Ah, Iceland!

Thanks to the Icelandic Weather Report and articles like these:

http://icelandweatherreport.com/2005/01/betcha-didnt-know-that.html

http://icelandweatherreport.com/2005/06/icelanders-dissected.html

You can learn everything you need to know with out the expensive airfare, at least these were things I noticed right away as well, and found them just as shocking.

Like:

Icelanders hold the world record in the following:

* Credit card usage
* Cocoa Puffs consumption
* Use of electricity
* Sponsoring children in Third World countries
* Internet penetration
* The number of rules for writing poetry
* Going to the cinema
* Subscribing to Walt Disney picture books
* Sales of the computer game Championship Manager

Icelandic drivers:

* Park wherever they feel like it: in handicapped parking spaces, diagonally across sidewalks, with their rears sticking out onto the road

* Drive at whatever speed they feel like, slow or fast
* Use indicator lights very sparingly, if at all
* Are always right on your ass, making parallel parking virtually impossible on busy roads
* Will slow down and stop in the middle of a road if they feel so inclined, irrespective of the speed of surrounding motorists
* If two people who know each other are coming from opposite directions they will almost inevitably stop their cars in the road to have a chat
* Ignore zebra crossings and green pedestrian lights
* In fact, ignore pedestrians in general

(the driving I have always complained against, although after leaving the capital area I now think this is only a Reykjavík problem)

4. Icelanders are terrible at recycling. They throw newspapers, bottles, furniture and electronic equipment into the household trash. Through a serious effort on behalf of the municipalities, however, they’ve finally managed to learn that toxic things like batteries must be disposed of in the proper locations.

or

5. Icelanders do everything at the last minute. I am not kidding. As a freelance translator and copy editor, at least 80% of the assignments I get are for things that needed to be done yesterday.

Although a lot of these seem like huge generalizations - they are almost painfully true and that makes them a little more funny.

I would recommend reading the rest of the articles.