that you enjoy learning something new about the country.
15 Strange Facts About Iceland
- Most of Iceland is uninhabited
- Beer was illegal in the country for 74 years
- During the month of Þorri, many Icelanders come together to eat the food of their ancestors, including fermented shark, ram’s testicles, sheepshead
- 24-hour bright days during the summer in Iceland. Here is a great graph of daylight hours in Reykjavik depending on what time of year you plan to visit.
- Long winter nights and hardly any daylight
- The first day of summer is in April and it is a national holiday
- If it weren’t for constant volcanic activity under Iceland that creates new land, the country would split in half
- There are over 130 words in Icelandic just to describe the wind
- No passenger train in Iceland but there was a train line once for a construction project
- No Uber or Lyft type of services in Iceland
- No McDonald’s
- Iceland won 3 wars against the British called The Cod Wars. You can listen to my episode about the Cod Wars here.
- The eruption of Laki in the 1700s resulted in a ton of ash was in the air and spread to many parts of Europe and even Africa! This ash cloud caused the global temperature to drop. Some think that this drop in temperature caused food shortages in France, which helped to ignite the French Revolution.
- At the sorcery and witchcraft museum, there is a replica of human skin pants that were said to have been made by sorcerers who wanted to be wealthy.
- Only about 10% of the country is covered in Iceland
Icelandic Word of the Episode
Skrítinn – weird or strange
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Þakka þér kærlega fyrir að hlusta og sjáumst fljótlega
(Thank you for listening and see you later)