ryan

Iceland is one of the coolest countries in the world with 11% of its surface covered in glaciers. The 16th largest island of the globe and fourth largest single state, behind Britain, Madagascar and Cuba for a country that has had settlers for over 1000 years its population is still in its infancy at 320,000 – with 75% living in or surrounding the capital Reykjavík.

There’s nothing strange in the name Iceland, for part of the year it is indeed covered in Ice – however one of the peculiarities of the Capital city is its lack of snow. In fact for the first time in near 20 years had it seen significant snowfall in 2010, otherwise its climate is bitterly cold and dry.

Whilst the population maybe on the low side, Iceland does enjoy a raft of visitors every year nearing the half-million mark, keeping their economy ticking and adding that extra dimension to their culture. The Icelandic are famed for very little, other than Bjork the people make very little noise…perhaps why “It’s oh so quiet”. The first settler Ingolfur Arnarson who escaped the problems in his home of Nrway in A.D 847 brought Vikings, slaves and Turf huts; and this is the way they lived for about 1000 years.

While their lifestyles were basic, Iceland is home to the oldest living parliament in the world. Althingi has been running as a legislative body since 930; the democratically led organisation of farmers, land owners, statesmen and other individuals met every few months – however seeming as the country experienced little development, relying on ships from neighbouring countries for imports and exports they actually achieved very little. Furthermore, even by looking at their language that hasn’t changed much since the Viking monther-tongue of A.D 1200. In 1874 they formed the first constitution (with less than 80,000 inhabitants), and achieved full independency from Denmark in 1944.