Guys, as you know, I went to Iceland earlier this year and
in all honesty if you just want to get a real taste of Iceland better than I could ever provide. Check out my
friend, this guy, Ásgeir. Subscribe to his channel. He helped me out when I was there and he
knows Iceland. Ásgeir. Check out the Ás. Yeah, keep that one bro. All for you. ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ It's time to learn Geography! ♫ NOW! Hey everyone! I'm your host Barby.
So, full disclosure before we start: my pronunciation for Icelandic words
is going to suck so bad in this episode. I do not advise you to play a drinking game
for every time I mispronounce something. You will get alcohol poisoning and you might die. I repeat, you could die watching this. Iceland! Just the name invokes an obvious
clue about where it is geographically. First of all! The country is located at the
confluence of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, east of Greenland and just south of the Arctic circle.
The country is divided into six constituencies: three big ones and three of which are confusing
because they basically just split up the most populous areas in the West. Reykjavík is the
capital and the northernmost capital in the world which is split into two constituencies: North and South,
whereas the Southwest Constituency is divided into four non-contiguous exclaves,
but they still act as one constituency, not four. So, it's six small separate
entities that act as three constituencies. Get it? - (laughs) No.
- Great! This was done to help with the imbalance of the
sparsely populated outer regions with voting since about a third of the entire country is
located in the Reykjavík metropolitan area. Nonetheless, most of the country still refers
to areas being located in traditional eight regions zones which are divided like this.
The country has many domestic airports but the one large scale international airport is Keflavík International and the next two
busiest ones are Reykjavík and Akureyri. Reykjavík and Akureyri are domestic airports except
for seasonal service to Greenland internationally. Iceland's domain is mostly encompassed around
the main island however, they do own some smaller islands and archipelagos off their coasts.
The most populated ones being Heimaey, Hrísey and Grímsey and some in the South like the
newest island that just popped up in the '60s: Surtsey, which is off-limits to anyone
except permitted scientists who study it. Otherwise, Iceland may be rugged but the islanders sure
have paved a way for you to see it all - The Ring Road. This guy takes you all around the entire
country and depending on how much time you want to stop and see the sites, it could take
you anywhere between 4-ish to 7 days to complete. Hey Brandon! You went on the Ring Road, right? - Yeah.
- How long did it take you? - Uh, about nine days.
- Okay, uh. Maybe my facts were wrong. Otherwise, some top, notable man-made
sites and landmarks might include: The National Gallery.
The Viking World Museum. The stone carvings of Páll Guðmundsson.
The US Navy D-3 plane wreckage site. The Höfn Viking Village.
The Sea Monster museum. Pretty much all of Akureyri.
The Whale Museum. The Design Center. All over the countryside you
can find turf houses with grass on the roofs. The country's iconic landmark and beautifully
constructed icicle shaped church - Hallgrímskirkja. Now, as interesting as those man-made
sites and landmarks may be. They pale in comparison to what
the actual land has to offer. Let's jump into the fire and ice! Alright, let me just put it this way. Iceland doesn't
need an amusement park or roller coasters because the entire island is just
like a wonderland in itself. First of all! Iceland is the 18th largest island in
the world and the second largest in all of Europe. The entire country lies, transected on the mid-Atlantic
range which divides the North American tectonic plate with the Eurasian plate, splitting open
about two centimeters every year. You can even see the divide for
yourself with your own eyes. Nearby Reykjavík at Þingvellir with the
largest natural lake - Þingvallavatn. The land splits open and you can literally
walk from Eurasia to North America. Underneath the waters you can get
even closer to the divide, at the Silfra. (exhales) That was easy. Known as the clearest water diving spot in the world
where visibility can go up to a hundred meters. Over 80% of the country is mountainous
with the tallest point - Hvannadalshnúkur. Eleven percent of the country is
covered with six main glaciers. The largest one in the Southeast -
Vatnajökull and the smallest one which just erupted in 2010 -
Eyjafjallajökull. With hundreds of volcanoes and about
thirty of them are consistently active as the longest river, the Þjórsá meanders through
the deep, central Hofsjökull glacier to the ocean. (exhales deeply) So, basically the entire island is geothermal.
Everywhere you go, chances are you can probably find a natural hot spring hidden
somewhere in the remote wilderness. Not only that but Iceland also harbours and capitalizes off of this unique valuable
resource as much as possible. When the first vikings came in, they were like: - "Wow! It is cold in here. I mean,
I knew Norway was chilly but dang!" - "Is there anything here we can
use to not like freeze to death?" - "Hmmm..." Yeah, they killed a lot of sheep
and made more wool clothing but then eventually they found how
to generate power with the hot springs. Geothermal energy provides about a
quarter of the country's power alone and the rest is mostly hydroelectric
from dams and renewable sources. Nonetheless, only about one percent
of their land is arable. Mostly confined to the South peripheral lowlands where root vegetables and kale and
cabbage and cauliflower are grown. Alongside numerous geothermal heated
greenhouses that harvest warm climate produce like tomatoes, cucumbers and yes, even bananas. Making Iceland the Northernmost banana
producing country in the world. Of course, the country also hosts a unique variety
of arctic wildlife like puffins, foxes, seals narwhals, the national animals: the Gyrfalcon and
the famous, highly accredited Icelandic horses. By the way, yes it's true. Iceland is the only
country with no mosquitoes however, they do have two species of midges. - (laughs) He said midgets. - Midg-ES which are similar to mosquitoes
and actually one of the species does actually bite so it's kind of like
having mosquitoes anyway. - (laughs) Iceland has biting midgets. - Keith... Just... (sighs) Speaking of which, traditional Icelandic food is,
let's just say, even my Icelandic friend said this: - This is so disgusting. Why would anyone eat this? Yeah, let's just say the vikings had some very
unorthodox tactics when it came to food preservation. Dishes like: sheep's head, stock fish jerky,
head cheese, sheep testicles and the famous hákarl. What is it exactly?
Well, let's just say: - Hey! So, I got this shark but it's poisonous.
How do I eat it? - Hmmm. Oh, I know! Let's bury it into the ground until it smells
like urine then dry it out for a couple months and then cut off the brown crust and then serve it! - Yeah! Obviously. I knew that! There are some delicious, redeeming Icelandic foods,
though. They are known for making some amazing smoked lamb served with bean salad
and grilled haddock and herring dishes. You can literally drink almost any water from
any stream, pond or lake or river in Iceland. The whole island kinda acts like a
filtration device for the glaciers. You have places like the smooth, conical
Kirkjufell mountain. (Brandon has a tattoo of that!) The Skaftafell crystal ice cave in Vatnajökull. The Kjölur trail in the Highlands. Literally like
every five kilometers you'll find a waterfall. And don't forget the geysers in the South. Pretty much all
of the Westfjords region is empty and beautiful for you to explore with no tourists.
The sea monster of Hvítserkur. Drangey Island.
Grjótagjá Caves. Mælifell, green volcano on black sand beaches. Krafla and Námaskarð. Drangsnes hot tubs.
The largest hotspring Gunnuhver and the open exposed fossiles of
Hallbjarnarstaðakambur. If you went against my disclaimer and played that
drinking game, you should be in an ambulance by now. Speaking of drinking. Icelanders are awesome people
to socialize with. Let's meet them, shall we? Now, if the Nordics were a family, Iceland
would be like the little brother that got lost at sea from a shipwreck, got stranded
on an island and became a wild man. First of all! Iceland has a population of about 335
thousand people and is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. About 92% of the country
identifies as ethnically Icelandic. About 4% are Polish and the remainder
are other immigrants from all over. Mostly Nordic, West European and
a few Asians mixed in as well. They also use the Icelandic Króna as their currency.
They use the type C plug outlet and they drive on the right side of the road. Now, being Icelandic is actually very unique, genetically
in contrast to the rest of their Nordic cousins. Basically, way back, yee-ha the vikings where like: - "Hey, we're sick of Norway. Let's make a new home.
Oh, but wait. We need women." But most of the Norwegian women were like: - "Uh uh..." So, they made a quick stop to the British Isles and
kidnapped a bunch of Irish and Celtic women, brought them over. About 70% of all their women that is. To this day, a typical Icelander actually has a
portion of Irish or Celtic roots in their blood. Now obviously, if you are one of the few lucky
people that hasn't ended up in an ambulance yet, you have noticed that the Icelandic
language is incredibly unique, often touted as one of the hardest
languages in the world to learn. I mean, half time the letters make no sense. 'F' can make a 'V' or a 'P' sound.
Sometimes 'P' and a 'T' make a 'F' sound. Sometimes the 'G' makes a 'W' sound.
These two letters both make a 'th' sound and sometimes when there's two L's it
makes like a '%43#@!v93g" sound. Most Nordic peoples have a hard
time cracking the Icelandic code. Except for the Faroese people on the Faroe Islands. They seem to have a similar sense of pronunciation
and grammar as the Icelanders. Icelandic and Faroese are the closest languages to
ancient Norse out of all the Nordic languages. If you give them a script written in ancient Norse,
chances are they could probably understand it Whereas Norwegians, Swedes and Danes are like: "HA! Nope." Now, because of its small population,
Icelandic culture is very communal. Changes are everybody either knows each other or
they know somebody who knows another person. Therefore, an ingrained sense of trust kind of
roots itself in the mindsets of most people. This is why Iceland has one of the lowest crime rates in
the entire world, sometimes topping off at number one. And also as of 2014, they were elected the world's most
peaceful country according to The Global Peace Index. Oh, by the way, in Iceland nobody
technically has a surname. They just adopt the last name dependent on their
father's first name and they just added -son, or -dóttir after it. So for example, a man named Alex with a
father named, I don't know, Bjarki would be named Alex Bjarkason. Or if it was a woman,
her last name would be Bjarkadóttir. Sorry Bjarki, you just popped in my head.
You rock man! Hope you're doing well. Icelanders are thrill-seekers. They live in an
extreme landscape, so they make the best of it. And they will ski, paraglide, rappel, skate, dive, jump
and experience anything that gives them adrenaline. Some of the top notable Icelandic people might include: Founders of Iceland - Ingólfr Arnarson and
his wife Hallveig and brother Chiorleif, Leif Erikson. The first president - Sveinn Björnsson. Musicians Sigur Rós, Of Monsters and Men, Emiliana Torrini, Múm, Gus Gus. Of course, the most famous resident -
Björk. Oscar nominated director - Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. Halldór Laxness.
Handball superstar - Ólafur Stefánsson. Magnus Örn Scheving.
Fiann Paul. And of course everyone's favorite strong man -
Hafþór or "Thor the Mountain" Július Björnsson. Now, as small as Iceland is, they've made a
huge impact in the world's media outlets. Somewhere in the like '90s and the early 2000s,
words spread fast and to this day, tourism is almost getting out of hand as they get over
three times their own population in tourism every year. Hotels need to be built, staff need to be hired and
diplomacy is key and operating the whole deal, which brings us to. Now, Iceland has a problem. A good problem. Too many people like him now
and it's all happening too fast. First of all, Iceland has always had good ties to the
USA and Canada. The US was the first to recognize Iceland as a state after independence and both
countries, not only give some of the biggest business but also house the largest communities of Icelanders
outside of Iceland. Finland is like the mysterious cool new rebel friend that they just made. They enjoy both
being outsiders because although they are both Nordic, they are not considered Scandinavian.
When it comes to humour, they totally get each other and click instantly
with dry, semi-dark undertone jokes. Sweden is like the older brother that they
love but is too busy working on his flowcharts to hang out with. Denmark is close
although Danes practically have no idea what skiing is, considering their flat landscapes. Most Icelanders learn Danish in school first, before they
learn English, even though they think it's pretty useless. When it comes to their best friends, most Icelanders
I've talked to have said Norway and the Faroe Islands. As mentioned before, Icelanders have historical roots
to Norway and the two have had very close relations. Especially since they both can relate to being
subjugated under the Danes at one point in time. The Faroe Islands are like their weird cousins
that totally get them and love to hang out with. It's a magical moment when an
Icelander meets a Faroese person. In conclusion: Iceland is a land where
cold meets hot, old meets new, small yet big, horrible fermented shark meets your dinner plate. I hope you're still alive and if you are, stay tuned,
because the big guy, India is coming up next!
