Iceland's secret?

Good old OPAL! Iceland's secret. The photo on the left is the green "lightweight" version so you should try the red label version :) They're made of gum Arabic, menthol, liquorice and eucalyptus oil, and as far as i can tell are designed to get children drunk!*

Maybe I should explain?

Ok! As a local sweet, children are encouraged to eat them over imported sweets from the likes of Cadbury's and Nestle. They're a bit of an acquired taste, but soon you'll like them. Now here's the best part. There's an alcoholic drink called......OPAL! (With the same branding) And lucky for the company that makes them, all the children grow up and have already acquired the taste for the drink. Clever eh?!

*Ok children when they grow up, but that's not so interesting to say :)

Time to Invade?

I've been wondering about this for a while. Iceland now has next to no defence force. Now on the positive side there isn't any oil or diamonds to be found here, so most regimes wouldn't bother. (And if you do find any make sure you don't tell anyone!) I love the reasons to invade on the website though:

- No armed forces
- There’s no malaria
- They kill whales
- It's Convenient
- They deny they have WMDs (Always a good excuse!)

More links to the story here and here.

Sign up now :-)

Bolludagur

Today is "Bolludagur" or Bun day in Iceland.

I have been led to believe that traditionally children must get up before their parents, and then attack them with sticks, whilst shouting "Bolla, Bolla". For every hit, the child gets one cream bun. Sounds like a great plan :)

Waterfalls

If you are a fan of waterfalls, Iceland is an ideal place to go travelling. Unfortunately with such a large number of waterfalls over the country, how do you know which one to go to? Already on the case, pretty much every waterfall has been given a tag to make sure you should visit. See below:

Dettifoss: The most powerful waterfall in Iceland.
Goðafoss: The most spectacular waterfall in Iceland.
Gullfoss: The largest volume waterfall in Iceland.
Háifoss: The second highest waterfall of the island. (This needs work!)
Skógafoss: The most beautiful waterfall in Iceland.
Seljalandsfoss: The most famous waterfall in Iceland. (Try again guys!)
Glymur: The highest waterfall in Iceland.

Still, can't fault the tourist board, and local residents from wanting to get the tourists to visit "their" waterfall. I would say that they're all worth a visit, just loved the classifications given above.

Have i missed any other major waterfalls with a "most..." comment?

Icelandic Horses.

Just to clear this up. Icelandic horses are horses. They may look like ponies, may be the same size as ponies, and be called ponies by everyone outside Iceland, but they are horses! :-)

Hope that clears things up!

*runs away in a hurry*

UPDATE: Thanks for all the comments below.

Iceland and Ice

Word of warning. When walking on ice, don't forget to wear your mannbroddar or "anti a**e over tit devices". I realise they fit into "dork fashion", but during winter it's too dark to notice :) Just don't wear them inside, or out in town as you'll quickly get kicked out of whichever bar you're visiting!

41-42

Sorry couldn't resist ;-P

For those not in the know, this was the score of the (very close) handball match between old rivals Denmark and Iceland on Tuesday. Iceland equalised with 2 seconds to spare in normal time, and almost held on during extra time, but let the motherland pull ahead in the final seconds. Cracking game!

But handball! you all cry out. Well it's the national sport here, and it's taken very seriously despite the World Cup being covered by Eurosport!