A place I'd love to visit.

Here I am again. Today I want to talk about a country I've always been fascinated by: Iceland. This is a nordic island at the North-West of Europe, between the Artic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. The population is really little, only 331.000 inhabitants. The main city, Reykjavik is populated by over the half of people living in the entire island. The thing that more attracts me from this far away land are the most marvelous landscapes you have ever seen.
My first encounter with this island was through music: four or five years ago, I really loved some bands from here, like múm or The Sugarcubes (best known for the singer Björk). I started learning more about this place, and it was the photos from the landcapes that convinced me to go there at least once before I die. I always thought icelandic music had a very special feel to it, wich was confirmed later when I watched Heima, a documentary about a band called Sigur Rós, wich shows the band playing in different scenarios all over the country.
 The green valleys, the infinite ices and roads, the eternal cold, and the different phenomena that happens in the countries that are near the poles: aurora borealis, White nights and the midnight sun. All these are things I'd love to live. If I ever go, wich I really hope, I'd like to stay in Reykjavik, wich looks like a little sweet town from a movie. But I'd like to go to the rural places too, travel all along the island, and, in the best case scenario, stay in the tradicional houses in the country, wich are covered in grass because of the difficulties of the climate. I don't know how to drive, but I'd learn if I go: I'd rent a car and travel through the infinite green lands, lakes and glaciars, listening to music (an special playlist I'll create). The other thing I'd love to do is to visit the Imagine Peace Tower, an outdoor work of art by Yoko Ono, in memory of John Lennon, wich is a tower made of light proyected to the sky.



Icelandic turf house, and a cute cat.


On the other hand, this country is really open-minded and interesting in a social way. All the electric sources are ecological, the country has no analphabetism, all education is free, really high reading rates, homosexual marriage is allowed  (since 1996, and the prime minister is openly a lesbian), and when they had en economical crisis, they nationalized the banks and arrested the bankers, wich worked. It's known as the most peaceful country in the world, with the lowest crime rates and no army.

Heysátan by Sigur Rós, from the Heima documentary.

So, this is one of my biggest dreams I hope I can achieve, even if I have to learn the (rather difficult) icelandic lenguage, wich has a north germanic origin, and has being mantained for centuries, because of the isolation of being an island with really little population. I'd love to know more about their history, art and culture. I'd like to stay several weeks, even more than a month, to have enough time lo travel slowly, enjoying every minute of it, losing myself in all the things the island has to offer to the curious eye. Maybe, sometime, go back and live there, who knows.

Imagine Peace Tower, in the Kollafjørður bay.

 

And, by the way, the country has more sheep than humans. I love sheep.