DAYS REMAINING: 345
And now, ourweddinginiceland presents Ten Fun Facts about Iceland, culled from your friend, The Internet!
*Reykjavik is the northernmost capital in the world in the most sparsely populated country in Europe.
*Despite its name, Iceland has surprisingly mild winters for a country at that latitude owing to the warming effect of the Atlantic Gulf Stream. Average winter daytime temperature in Reykjavik is 31 degrees, approximately one billion degrees warmer (or so) than the average Minnesota winter. Reykjavik gets almost no snow.
*The literacy rate of Iceland is 99.9%, highest in the world.
*Iceland has no army, navy, or air force.
*The official language of Iceland is Icelandic (or, in Icelandic, íslenska), which remains very similar to, although not quite the same as 13th-century Norse. Icelandic language has been virtually unchanged for the past 1,000 years. Still, pretty much everyone under 50 is fluent in English.
*The English word "geyser" comes from Icelandic (perhaps the only Icelandic word imported into English). Geysir is the name of a famous, now-dormant geyser in Iceland.
*Because it rains so much, Iceland has vast amounts of water. Icelandic water is so clean and pure that it is piped into the city and to the kitchen taps in the home without any treatment.
*Icelanders consume more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
*People in Iceland really, really, really believe in elves. Like, really for real. As in, some roads are built to circumvent areas where elves are thought to live. And don’t make fun of it, or they will sic their totally real elves on you.
*We’ll talk more about the thirteen Santa Clauses thing another time.
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