What I learned about Iceland from people who actually live there

It involves weather, the Northern Lights, and most importantly, cats

My love for Iceland began in high school, when my friend’s very cool older sister would drive us places with The Sugarcubes playing on her car stereo. That led me to Björk, and the knowledge that Iceland existed and was a cool and quirky place.

It never occurred to me that I could actually visit Iceland until the early 2000s, when I was living in Germany and one of my business English students came back from a trip there. This was well before it became a popular place for tourists; less than half a million visitors were going annually then, and it’s more than quadruple that these days. But the photos he showed me were of incredible natural beauty, and landscapes I’d never seen before, and his stories were so full of enthusiasm it became a must-visit for me.

My cabin on Mt Kirkjufell - one of many highlights of Iceland

I finally got to see Iceland in 2015. Funnily enough, this was thanks to a big win on an Instagram post competition at the annual Problogger conference I used to attend in Queensland, when I won half a million frequent flyer points and decided to use them to get to this very far away place.

Our grass-roofed cabin in the south-west of Iceland

It was magic from start to finish. Geysers, glaciers, Icelandic horses, puffins, grass-roofed huts to stay in on the property of a retired Icelandair pilot who’d take off down the runway outside our window to go shopping in Reykjavik. I accidentally booked a cabin literally on the side of “Iceland’s most beautiful mountain”, as all the brochures described Kirkjufell.

All with this little fella, who’s now a 6-foot 16-year-old

In my ten days or so in Iceland - not nearly enough, of course, but travel in Iceland definitely doesn’t come cheap even if you don’t have to pay to fly there! - I met many Icelanders, but never really had the opportunity to have a proper long chat. Which leads me to …

Chats with Locals: My new series on The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

I’ve been pondering this idea for literally years and I’m so excited that it’s finally come to fruition - and kicking off with my beloved Iceland is even better! One of the most memorable parts of travel is the locals you meet and get to speak with, especially when you have the chance to learn more about what it’s like to live where they do - the similarities, the differences, the fun peculiarities. It’s not always easy to do this when you travel, whether due to a language barrier, or because it can simply be difficult to find local people to chat to outside those serving within tourist industry. So when Slowly, an app which connects people globally as penpals to encourage longer and deeper conversations, offered to sponsor a series, I knew immediately it was time to start Chats with Locals!

It was a different approach for me - rather than seeking out (or being approached by, more commonly) guests who are connected with tourism and travel, I wanted to find Icelanders from other walks of life who were willing to chat with me. It was different, and very exciting!

My new Icelandic friends Ragnhildur, Halli and Alda

Before I get to them, I have to also say I’ve been doing a deep Iceland immersion while making this episode, so if you want do to the same, here are some more ways:

• you can explore my reading list of books connected to Iceland - mostly novels and memoirs, and mostly by Icelanders, but all by people who love Iceland

• you can listen to my Spotify playlist of Icelandic music - I’ve learnt there’s much more these days than just The Sugarcubes and Björk!

• and if you missed it, you can watch our book club chat with award-winning Australian author Hannah Kent, on her memoir about falling in love with Iceland during her year there as an exchange student.

So, do Icelanders love Iceland as much as we do?

I had a series of questions that I asked each of my Icelanders (who were an artist, a writer, and a designer/entrepreneur), and the first thing that surprised me was that despite their different backgrounds, they had a lot of overlapping things to tell me. Above all, when I asked them if they like living in Iceland - and bearing in mind that two of them had spent significant numbers of years living outside of Iceland, but had returned - they had a lot of positives to tell me. This despite Iceland being a country full of extremes - isolated in distance, with almost fully light days in summer and the tiniest bit of midday light in winter, and with a language that virtually nobody else in the world speaks, just the 400,000 people who live there.

I took this photo after 10pm when I visited Iceland in July 2015

One of my favourite moments was asking Ragnhildur, an artist living in the middle of Reykjavik, about the Northern Lights. I’ve not yet had the chance to witness them in real life, but I thought that if you live with them all your life, perhaps you get used to the phenomenon. But Ragnhildur told me vehemently that this isn’t the case:

“I’ve seen them every winter my entire life, multiple times, every winter and every single time, it’s always amazing. You stop what you’re doing and you just look up. It just does not get old. It’s always amazing.”

Surprising learning about Iceland (here’s the cat part!)

You’ll have to listen to the whole episode to learn all the surprises these three shared with me, but I must spill the (toe) beans about the cats. Just before I started recording with Ragnhildur, while we were already online together, my cat Aristotle decided to make a huge racket by stretching and falling out of the basket she likes to sleep in on the top of my printer, right next to my desk. Since we then began talking cats, Raghnhildur explained to me that she has both home and shop cats - she and her husband run a gorgeous souvenir shop in Reykjavik, see her shop “manager” below - and so I asked if Icelanders in general lean towards either cats or dogs. It turns out that dogs were actually banned as pets in Reykjavik for 60 years, until the mid-80s, and so the cats figured out how to take over … clever things!

Halli and Alda also had interesting aspects to add for what was surprising about Iceland, and my favourite part of the chats were when I asked them all about what a typical Icelander is like. In many ways I began to feel like Icelanders and I are pretty kindred spirits, especially when I heard about how many of them wear multiple hats or have side projects, especially creative ones. No wonder I loved Iceland so much!

This way to hear more …

If you haven’t already had a listen, then I honestly think you’re in for a treat (and I’m not just saying that myself, I’ve had quite a few messages from listeners who loved this episode!).

PS: My next “Chats with Locals” is about Taiwan, and I still need one more guest. Do you know anyone living in Taiwan? Send them my way!