A bit off topic, but Iceland is the most beautiful place that I have ever visited. It's geographical diversity is astounding. Taking a trip around the island felt like taking a tour of the Middle-Earth version of it's a small world. Every few miles, the landscape drastically changes.
We picked up our rental car in to a desolate area near a volcano where the ground was a reddish-brown clay. If felt like being on Mars: http://imgur.com/Z2oS0HS
After about an hour or two of traveling, the scenery shifted to a Shire like area with lush green rolling hills: http://imgur.com/BCQECak, homes built into the ground like hobbit holes: http://imgur.com/xf9Dmsg, trolls that were turned to stone after being exposed to sunlight: http://imgur.com/MM146hm a pristine river snaking through that eventually morphed into rapids: http://imgur.com/M0yIPkH.
The waterfalls were breathtaking. They were festooned with hexagonal column sections formed from dark lava: http://imgur.com/IJXgMWL.
Surprisingly, I learned that the first European visitor to the Americas, Leifur Erickson, hailed from Iceland: http://imgur.com/PBWkafA
I'm leaving out so much more, like the naturally heated outdoor geothermal pools of the Blue Lagoon spa.
The people were delightful, well educated, very technically literate and luckily spoke fantastic English. As a country of just over 300,000 people, they are the per capita winners of the world:
Lowest murder rate
Most peaceful country
highest energy usage
Happiest population
Best gender equality
Highest literacy rate, most books read, most authors
I've toyed with the idea of taking a 3 month sabbatical there to work on my game. (The only person I know there works for CCP, makes of Eve Online). It looked like it would be one of the most romantic places in the world to spend your honeymoon at.
Late reply, but that's exactly how I picture New Zealand! I described Iceland as the It's a Small World version of Middle Earth. As LotR was filmed in NZ, I expect it to be much the same, except that a trip around the whole island is more than 18hrs drive time :)
NZ is definitely on my list of travel destinations in 2017. Anything in particular I should see?
We picked up our rental car in to a desolate area near a volcano where the ground was a reddish-brown clay. If felt like being on Mars: http://imgur.com/Z2oS0HS
After about an hour or two of traveling, the scenery shifted to a Shire like area with lush green rolling hills: http://imgur.com/BCQECak, homes built into the ground like hobbit holes: http://imgur.com/xf9Dmsg, trolls that were turned to stone after being exposed to sunlight: http://imgur.com/MM146hm a pristine river snaking through that eventually morphed into rapids: http://imgur.com/M0yIPkH.
The waterfalls were breathtaking. They were festooned with hexagonal column sections formed from dark lava: http://imgur.com/IJXgMWL.
Further on, we came across some not so lonely mountains: http://imgur.com/QhcOCLo and small glacier lakes: http://imgur.com/CuFhMhE
Surprisingly, I learned that the first European visitor to the Americas, Leifur Erickson, hailed from Iceland: http://imgur.com/PBWkafA
I'm leaving out so much more, like the naturally heated outdoor geothermal pools of the Blue Lagoon spa.
The people were delightful, well educated, very technically literate and luckily spoke fantastic English. As a country of just over 300,000 people, they are the per capita winners of the world:
Lowest murder rate Most peaceful country highest energy usage Happiest population Best gender equality Highest literacy rate, most books read, most authors
I've toyed with the idea of taking a 3 month sabbatical there to work on my game. (The only person I know there works for CCP, makes of Eve Online). It looked like it would be one of the most romantic places in the world to spend your honeymoon at.