Thoughts on my First Trip to Iceland

About a week ago, my wife and I took our first trip (7 days) to Iceland. We were interested in learning more about their farming methods, city culture and interesting landscape. Here's a brief summary of what I learned.

It was interesting to learn that Iceland became independent from Denmark in 1944, during the last year of WWII. Although it has no army, it joined NATO in 1949. Its only security force is the Iceland Coast Guard, whose primary responsibility is protecting the 200-mile waterway surrounding the island.

With much of Iceland covered with volcanic activity, many areas of Iceland need help growing large conifers and deciduous trees. Because the ground is often not conducive to the growth of trees, grasses are more commonplace as they don't need a deep root system. Many in urban areas bring in good soil to help grow the trees in their gardens. Seeing is believing; I was surprised at the lack of forests throughout our trip. This provided many challenges to the earlier settlers of Iceland. Our tour guide said wryly, "If you're ever lost in a forest in Iceland, you just have to stand up."

According to Wikipedia, Iceland has five species of freshwater fish: the Atlantic salmon, the Arctic char, the brown trout, the three-spined stickleback, and the eel. The most common fish found in Iceland are cod, haddock, ling, palace, and Salmon. We learned that daily fishing licenses may cost between $200 and $350 per day, but that includes the equipment rental. Because fresh seafood is a significant part of their diet, Icelanders use an expression: "If it tastes fishy, it's fishy."

In terms of how far Iceland lies, its latitude is about 65 degrees north. Anchorage, Alaska's latitude is 61 degrees north, and the Antarctic region starts at 60 degrees south.

While traveling to this unique island, it's interesting to note that young people in their 20s and 30s have fewer children than years ago. It's similar to Western Europe and the United States. Iceland's birth rate is 12.96 births per 1000; in the USA, it's 11 per 1000. These lower birth rates could be due to economic and environmental factors, and younger people could focus more on their careers.

I was surprised to learn that Icelanders are not necessarily punctual. If they are 10 or 20 minutes late, it's commonly accepted by other Icelanders. However, the Danes are much more punctual, like the Germans and Swiss. Regarding the issue of the Icelanders not always being punctual, citizens of more punctual countries say the Icelanders are the Italians of the north.

Because so few people in the world speak Icelandic (less than 500,000), all shops, restaurants and cafes address you in English. We had no issues with no one in Iceland not speaking English. It was also first international trip where I didn't handle their currency (Icelandic Krona (ISK)). All transactions were paid via our credit card chip.

We traveled 800 kilometers while touring Iceland, and I didn't see one eagle, vulture, or hawk. After further thought, there needs to be more prey for these predators. With very few wildlife besides the arctic fox, reindeer in the north, and birds, predators would have a much more challenging time surviving in this climate. However, we saw cows, horses, sheep, and goats grazing along the countryside during our travels. Along certain coasts in the West, we saw seagulls and puffins.

Iceland joined NATO (North American Treaty Organization) in 1949. Because of the Cold War and greater global turmoil (including the Czechoslovak coup in 1948) led certain coalition governments to decide to join NATO. It was approved by a vote of 37 for and 13 against. The Socialist Party opposed joining as some members had pro-communist principles. However, Iceland experienced a series of confrontations between the UK and Iceland regarding fishing rights in the North Atlantic, called the Cod War. So instead of being directly impacted by the Cold War, they had the Cod War. Each of these disputes eventually resulted in an Icelandic victory.

About one thousand years ago, the land in Iceland was covered with about 40% trees. However, when the Norse settlers arrived before the 10th century, they eliminated much of the forests for livestock grazing and farming. Wood harvesting for fuel and homes helped eliminate trees as well. New trees were also more challenging to grow due to soil erosion. There are plans to reforest Iceland, which has had mixed results. Over a million trees in Iceland are planted yearly, including pine, spruce, and aspen. Some trees are planted for privacy, erosion control, and carbon sequestration. The current situation includes 2% of Iceland's land area contains trees.

Geothermal energy is used in many greenhouses to grow certain vegetables. Certain crops, such as tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and green peppers, grow well in greenhouses. Greenhouses in Iceland use a combination of geothermal activity and artificial and natural light to produce crops. With unpredictable amounts of sunshine, the greenhouse ceilings are opened with warmer weather and the appearance of sunlight. Most greenhouses use artificial light in winter to complement the shorter daylight hours. We visited one greenhouse (Frioheimar farm) that created an ideal situation where tomato varieties could exist for ten months. These plants sometimes reach over eight meters long (about 27 feet). Once the tomatoes begin to decline in production, the tops of the plant are cut, and after gathering the fruit for a few weeks, the plant is composted with the other plants with the same life span. This farm produces 370 tons of tomatoes annually (370,000 kilograms). Bees are brought in to pollinate the plants, and several other insects are used to keep the main predators away. Most of the fruits are organic, and being of the perishability aspect, all tomatoes grown there are kept for domestic consumption.

Despite having unpredictable sunshine amounts in the summer, various food crops grown outside include rhubarb, potatoes, carrots, strawberries, kale, and cauliflower. Some of these vegetables have more success being grown outside instead of greenhouses.

We drove by several aluminum process plants. Bauxite ore is mined from locations worldwide, and because of the inexpensive energy (geothermal in Iceland), it's combined with alumina to create aluminum. Once aluminum is created, most of this material is exported.

Towards the center of Iceland, tectonic plates of the North American Plate are moving away from the Eurasian Plate to help create volcanic activity. These plates also lie between a hotspot or an Iceland plume. The location of the hotspots is independent of the tectonic plates, so hotspots can create volcanoes as the plates move above them. These divergent plates never separate because magna appears from the mantle between the plates to create new plate material. Interestingly, volcanos in Iceland create all mountains, but not all mountains are volcanic.

Thoughts on my First Trip to Iceland: If you don't mind unpredictable weather, incredible waterfalls and scenery with limited sunshine, Iceland may be for you. Most travel there for the incredible scenery and less on wildlife spotting. I'd recommend the summer months in which to travel but still, there's not a good weather guarantee. If you want to catch the northern lights, the winter is best for visiting. If you travel from Chicago to Iceland in April, you may experience lousy weather leaving your home, touring Iceland and then coming back home.