I have exciting news! I’m off to Ísland.

What island you may ask. Well, the island of Iceland of course. Ísland is the most common Icelandic name for that country and when in Ísland …

My friend Shelley Molnar who writes funny, interesting, educational blogs (follow her – what she has to say is always thought provoking and useful!) has put together a group of her friends for this Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) tour. This will be my second OAT tour – Morocco a few months ago was my first. An added bonus is that my Vancouver friend Sue Gagnon is travelling with me.

Knowing almost nothing about Iceland other than what I learned from watching Trapped, a police procedural on Netflix, I did some research. I read Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason, a murder mystery set in Reykjavik; interesting in its way but remarkable for how often Indridason describes the rainy autumn weather.

That got me wondering about the weather in Reykjavik. See forecast to the left. Fortunately Iceland does not experience a single weather system.

I was relieved to read about “improbably sunny Akureyri” in the OAT final travel booklet.  😎

Reviews on the OAT website mention how cold and wet Iceland is, how one needs long underwear, warm hats and gloves, Gore-Tex pants, hiking boots and puffy jackets even in July. I’m packing it all though I have my Canadian “wet coast” doubts that I will need such a wintery collection of clothing.

I have also learned that Ísland is geographically about 11% the size of British Columbia or slightly smaller than Pennsylvania. The population is around 350,000, 94% of whom are urban dwellers. Ísland is a parliamentary republic and has the oldest functioning legislative assembly, founded in 930 AD. There are MANY political parties including the creatively named Pirate Party (6.9% of the vote in the last election) and the Bright Future Party (may not have been bright enough to attract any votes).

Ísland exports almost half of its annual production and imports slightly less. Fish and fish products make up half of its exports with aluminum – that surprised me! – accounting for 38%. An admirable 71% of its electricity comes from renewable resources.

The photos I have seen of Ísland depict a stunningly beautiful country of mountains, waterfalls and rolling meadows. (I downloaded someone else’s photo for the header of this post and hope to find a few of these wonderful puffins to photograph myself.) We will travel from Reykjavik up the west coast to Akureyri, then fly south for more exploring.

I hope you’ll come along with me. See you in Reykjavik!