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Tourism of Iceland _________________________________________
Created by Bence Gulyรกs
Contents: Page Number 1. Introduction............................................................................................................. 03
2. Their Music................................................................................................................... 03 3. Their money.................................................................................................................. 04 4. Museums.......................................................................................................................... 05 5. Aurora: The Northern Light............................................................................ 06 6. Travel agent................................................................................................................. 07 7. Hulduf贸lk.................................................................................................................... 07 8. Pictures............................................................................................................................08
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Introduction Halló. I am going to write about Iceland, because there’s clearly something mysterious going on inside this country. It is a lost gem, possibly one of the last organic places of the world which is fortunately cannot be useful for people to wreck it with industrialisation and to exploit it’s resources. I think the main feature of Iceland is that to show people what is it like to be overwhelmed by an interesting feeling, which has been caused by nature and the fact that simple activities like BEING inside the untouched nature can be astonishing. More recently, it has getting more and more attention from the world, people starting to choose this place as a final destination for their holidays. According to Wikipedia, 500.000 people visited Iceland in 2010.
Their Music Icelandic music has many unique features which makes it instantly recognisable and people from other parts of the world want to come to the country to feel and become part of this mysterious culture. Their music is one of their great uniqeness. It is generally calm and innocent. It has a vibe which reminds me always of something which is beautiful, but cannot be said out loudly what it is exactly. It is that strange feeling when something is really nice and yet it is melancholic and sad at the same time. It has this ambivalent duality, perhaps coming from the country's natural beauty and also the technological developed status of our modern age which also affected Icelandic people. Icelandic performer with her beautiful voice and futuristic music, said in one of her interview that every people in Iceland have a jeep and a laptop and love geysers, and their main hobby is to go adventure in the nature with jeeps. The fun part starts when someone drives into a geyser or a valley, because then Björk, who is one of the most famous
the others have to rescue them. 3
After that they go home and tell the dangerous stories to shock those who stayed at home. Other interesting facts about Iceland can be heard in the link where Björk is interviewed by Harald Schmidt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-dFRFsQKGQ
The another famous formation is called Sigúr Rós, which means: The Rose of Victory. They have also achieved world success and millions were introduced to Icelandic culture by their music. They use an extraordinary language in their music which is a mixture of Icelandic and English called Hopelandic. But sometimes it is just ”goobledygook”, which is talking nonsense. Actually, one of their song has that title.
They have also made a documentary film named “Heima”, which can be viewed as an introductory video about Iceland and also about the
band
performing
at
various
beautiful
landscapes in the country. There is a Youtube video which was made by a young couple, who decided to go to Iceland on holiday because of this documentary. Sigur Ros -Live from Heima
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbPWi1gshzI
Their Money The Icelandic currency is called: „króna”, which means “crown”. The Nordic nations tend to use currencies named crown, such as the Danish krone, the Swedish krona and the Norwegian krone. Iceland is not a member of the European Union, so they do not use euro. Although, during 3
the financial crisis in 2008 and still after that, there were serious speculations about entering the country into the eurozone, because that seemed the only solution to save the country’s economy, because króna inflated so hugely that it could cause serious bankruptcies. The best solution would be of course joining the EU, but that would destroy Iceland’s untouched and isolated status in the world. However, Iceland became a candidate in 2010. The positive about this situation is that, however they have a bad economic system, people from all around the world are coming here because of the cheapness of the króna which is now like this:
1 US Dollar (USD)
125.556 Icelandic króna (ISK)
= 1 Euro (EUR)
166.54 Icelandic króna (ISK)
=
2 Hungarian Forints (HUF)
=
1.16 Icelandic króna (ISK)
Museums 3
There are a number of museums in Iceland which can be visited during a trip. I would like to highlight two of them: Icelandic Wonders museum
Icelandic Phallological Museum
http://www.icelandicwonders.com/
“The Icelandic Phallological Museum (Icelandic:
This museum provides a good introspection of
Hið Íslenzka Reðasafn), located in Reykjavík,
Icelandic traditions, especially about myths and
Iceland, houses the world's largest display of
creatures of the land like trolls and elves and there
penises and penile parts. The collection of 280
is a tour which searches the northern light.
specimens from 93 species of animals includes 55
"Museum guests will walk into a world of the
penises taken from whales, 36 from seals and 118
Icelandic elves and hidden people and get a
from land mammals, allegedly including elves and
glimpse of their life." (Wikipedia)
trolls.” (Wikipedia)
Aurora Aurora, or more known, the Northern Light is basically the flaming of the solar wind directed by the Earth’s magnetic field into the atmosphere. Maybe not this is what people know about this, but the fact that it is breathtakingly beautiful and maybe this is the reason that leads to Iceland, to experience this wonder. http://iceland.vefur.is/iceland_nature/northern_lights/
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Travel Agent Iceland Private Tours is a company which organises holidays for tourists in order to experience the moments in Iceland more exclusively and privately.
They organise trips to Reykjavik and to other cities and towns. People can rent jeeps and drive wherever they want or they can also get guided-jeep service, too. Honeymoons and romantic packages are also available. http://www.icelandprivatetours.is/home/
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Huldufólk There is a mythological figure in Iceland which is called “Huldufólk”. They are green small elves or hidden people in Icelandic folklore wearing 19 th century Icelandic clothing, also provides curiosity and mistery for foreigners, so it is also valuable to create touristical benefits with them. These small hidden people have huge respect from Icelandic people: No one shall throw a rock, because there is a chance for hitting a huldufólk. They have little houses located usually in a normal house’s garden made by Icelandic people. “Building projects in Iceland are sometimes altered to prevent damaging the rocks where they are believed to live.” (Wikipedia)
Álfaskólinn - Icelandic Elf School: There is a school in Reykjavík which teaches students and visitors
about the aspects of the folklore.
Here is the Facebook page of the Icelandic Elf School: http://www.facebook.com/pages/TheIcelandic-Elf-School-%C3%81lfask %C3%B3linn/347416668636001
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Here is a documentary video about the elves and the belief around them: Belief in Elves Strong in Iceland - National Geographic http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=dHvOeiGHgfw
Pictures Pictures of Iceland on the internet are very popular, because of their rare beauty. I think there is no exaggeration by the media from any point of view. Iceland cannot be penetrated by the usual hype which is created by success oriented people, in order to draw people’s attention. Nature advertises itself. Words are not necessary to describe Iceland. I could not find a video made by a company to show the great aspects of Iceland and the reason of this is I think there is NO need for that. The experience which people would get from Iceland is definitely personal and unique. To conclude, here is the video made by the couple who were inspired by the Sigúr Rós documentary called Heima to book a flight to Iceland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAOC4K_Jlbc
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Takk fyrir! (thank you!)
Bless bless! (bye bye!)
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