American reacts to Iceland. Geography Now! Iceland 

The nature is actually pretty harsh. Seawind, fog + volcanoes. Iceland is volcanically one of the most active regions in the world. Usually volcanoes don't cause much problems coz they are pretty remote. Eyjaflallajökul eruption in 2010 froze almost all European flight traffic for two weeks but that eruption was still small. It just had an ice cap on the crater so lava faced water that flashes to steam and very tiny ash particles that are dangerous to jet engines. Weather condition was optimal for the ash cloud to travel right in the European main airspace. One year later Grimsvötn erupted without much problems even it erupted under an icecap first. 2014-2015 Bardarbunga had a fissure eruption that effused 1,3km³ of lava. Compared to Eyjafjallajökul 2010 that had only 0,3km³ output. Kilauea in Hawaii pushed out 0,8km³ in 2018. Bardarbunga caused only minor irritating gas problems in inhabited areas. Glaciers host many volcanoes. Usually Icelandic volcanoes are effusive (basaltic magma), not exploding but the icecap/water makes them explode. They also make the Icelandic volcanoes most deadliest weapon: jökuhlaup; volcanic flood. Geothermal heat and straight magma contact melts them causing flooding away from the glaciers. This is a real threat to the people being in the low land areas and the ringroad especially close to Myrdarsjökul glacier that covers volcano Katla. Katla is considered the most dangerous of the of the country. It can do Mt. St. Helens level eruption and has done it many times in the near past (latest 1918). Hekla is maybe the most known volcano there. Starts explosive but turns in more effusive style. Iceland has caused series famine in continental Europe by it's volcano(es). Lakagigar erupted 12-15km³ of lava in 1783. 10 000 people died in famine in Iceland after crops failed, almost 200 000 food animals died and coastal waters were ruined by the ash and volcanic gasses (sulfur dioxide, hydrogen fluoride). It has been estimated that 23 000 people in UK were killed by the sulfur dioxide poisoning. The eruption caused climate to cool and changed rain season rythm in Africa and Asia and estimated death toll is 6 million people (also gas poisoning). You'd better acknowledge Iceland existence, it's true nature and respect it - as beautiful it really is :D

Yes, we can read the old scripts. But we call it Icelandic (not old norse). The “natural” pool you noticed is not natural. It is called the Blue Lagoon and is a side effect of a geothermal powerplant. Still nice though. The active volcano eruption is just a few miles from the Blue lagoon and not far from the capital Reykjavík. The eruption is a tiny nonthreatening one comparedto others like Eyjafjallajökull that stopped the air traffic in Europe 10 years ago due to ash. Be for this ongoing eruption there were a whole lot of earthquakes going on before the eruption (some rather big). I could feel many earthquakes a day for two weeks. Even though the whole peninsula of Reykjanes is made of lava, there has not been an eruption there for almost 800 years. But when it erupts in that area it tends to be busy erupting for decades or even more. This eruption could go on for years. Otherwise there is usually an eruption few years apart somewhere in Iceland. The island formed in the sixties took years to form (called Surtsey). Few years later on an island close to it an eruption burried part of a town (in Vestmannaeyjar the year 1973). You should go there! The stone carving is just a work of a single contemporary artist (nice but not a big deal). You will most certainly boil if you step in to our hotsprings. Ed Sheeran could tell you that (he was hospitalized after accidentally stepping in to one for a brief moment). But there are warm springs you can bath in. Did they mention Kaleo (an Icelandic band) or Hildur Guðnadottir that is an award winning music writer (got Oscar, Golden globe and more for the music in The Joker and Chernobyl).

The on-going eruption is very small and calm as you see. It is close to Reykjavik but the lava flows in the closed valley so it really doesn't threat anyone. Small amount of volcanic gasses may be felt.

Love your videos! I would definitely call Iceland our best friends 🇫🇴 🤝 🇮🇸 even tho we’re a part of the Danish kingdom,yet. Sincerely from a Faroese friend 🇫🇴

Hi Jim great you did iceland! I have an Icelandic horse and have lived and worked on a horse farm there when I was younger 😉 I have been there many times! The nature is absolutely amazing! You sure have missed out on this beauty of a country. And yes everything in the video is true! The sheep head dish is sold in like gas stations just like in the picture. Steam comes randomly out of the ground everywhere. You can bath in several natural hot springs if temperatures is right (some are too hot or cold, and sometimes it mixes with glacier water so you can suddenly get a unexpected really cold stream 😂) the ring road is the way to go because the inlands are not always safe many roads there are closed in fall and winter. Also, most food is really really good, but the fermented shark is really gross! I do not recommend.

In the service Iceland was a stopover point, but didn't really get to explore the country until 2005 when one of our aircraft broke down and we had to go and perform maintenance. Got to spend 5 days there, and it became one of my favorite places to visit.

Iceland is on my bucketlist since forever. So are the Färöer Islands. Their Capitol is literally called Thorshavn

I have snorkled in Silfra and it literally feels like you are flying the water is so clear

You can swim in "some" hot springs, only bathe in designated bathing springs, don't go taking chances with random hot spring, it might be 30°C or it might be 90°C

I liked this video. I'm from Finland and I would love to visit Island someday.

Ahhh yes my homeland😌🇮🇸

Iceland is like nowhere else I’ve been, it’s a wonderful place. You can bathe in some of the hot springs. The Blue Lagoon was like sitting in the hottest bath ever. The food was Interesting !😂

Hi I am from Iceland, we can understand some old "Nordic" scripts but Föroese Island and Iceland are mostly connected to the Celts, Iceland and Föroese island´s speak the oldest Germanic language in the world, that predates English....

we usually only eat sheep's head and a few other weird old foods on fathers day. the eye is usually still in the head and you're supposed to eat the meat and the eye out of the skull (also it isn't DE toothed)

I live in iceland and used to work at a restaurant from the faroe islands. The faroe island staff came over for a staff party and it was great!

stock fish jerky is unsalted white fish, most often cod or haddock, which has been dried with cool air , so dried fish

Look up the Icelandic band KALEO. One of their videos (Skinny) is shot in front of an active volcano. No trickery, all on location.

This was a very fun and entertaining video. You really know how to keep it like that throughout the whole thing

The Island Surtsey that was formed in the 60's is slowly disappearing due to strong sea waves crashing into it due to its location were it sits, and it is projected that it will disappear mostly sometime in the future. the sheep's head does include the eyeball and some people like it. The jaw does include the teeth's, back in the old days the jaws of the sheep's head and bones were used as toys for children. and everything was used back in the day, nothing was wasted of the sheep.

Was wondering if I wanted to commit 20 minutes learning about Iceland. This was amazing and engaging all the way through.

You have to find the right spot for hot springs...and always check the temperature constant earthquakes and activity can suddenly boil your spring in a fraction of a second..soooo be careful i guess if the ground has been shaking recently then stay clear..

This was 💯 True what he said 👍 Welcome (Velkominn) to Iceland 🇮🇸 ❤️🦋🦋🦋

From Iceland here. Love your reactions. Two corrections on the video: The "surname" would be Bjarkadóttir or son, not Bjarkidóttir because of grammatical declension. We begin learning English before we learn Danish. And yes, we read old Norwegian texts in schools and understand them. It takes a bit of effort and there are sometimes old words that we do not understand and need help with, but other than that, we can understand the concept.

Hi fellow Icelander here the sheep’s head is with eyes and teeth and no you can not bathe in the hot springs unless it is heat controlled

the hot spring I visit in Japan are basically hot water maintained at around 50-80°C (around 100-145°F). The warmer ones are usually for children or people who couldn't stand the heat. A natural hot spring will depend on how far they are from the heat source, it usually range from about 35-90°C. and they also need to check for the sulfuric content... if it's too high, then it'll be dangerous to dip in it.

with regards to the seismic and volcanic activity there was an interesting article in the guardian on 15 march about a town close to the volcano in the live feed you shown: "Grindavik lies in the southern part of the Reykjanes peninsula, a volcanic and seismic hotspot, where more than 40,000 earthquakes have occurred since 24 February - exceeding the total number of earthquakes registered there last year." ... that is about 2100 earthquakes per day....

The sheep's head is singed with a blowtorch until brown and hairless, split in two lengthwise (the brains discarded) and then cooked. It actually tastes good, much better than it looks. The fermented shark (spelled ROTTEN shark) is "traditional" food, meaning that some ancestor was desperate enough to try eating it and found that it kills you slower than famine does. In modern Iceland, it is mostly a practical joke we inflict on tourists. While some Icelanders actually like it, most of us find it absolutely, totally disgusting. The language: It is as close to Old Norse as modern English is to Shakespearean English, and not only due to isolation. Being a Danish colony for centuries provoked a linguistic revolution over a century ago. We dumped the Danish influence and went on a language purification binge. It turned out to be easier than expected.

Eruptions are very common in Iceland. To put it into perspective there were 39-45 eruptions in the 20th century and there have been 6 in the 21 century.

Our naming laws were really strict. As of recently they have been changed and no longer require the use the gendered suffix. My younger sisters son is was the first generation without these laws. My name is Þorsteinn Ragnarr Guðmundsson. My two sisters are named Áslaug Guðmundsdóttir and Kristín Guðmundsdóttir. My dads name was Guðmundur Magnússon. Now, guess what my Grandfathers name was. You guessed it. Magnús Böðvarsson. And my Great Grandfather? Böðvar Þorsteinsson. Íslendingar use the fathers family side in naming so my mothers name is also Hrafnhildur Ólafsdóttir.

Regarding the ability of us Icelanders to read and understand the Old Norse of the thirteenth century, there is a hilarious clip where an 'Murican Cowboy (that happens to be a PhD in Old Norse, among other things) presents some Old Norse sentences to a Norwegian, a Dane and an Icelander: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5MRfVHU9fr0.html The dialog is mostly in English, but it drives home how close Icelandic still is to the Old Norse of the Icelandic Sagas (except for the lettering).

Some of the hot springs are boiling hot so yes you would die if you fell into them but there are a lot of hot springs that you can bath in. Just be careful and don't assume it's not dangerously hot.

Im born in 1992. There have been 9 eruptions since then and ive seen 3

You sure do not want to bathe in any of the Geysirs, but the water leaking from them can make up great ponds here and there that are magical :) The food is not what we eat that is shown in this video, this is something the tourists eat and Icelanders eat once two times in a year. And yes it is true, give me 1000 year old norwegian book and we can read it, norwegian can not.

Horses! Small viking horses, with five gates. Mythical.

15:00 I am Faroese and Icelandic it is true 😀

sheep heads are still eaten here and it is so good. Eyeball is the best part

I'm going on the Ring Road in October

Yes we can read old icelandic lmao. And iceland is extremly active we have a volcanic eruption every 5 years or so. I am 16 and i have esperienced 5 or 6 eruptions so far ive lost count lmao

in order to really enjoy all the sights properly, I would recommend taking no less than 10 days doing the ring road 14 is better

I desperately want to go there. I don't want the 36 hour flight, though.

You can go in a hot spring, but you might not come out!

I'm Icelandic and yes we can read scripts and text as far back as the year 1200 or so. The sheep's head actually tates great! And also the fermented shark (nothing like Kimchi though). You should definitely visit Iceland

one thing, the sheeps head has it's eyes and tongue and we eat it

On the subject of Icelandic music, check out Skálmöld & Sinfóníuhljómsveit Íslands. The Icelandic metal band Skálmöld together with the Reikjavik Symphony Orchestra!!! Love it!!

You can only dip into a select few geothermal spots but the rest will make you disappear forever

Icelandic person here :) Stock fish jerky is practically just dried up fish and it´s not as bad as people speculate. If you pairit with butter then it is a truly delicious :p

It will start again after 3 weeks

I'm from Iceland

I live in Iceland

Haahhaahha i like hearing him talk icelandic thats so funny im dying

We also have a animal yk male part museum

Yes it is easy for us to read old Norse but a few words may confuse us

Sivð is usually half a sheeps head with the fur taken off, boiled served with mash potatoes and swede which I believe is also called rutabaga in the US? Maybe not. But the brain is usually removed for a separate dish, the teeth are still there but you don't eat them obviously. Its very tender meat. You basically eat it all including the eyes which are my favorite part. You cut all the way around and sever the optic nerve to get the whole meatball sized eye. Its a holiday good though. Not an every day food, although one bus stop does serve it year round at the capital. I love all traditional foods here. We never waste anything. Thats how our ancestors HAD to live with precious few resources and thats how our modern day dishes came to be. Almost zero waste and all of our animals are free roam. Sheep especially just roam the countryside until fall. Also zero growth hormones or anything is used on them. They have pure genes and we do not import any animals. We do have normal foods too though. Such as a hot dog made of icelandic sheep and cows, smoked fish, sheep flank, ham, rhubarb marmalade goes on A LOT of food, soups, stews(a national favorite is plokkfiskur). We even have one the best burgers in the world. We have no mcdonalds because if Tommi Tómasson and Tommi's Burger Joint. We also have no Starbucks, and LOVE coffee. Some places you can find 10 coffee shops within only a few kilometers. We are so much more than just geography though. Our quality of life, culture, community and so much more make us one of the best countries in the world. I recomend everyone come at least once. We love tourists so long as they respect our laws, land and people. Edit: hákarl is also amazing. Its like durian. The smell is strong, but the taste is amazing. We also love to party and drink.

You have to try the sheep head

If you are Wondering how to say "Ö" its basically pronounced "uhhhhh" Like you are confused or something. so cut the uhhhh to a short "uh" and thats how you say Ö

Im from iceland and volcanos dont erupt too much

The way some Americans try to pronounce icelandic words is so fucking funny bro

I was born in iceland andi can understand most of the norse language

They keep the eyeball in the sheeps head. Tastes like jelly.

8:47 Sheep's head the best lol

Fact: they did not kill a bunsh of sheep because you dont kill sheep for their wool, you sheer them

yes nors give it to me and I can understand 70%

The sheeps head has skin, eye and ears and bones when we eat them it is very delicious

I'm from iclend

Iceland is also the country that has the most of American cars per capita. Where else can you throttle a Camaro around geysers while eating sheeps testicle.

Peoble scoop the eyeball out of the sheeps head and eat it

You should react to the RU-vid channel Kara & Nate!

It's a very funn

I'm from islandi😏

We eat the eye and tongue aswell

Some people consider the eyes of the sheep to be the most delicious part of the sheep's head. The reason traditional Icelandic food is mostly food that is preserved in weird or sometimes kinda gross ways is because that was the only way to survive. Vegetables where not grown commonly and can only be grown and harvested in a small window each year and since the summers can sometimes be very cold and it can snow a little bit it's not a stable harvest each year. It wasn't until in the 20th century that vegetables started to be commonly grown in Iceland mostly thanks to green houses. Furthermore back in the days ships came twice a year with some food and products but usually no fresh food since it would not last on the ship. The only food that you could get fresh almost all year round was fish. People could not kill their domestic animals constantly because no-one could afford that many animals. Every part of the few animals people could afford to killwell

So peaceful they don’t even have an army.

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are normal in Iceland. Before this eruption we had about 10.000 earthquakes for about two weeks. Very fun😂 Yes Iceland is really beautiful but you have to know the island before coming because there is danger everywhere. All from the mouintain roads with slippary snow and wind and to the black beaches. For the past few years more tourists have died in an accidant here then us Icelanders (car crash, fall in an waterfall, drowning and died from being out to long in the cold) We love tourists but we also dont like them because they sometimes drive on a road thats forbidden and go too close too a waterfall and sometimes even ruin our beautiful nature. The food here is amazing, the traditional icelandic food is not eaten that often. We eat a lot of fish and meat. Icelandic food, even though it does not smell good, it tastes very good. I for one love a sheep head! The hotsprings are very hot and you can only bath in some (Blue Lagoon and Reykjadalur for examble) In the summer time we get sunlight 24/7 and very good wheather (last summer we got 27 degrees but usually its about 15-20degrees) I love being an Icelander and speak such a hard language that only a very small part of the world speaks! If you have more questions then I would love to answer them. Bestu kveðjur, Birgitta :) Best wishes, Birgitta :) P.S we also have a Penis museum 😂

plsss faroe islandssss

I'm used to it"_

one just of the capital is erupting right now

Next is indonesia, plz

USA navy D-3 :D

Surtsey wour 3 times bigger... the stone head ins 2+4 feet.... some hot springs you can go in to but some are up to 160C that is 360 farenheit....seep head we eat tis alot it is one of our traditional food and it this is good if cooked right...beef jerky just fish.... and dont come here we dont like turist anymore now i have to stop with crim....

This is what I HATE about old norse and icelandic..... IT IS THE SAME!!!!

Yay boiled sheep's head hehe

No you cant baith in hot springs you will melt

Dry fish

Tourists are kinda ruining iceland

Hahah i live in ieland

Sheep head is delicious!

FINLAND

3

I like our food😠

My favourite Iceland fun fact and I have no idea why this isn't in the video: Since they are so few people and have been (geneticly) secluded for quite some time, young people have to be extra careful to not accidently hook up with some second cousin. For that reason Iceland has set up a complete genetic databank of its citizens which anyone can access to determine levels of relations between them. They are pretty much all related in some way, you just should make sure it's not too close for comfort. 😅 And for today's kids: yes ... it also comes as an app for your phone.

1. Errors: The Finnish population aren't Nordic (for the most part) - modern Finland is a blend of a lot of vanished/assimilated people...that's another story for another time. More importantly Iceland and Denmark are not that friendly - because Iceland used to be in the iron grip of a religious-fanatic Danish satelite regime which, amongst other things, forbade music and dancing for hundreds of years. 2. Icelandic tourism really started to mushroom in the mid '80s - when I became aware of it I was too young to know why, but I know now it had something to do with Mikhail Gorbachev and a lot more to do with the international attention to Icelandic music. Even before the Sugarcubes became famous there was an international cult following for semi-related acts like Kukl, Purrkurr Pillnikk, (Th)eyr, and whatever Bubbi Morthens, Dr Gunni and H.O.H were doing at that time. 3. The guy in the video doesn't even make an effort with the language. Pity - for anyone already bent towards Nordic languages, Icelandic is beautiful (what with all its short high-pitched vowel sounds combined with a plethor of long sss, trilled rrs and long and short thh's. A few more clues - Ae is an "i" sound, Hv is somewhere between "kv" and "qu", the "ll" is pronounced Welsh-style) 4. According to some sources, it wasn't the Irish so much as the Scots and Shetlanders who were abducted by those primal Viking warlords. 5. He acts like he's never heard of midges? Omnipresent in Europe, they're mostly fairly harmless - unlike mosquitos their bites just bring up itchy spots 6. Old-school Icelandic food, now there's a curiosity! In the Sugarcubes video Zabor, there's a between-song sketch in which the keyboard player, having inadvertently pointed out the connection between Slatur and Haggis, grimaces at the prospect of her relatives eating sheep heads including eyes. A few years after that there was a comical advert on UK TV with a Bjork impersonator describing the preparation of that LITERALLY piss-pickled shark-meat.

he is wrong the girl/daughter gets the name of her Mother as sirname not the name of her father. the boy/son gets his fathers 1st name as his sirname.