When the Iceland Review asked its readers for 15 reasons why they loved Iceland, I thought: “15? Only 15? How is that possible?” Still, I was very brave and limited myself to 15, and they’re in the magazine online today, complete with photos from my time in Skriðuklaustur. You can read my 15 reasons for loving Iceland here:
Harold’s Fifteen Reasons for Loving Iceland.
Here’s an image of some of those lovingly-respected trees of Reykjavik, mentioned in the article:
Tree House on Nóatun, Reykjavik
Fantastic!
I’m German and once visited Iceland. There’s no farm involved though. Congratulations for being in the Iceland Review. Your reasons to love Iceland are very poetic. I loved the landscape, took loads of now lost photos with the camera of someone else (poor Nina, must have been expensive, it was predigital time). They have BLACK sand on the shore near Akranes. And then out of nowhere a friendly dog appeared. I’m sure the horse I was riding knew that it was dragging my legs through icy watercourses. Once we drove with a tourist bus through the country and at a glacier near Þingvellir was a single sheep standing completely alone in a rather white landscape. What did it eat? Why did it live there alone? How much I love the Gísla saga Súrssonar and even Útlaginn the film. I studied Old Icelandic at a German university when I was young. But I don’t speak modern Icelandic. I tried to order a glass of water in Icelandic when I was in Reykjavik. I didn’t succeed.
Sorry for the spam I forgot to add the Icelandic Joke, they told me when we visited the “forest” near Mývatn: What does an Icelander do if he loses his way in a forest?
He stands up.
It’s a good joke, so good that they tell it to everyone, even Canadians! True, though. I have seen forests like that. I found a birch tree above Dettifoss, that was dozens of years old, yet was hiding behind a pebble about the size of a golf ball, for the protection it gave! Now, the real reason, I think, that Icelanders are on their bellies in the forest has less to do with getting through them than with being close to the Icelander they are with. Well, it’s charming idea, anyway!
Sounds as if I have missed something. ^^