I have always found it quite remarkable that we have 13 Santa Clauses or Yule Lads in Iceland instead of one red dressed Santa.  I am also brought up with stories of the terrible troll Grýla, who used to eat bad behaving children.  She would come down from her cave in the mountains with a bag where she collected naughty children and brought them back to her cave where she ate them.  I am not sure if this would relate to a cannibalism since Grýla is a Troll, not human?  But luckily I was a quiet child so Grýla did not stand a chance with me.  Still I do remember when we heard someone knocking on the door, my mother raised the questions if this might be Grýla checking on bad behaving children!  

It is strange to think that while all female trolls in Iceland are quite scary with bad temperament, the male trolls are usually quite dull and do no harm.  There are many Icelandic troll stories to proof this and for example Grýla´s husband is Leppalúði. His part of the story of the Yule Lads is non grata, he is just there, lazy and dull. 

We left Reykjavik for Akureyri on a Friday afternoon at about 4pm, having secured a ride with a lovely Latvian lady on ‘Samferða á Norðurlandi’ – a Facebook group for people who are travelling around Iceland for whatever reason and can either offer a lift or wish to catch one.  
Although I’d been to Akureyri many times previously, I usually visited during the summer months and so was delighted to see the cute little city completely covered in snow. 

​Reykjavik’s best coffee houses
There are few things in life that compare to the aroma of roasting coffee beans or the first sip of coffee in the morning. Iceland’s love affair with coffee was ignited when eminent Icelanders and Danes introduced the lovely, rich caffeinated stuff in the 17th century. Since this time, coffee has been historically central to Icelandic culture and a routine feature of daily life. Iceland actually ranks among the highest in the world when it comes to coffee consumption per capita, taking third place, with its fellow Scandinavian countries Finland and Norway in first and second. Being the Icelander’s favourite brew, the country takes pride in serving great coffee and even hosts barista 

​One of the main things that defines Iceland is it’s water. Icelandic water is one of the purest in the world, which makes it taste delicious and your skin and hair silky smooth. And with such an abundance of natural geothermal water, it is no wonder that public bathing is very much a part of Icelandic culture. So much so that the Icelandic word for Saturday - Laugardagur - literally means “pool day” or “bathing day”. 

​Iceland offers a variety of public outdoor and indoor swimming pools, most coming equipped with hot tubs, saunas and steam baths.

The importance of training and education in smaller Icelandic tourism companies
Iceland has a lot to offer when it comes to nature, recreation and services but the number of tourists in Iceland has increased in recent years and it has been difficult for the tourist industry to keep up with this development. Thus, there has been a lack of competence and skills in the industry, lack of education and organization of training within companies. I am researching, for my Bachelor’s thesis in Tourism studies, educational work in smaller tourism companies in Iceland and the possibilities and challenges of training. 

​Part of our Exploring Iceland Fair Trade policy is that we are proud to give back to society. We do this i.e. by supporting university students from all over the world who base their studies on Iceland´s economy, wildlife and social structures.

We are happy to introduce another wonderful student to you, this time from Greece: Meet Iro Tsarmpopoulou-Fokianou and her studies on the relationships between whales and humans. 

As Exploring Iceland is a company which strictly condemns the hunting of whales , we are happy and proud to support Iro and her studies

Now that we are facing another 10-12 weeks of dire life with and around covid 19 and its restricting rules we all could probably easily name lots of negative effects on our life. But let´s try to concentrate for a short moment on some of the (few) positive impacts it has had as well! Here in Iceland is it obvious that so many families have found a new love for the outdoors: walking, hiking, jogging, skiing – you name it! With fitness centers and swimming pools closed or operating on limited capacity, people have found other ways to stay active out in the open.

At Exploring Iceland we are proud to give back to society. Part of this is the support for university students from all over the world that base their studies on Iceland´s economy, wildlife and social structures. We are happy to introduce them to you:  

Hello, my name is Giulia König, I am 21 years old and I study at the Eberhardt Karls University in Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. I will become a teacher for geography and politics in the future.

​I have been so lucky to meet new friends on our hotel riding tours in Iceland.  When travelling in very small groups (2-4 guests) we get to know our fellow riders well and they become long life friends! Many have returned every year.  Although dinner is not included on our hotel riding tours we always try to spend at least one evening all together, either at a local restaurant or at the hotel and usually on the last evening on the tour.  A good farewell dinner sharing stories about our horses and horsemanship are not to be missed!  

 Iceland´s flora is made of only approximately 490 wild vascular plants – a much smaller number than in neighboring Scandinavia or Britain which is surprising because these countries have harsh climates, too. So there must be more reasons for these limited quantity of species. Compared to other more southernly countries there has been a rather short length of time since glacier ice covered most of Iceland.  ​Some scientists say that the whole of Iceland was covered in ice during the last ice age which ended roughly 10 000 years ago, others believe that some plants may have survived on so called “nunataks” standing out of the ice.