"The land of fire and ice: Iceland" a Iceland Travel Page by Nexus7

Iceland, the home of my ancestors (well one quarter at least). This magical land is enchanted with beautiful people who are as interesting as they are nice. The land is almost alien, but all the same remarkably beautiful. It is easy to fall in love with this country if you don't mind the crazy weather, which I don't. The history is great and the culture is fascinating. If you're tired of the normal European countries, check this one out.

This history of this island goes back to about 874, I believe, when Irish monks first inhabited it and a few vikings from Norway. It was used as a penal colony briefly, until they realized that if you went to the other side of the island(where the glaciers and tundra are not located), it was actually quite green and lush with pleasant conditions. People began to settle it and in 930 created a form of democracy called the Allthingi, which still exists today. It has the record as the oldest existing democracy. It was independent until 1262 when the Scandinavian countries came under one rule and it was not granted independence again for over 600 years. There were numerous steps to independence from the 19th to the 20th centuries. Iceland had its own religious reformations such as the switch to Christianity aroudn 1000 or so and then the switch from Catholicism, which of course was bloody and now they are Luthern like the rest of Scandinavia countries. Now the country of nearly 300,000 people enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world.