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the city, and many more eateries offer vegetarians plenty of choice. Outside the capital most restaurants have at least one vegie item on the menu – although as this is routinely cheese-and-tomato pasta or cheese-and-pepper-and-onion pizza, you could get very bored. Vegans will have to self-cater.

It’s unlikely that you’ll ever have to explain yourself in Icelandic but, just in case, ‘Ég er grænmetisæta’ means ‘I’m a vegetarian’ and ‘Ég borða ekki kjöt’ means ‘I don’t eat meat’.

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HABITS & CUSTOMS

Icelandic eating habits are similar to elsewhere in northern Europe and Scandinavia. Breakfast is usually light (often just coffee), as is lunch (soup and bread or a snack). Dinner is the main meal of the day.

Three strange little foodie festivals follow the bloody Þorrablót feast in February (see the boxed text). First off is Bolludagur (Bun Day; Monday before Shrove Tuesday), when Icelanders gorge themselves sick on puff-pastry cream buns. Kids get up early to ‘beat’ the buns out of their parents with a bolluvöndur (literally ‘bun wand’). The following day is Sprengidagur (Bursting Day; Shrove Tuesday), when the aim is to stuff yourself with saltkjöt og baunir (salted meat and split peas) until you burst. Both are Lenten traditions. Continuing the excess, Beer Day (1 March) is a less traditional celebration. It dates back to the glorious day in 1989 when beer was legalised in Iceland. As you’d expect, Reykjavík’s clubs and bars get particularly wild.

On Christmas Day, hangikjöt (hung meat) – which is normally smoked lamb – is served, as well as flatkökur (unleavened bread, or pancakes, charred on a grill or griddle without fat).

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EAT YOUR WORDS

Click here for pronunciation guidelines.

Food Glossary

STAPLES & CONDIMENTS

FISH

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Rabarbarasulta (rhubarb jam) – made locally and found in most small-town shops – doesn’t require refrigeration before opening, thus making a tasty souvenir to stash in your suitcase.

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MEAT

VEGETABLES

FRUIT

SWEETS & DESSERTS

DRINKS

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In the depths of winter the sun doesn’t rise above Iceland’s steepest fjords. On the day it finally reappears, villagers gather to celebrate Sólarkaffi (Sun Coffee) with a stack of pancakes and generous amounts of Iceland’s favourite brown beverage.

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MEALS

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Environment

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THE LAND

WILDLIFE

NATIONAL PARKS & RESERVES

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

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It’s difficult to remain unmoved by the amazing diversity of the Icelandic landscape. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not an island completely covered in ice, nor is it a barren lunar landscape of congealed lava flows and windswept tundra. Both of these habitats exist, but so too do steep-sided fjords sweeping down to the sea, lush farmland, rolling hills, glacier-carved valleys, steaming fields, bubbling mudpots and vast, desertlike wasteland. It is this rich mix of scenery and the possibility of experiencing such extremes, so close together, that attract, surprise and enthral anyone who has been lucky enough to visit the country.

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THE LAND

Plonked firmly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a massive 18,000km-long rift between two of the earth’s major tectonic plates, Iceland is a shifting, steaming lesson in schoolroom geology. Suddenly you’ll be racking your brains to remember long-forgotten homework on how volcanoes work, how glacial moraines are formed, and why lava and magma aren’t quite the same thing. With 22 active volcanoes, 250 geothermal areas, 780 hot springs and the world’s third-largest ice cap (after Antarctica and Greenland), it’s a vast reserve of information for scientists and a stunning playground for the rest of us.

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For a bit of background information about the country’s diverse landscape, check out Iceland – Classical Geology, by Þor Þordarson & Armann Hoskuldsson.

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Iceland is roughly equal in size to England, but with only 319,400 people (compared to England’s 51 million)