Twenty things to love about Iceland

Whilst Icelanders may be feeling rather bleak at the moment after one of the worst winters in recent years, it's good to read something positive about the country. Writer  Jordi Pujolá Nequ­eru­ela who is currently studying at the University of Iceland, posted twenty reasons to love Iceland on Universtity paper website, Stúdentablaðið. 

"When I moved from Barcelona to Reykjavík, my friends and family didn’t understand it completely and some Icelanders even felt sorry for me, as if I had been exiled. As an author, my dream has always been to live in a country with a prestigious literary tradition. For me however, moving to Iceland meant much more. It was the risk of quitting a safe job in Barcelona and trying to make a living by writing instead of having it as a hobby. I sometimes ask myself: “I love Iceland, but does Iceland love me?”

I summarized twenty things that I love about Iceland:

1.Seeing a celebrity having dinner at the same restaurant as you and people barely look at him and no one gets up to ask for an autograph.

2.Seeing a friend walking on the opposite side of the street and still exchanging greetings: “Takk fyrir síðast!” (Thank you for the last time!).

3.That children always go out despite the rain or the snow. In Barcelona, rain’s considered a reason to stay indoors to keep the children clean and dry. We don’t know the Icelandic saying: ”Enginn er verri þótt hann vökni” (No one is worse for getting wet).

4.That people follow the rules, for example not drinking and driving and not smoking in a 
supermarket. In Spain the few people who follow the rules usually feel silly. 

5.The smell of barbecues around the city when the weather is good.

6. Having heating even in the bike room or the common hall of the building.

7. Being able to bike wherever I need to go and to go by a valley, a forest, and a bay without 
leaving Reykjavík. 

8. Being able to go shopping on Sundays, not as in Barcelona where all the shops are closed on Sundays despite the fact that 60.000 cruise passengers are walking up and down The Ramblas looking for a place to spend their money.

9. Having tasty and cheap tap water that’s even free at restaurants; in Spain it’s expensive and bad even for brushing your teeth.

10. That films are not dubbed on TV as they are in Spain. It explains why Spaniards are not so 
skilled at English.

11. That parents are invited to children’s birthday parties and get to eat more homemade cake, tart, and “brauðterta” than the children.

12.Going to an outdoors swimming pool while it’s snowing and having an ice cream afterwards.

13. Being able to leave the doors of your house and car open without being robbed. And to be able to buy something on the webpage Bland.is, bring it home, and make the payment transfer the day after. People still trust people. 

14. Eating lamb, lobster, and arctic char. Who says there’s no good food in Iceland?

15. Going camping and to summerhouses. Beer never gets warm outside!

16. The cute local airport in Reykjavík with its funny small planes flying over our heads. We don’t have any in the town of Barcelona.

17. Having a beautiful symbol of peace in the middle of Reykjavík: Höfði, the building where 
Reagan and Gorbachev signed the end of the Cold War.

18. Having friendly cemeteries in rich neighborhoods rather than the scary ones located in 
devastated areas in Spain.

19.The different colors of the light in the huge Icelandic sky and sea, and the contrasts in the nature, like the crows in the snow and a volcanic eruption under a glacier.

20. Having life after dinner. I like the tradition of eating dinner early. I hate going to bed with my belly full as I used to do in Spain.