Iceland is a small country somewhere up in the Atlantic that is home to an average of just three people per square kilometre. It has volcanoes that occasionally shut down air traffic, and for a long time a stand-up comedian was mayor of the capital.
If those are the less funny facts, you can probably imagine how good the fun facts are!
Useless knowledge about Iceland – Did you know that…
So here are a few funny facts that I learned, picked up and deemed worth sharing during my time in Iceland.
…there are 13 Yule Lads (…and a Christmas Cat) in Iceland?
The Jólasveinar (Yule Lads) live in the mountains and come down to the towns of the island in the days before and after Christmas to harass people. If you have been naughty, you get a potato stuffed into your boot instead of clothing – or the Christmas Cat eats you.
Grýla, the mother, is a mean old woman with a crooked back and a big nose. Leppalúði, the father, is a good-natured simpleton. They live in the highlands with their 13 children and take turns visiting people in the weeks before and after Christmas.
…mothers leave their kids outside in the stroller while they sit in the café?
In Iceland it is fairly normal, and a common sight, that strollers are parked outside the cafés in good weather… with babies in them. The mothers usually sit on the other side of the window inside the café. From there they can keep an eye on the kids, who in turn are not disturbed by the chatter and get to enjoy the fresh air.
…you can find Iceland’s president in the phone book?
If you want to call Iceland’s president, all you have to do is look up his number in the local phone book and then you can contact him. Or you simply drop by in person – the address is printed right next to it.
…electricity in Iceland is almost free?
In Iceland you basically only pay for the infrastructure needed to receive electricity, meaning the connection to the local grid and its maintenance. The volume of your living space is calculated and your monthly rate is derived from that.
Electricity in Iceland is not only almost 80% cheaper than in Germany, for example, it is also 100% renewable. The power plants actually generate significantly more energy than needed, which is why many aluminium processing companies have settled here.
…Iceland has more Nobel Prize winners per capita than any other country in the world?
In 1955, Halldór Laxness single-handedly turned Iceland into the country with the most Nobel Prize winners per capita in the whole world: one.
The locals tell the following story about it: Shortly after he received the prize, Laxness was invited to give a guest lecture at a university in the US. But since he wrote communist literature, he ended up on the no-fly list of the USA and was denied entry. Years later, he bought a sports car (a Jaguar) and shortly afterwards his name was removed from the no-fly list again, because communists don’t drive sports cars!
…the world’s first penis museum is located in Reykjavík?
The Phallological Museum in Reykjavík opened in 1997 and, after a temporary move to Husavik, draws thousands of visitors today. For some time now, the exhibits have even included a human penis. Alongside various whale penises you will also find the private parts of horses and bears here.
…the Blue Lagoon is not natural at all?
The Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland’s most popular attractions, is by no means the natural wonder it is often assumed to be. It is much rather a byproduct of the neighbouring geothermal power plant. Here, water from the ground that flows along a lava source is used to generate electricity and warm tap water. Afterwards it is piped into the Blue Lagoon, where tourists are charged a lot of money to sweat in it.
…Icelanders like to eat sheep’s heads and rotten fish?
Svið is a popular national dish among Icelanders: sheep’s head. The sight takes some getting used to, but the taste (according to the locals) is absolutely fantastic.
Hákarl is a particular species of shark from the waters around Greenland. The fish are buried in gravel pits and left there for 6-12 weeks. After that, the meat is edible. If you want to call it that…
…particularly rough winters in Iceland get their own name?
I spent the winter of 2014/2015 here and I have to say, it was quite a challenge. On average, a storm was forecast every three days, and dozens of flights had to depart dramatically delayed or were cancelled altogether.
Because it is a tradition here to name hard winters, the winter of 2014 in Iceland was supposed to get its own name as well. It would join the ranks of such lovely names as “The Great Winter – 1078”, “The Winter of the Fallen Horse – 1313” or “The Winter of Torment – 1640”.
Name suggestions for the winter so far: “Vindaveturinn mikli” (The Great Windy Winter) and “Rokrassgat” (Windy Asshole)
…the last McDonald’s hamburger sold in Iceland is on display in a museum?
Or rather, was. Today it sits in a hotel bar and you can watch the hamburger rot live.
A year after the financial crisis, McDonald’s decided to close its branches in Iceland. Hjörtur Smárason decided to buy one last burger. Not to eat it, though, but for historical reasons. The hamburger has been sitting under a glass dome ever since – its shape and colour have barely noticeably changed.
…Google once wanted to buy Iceland?
A rumour that stubbornly persists: During the financial crisis of 2008, Google wanted to buy large parts of Iceland and use them to build server farms.
I believe this is an urban legend, but I find it so funny that I want to share it here anyway!
…in summer the sun shines almost all day and in winter almost not at all?
In summer, Icelanders sometimes have more than 20 hours of sunlight a day at their disposal, more than they sometimes like. That is why many Icelanders sleep with sleep masks and have bedrooms they can black out completely.
In winter they wish the sun back again, because on some days in December the sun shines for just a little more than 4 measly hours a day. The locals get grumpy and try to keep themselves afloat with daylight lamps and vitamin D pills.
…Icelanders like getting naked – often and in public – while strip clubs are banned (and porn might be soon, too)?
In Iceland it is completely normal to hop into the hot tub stark naked with your office colleagues in the evening. Man or woman, it doesn’t matter. Being naked is totally okay in Iceland. Strip clubs are not okay, Icelanders think, and maybe they will soon go one step further and ban porn as well.
How does that fit together? Quite well, from a feminist point of view: Icelanders apparently don’t like it when women are objectified, which is the case both in strip clubs and in many porn films.
Unfortunately, in 2009 Iceland was overtaken by Denmark as the country with the happiest population. Some believe this might have something to do with the closure of the Mercedes strip club…
…Iceland wins a whole lot of per-capita comparisons?
Iceland has the most Nobel Prize winners, the highest consumption of Coca-Cola, the worst terrorists (not a single successful terror attack, ever), the most book readers, the most writers, the most women in parliament and the most tractors!!!
…per capita.
…the police in Iceland are not allowed to carry firearms and generally have very little to do?
The police in Iceland don’t have firearms. Well, they briefly had some, when they internally decided that they needed them, secretly went to shooting practice and then bought a few. When the population found out that the police were carrying weapons around, they found that too dangerous and took them away again.
Because the police here have so little to do, they run a very popular Instagram account instead, which delights them, the Icelanders and plenty of other people. Here you can find the Icelandic police on Instagram.
A friend of mine from here had one more story to add: He once thought the elderly lady in the apartment below him was dead and called the police. The officers were so excited that something interesting was finally happening that they weren’t even sure anymore whether they were allowed to kick the door in or not. A call to the station clarified: they were not. Very unfortunate, and so they were very sad and asked whether they could at least smash the little window in the door and then open it. No, not that either. So while they were pawing the ground waiting for the locksmith, the station called and confirmed that the old lady was in hospital and doing fine, at which point the officers couldn’t even begin to hide how boring this was for them and sighed loudly before going on their way again…
Why not?
…is currently Iceland’s favourite phrase to express how much they have made peace with their own weirdness.
Love it. Love everything about it!
More useless knowledge about Iceland – Did you know that…
So here are a few more funny facts that I learned, picked up and deemed worth sharing during my time in Iceland.
…there is an app in Iceland that helps you find out whether you are flirting with a relative?
Yes indeed, Iceland is small and everyone knows everyone. Just like in a small village in Germany, where people joke: Everyone here is related to everyone. In a way, that is true for Iceland as well, which is why genealogy is a big topic here. There is a large database in which these family relationships are recorded and can be analysed. Clever developers use this data to help young Icelanders find out whether the hot blonde they are currently cuddling with might be their cousin…
If you don’t believe it, you can find the app here.
…by classic valuation methods, Iceland is worth less than WhatsApp?
If you valued Iceland like a company – which is often done based on annual revenue – it would unfortunately not be worth as much as the popular chat software. Taking the gross domestic product as annual revenue, that comes to roughly 20 billion US dollars per year for Iceland, while Facebook paid a good 22 billion for WhatsApp.
So if the Vikings founded Iceland with a big exit in mind: Epic fail!
…Iceland is getting a Dunkin’ Donuts soon, but Starbucks and McDonald’s will probably remain absent?
All of Iceland is very excited, because Dunkin’ Donuts will open a store in Iceland. Yay!
Not that Iceland doesn’t have enough American fast food chains: Subway, Quiznos, Domino’s Pizza, Taco Bell… they are all here. The last McDonald’s, however, closed its doors back in 2009, and since then Ronald McDonald has not set a ridiculously oversized foot into the land of the Vikings again. There has never been a Starbucks, and it will probably stay that way, because in the meantime local coffee houses and roasteries have established themselves.
I bet the Icelandic police are already beside themselves with excitement!
…Icelanders can’t play football. At least not well!
If they could, they would have been to a World Cup at some point. Well, they haven’t!
Oh, but hey: At least at the Euros they might be… wait… Nope!
Correction: The women’s team qualified twice, and a film was made about it.
Update: In the meantime they did make it to the Euros, and everyone immediately fell in love with the Icelanders… 😍
Update: 2018 finally turned out to be the big year, and the Icelandic national football team got to play at their first World Cup!
…there are reindeer in Iceland?
Yes indeed, Santa Claus is a nobody in Iceland. What do you do as a celebrity when you are famous all over the world except in one little place? Of course, you pack up the whole crew, head over and go on holiday! I think that is exactly what Santa and Rudolph did, and while Claus is presumably holed up in one of the many bars in Reykjavík, Rudolph and the others go for a swim in the harbour… Because, why not?
…there are no trains in Iceland. Not yet!
In all of Iceland there is not a single train. No commuter rail, no metro and no regional trains either. There is, of course, a high-speed train from Reykjavík to… nonsense!
But the government quite likes the idea of building a train from the international airport south of the capital up to Reykjavík, and all signs point to the Flybus getting some serious competition soon.
…I just hope Mehdorn (of Deutsche Bahn fame) stays out of it!!!
…Icelanders sometimes nibble on the testicles of male sheep?
Yes indeed! It is called Súrsaðir hrútspungar (sour ram’s testicles) and well… Maybe a classic case of: Why not?
Unfortunately I couldn’t find a restaurant that offered anything like it, but I bet you could get lucky at Café Loki. I’m sure you have all worked up a mighty appetite for it by now!
…and here you can even find the recipe!
…the university in Reykjavík doubles as a cinema?
Some of the lecture halls are converted into cinemas in the evening, and then you can catch the latest Hollywood movies with popcorn and a Coke.
P.S.: Apparently they have this in Germany too, so it’s not as funny as I thought… Meh!
…there are German hipsters in Iceland too?
Cloud of ash is not really German, but a group of Icelanders with a sense of humour who poke fun at their country and its visitors on their YouTube channel.
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