Finally, one of my favourite islands!

This card has travelled from Reykjavik, the world's northernmost capital. Iceland is a truly amazing and unique place, I could write about it for hours, but let's start from some basic facts.

First of all, the name is not quite accurate, it is actually a really green island, and only ~11% of land is covered in glacial ice. However, even though it's so green, you will not find any forests there, as there are actually very few trees on Iceland. This does not mean a boring landscape; apart from glaciers, you can see there hot springs, waterfalls, geysers, cooled lava flows and volcanoes (here you should probably know at least one name, Eyjafjallajökull, that erupted in 2010, paralysing air traffic in Europe). Fortunately, nature is rarely so destructive, and Icelanders know how to use other features of the island, just look at the numerous geothermal pools, including one of the most popular attractions near Reykjavik - the Blue Lagoon.

Quite unique are also names in Iceland. Last names are mostly patronymic (based on father's name), e.g. Jón Hjálmarsson means Jón, son of Hjálmar. And if you want to phone any of Icelanders, it's worth to know that the phonebook is organised by first names, and not the last as in other countries, and to avoid confusion everyone's proffesion is also listed next to the name.

Finally, a popular news from recent days, the modern version of Norse paganism is actually so popular in Iceland, that it is now going to build the first temple to Norse gods since Viking age!

ICELAND

location

between North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean

inhabitants

315,281

postcard sent

16.12.2014

postcard received

21.12.2014

distance travelled

~3081km

sent from

Reykjavik (the capital)