I realise that I have done a few posts on my trip to Iceland over the past few days but I have so many interesting facts and things that I loved about the country that I wanted to document it all, so here are my 10 things on the tenth - April Edition.

1. Last names - While going on one of the tours, the tour guide told us that in Iceland, families have different surnames.  Instead of the wife taking on the husbands surname, people's surnames are "daughter or son of" and then their fathers first name.  So, if I lived in Iceland my name would be Lynne, daughter of Peter. 

2. Phone directories - Because of how the surnames work, the names in telephone books are listed alphabetically according to first names.  They also list the persons address and occupation. Apparently, some peoples occupations include "Drama Queen", "Lion tamer" and " Horse Whisperer".

3. City life - The continent of Iceland only has one city, Reykjavik.  The population in Iceland is about 320,000 of which two thirds of that number actually live in this city.

4. Native animal life - The biggest native animal in the continent is the arctic fox.  They have very few animals that live on the Island, about 5 or 6 in total excluding fish and birds.  There are 5 different species of Icelandic birds and best of all, they have no snakes or spiders!!

5. Keeping warm in the cold weather - All the houses and offices in Iceland are heated not by gas, fire or electricity but rather by the hot water from the local volcano's.  This water is used to heat the houses as well as provide hot water in the homes for bathing, showering and washing dishes.  This hot water sits at 89 degrees Celsius and smells like rotten eggs.  It definitely takes a little getting used to but the smell is caused by all the sulphur in the water.

6.  Currency - The currency is crazy, prices are in the thousands. Like my headgear that i bought cost K37,589.  Dinner cost us over K120,000.  And while that sounds like a lot, once converted in pounds, it really IS a lot of money. Things were very expensive there as almost everything is important and the country depend a great deal on tourism to keep their economy going.

7. Influence - The island seems to be influenced by the US. A lot of the cars are US cars and there are a lot of US restaurant chains. And they drive on the same side of the road as the US.

8. Folk Tales - The tour guide told us a lot of folk tales. They were really good and gave us an insight into the countries culture and history.

9. Potential - Iceland is a very "new" country and the one thing that really stuck out to me was the opportunities that lie before them to develop and grow.  It's exciting what the future could hold for this country.

10. Memories - The memories from this holiday are amazing.  It is a country that I will never forget and always encourage others to visit.