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For two British ex-pats, living in Iceland is a place of extremes whatever the time of year.
The summer nights are long where light continues to stream in through the windows at midnight. Then, in winter, it’s the complete opposite.
“You get to midday and you’ve still not woken up because there is no sunlight,” says 22-year-old Sam Webb. “It’s bizarre.”
Webb and his fiancée, Rhiannon Brown, 19, have been living in Gunnarsholt, Iceland, since October 2008. They arrived in the country after Webb was …

I almost spat out the mouthful of Tim Horton’s coffee that was in my mouth as my eyes glanced across A1 of Canada’s Globe & Mail newspaper this morning. Iceland on the front page. I kid you not.

Then throughout the day more media began to appear, all regarding the decision of Iceland’s McDonald’s franchise owner to shut up shop. And that’s an important difference. As Alda Sigmundsdóttir

This seems to have been the biggest news out of Iceland yesterday thanks to a Bloomberg story which reported:
Iceland’s McDonald’s Corp. restaurants will be closed at the end of the month after the collapse of the krona eroded profits at the fast-food chain, McDonald’s franchise holder Lyst ehf said.
McDonald’s in Iceland, which imports most of the ingredients it uses in its meals, will shut after costs doubled over the past year, Lyst said in an e-mailed statement today. The franchise holder said it doesn’t expect the situation to change in …

Edit: The awesome members over at Iceland’s Reddit point out that the original tweet might be a bit tongue-in-cheek. However, it did spark some insightful comments about the airline. Thanks again for the help!

aldakalda Googlie of the day on blog: “ice land air go bust”. You ser ri ous? Ho ly shit.
It’s a tweet that came across TwitHive earlier today. I immediately got on Google looking for confirmation. No stories. Perhaps the news hadn’t broken in English yet. So I posted it to Reddit to find out if it’d …

Another weekly roundup of blog posts and news articles that were of highlight this week about Iceland.

Flickr Image of the week: Auster-Skaftafellssysla by Beachwood Photography.

Web Site: Statistics Iceland
Sale of sound recordings 1991-2008
“Sale of sound recordings declined by 31 per cent between the years 2008 and 2007 as counted in numbers of sold copies. In last year roughly 446,000 copies of domestic and foreign sound recordings were sold at a distributor level, or 200,000 fewer copies than in the previous year.”
Blog: Iceland Review
Children in Iceland Feel Better After Crisis Hit
“Kids spend …

Thanks to “CH” (whoever you might be!) for the comment this morning on where else to find information on Icelandic food:
“Also – check out the http://www.icelandgourmetguide.com for traditional recipes and restaurant guides for all of Iceland – plus a who’s who of top chefs!”
So I went on over to Gourmet Iceland which led me on a link chasing adventure. Next came chef Volundur Volundarson’s web site.
Here’s a video of him doing a segment for the Today Program at the Blue Lagoon (by someone standing nearby).

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