Visit Iceland by ferry

What’s the drooping Dollar and British Pound mean for US and UK travellers? A journey to the most European countries has become more expensive in the last year. But there is one big exception: Iceland! The country in the north Atlantic ocean has seen its banks collapse and nearly has gone bankrupt. Today the Icelandic krona is worth less than one US penny or 0.0049 GBP.

What about visiting Iceland next year and experience the great nature with volcanoes, geysers, deserts and wide fjords? On the one hand you can take a plane to get there. But of course it’s more recreative to take a ferry to Iceland. Today the ships from Europe to Iceland are both ferry and cruise ships, so that you can enjoy your yourney from the first day on. The only scheduled connection between central Europe and Iceland is from Denmark. So if you want to get to Iceland by ferry from the UK, you have to go from Harwich to Esjberg in Denmark first. But when arriving in Iceland, you will be more relaxed and you will save money, because you can go around with your own vehicle and it’s not necessary to rent a car.

Icelandair offers direct flights to Seattle

The airline Icelandair will start flying from Iceland to Seattle four times a week beginning in July this year. “This puts Icelandair in a favorable competitive position on the route between Seattle and Europe. We can offer three hours shorter flying times than other airlines from the Scandinavian capitals and other locations in Europe,” Icelandair CEO Birkir Hólm Gudnason said in a statement. The airline will use Boeing Co. 757 airplanes for these flights.

Low corruption in Iceland

The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is issued annually by the Transparency International Organization and was published this week again. The index ranks countries on a scale of zero to ten according to their perceived levels of corruption, with a higher score indicating less perceived corruption.

Iceland achieved a score of 8.9, which indicates a very low corruption. Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand. Finland reached the highest score in the new survey. ranks at 9.0 points. Norway ranked lowest of all the northern countries with a score of 7.9. The lowest ranked country in this year’s index is Somalia at 1.0.

Record number of students in Iceland

By the beginning of the new term more than 20,000 students were enrolled to universities in Iceland. This is a record number of students in Iceland. All together there are eight institutions of higher education in the country with the largest one in Reykjavik (University of Iceland), where 13,600 students are enrolled right now.

There were 17,449 university students in Iceland in 2007. This year that number has grown to 20,300. The University of Akureyri in North Iceland reports 60 additional students since last year with a total student number of 1,400.

Iceland won the silver in handball

The Icelandic handball team lost against France in the final at the Beijing Olympics. But now they are taking home the silver in handball for the very first time.

This is the second silver medal Iceland won at all at the Olymptic Games and the fourth medal overall. Only once before Vilhjálmur Einarsson has won the silver in 1956 in Melbourne. In Los Angeles 1984 and in Sydney 2000 two Icelandic athletes won the bronze.

Icelandic handball team qualified for the quarter finals

The Icelandic men’s handball team is very successful at the Olympic Games in Beijing, China. After they have beat world champion Germany they also won against Denmark on Saturday and Egypt on Monday. The Icelandic team has now qualified for the quarter finals of the competition.

Surtsey on UNESCO’s World Heritage List

Surtsey has been Inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in July. The Island is one of the Westman Islands approximately 32 kilometers off the south coast of the country and was formed during a submarine eruption from 1963 to 1967. All together 19 cultural sites and eight natural sites were added to the World Heritage List on 8 July.

Warm Summer in Iceland

By the end of July 2008 temperatures rose above 20°C in a lot of parts of Iceland. On 29th July in Thingvellir the temperature reached 27°C which is a new record of this summer and the highest temperature since many years. As a result, Nauthólsvík the thermal beach in Reykjavik and swimming pools all over the country were crowded during the past few days. Usually the warmest summer days can reach 20-25°C Iceland. The absolutely highest temperatures recorded at around +30.5°C in 1939 on the southeastern coast.

Iceland weather forcast

New fishes in Icelandic waters

Due to global warming the temperatures in the sea around Iceland has risen in the past years. As a result some new species of fish have become common is Icelandic waters. According to the Icelandic Marine Research Institute, the warming period began about 12 years ago causing fish that usually live further south to migrate north. Some of the new species are e.g. mackerels, haddocks and monkfishes. These news reported the daily newspaper Morgunblaðið in Reykjavik last week.

Landsmót Horse Festival

The Landsmót Horse Festival – the Icelandic National Horse Show – took place near Hella in South Iceland this year. The organizers are very satisfied with this year’s tournament, reports Fréttabladid. More than 13,000 people visited the compitition on its final day. Also the police was lucky to say that everything went smoothly but the large number of visitors. The Horse festival takes place every two years. The next Landsmot 2010 will be held at Vindheimamelar near Skagafjörður in North Iceland.