Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Land of Ice

I've arrived in England and I'm happy to say it's just as charming as I remembered, but more on that later!

Deciding to come to England before heading back to Australia was a relatively last minute decision, and the cheapest flight we could find from Vancouver to London was with Iceland Air. All I really knew about Iceland was that it basically went bankrupt and one of its volcanoes seriously messed up my travel plans when I was in Europe back in 2010 - until now that is. Here are some interesting facts about Iceland that I learned while on the plane. 

- Iceland has a population of only 320,000 people.

- The Prime Minister is listed in the phone book.

- It was a part of Denmark until 1944.

- 'Women's Day Off' takes place every October 24, to commemorate the day thousands of women walked off the job in the 1970s in the fight towards greater gender equality in the workplace. (Absolutely fascinating story; read more about it here.)

- Although a member of NATO, Iceland has no standing military, navy or air force.

- It appears to be a pretty expensive place; granted we were only in the airport where food is always more pricey, but we paid 22 USD for a roll of (awful) sushi and a sandwich.

- Whereas most Christmas characters in North America are jolly and full of cheer, Iceland has
GrĂ½la, a mythological monster and giantess who comes into towns at Christmas time to eat naughty children. (Scary holiday story in my opinion?!)

Learning these little tidbits about Iceland (plus ogling over photos of its breathtaking scenery) has me wanting to plan a trip there in the very near future, but I guess England and Australia will do for now!

I hope I'll see you soon Iceland!

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