Understand

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Iceland is a stunningly beautiful place if you enjoy strange and desolate landscapes. Lava fields, lava tubes, plains of fractured rock, ice, fire and steam.

Because it is so close to the Arctic Circle (a small island to the north of the main island crosses it), the amount of daylight varies dramatically by season. The sun sets briefly each night in June, but it doesn't get fully dark before it comes back up again. In March and September, days and nights are about equal, as elsewhere in the world. If you go in December, forget about sight-seeing; it'll be too dark outside. Summer is definitely the best time to go, and even then the tourist traffic is still mild. The midnight sun is a beautiful sight and one definitely not to be missed. It is easy to lose track of time when the sun is still high in the sky at 11pm.

People

Iceland was settled by Nordic and Celtic people in the 9th century AD - tradition says that the first permanent settler was Ingólfur Arnarson, a Norwegian Viking who made his home where Reykjavik now stands. The Icelanders still basically speak the language of the Vikings. Iceland maintains another Norse tradition: the custom of using patronymics rather than surnames (an Icelander's given name is followed by his or her parent's first name (usually the father's) and the suffix -son or -dóttir, e.g. Guðrún Pétursdóttir (Guðrún, Pétur's daughter). Members of the same family can therefore have many different "surnames", which can sometimes create confusion for visitors. Because of the patronymic last names Icelanders primarily use first names, e.g. phone books are alphabetized by first name rather than last name. This also applies when addressing an individual. Icelanders would never expect to be addressed as Mr. or Ms. Jónsson/-dóttir no matter how important they might be. Iceland has received a great number of immigrants last 10 years. In the last 5 years the population of immigrants has doubled. Most of these people come for employment. Most of them come from Eastern Europe and South East Asia. Immigrants in Iceland now count up to 10% of the population, giving Iceland similar proportion of immigration as Norway, Sweden etc.

Climate

Despite its name, Iceland is very mild for a country at that latitude owing to the warming effect of the Atlantic Gulf Stream. The weather is often compared with that of New England (though cooler in the winter). However the rapidly changing weather has given rise to the local saying: 'If you don't like the weather, wait fifteen minutes'!
- some Icelandic people also believe that if the winter is hard and long then the summer will be good and warm.

Eat

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Most Icelandic cuisine involves lamb or fish in some form or other, so a liking for one (or both) of these is an advantage. A vegetarian diet can be tricky to maintain and veganism will require you to self-cater (although there are two vegetarian restaurants in downtown Reykjavík).

Distinctively Icelandic foods include:

smoked lamb sausage

skyr, a yoghurt-like...