All Things Iceland

After posting in the Away From Home: Living in Iceland Facebook group that I was looking to speak to expats in Iceland about a variety of topics, I received a decent amount of responses. One of those people included Sæþór Benjamín Randalsson.

Sæþór responded by writing the following comment,  “I could talk about moving here as a gay man, or living through the 2008 crash, or the foster system, or the startup culture, or baking, or real estate.” I don’t know about you but all of those topics intrigued me, so I reached out.

Honestly, I didn’t think we would actually talk about all of those things but somehow everything just flowed so nicely that we did manage to talk about all of that and more. It didn’t even feel like I was interviewing him because I was laughing, learning and being entertained by his quick wit, welcoming energy and his passion for helping people. We ended up talking for almost two hours! 

1. Where are you from/grow up and why did you move to Iceland?

2. Was there anything that was strange or shocking to you when you moved here?

3. What has it been like living here as a gay man? Has it changed a lot since you moved?

4. You lived through the 2008 economic crash in Iceland, which was a really intense time.  Can you talk a bit about what it was like before the crash in Iceland? How were you feeling when it finally settled in that the economy had crashed and that the current government was not able to handle the situation?

5. What was it like learning Icelandic?

6. You have a child through the foster care system here in Iceland. What is that process like?

7. What advice do you have for people that want to move to Iceland?

8. Do you feel Icelandic? Meaning, do you identify as being an Icelander even though you grew up somewhere else?

9. How do you feel about what is currently going on in the United States in regards to politics?

10. What is your favorite Icelandic word or phrase?

I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of the All Things Iceland podcast. If you think someone else will find this episode interesting and/useful please share it. My newsletter is dedicated to sharing even more fascinating information about Iceland. 

For your convenience and listening pleasure, this podcast is available on many platforms. You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and pretty much any platform that plays podcasts. 

Þakka þér kærlega fyrir að hlusta (og að lesa) og sjáumst fljótlega

Thank you kindly for listening (and reading) and see you soon!

It is a little hard to believe that it is almost the one year anniversary of the bankruptcy of Wow Air. This low cost Icelandic airline went bust on March 28th, 2019. On that date last year, everyone was shocked when the airline suddenly ceased to operate. During this episode, I will go over why and how the airline skyrocketed to success, what it was like during its heyday, what caused WOW Air to fail, how its bankruptcy affected the Icelandic economy, and what’s next. 

To me, the most logical place to start this story is with Skúli Mogensen, the founder of WOW Air. 

Born to Icelandic parents, Skúli spent much of his youth in Sweden. His dad was studying to become a physician there. He is fluent in Swedish and Icelandic. Skúli moved back to Iceland and attended high school and some college years there. He didn’t finish college because his company Oz Communications, a mobile software company, took off, so he dropped out. 

According to an interview in the Financial Post, Mogensen credits his entrepreneurial drive to his education at the University of Iceland. One of his philosophy professors encouraged him to challenge everything. He is quoting as saying in the article, 

Challenge the status quo, challenge the dogma and challenge whatever worked yesterday. I think today the speed of things requires you to ultimately — maybe not always challenge, but at least ask questions about whether what you are doing today will actually work tomorrow.

Skúli´s Philosophy Professor

Skúli was able to grow OZ to over 200 employees. The company sold more than 100 million copies of its messaging software to major mobile operators. Nokia ended up buying OZ communications in 2008 for an undisclosed amount. Along with starting OZ, Skúli also co-founded Íslandssimi, which is now Vodafone Iceland. Additionally, he co-founded CAOZ, a 3-D animation studio that works on production for films, commercials and games. His serial entrepreneurship made him a billionaire. After selling OZ communications, Skúli went into early retirement at the age of 40. However, he quickly grew tired of it after a couple of years.

According to a Forbes article about Skúl in 2018, he said  “I was a failure at retirement. I wanted to use technology to disrupt the market and the airline industry is a good sector for that.”

Skúli was ready to go full force into starting an airline with his own money. His family, friends and investors urged him not to do it back in 2011. One thing to remember about this time is that Eyjafjallajökull volcano had erupted in 2010.

Even though the ash from the eruption had disrupted air travel for people around the world, the media focus on Iceland had exposed to the world that the country was home to some of the most spectacular nature. Icelandic tourism was starting to increase around that time. However, Skúli’s idea of starting a low budget airline helped skyrocket Icelandic tourism into being one of the main industry to revive Iceland after the economic crash. 

The trans-Atlantic low cost airline started off with fares starting from $99 for basic seats and service. You could fly from some cities in the U.S. to Iceland and the rest of Europe. Those fares, along with the value of Icelandic krona being so low, made traveling to and in the country affordable for many people who wouldn’t otherwise have come here. 

Within its first year, the airline transported 110,000 passengers. That number quadrupled just five years later. It’s incredible that in 2017 it had been reported that 2.8 million passengers had flown with WOW Air. I moved to Iceland in the summer of 2016. I remember thinking that it must be so cool to work for that airline. They had such great advertisements, happy looking staff and it seemed like their growth would not stop anytime soon.

In 2017, they had surpassed Icelandair, their main rival, for the number of outbound Icelandic passengers and had 38% market share. Skúli was hiring talented people from around the globe because there just weren’t enough people in Iceland to fill the roles. I think the diversity in the company and the fact that people worked in teams, helped to WOW Air to set themselves apart.

 By 2018, the airline had purchased 20 planes, had over 1,000 employees, and was flying to over 35 cities internationally. Incredibly the airline had been growing at a rate of 75-80 percent every year since its inception. At least that was the number reported in a Forbes article in 2018.  

From an outsider’s view, the fast growth seemed amazing but on the inside crucial mistakes were being made that would eventually lead to the company’s demise. The biggest red flag is when WOW Air reported a loss of ISK 4.8 billion ($39.3 million, at the time) between July 2017 and July 2018. It was also reported in 2018 in media outlets that WOW Air owed ISAVIA, the state owned company that runs the airport, ISK 2 billion in landing fees. So, the company essentially owed the tax payers of Iceland this money.

On top of that, the rising cost of fuel worked against them. At the end of August 2018, jet fuel had risen to $92 a barrel. That was a 25% increase when compared to the year before. To make matters even more complicated, competition among airlines that have transatlantic routes is fierce. The odds kept getting stacked against WOW Air. Skúli wanted to keep his company alive but he couldn’t do it on his own anymore.

In the fall of 2018, the company explored all of its options for staying afloat. Even though bondholders of Wow Air pumped ISK 8.2 billion ($66.9 million at the time) in the airline, it still wasn’t enough. Reality started to hit hard when the airline had to stop operating routes, such as San Francisco, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Edinburgh, Stockholm and Tel Aviv.

That might have seemed bad but the worst was yet to come. The one thing Skúli was dreading was having to go to Icelandair for a bailout. Unfortunately, I am not privy to what it was like to work for WOW Air but it was well known that they saw Icelandair as their biggest competitor. It must have been quite humbling for Skúli to have to swallow his pride and try to convince Icelandair to save his company.

During the talks in November, the mutual benefits were laid out on the table. If Icelandair merged with WOW Air, it would solve the company’s debt problems. In exchange, Wow Air would be able to help the national airline be more competitive on the international market. The deal would be that they would continue to operate under their existing brands. This merger would mean that Icelandair would control 3.8% of the Atlantic aviation market.

The shareholders of Icelandair were hesitant about approving this deal and, unfortunately, it fell through. For Skúli, it was a lost battle but he still planned to win the war. Before I go any further, I have to point out that during this time, Wow Air went ahead with operating low cost flights to India, even though it was clearly struggling to stay alive. I don’t know if this was purely an act of desperation by the company or a ploy to show people that they were ok. 

Skúli was in talks with Indigo Partners about a potential investment. Indigo Partners is a private equity firm that has controlling interest in Frontier Airlines (based in the U.S.), JetSmart (based in Chile) and holds stakes in Volaris, a Mexican budget airline, and Wizz Air, a low cost airline in Europe. Obviously, this was potentially a good fit for WOW Air. Not long after the Icelandair deal fell through, it was announced that Skúli and Indigo Partners had made a temporary investment agreement. However, this deal meant that WOW would have to change quite a bit to become the low cost airline that Indigo Partners would agree to invest in. 

The main thing for Skúli was that he remained the majority shareholder in the company. Some of the demands of Indigo Partners included streamlining operations. According to an article by Iceland Review,

There were layoffs: 15 WOW employees at the airport, 237 employees of an airport support services company, and then, just weeks before Christmas, 111 additional WOW employees were let go. WOW reduced its fleet from 20 to 11 short- to medium-range aircraft. It sold its flight times at Gatwick, making Stansted its only destination in the UK, and lastly, extracted itself – at substantial cost – from a contract with an Irish aircraft rental company.

Iceland review

All of those changes were made so that Indigo Partners would go ahead with buying 49% of the company. But then Indigo Partners threw a monkey wrench into the deal by changing the terms. Two major changes were made.

The first is that shareholders would have to wait longer to be compensated for their investments and their returns would be linked to the financial success of the airline. The second is that Skúli’s stake in the company would also be linked to the airline’s success. So, if the airline did well then Skúli could end up owning the whole thing again. But if there was more trouble in paradise, he could lose it all.

All of this was unsettling for him and, not surprisingly, he was hesitant about taking the deal. To sweeten the deal, Indigo Partners said they would invest almost double their initial offer – a whooping ISK 10.9 billion ($89.2 million). The expectation was that Skúli would gobble that up but he didn’t and Indigo Partners walked away from the deal on March 21st.

Unexpectedly, Icelandair jumped back in the picture but those talks didn’t amount to anything. In a last ditch effort to keep the company going, Skúli convinced his creditors to convert the debt into shares in WOW Air. One of the main reasons they were willing to do this was out of fear. Everyone assumed that the collapse of WOW Air could mean a big retraction in the tourism industry. It could lead to a recession.

Even with creditors agreeing to change 49% of the company’s debt into shares, someone needed to buy the other 51%. Like a lion stalking its prey, in jumped Indigo Partners again. Once again, the negotiations were not successful. At 8:00 AM on March 28th, WOW Air ceased its operations

The impact of this decision rippled out from within the company. Not only were about 1,100 people going to lose their jobs, but WOW Air passengers were stranded in different cities. It was absolutely awful that so many people were left scrambling to find flights home or had purchased flights that they couldn’t use. Luckily, Icelandair was able to step in and help a lot of people. In addition to passengers being left stranded, Iceland was bracing for the worst. 

Personally, I was in the middle of changing jobs at this time last year. I remember hearing about how worried travel companies were about what this meant for their business. There was also a looming labor strike. Some companies had already started to plan layoffs. There was a prediction that the travel industry would struggle over the next nine months and that the GDP of Iceland would contract.

It is true that tourism in Iceland has seen a decline in the last couple of years but the GDP was not badly affected. It grew .2% in the first nine months when compared to the previous year. This is not to say that Wow Air going under has had no effect.

Three to four hundred WOW Air staff were still unemployed six months after the airline went under. The tourism industry has become even more competitive because everyone is fighting to get the attention of a smaller group of tourists.

The shift of who is coming to Iceland has forced companies to figure out how to adapt new ways of marketing. There has been a big decline in visitors from the United States but it seemed that visitors from the U.K. and China were on the rise.

Tourists from China, in particular, were predicted to be the fastest growing group. However, there is so much uncertainty due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

One of the most shocking announcements to happen about a week after WOW Air went under is that Skúli said that he plans to resurrect the airline. The team had learned their lesson and were looking for someone to invest $40 million to finance the venture. As many of you know, that didn’t happen.

Months later Michelle Ballarin, one of the owners of USAerospace Associates, purchased the assets of WOW Air. They planned to start flights under the brand in the fall. Everyone was skeptical but hopeful.

 At around the same time, former employees of WOW Air decided to start their own airline. Initially it was nicknamed WAB, which was an acronym for “We Are Back” but it later turned into Play Air. I laughed quite hard when I heard that because it sounds too close to “player”. It begs the question, “Who is being played in all of this?” Both resurrections made promises of operations happening soon, as early as fall 2019 and none delivered. Now that the world is in crisis mode, there is no telling if either airline will ever get off the ground. I guess only time will tell. 

When WOW Air announced flights from the U.S. to India via Iceland, it became the first low cost airline carrier to serve India from Iceland using its A330-300 wide body aircraft. The nearly 12 hour return flight was the longest in its route network.

About a month after starting this route, the airline had to pull out. This was due to the cost of fuel and they were trying to cut down on operations to meet the demands of Indigo Partners to cut a deal.

Flugvél – flying machine or airplane

I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of the All Things Iceland podcast. If you think someone else will find this episode interesting and/useful please share it. My newsletter is dedicated to sharing even more fascinating information about Iceland. 

For your convenience and listening pleasure, this podcast is

Þakka þér kærlega fyrir að hlusta (og að lesa) og sjáumst fljótlega

Thank you kindly for listening (and reading) and see you soon!

A few days ago I posted on the All Things Iceland Instagram and Facebook pages that I do plan to give a rundown of how the Coronavirus is spreading in Iceland and what the government has been doing to control it. I do not plan to give updates every few days about the virus.

I think it is important to talk about it. However, I mainly created All Things Iceland to share about Icelandic culture, history, language and nature. Not to just focus on one topic. Also, I think it is nice to be able to escape the news for a while and hear about Iceland.

Like many others, I am closely monitoring what is going on with the virus where I live. I want to do as much as I can to stay safe.  I still do my weekly news round-up in my Instagram stories each Sunday. You can check that out if you want to hear about what happened in Iceland the week before.

As I thought about how to format this particular episode, it dawned on me that it might be helpful to give you a bit of backstory regarding when Icelandic officials made it public that they were starting to prepare for the virus coming to the country. Also, I am going to speak a little about how deeply this affects the Icelandic economy, especially the tourism industry.

To start off, Iceland did take note when the World Health Organization’s (or the WHO) China office started sharing reports of the virus spreading in the Eastern Chinese city Wuhan in late December and into January. Of course no one knew it would spread so quickly around the world. In late January, Iceland started to prepare for it possibly coming our way.

According to Iceland Monitor, on January 27th, Þórarinn Guðnason, the Chief Epidemiologist in Iceland, recommended that Icelanders should,

Cancel any unnecessary trips to areas in China affected by the coronavirus, known to cause pneumonia, coughs, fever and breathing difficulties.  This applies in particular to the Hubei province.

Þórarinn Guðnason, the Chief Epidemiologist in Iceland

He was also said “health care officials in Iceland are preparing for the possible spread of the virus to Iceland. “That is our approach – that this will arrive in Iceland… We try to prepare as well as possible. We prepare for the worst, hoping it won’t happen. But we assume it will arrive here.”

One thing many people who live outside of Iceland may not be aware of is that Chinese tourism in the country has been on the rise over the last couple of years. Some of the tourists are groups coming directly from China and others are people who were born in China but are studying or working abroad in different places, such as in Europe.

I have worked in tourism Iceland for about four years, from 2016 to present day and it was clear that even though U.S. visitors were still the highest number of tourists that it was evident that numbers were declining fast. Chinese tourists were starting to increase rapidly, especially during the Chinese New Year.

According to an article published in January of this year, Iceland was expecting no less than 130,000 Chinese tourists, which would have been more than the number of Germans expected to visit, and Germans are the third numerous group behind the United States and the United Kingdom. 130,000 might not seem like a lot when you think about the fact that almost two million people visited Iceland in 2019.

However, the potential for more Chinese tourists was growing exponentially. I reported in my weekly news round-up on Instagram back in November that a Chinese airline Juneyao was going to start offering direct flight service from Shanghai to Keflavík airport in March. Of course that is not happening now but that should at least give you an idea that ties between Iceland and China were strengthening.

The tourism industry in Iceland is very competitive and all of the companies are fighting for market share. Many of them have been trying to capture the Chinese market because they could all see the writing on the wall.

As a person that lives here and pays a decent amount of attention to the news as well as talks to natives and expats, I can tell you that most of us assumed that Iceland wouldn’t be hit hard by this virus. It felt a world away. Also, most people thought that since this virus originally popped up in China, that it will be either Chinese visitors or Icelanders that had been in China or an already labeled “high risk” area that would bring the virus to the island. Well, to many’s surprise that is not what happened.

Before any cases of the virus were confirmed in Iceland, a few interesting things happened. First, which was reported on January 31st, is that some employees at Keflavík airport started wearing face masks and gloves. Ísavia, the company that operates the airport, said that they provide the masks and gloves to their employees but it was up to them to wear them.

The second is that Landspítali National University Hospital started reviewing their contingency plans, started planning out routes if they have to transport infected patients to minimize risk of spreading, put in place protective equipment like hospital suits, googles, etc  and began educating their medical staff.

As you can tell, the people that work on the front lines such as  in travel, like at the check in counters and flight attendants as well as those working in hospitals, were doing their best to prepare. Most of us not in those professions were just going about our daily lives even though the virus has spread to about twenty countries at that time. Also, it was encouraged to only test people if the person suspected they have been infected, which basically meant that the person had just come from China and felt ill. That was in early February. 

On February 20th, an Icelandic family (two parents and a child) that had been traveling in China for what was suspected to be quite some time since the outbreak began, requested permission to come home. At that time, the European Union was organizing a flight to bring back European citizens from China and Icelandic authorities were trying to get the family on that plane. Luckily, that was a success.

The family traveled from Wuhan to France and then onto Iceland. They were examined upon arrival and then were instructed to be in quarantine at home for about 14 days. It is important to note that they did not feel ill when they left China nor when they came to Iceland.

Just one day after the family arrived in Iceland, it was reported that seven Icelanders vacationing in Tenerife were in quarantine along with 1,000 other people at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel. The Canary Islands  are a Spanish archipelago and are the southernmost part of Spain. They are a popular vacationing spot for many Europeans, Icelanders included. I had the pleasure of going to Tenerife, the largest of the islands,  two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. You can probably find Icelandic people there at almost any time of the year because there are many direct flights from here to Terenrife. The isolation was due to the fact that an Italian doctor that was a guest at the hotel tested positive with the coronavirus. Police were standing guard at the hotel to make sure that no one entered or left.

On February 28th,  the dam finally broke. Iceland confirmed its first case of Coronavirus. Surprisingly, the Icelandic man who had the virus had been on a skiing trip with a group of other Icelanders in Northern Italy, which was outside of a defined risk area. The man is in his forties had arrived in Iceland on February 22nd, which means that he was walking around with the virus in the country for some days. After falling ill, he was scanned at the hospital and immediately put in isolation after his infection was confirmed. His daughter and wife were also inspected. On top of that, policemen were trying to trace where he had been since arriving back to Iceland. 

After this confirmed infection, it was like a domino effect. More confirmed cases started popping up after just a few days. In less than three weeks, Iceland went from having no confirmed cases to having 182 and over 1900 in quarantine in the country, specifically in the Reykjavík area, which has about three fourths of the population of Iceland. That is according to the numbers that were reported on Monday, March 16th, 2020 at 4:30 pm. I include a graph from a  Morgunblaðið article below that shows how the number of cases has increased in this time frame.

A pretty scary occurrence is that five critical care nurses at the National Hospital were infected with the virus. Two of the nurses had been on the ski trip that I mentioned to you earlier and infected their colleagues while on shift together. They are all now in quarantine. Obviously that puts a big strain on that unit. 

One very important thing to know is that up until Thursday, March 12th the majority of the people in the country with confirmed cases of the Coronavirus were Icelanders that had been on skiing trips in the Alps (Northern Italy, Austria and Switzerland) and any people that had close contact with those infected people before it was known that they had the virus. It is still the case that over 65% of the infections were due to exposure in a foreign place but now around 28% of the infections happened domestically, The other small percentage of how people became infected is unknown.

With that information, you are probably wondering how the government has responded to all of this. As mentioned in the very beginning of this episode, Iceland’s Chief Epidemiologist did put out a warning about the Coronavirus and expected that it would make its way here. It wouldn’t have been possible to test every single person coming from areas that were not labeled as high risk.

The number is bound to keep going up. Here is an overview of how the government has been handling this incredibly difficult situation. First off, they have been extremely transparent and diligent in informing the public about the confirmed Coronavirus cases. On March 6th, the number of confirmed cases hit 43 and a state of emergency was put in place. Viðir Reynisson, Chief superintendent stated on that day to reporters,  “…A ban on public gatherings is probably one of the most effective tools we have in our tool box to slow down the spread of the virus, and we must apply it correctly and in as effective a way as possible. We’re not there yet, but it is inescapable, we believe, that we’ll take that route at some point in time.”

In order to help businesses, the government announced on March 10th that they would take certain action to support and stimulate the economy during this turbulent time. Because tourism is being hit the hardest, they are considering cancelling taxes and fees for that sector for a limited time. After we are in the clear from this outbreak, a major international advertising campaign will launch to attract travelers. Icelanders will be encouraged to travel more domestically. Because all companies will feel the effect of what is happening, the government is working closely with financial services companies and banks.

The Icelandic government has also pledged that all people who are in quarantine will still receive their salaries. 

Ever since the first confirmed Coronavirus case on February 28th, there have been daily updates on Facebook by the Almannavarnadeild Ríkislögreglustjóra. That is the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management. It might seem odd that this happens on Facebook but over 90% of Iceland is active on the platform. They have been great about announcing press conferences about the Coronavirus, the amount of new cases each day and more.

Two things happened that made some people in Iceland who were already critical of how the government was handling the situation raise their concerns even louder. On March 12th, the news outlets exploded after Trump announced a travel ban on citizens from many European countries. Also, Norway announced that they would shut its borders to stop the spread of the virus. In response to that and more cases being confirmed in Iceland, the government announced a ban on gatherings of more than 100 people on Friday, March 13th.

All colleges and high schools would be closed. However, preschools and primary schools will still be open starting on Monday, March 16th. This is in place for the next four weeks. Companies of less than 100 people can decide if they are closing. Employees are instructed to keep a 2 meter distance from each other. The reason why preschools and primary schools are still open is that it will be difficult for emergency workers and others needed to help with the Coronavirus outbreak to find people to watch their children. It is a bit of a tricky situation and I have heard arguments for and against it. 

Some feel that Iceland should stop people from coming into the country. However, that has not happened as of yet and it might not.

In February, Icelandair had already made announcements about reducing flights because of how the virus is spreading in Europe. Still, the travel ban to the United States hit them hard. Like I said before, the U.S. is the largest market for the airline. Even though at the time of the announcement, U.S. citizens could still travel to Iceland, many were cancelling their flights. Like many airlines around the world, Icelandair’s stock fell by 22% after the travel ban was announced. To my surprise, the airline still plans to go ahead with scheduled flights to New York, Chicago, Seattle and Washington D.C., over the next 30 days.

As in the U.S., people in Iceland started to get more antsy. Many went to stores to buy toilet paper and other goods. I had to laugh that the news outlets had to put out articles telling people not to hoard. Also, the the sale of canned food has gone up a tremendous amount in some stores. Over the weekend, I purposely stayed away from Costco because it can be quite busy on a regular weekend, so I wanted to avoid any madness.

Over the weekend, the ban on gatherings was further clarified. It was announced that in-person conferences, large meetings, going to the cinema, the theater and so on are banned. Restaurants must arrange their seating to have two meters between tables. Families can sit together but those in different parties must be far enough apart. The restaurants and tourism companies must have hand sanitizer available for guests to use as well. 

The fascinating part is that as of March 15th, only Icelandic residents traveling from countries with major outbreaks need to enter quarantine when they arrive in Iceland. Tourists from those same countries do not need to be in quarantine but they are asked to respect social distancing. That last part is a bit worrying to me.

On March 9th, the CEO of deCode Genetics Kári Stefánsson, who I interviewed in episode 50 of this podcast, offered to help the national hospital with screening people for the virus. He is quoted as saying,

We want to help Landspítali [National University Hospital], which has limited capacity,” …“We have the equipment, a lab equipped for work with viruses, and people who are experts at this. What we want to do, in addition to what Landspítali has been doing, is to do a sequence analysis of the virus in those who turn out positive. The idea behind that is to find out how the virus is mutating.

Kári Stefánsson, CEO of decode genetics

This was welcomed by everyone except the Data Protection Authority and the Ethical Review Committee. They felt that the action might require a permit as a scientific study. However, that issue was resolved and now deCode has started to help screen people.

Foss Hotel has been turned into a quarantine for visitors and Icelanders who need a place to stay.

Lastly, an awesome website was recently launched in Iceland to keep people informed about the virus. Data, like the number of confirmed infections, the number of those in quarantine and more is on the site. Of course there is also a lot of information about how to protect yourself and the groups most at risk. The text is available in Icelandic and English. The Directorate of Health and The Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management are responsible for this website.

I hope you found this episode helpful when it comes to understanding how the Coronavirus is affecting Iceland. To stay up to date with what I am posting, you can subscribe to my newsletter.

On March 15th, Visir published the first results of the voluntary screening by deCode Genetics. About 1% of all Icelanders have the Coronavirus. This is relatively good news but we will get a better picture as more screenings are done.

Bros er betra en koss og knús

Þakka þér kærlega fyrir að hlusta (og að lesa) og sjáumst fljótlega

Thank you kindly for listening (and reading) and see you soon!

I had the pleasure of interviewing Gísli Pálsson for this episode of the podcast in his office at the University of Iceland. He recently retired, but he has served as a professor and Director of Institute of Anthropology at the university. He has written several books, including “The Man Who Stole Himself”, the story about Hans Jónatan, who was the first black citizen of Iceland.

To get a good overview of that story you can check out the video below that I recently published about Hans Jónatan on YouTube.

To stay up to date on what I am sharing, like new podcast episodes, videos, articles and more, sign up for the All Things Iceland newsletter.

During our chat, we talk about many different topics. It was fascinating to talk with him and below are some of the topics we discussed.

1. You were born in the Westman Islands. Were you there

2. What made you interested in studying anthropology?

3. When did you find out about he story of Hans Jonatan and

4. When you were researching for the book, did you find

5. Another one of

6. After the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, you started a project called the

7. Through you

8. How do you choose what you want to research and write

9. What is your favorite Icelandic word or phrase?

I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of the All Things Iceland podcast. If you think someone else will find this episode interesting and/useful please share it. My newsletter is dedicated to sharing even more fascinating information about Iceland. 

For your convenience and listening pleasure, this podcast is available on many platforms. You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and pretty much any platform that plays podcasts. 

Þakka þér kærlega fyrir að hlusta (og að lesa) og sjáumst fljótlega

Thank you kindly for listening (and reading) and see you soon!

Icelandic sheep are a mix of adorable and fascinating. During the summer, you can find them roaming freely around the country. For months they are on what seems like the ultimate Icelandic summer vacation – eating, sleeping, and walking wherever they please. Before winter sets in, they are rounded up by the farmers that own them so they can be sheltered from the harsh Icelandic weather.

Regardless of the season, the Icelandic sheep farmer is always at work. If you are interested in hearing a first-hand account of what life on an Icelandic sheep farm is like, I recommend checking out my interview with Pálína Axelsdóttir Njarðvík, creator of the popular Instagram account (@farmlifeiceland). Her account showcases what life on an Icelandic sheep farm life is like from her perspective.

Sheep in Iceland have played an important role in the way of life in the country since the first settlers came to Iceland back in the 9th and 10th centuries. I was surprised to learn so many fascinating facts about them after talking to Pálína and doing some research. 

They are classified as Northern short-tailed sheep and are the largest in their group, which includes Finn, Romanov, Shetland, Spelsau and Swedish Landrac. As mentioned in the quick facts above, the Icelandic sheep descends from the same breed as the Norwegian Spelsau.

While it is the case that sheep in Iceland today are pure breeds, at one time farmers did try crossbreeding with foreign breeds. However, those experiments ended because the cross breeding brought on disease. Eventually, all of the sheep that the result of cross breeding were killed, or what is known as culled. Culling is defined as reducing the population of an animal by selective slaughter.

Iceland is notorious for its harsh weather and over the centuries there have been many challenging times for livestock and their farmers. Due to being bred in isolation for more than a thousand years, the Icelandic sheep has been able to thrive in these conditions. Because of that, they are considered to be efficient herbivores. 

While sheep are mostly bred for meat in Iceland now, they have contributed to Icelandic society in a variety of ways over the years. Up until the 1940’s, they were the predominant milk producing animal in the country. It was far more expensive to have a cow before that time, so people consumed sheep’s milk instead. 

Lambing season in Iceland starts in May and lasts for about five weeks. During this month, farmers are working around the clock to monitor and assist the ewes (female sheep) who are birthing the cute lambs. Due to a gene that is named Þoka, pregnant Icelandic female sheep often give birth to multiple lambs at once. They can give birth to twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and even sextuplets! It is quite amazing to think of that many lambs being born at once.

It isn’t always that the ewes need help with birthing their lambs but it happens often enough that farmers take turns throughout the day and night to check on how everything is going.  Normally, lambs are born with their head and front legs coming out first. However, that doesn’t always happen, and that is when a farmer steps in.

Other times help is needed if the lamb is not breathing or if it is rejected by its mother. When a lamb enters the world, it is crucial that there is a bond between mother and child within the first few minutes. If an ewe is cleaning  and drying off their lamb there is a good chance that it has accepted it. Unfortunately, it does happen that an ewe rejects a lamb and starts to ram or kick it.

Pálína talks about this happening to one of her favorite sheep during the interview I did with her. Luckily, she was able to save the lamb and keep it alive by nursing it. Sometimes farmers even find another mother for a rejected lamb. Although it is rare, sometimes an ewe or lamb do not live due to complications in the birthing process.

It might sound sweet that farmers are so attentive during lambing season However, the reality is that the health of the new born lambs and their sheep is essential to their livelihood. It is not to say that the miracle of birth is not appreciated by the farmers. I think it is important to know that the time and effort they put in is a wise investment in their business. 

During the summer months, the lambs and sheep head off to roam in the mountains and the countryside until September. 

Réttir (Rettir) is the annual sheep round-up that happens every September in Iceland. Farmers, their families, friends and tourists go out into the countryside to collect the sheep. Some walk and others travel by ATV or on horseback. Because Icelandic sheep can be anywhere in the countryside, the challenge of collecting them can be quite tedious. I have seen sheep way up on steep mountains and others that have wandered into valleys or the property of others.

If you plan to drive around Iceland during the summer months, just know that sheep will randomly run out into the road. They have the right of way, so please slow down if you see them walking alongside  the road. If you do hit a sheep, it is best to call the police (the number is 112) and give them the tag or earmark on the sheep. The police will then contact the farmer, so they can retrieve their sheep. 

It used to be that Icelandic sheep outnumbered Icelandic people two to one. However, due to the Icelandic sheep population decreasing and the amount of people living in Iceland increasing, that is not presently the case. Regardless, the sheep still outnumber the amount of people that live on the island. It is hard to fathom but there are hundreds of thousands of sheep that need to be rounded up. The time honored tradition is certainly not for those that are inpatient or physically unfit. It’s a lot of work to round-up sheep but the reward is worth it. 

If you prefer to not go out to find the sheep but you still want to experience a Réttir, I have great news for you. Some farmers allow for visitors and Icelanders who have no association with a farm to come to the sorting of the sheep.

In different locations around the country during September, there are lists of Réttir sorting times. I went to one in 2019 and it was fascinating. Basically, all of the sheep and lamb that were round-up were put into a big pen. The farmers then find their sheep, which are marked, and put them into a pen that belongs to their specific farm.

 What was so cool about this experience for me was that I was able to see Icelandic sheep up close. Normally, sheep run away from humans because they are afraid. There are very few people that interact with sheep and it seems like the sheep would like to keep it that way. 

Earlier, I mentioned that there is a reward for the round-up of the sheep, and that is a celebration called the Réttaball. The farmers in each region have parties where they drink, dance, sing and just have a good time because they have finished the monumental task of collecting and sorting their sheep. One event that many people don’t know about is that after the Réttir, many of the lambs are slaughtered. In the month following the round-up, many restaurants and grocery stores are advertising lots of fresh lamb.

If you ever find yourself interested in visiting or staying on a sheep farm in Iceland, there are lists of different farms around the country. There are two in particular that I am going to share because they are primarily sheep farms and you can stay on them, if you wish. I’ve not been to either of them and have no affiliation with the owners.

According to their website,  “The Bjarteyjarsandur farm is owned and operated by three different families, all specializing in their different fields; i.e. farming, tourism, education, food processing, and machine work. The farm is situated in a beautiful by the fjord with a lovely seashore. The same family has lived in Bjarteyjarsandur since 1887.”

Along with these different experiences, you can eat farm fresh food, cuddle an Icelandic lamb and soak in a natural hot pot by the sea in summertime. 

According to their website “Sölvanes is a traditional sheep farm located in a beautiful valley of Skagafjördur, North Iceland. Sölvanes is very much a family affair, run by Rúnar Máni and his wife Eydís, both from North Iceland. The two sons and other family members play an active part in the family business.”

I’m quite interested in visiting and staying on a farm. I hope to get a chance to do it one day soon, especially since I know that these are family run places. 

If you are curious to learn more about these farms, feel free to check out the links in the show notes.

Icelandic sheep are primarily raised for their meat.  It’s estimated that about 80% of income from sheep farming comes from selling it. Lamb is a popular export but in recent years it has been found that exporting sheep or lamb meat is not profitable. This is due to the cost of producing the meat in Iceland being higher than the average price obtained for the meat from other countries.

An article in Morgunblaðið, a local newspaper, states a report suggests “that slaughter houses are too many and their numbers need to be reduced to improve efficiency. Reducing the number of meat processing plants could also improve profitability if the slaughterhouses left were able to increase automation.” It might come as a surprise to some but over the years, Icelanders have decreased their consumption of lamb in favor of eating more chicken. Increasing exports of meat is one way that companies are trying to stay in business.

After reading another article about a lamb producer Fjallalamb planning to export lamb to China, I can only assume that there will potentially be a surge in Icelandic lamb exports. Well, if the company is able to figure out how to cut down the cost of production.

As I mentioned in the section about Réttir, the lamb that have been free-roaming around the countryside are slaughtered not long after the sheep have been rounded up for winter. Icelandic lamb is considered some of the best in the world because the animals are not fed any extra grain, given any hormones and are free range.

When settlers came to Iceland back in the ninth and tenth centuries, among other things, they brought sheep with them. Even though sheep’s wool has been used by Icelanders for many centuries, the Icelandic wool industry is only about 125 years old. The company Álafoss was founded in 1896 and had 200 employees at the beginning. At its peak in the 1970’s and 80’s, it employed 2000 people who would process the wool, then knit, sew and make clothes with it. One of the company’s main trading partners was the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Álafoss went bankrupt and the country’s wool industry went down with it.

Ístex, which is now the biggest producer of Icelandic wool, started about 25 years ago as a way to revitalize the industry. According to the company, “Ístex was started for the farmers, to keep up their production.”

To give you an example of the amount of wool processed in Iceland, Guðjón Kristinsson, the managing director of Ístex, told the Reykjavík Grapevine back in 2017 that “…there are 500,000 sheep in Iceland, from which the 2000 farmers shear 1000 tonnes of wool a year. This is reduced to 750 usable tonnes after washing; 400 tonnes of the best material is processed into knitting wool, with the second class remainder exported to the UK, mainly for use in upholstery and carpets.”

While Álafoss is still in business and doing well, it is not anywhere near what it was in its heyday. If you are curious about the history of the shop, I recommend visiting. It is only about a 20 minutes drive outside of downtown Reykjavík. It’s off the same road you would take to get to the Golden Circle.

I plan to do a separate episode on the knitting history and culture in Iceland, especially since I recently learned how to knit and am working on my first Icelandic sweater. 

If you are planning to buy an Icelandic sweater, please make sure that it was made in Iceland. There are many shops that have sweaters that have “designed in Iceland” labels but the wool and manufacturing are from China. They are not authentic Icelandic sweaters. Places like the Handknitting Association of Iceland and Álafoss sell authentic Icelandic sweaters that were produced, designed and knit in Iceland. It helps to keep the local industry going if you buy from shops like the ones I mentioned.

Yes, Iceland has more sheep than people in the country. It used to be that there were two sheep for every one person in Iceland. In recent years, the population of people living here has increased and the population of sheep has decreased. According to an article in the Iceland Review, there were 432,740 sheep in 2018. Sheep numbers were at their highest in 1978. Then, there were over 890,000 sheep! As mentioned earlier, the cost of production of sheep is quite high in comparison to what the farmers are paid, so reducing the number of sheep has cut down on farm operation and production.

Icelandic sheep grow two types of wool. The one closest to their skin is a soft, insulating fiber. While the outer layer is more coarse and protects them against wind and rain. These two layers are combined in Icelandic wool. Wool produced in warmer climates is softer and not as itchy. If you own an Icelandic sweater, you have probably felt itchy if you weren’t wearing a layer between it and your skin. Actually you might still feel itchy but much less than if you’ve had it right next to your skin. Ístex is trying to find ways to reduce the itchiness in the wool fibers.

Kind – sheep

Lamb – lamb

I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of the All Things Iceland podcast. If you think someone else will find this episode interesting and/useful please share it. Recently, I started a newsletter that is dedicated to sharing even more fascinating information about Iceland. 

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To get a better understanding of the Icelandic education system, I sat down with Arnór Guðmundsson for this episode of the All Things Iceland podcast. In his role as the Director of the Directorate of Education, his agency focuses on testing and producing textbooks for schools in Iceland. We discussed many things. Some of them include the different levels of education in Iceland, how the Icelandic education system compares with other countries, and some challenges the Directorate is facing.

The continued decrease in literacy among Icelandic teenage boys and how the survival of the Icelandic language is threatened by English are topics most people are not aware of who live outside of the country. Arnór was helpful in giving an overview of the system. I have also included answers to frequently asked questions regarding the Icelandic education system, which are not in the podcast interview.

Arnór’s interview questions

What is the history of the education system in Iceland?

What are the levels in the Icelandic education system?

Do you need to know Icelandic to study in Iceland?

How many universities does Iceland have?

Are there private schools in Iceland?

Is education free in Iceland for international students?

One of the oldest educational institutions in Iceland, Menntaskólin í Reykjavík, can be traced back to 1056! For centuries, education in Iceland has been of great importance.  However, the first national education law wasn’t passed until 1907. Later, the Compulsory Education Act of 1974 modernized the Icelandic education system. It included a mandate for providing special education services to all students with disabilities.

Three former schools, Prestaskólinn, Læknaskólinn and Lagaskólinn, were combined to create the University of Iceland in 1911. The schools individually taught theology, medicine and law. Naturally, the professors in the early days of the university only taught those classes for those specific fields. Over time, the fields and expertise of the faculty have diversified. This university is the country’s oldest and largest institution for higher education.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture was established in 1942 and has the jurisdiction of educational responsibility in the country. It issues the national curriculum guidelines for the educational institutions. Most schools in Iceland are public but there are a small number of private schools that have popped up. Interestingly, the Icelandic education system has been decentralized over the years. The local authorities are responsible for the primary and lower schools. While the Ministry is responsible for the upper secondary schools and higher education.

About five years ago, the National Center for Educational Materials and The Education Testing Institute combined to become the Directorate of Education. As mentioned in the podcast interview above, Arnór leads that agency.

There are four levels of education in Iceland. They are playschool, primary school, upper secondary school, and higher education.

These levels are split into compulsory and non-compulsory. Play school, upper secondary school and higher education are non-compulsory. Primary school is the only compulsory, or mandatory schooling in the country.

Parents with children between the ages of two and six can opt to send them to play school. While it is not mandatory for the child to attend this level of schooling, it is helpful for them because specific curriculum has been set up at this level. It is meant to help the child transition to the compulsory education level. Play school is not free but the cost is subsidized by the local municipalities.

About 30% of the fees paid by parents covers the cost of running the playschools. If a parent opts to send their child to a private playschool, they will pay about 10-20% more than the public institutions. The time spent at a play school can vary. The range is normally a minimum of four hours and a maximum of nine hours per day.

Compulsory education consists of primary and upper secondary school. In Iceland, children between the ages of six and sixteen must attend school. The school year begins between August 21st and September 1st and ends between May 31st and June 10th. Children attend school five days a week and must have a minimum of 180 school days in the year. As in other countries, the parents of children in Iceland are responsible for their children attending school. As mentioned in the history of the Icelandic school system, the municipalities fund the schools and provide the necessary resources. These include teachers, administration, specialists and special education. 100% of students that are supposed to attend school are accepted and this level of education is completely free.

Due to the population in each area around the country, compulsory school sizes can vary widely. It is not uncommon for there to be less than ten students in a rural school in Iceland, but around 1200 students in a school in Reykjavík. Interestingly, around 50% of Icelandic schools have less than 100 students. Regardless, all of the institutions must follow the national curriculum guidelines. Along with the guidelines, schools are required to provide extracurricular activities, assessments for teachers and students, counseling, an annual calendar and a work plan for their school.

Any student that has completed their compulsory Icelandic education has the right to upper secondary education. Within the last few years the length of upper secondary education has changed from four years to three. Students are typically sixteen years of age when they start and nineteen when they graduate. However, this time frame can be different for a student enrolled in vocational courses. All the schools at this level are mixed sex and their are no tuition fees. However, there is an enrollment fee and all students are expected to pay for their own textbooks.

If a student doesn’t meet the entry requirements for different courses, they will be given a general study program. Because there are different upper secondary schools in Iceland that provide unique educational experiences, some schools are more popular than others. It is common that an upper secondary school has to turn away hundreds of applicants for the upcoming school year. There are about 40 upper secondary schools in Iceland. Similar to compulsory school, the size of the students in the schools vary based on the population in the area of the country that the school is in. The smallest school might have fifty students, while the largest school can have over 3,000.

The school year is split into fall and spring semesters. Iceland has about 40 upper secondary schools and they are divided into grammar schools, industrial-vocational schools, comprehensive schools, and specialized vocational schools. It is required by law that all of these types of schools are a combination of academic, vocational, artistic, and general programs of study. To be eligible for higher education, a student needs to pass a matriculation examination. It is called a Stúdentpróf in Icelandic and all upper secondary schools in the country can offer it.

One of the fascinating parts about this level of education is that the student is in control, to a degree, of how fast or slow they finish their education. A certain number of course units are available each term. Within those course units are a certain number of course credits. This is more similar to how the system is set up for college students in the United States. Evening classes and distance learning are also offered at many schools. Like compulsory school, counseling services are also offered at this educational level.

Most of the seven higher education institutions in Iceland are run by the state. Háskóli Íslands or the University of Iceland is the country’s first and oldest university. It was established in 1911, but since then other schools have opened up around the country. There is a mix of private and public universities in Iceland, and they both receive state funding.

While many students in Iceland attend a higher university at home, there is also a decent amount that choose to study in a different country. The majority of students that want to attend a háskóli must pass an exam. However, work experience can be taken into account for acceptance, when it applies. For students in Iceland, registration for háskóli is from April to June each year. Foreign students must apply by the date specified by each university. Like upper secondary school, the school year for higher education institutions lasts from September to May. They are divided into fall and spring terms.

Thankfully, there are no tuition fees for institutions in Iceland that are run by the state. However, you are required to pay a registration fee. If you opt to attend a private university, you will be charged tuition fees. Every student in Iceland is eligible for financial support from the Icelandic Student Loan Fund. The student’s personal and financial circumstances will determine the amount. People from the European Union or EEA-EFTA countries are also eligible for loans if they meet certain requirements. 

Each year the Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture awards scholarships to students of foreign origin. These are given to people intending to study the Icelandic language, literature or the history at the University of Iceland. 

Some of scholarships for higher education in Iceland are the following:

For more about grants in Iceland, I suggest checking out the information on the local grants program on U.S. Embassy’s website.

Yes and no. The answer to this question depends on if you are studying at the undergraduate or graduate level in Iceland. All undergraduate programs in Icelandic universities are primarily taught in Icelandic. Even though the textbooks and a class or two might be in English, you are expected to fully understand Icelandic if you plan to be an undergraduate student. Many foreigners come to Iceland for graduate level studies (Masters and Ph.D), because a good portion of them are taught in English.

Iceland has seven universities and they are:

Yes, there are private schools in Iceland across all levels of study. There are a few international schools, as well.

Yes and no. Compulsory (or mandatory school) for children aged six to sixteen is free. Play school has an annual fee. State-run higher education institutes in Iceland do not have tuition fees but there is an annual registration fee.

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Thank you kindly for listening (and reading) and see you soon!