In 2007, a news officially announced by Iceland attracted the attention of European countries: affected by the global financial crisis, Iceland's three major banks had a total debt of 85 billion euros and had to declare bankruptcy.
This money is not much for the European powers, but it is six times iceland's gross national product, but bankruptcy does not mean that the old lai, Iceland called on the whole people to reduce spending, in 2012 to pay off half of the debt, in 2017 with full repayment of principal and interest. Such a country cannot help but make people want to experience it for themselves, unlike some world powers, which still owe the United Nations a non-payment of their dues.
Before leaving, several people were asked the same question: "What kind of place is Iceland?" ”
Xiao Yu, who studied abroad in Iceland, said: "Going out is cold, going back to the house is hot, and a little thing can make headlines";
Winter Winter, who worked in Iceland for two years, said: "The price of thieves is high, artificial thieves are expensive, and air thieves are good";
A Norwegian friend replied: "There are many people with depression there, and people are used to keeping distance";
The Icelandic guide replied to me: "Enjoy the loneliness, then Iceland is your paradise."
Indeed, Iceland, despite its location on the edge of the Arctic Circle, still does not change the stereotype of it: it is cold, human conditions are weak, materials are scarce and consumption is extremely high. But even so, there are still many people who want to travel to Iceland, and even some friends dare to leave in order to go to Iceland and save up enough money for half a year.
Icelandic high-chassis family car
A café decorated with old Icelandic objects
Guide Catherine, a descendant of the Vikings, introduced herself in the mail and said unabashedly: Yes, I am a descendant of vikings. Now the owner of a small coffee house and occasionally a part-time guide.
In Catelyn's account, although Iceland is an ancient settlement (more than 1,100 years of human habitation), Icelanders have lived a hard life for generations, and it was not until the late 20th century that they became rich from industrial fishing. This has made Icelanders a habit of living in peace, maintaining the Nordic welfare system while still retaining many centuries-old traditions, such as eating seaweed, picking up bird eggs, living in grass huts, offering elves and so on.
Iceland's tourist season is from May to September, in addition to the winter, although the temperature is not too low (winter -10 ° C or so), but can not withstand the sea breeze whistle, the kind of cold is more harsh than the Norwegian Svalbard Islands. Coupled with the fact that most of the visiting sites have a custom of closing in winter (it is said that the locals are lazy and do not want to go too far to work in winter), they finally choose to leave in the summer.
Iceland has a total of 103 registered airports, international tourists arrive at Keflavik Airport, about 45 kilometers from the capital Reykjavik; another large airport is in the city, the main route is mainly in Iceland, the rest of the airports are small, most of which are a four-sided air-breathable helipad.
Built in 1786, the capital, Reykjavik, has gradually expanded from a fur trading point to its current 273 square kilometers, inhabited by one-third of Iceland's population (370,000 in total), and is known as the cleanest, greenest and safest capital city in the world.
Like most people, my first impression of this small city is "but so", but after really understanding it, I understand that Reykjavik's cleanliness, environmental protection and security are simply not replicated by other countries and cities.
The first is environmental pollution, Iceland is limited by the size of the population and geography, it is impossible to develop large-scale industry, so that the whole island is almost a high-quality environment with zero industrial pollution, heat and electricity do not use coal and oil, all supplied by geothermal and hydropower, even buses use hydrogen fuel instead of fuel, it is said that by 2050 will achieve a national fossil fuel-free.
Most importantly, Iceland's long-established free education system has made the residents more civilized and environmentally conscious, laying a solid foundation for the maintenance of the city's appearance and good law and order. Legend has it that the Icelandic police "do nothing" and usually do the most to treat small animals, although this statement is a bit exaggerated, but "a shot has been fired for decades, causing a national sensation" is true.
According to Icelandic indigenous customs, the first meal to receive relatives and friends should be cooked by the host himself, considering that Catlin's parents are in their hometown in western Iceland, we decided to go to the restaurant to solve, but I did not expect to be mentally prepared in advance, or I was shocked by the price of the Icelandic restaurant.
The first dish is the most Icelandic grilled fish, Catelyn pointed to the plate and said: This dish is priced at 2200 crowns (about 110 yuan), the cost of grilled fish is up to 200 crowns, the cost of butter, side dishes and labor is about 1200 crowns, and then minus the cost of shop rent and water and electricity, there is little profit margin left.
The next day's breakfast was very unexpected, actually ate the salmon jelly made by the old nordic natives, legend has it that this dish is also a staple of the fish jelly once saved countless Nordic people, was one of the must-have delicacies for early Icelandic fishermen to go to sea, and now it is also eaten with lamb or horse meat.
Paired with a cicada-thin salmon fillet and yogurt vegetable salad, the fish is fragrant but not fishy, and it is indeed a traditional dish rarely seen in Europe, at least it does not conflict much with the taste of Chinese (China's coastal cities also have the custom of eating fish jelly).
After eating and drinking, she thought that the trip would start immediately, but Catelyn drove to the intersection and pointed to the traffic lights and said: Iceland was once in an economic crisis, thousands of immigrants had left, and the whole country seemed to face the darkness of the end of the world. An 8-year-old girl, witnessing the depressed mood of her parents and neighbors, asked the teacher: "Why can't we change the traffic lights to love and make everyone hopeful?" ”
The teacher then suggested to the government that he was approved to change all the traffic lights to love on the same day, and also spread the little girl's classic phrase "as long as you work hard, no matter how hard you can get through" as a blessing throughout the country.
You know, Iceland is an island with a lot more cloudy days than sunny days, although there is no polar night, but there are only 3-4 hours of sunshine a day in winter, which still makes many people develop the habit of not going out of the house, and is ridiculed by Europeans as "born with autism".
Long-term repressive climate and indifferent interpersonal relations, it is easy to cause depression, and then in the face of national bankruptcy, currency depreciation, soaring prices, unemployment and other multiple blows, Icelanders can be optimistic to face and solve one by one, which is not something that can be done with encouragement alone.
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland
Jewish rallies
Next, we will explore religious culture, as the Icelandic Constitution, while providing for the right of anyone to freedom of religion, also considers evangelical Lutheranism (one of the Christian denominations) as the state religion. According to Katrin, every Icelander is automatically accepted as a Lutheran at birth, and those who don't want to quit, and about 67% of Icelanders are currently Lutherans, compared with about 11% of other Christians.
In March 2021, Iceland recognized Judaism as a legal religion for the first time, enjoying the same rights and obligations as other religions (Iceland is required to pay a membership fee for church operation). It is worth mentioning that Iceland is the only country in Europe where the number of registered believers has decreased year by year, and has been voted by Gallup as the country with the highest proportion of atheists in Europe, with more than 12% of the population firmly unbelieving.
In addition, Iceland is also the only country in the world that regards elves as "neighbors", with up to 70% of Icelanders believing in the existence of elves, and almost every Icelander has heard a variety of elf stories. Jónasson, a professor at the University of Reykjavik, tells us that elves mean "hidden people" in Icelandic indigenous language, that they are the guardians of nature and that they also guard us, and that we can only see them if they are voluntary.
Due to the deep-rooted elf culture, the older generation of Icelanders will still ask their descendants to set aside a small piece of land behind the house to build an elf house, the smallest elf house is not as big as the cat's nest, there are also large enough to drill into the elf house of children, although the style size is slightly different, but "disturbing the elf" is taboo for all Icelanders, throwing stones, touching the elf house and shouting and other behaviors, will be regarded as a provocation by Icelanders.
There is also an elf school in Iceland, and the principal said that there are 13 different types of elves collected through folklore, they look like humans, like to grow a long beard, and their height is generally 8 centimeters.
I thought that this school was just a tourist gimmick, but unexpectedly, since its establishment in 1991, nearly 10,000 people have received courses from the Elf School, more than 5,000 people have obtained course completion certificates, and now they still maintain a 5-hour course per week. To be able to bring myths and legends into the classroom to carry out the course, Icelanders' brain holes are not small.
Before driving around the island, we had to go to the supermarket to prepare supplies and stop by to see how high prices were in real Iceland.
Compared with two Icelandic local supermarkets and two fresh convenience stores, the price basically fluctuates between 5% and 10% (large supermarkets are more expensive), of which the price of imported daily necessities is the highest: the price of a pack of 500 grams of salt is 398 crowns (about 20 yuan), the price of ten eggs is 568 crowns (29 yuan), 400 grams of carrots are 295 crowns (15 yuan), 300 grams of oats are 399 crowns (20 yuan), and 400 grams of coffee powder is 979 crowns (50 yuan), 500 grams of rice 229 crowns (12 yuan) and so on.
It is necessary to say that Icelandic supermarkets sell seasoned beer (for cooking), which tastes very similar to ordinary beer, but does not contain alcohol, and can only buy wine at a special liquor store or a separate wine cabinet set up in a supermarket.
The cheapest is multigrain bread, which is said to have been reduced in the quality of life during the economic crisis, and some have gone bankrupt and even starved. For the sake of national health, the Icelandic government has implemented tax exemptions and subsidies for all coarse grain bread, making the price of Icelandic bread even cheaper than that of Eastern European countries, the cheapest 500 grams is only 119 crowns (6 yuan), and the most expensive is 209 crowns (10 yuan).
The supermarket clerk laughed and said that for every loaf of bread sold, the Icelandic government had to pay an additional subsidy of 100-200 crowns, and the buyer was 50% off the cost price.
"Do you know why I suggested you take a road trip around the island?" Catelyn did not wait for me to organize the vocabulary before continuing to explain: "Because Iceland's public transport is not developed, urban buses have to start at 400 crowns (equivalent to 20 yuan, the monthly card is slightly lower, about 750 yuan), there are only a few times a day, there are fewer urban buses, and it is one or two kiloons at every turn, and it is often cancelled for various reasons such as wind and snow and earthquakes. ”
That is to say, if you want to see all the unknown niche attractions in Iceland, tourists can only achieve it through tour groups and self-driving tours, and the price of tour groups often starts at 20,000 crowns (minimum 1,000 yuan a day trip), compared with car rental is more free and more cost-effective (ordinary cars 200 yuan / day, off-road 4WD 350 yuan / day).
(Next Article Iceland Deep Tour, All Niche and Beautiful to Intoxicating Wonders)