The U.S. Versus Iceland (The Fun/Quirky Things)

When traveling abroad, it is always great to come across those cultural discrepancies between what you are used to at home versus how it's done in the place you are visiting. Sometimes, those differences are challenging and hard to work through. But sometimes they are just harmlessly funny, unique, or even bizarre. This page is dedicated to those fun differences – none of the hardcore ones, just the quirky little things we noticed in our travels.

1. Potable Water in Iceland

Perhaps you know this, but part of the appeal in visiting Iceland is that you can literally drink the tap water. All of the water is clean and safe to drink, since all of it came from a Glacier. This ready availability of water was so interesting to us, because it has basically integrated itself into Icelandic culture in subtle ways. Without the need to worry about drinking water, they don't have many treatment facilities. They never need to cart around drinking water in trucks or plastic water bottles, and consequently don't have to worry all that much about bottles filling up their landfills or recycling. In fact, it was clear that only plastic water bottles were around to catch the eye of any tourist who either wasn't yet aware of the abundance of safe water, or just couldn't get over trust issues. We had no issues drinking the water, and it was seriously the best tasting water we have ever experienced (and this was neither of our first run-in with Glacial water). Also, that gloriously clean water made, absolutely hands down, the best coffee we've experienced to date.

2. Hot Water (and Sulfur) in Iceland

If clean water has been integrated into Icelandic culture subtly, hot water has integrated unsubtly! Why? Image how volcanically active you think Iceland might be, and then multiply that by about 10. There are hot springs and hot water sources nearly everywhere. In most places, you would be hard pressed not to find it. There are only a few geographically older areas which are volcanically quieter and thus the water is colder, and Icelanders get around this by simply not building/living there.

Since the hot water comes from volcanic activity, it means that it almost always smells like Sulfur. In some places, it was a thick and rich smell of Sulfur, in other places less so. The first night we showered, it was a little interesting to bathe in the smell of rotten eggs, but as it's a gas, it doesn't linger on your skin. It was also surprising how quickly we got used to it and it didn't really bother us anymore.

Since hot water is a natural resource, Icelanders are constantly visiting hot springs and “hot pots.” It's just what you do there. Many of the places we stayed in either had natural hot pots near, or a deck with a hot tub which was in turn fed by a natural hot spring. We enjoyed our fill of soaking in the naturally warm and clean water. Speaking of which, you never take a soak in Iceland without showering first. Hygiene is incredibly important, and it's socially unacceptable to jump into a soak without cleaning yourself off first. We loved this about Iceland… because in our opinion, public pools in the States stand to benefit from requiring this same rule!

3. How traffic circles work

Traffic circles in Iceland, while overwhelming at first, once understood were like a breath of fresh air. First off, they are much larger in circumference than the ones in the U.S. When you drive up to the thing, you don't feel like you might as well just drive over top of it in protest (ahem, Missoula). Your right and left blinkers are essential in Iceland. You enter, and if you intend on taking the first exit, you put your right blinker on. If not, you put your left on, and you keep it on until you are coming to your exit, at which point you signal right.

This was so straight forward! Keep your left on as long as you want to stay in, signal right as soon as you're about to exit.

The hardest part for us was that many traffic circles are two lanes, and the inside lane always has the right of way. That means if you are in the outer lane, you must keep close attention to what the people on your left are signaling they are going to do. Because they will zip right in front of you when it's time they exit (and zip they do). However, this wasn't the most challenging part, the challenge for us was being the ones on the inside lane. When it came time to exit, it was sometimes difficult to know when to judge if the car to your right had seen your right blinker come on and noticed your intention to exit? We never had anyone not notice, but still.

4. How do Icelanders drive?

It appeared to us that in general, Icelanders do not waste any time while driving. They are zippy, efficient, and generally aware drivers. We'd wager that awareness comes from the fact that nice road conditions are not always a given in Iceland, depending on what the weather or Mother Nature has decided to cook up. Always needing to be on the lookout for road changes which can happen on-the-fly seems to have translated fairly well into also having a decent awareness of other fellow drivers.

One thing we were not quite ready for… they follow each other close while driving, or at least it felt like it with what we are used to. We first noticed this on our shuttle bus as we were picked up from the airport. I am pretty sure we could see the hairs on top of the people's heads with high resolution in the car in front of us the whole way. Though speed limits in Iceland are never over 90kmh (55mph), it still felt close to us. We noticed this throughout most of our trip while driving too, but also noticed this method just seems to work for them. We never saw any accidents or near misses. Again, we think this ties back into driving in Iceland requiring a healthy amount of awareness, and it is just an expectation that you do so. We also didn't see anyone operating their phones while driving. We quite liked that part.

5. Car Culture

While we are certainly not experts on what Iceland's favorite car is, to Ryan's great delight, it truly felt like every other car we'd see… was VW Golf. At least in Reykjavík. Beyond that, we noticed a ton of Dacia Dusters out on the Ring Road. It's not a car we see in the States, and looks a bit like a cross between a Subaru Forester and an Acura MDX. Subarus are around, though they have perhaps become more popular only recently. Jeeps were also common to see on the F-roads, though we weren't sure how much of those were local owners versus tourists.

The other impressive vehicle we saw was the absolutely massive semi trucks. These were most impressive because they are a bit like bats… you would never see them unless you were foolish enough to have a planning mishap like we did and end up driving through the middle of the night. Coming across the southeastern shores, we would see this humongous creature with floodlights and headlights everywhere, clipping along at a steady pace. The first time we saw the lights of one, we thought an accident or night road work might be going on. Once we got close enough though, it was this massive truck which looked far too wide for the lane, and towered over everything like a wooly mammoth. It's no wonder they only move at night! We were able to see several of these during that night travel, and in general they made up nearly the only night traffic we saw.

6. Roads in Iceland

Outside of the city are paved highways, the speed limit of which never exceeds 90kmh, or 55mph. While 55mph back home sometimes feels like a slow crawl which will put you to sleep, we would say that in most cases it felt plenty fast for the roads in Iceland, and not just because we were sightseeing tourists. There were a few areas it might have been reasonable to go faster, but their roads are generally made to get you from point A to point B without any extra fluff. They aren't very wide, there usually isn't a shoulder (if there is, it's not very large), and there is often a steep drop off which could seriously mess you up if you drifted too near it.

Our best description of Iceland's highways? You should intend to drive the road so you can see the beautiful, stunning countryside. But don't forget said road is as unobtrusively small as possible so that it doesn't take away from the beauty. We know their influx in tourists is putting a bit of stress on these narrow roads, but we sincerely hope they can keep them smaller and keep Iceland “rugged.”

Speaking of rugged, there are LOTS of unpaved roads in Iceland (probably more unpaved miles than paved), and some of these are called F-roads. The “F” stands for Fjall (mountain). We felt quite at home on these, it was like being in Montana! That being said, they are unmaintained, can become incredibly rocky, and even completely washed away. One of the biggest hazards of F-roads is coming around a corner to find out that a river was suddenly across the road. Really, an entire, whole, wide river… that wasn't there a day or two before! We're used to this maybe being a springtime occurrence, but Iceland experiences this no matter what season it is. Why? Because every season is volcanic activity season in Iceland. Yes, things are active enough that the landscape is shifted often enough to move rivers and waterflow regularly. We experienced unplanned rivers blocking our way three times during our adventure, two of which caused us to change our plans and turn around.

You can read about the most adventurous one here.

7. The Sheep

Speaking of road hazards, let's take a moment to talk about that most docile and yet spry of all road blocks, the Icelandic Sheep. Scruffy and stout, these critters are part of what make Iceland Ísland. They are let loose in the springtime to free roam the entire country (pretty great eating for a sheep, considering Iceland is an Ohio-sized graze-fest of volcanically rich soil with resultingly luscious grass). Their population is sparse enough that you don't look across the landscape and just expect a sheep, it's more like you will see them everywhere because they will just pop up anywhere. We noticed they are almost always in a pack of three.

It's not uncommon to find yourself standing at the top of the cliff, admiring the humongous waterfall (Glymur, in this instance), look down, squint at three fluffy dots that seem to be just chilling on the cliff halfway down, and remark, “Are those sheep?” Yes, they were. How did they get there and why were they there? Because sheep.

At another instance, we found a trio plopped down against a guardrail, right on the pavement, not a care in the world about us driving by. Just staring at us chewing their cud in all their sheeply glory.

Yet another circumstance found us rounding a corner to observe a road sign waving back and forth as if someone were angrily shaking it back and forth. The culprit? An Icelandic sheep with an itchy rump.

Not to let their apparent docile nature fool you, they will run like banshees when given the chance, and will of course, run out in front of the car. You must not hit them lest you fancy paying a $500 fine to the farmer, and the ramifications of the car rental (also steep). How do you find out who owns a sheep?

We aren't really sure. Every fall Iceland has a big sheep Round Up event, where anyone who can help herds them all back into civilization and pens them up in a barn for the long winter. Apparently they sort out whose sheep is whose after rounding them all up. They don't have any ear tags, brandings, or markings like we see in the States, so for now this one's a mystery.

8. Icelandic Horses

We would be remiss if we talked about the sheep but never mentioned the horses. These critters are way cuter than the sheep in our opinion, but they might be just as ornery. They are much smaller than the size of a normal horse that most people are used to. We would say they are right in between the size of a pony and a “regular” horse. They are not ponies though. They are horses.

In fact, they tend to look a lot like a stout, mini Clydesdale. They have all the elegant hairs one notices Clydesdales have, but the Icelandic horse is sturdy in that it looks like if the temperature drops well below freezing, it probably won't be phased. Which is exactly the case, in fact.

We won't go into too much more detail, as we aren't horse experts. We really enjoyed seeing them around and took more than a few photos, because they definitely seem to have a lot of character. They appear to really enjoy climbing on things, because we most often would look out into a pasture to see one just chilling out or standing stoically on the highest rock it could find, looking out across it's pasture all Simba's Pride style.

9. Sunguilt

Being at the top of the world means that Iceland's winters are nearly completely dark all day, and the summers are full of sunlight nearly all of the time. Our celebrant, Kristrún, explained to us how this circumstance creates what Icelanders refer to as Sunguilt, and we think this is brilliant because we can definitely relate.

Since winters coop you up all of the time, summer rolls around and if you aren't outside as much as possible, you might end up feeling guilty about it, since you know at some point in your year you are going to be missing that abundance of cheerful light. When it's there, you should seize every opportunity to be in it!

Iceland takes this to the next level, in that sleep is often at an all-time low during the summer months. In our experience, Reykjavík was definitely an active town during weekday late evenings. One night, we enjoyed watching the local teens ride their skateboards around a popular eating/food district, while many of the adults milled around the area enjoying the evening. A party in the neighboring yard to our Airbnb in town went until around 1am on a weeknight as well, and it wasn't the only one in the neighborhood. I suppose it may have been annoying if you were trying to sleep… didn't bother us any since this was the night we wrote our wedding vows. Speaking of which, upon emailing these to Kristrún around 2am, we were surprised to receive a response from her 5 minutes later! Truly, Sunguilt in Iceland is real. We wonder, have they evolved to contain the ability to metabolize some of that energy straight from the sun instead of needing to always sleep to get it back? Not so, we were told, and then assured their winters are more than enough of a kick-in-the-rear to inspire maximizing the summer.

10. Icelanders

Most Icelanders are incredibly nice people. They are self-sufficient and the expectation is that you are too, but if they see someone in need, they will step in to help very quickly. The language of Iceland is Icelandic, but almost all can speak English, perhaps better than some of us for whom it is our first language.

They don't take kindly to nonsense. Don't do silly tourist things, don't be rude to them, and don't decide you aren't going to wash yourself before soaking in a hot pot or hot spring and you'll generally get along just fine.

To live in Iceland is to have volcanoes in your backyard. It means they are used to having a planned response to all sorts of natural-disaster related possibilities. Hearing an Icelander talk about how not to approach days old lava because it could still be hot underneath, or how to navigate around the crevices of a glacier is very similar to how people who participate snow sports have an appreciation for and a caution of avalanches.

Having volcanoes in your backyard doesn't mean that there's always an eruption going on that you can casually walk to. When there is one that's accessible and safe to observe, it means that Icelanders will show up to observe right alongside all the outlanders flocking in to see for themselves.

One of our favorite experiences was visiting the then-active eruption of Fagradalsfjall. Of course we shared the trail with many visitors from all over the world, from those with their massive National Geographic-worthy camera lenses and drones, to those of us carrying our amateur photographer lenses and just here to visit because the timing worked out to see an volcano erupt. But we also noticed a ton of Icelanders hiking up the mountain, many bringing their kids along to see this fine example of nature in action. We really enjoyed seeing that even in a place where it's fairly commonplace to expect an eruption, people will still take the time to appreciate nature and pass on the experience with an evening outing.

11. Parking

Most parking in Reykjavík is numbered based on a scale of P1, P2, P3, and P4. That P scale tells you how expensive it is to park in that area, from most expensive to cheapest. As you might guess, the most expensive (P1), are all the parking spots which are quite sought after due to their prime location.

Our funny story? We had this scale entirely backwards, we'd got it into our minds that P1 was cheapest and were really congratulating ourselves on finding such great parking, and for not very much cost! In fact, there was this handy parking garage downtown which was P1 parking and we used it quite extensively. A couple of times we drove all the way in here, parked for only a few minutes to do something, and then left. Parking garages operate on a camera system, so they scan your license plate as you drive in, and then when you go to leave, you type your plate number into the pay kiosk and they know exactly how long you were in there. (Yes, this means you are charged from the moment you drive into the garage, and not the moment you parked).

Imagine how we felt upon returning home to discover on our credit card that P1 was in fact… not the cheapest parking. It's not like it is horrendously different, especially since we were just there on vacation. But it certainly gave us a good laugh and we noted it away for next time!

12. How paying for meals at a restaurant works.

If you are familiar with sit down restaurants in the States, you know that typically the waiter/waitress brings you the bill, gives you a moment to dig out your form of payment, circles back to your table, takes it away to process payment, and then brings it back. Not so in Iceland. When finished eating and ready to go, you proceed up to the checkout area, pay, and then go on your way. We never came across a restaurant who did things any other way… so no need to sit awkwardly at your table wondering if you should just go on up to the register, or would that be rude? Nope, it isn't rude. It's how it's done.

13. Taxes and tipping – the price you see is the price you pay

Tipping isn't a thing in Iceland, for better or for worse. Also, when you see prices listed, they generally always include VAT (sales tax, or Value Added Tax in Iceland). At the time of writing, VAT was around 24%. Yes, that's incredibly different for an American (especially a Montanan, where the sales tax is 0%!) However, that extra tax goes into certain benefits and infrastructure which we don't have in the U.S. The good news is whenever you see a price listed, that's generally exactly what you pay. No need to mentally calculate the tax on top of it, because it's already included. No need to decide on how much you should tip, either.

14. Paper size

Here in the U.S., we cling to things like Fahrenheit, feet, and pounds for a number of reasons including stubbornness, cultural identity, and “that's just the way we've always done it.” Would it surprise you that paper size is the same way? I'm here to tell you that our beloved 8.5” x 11” paper is used nowhere else in the world. Everyone else uses A4 paper, which is 8.3” x 11.7” (yes, the measurement in centimeters is a nicer, even number). Why paper size, of all things? Turns out this part of our culture isn't all that old; we primarily have the Cold War era to thank. At that time, the U.S. was doing a lot to declare its own cultural identity. Rather than standardize to A4, as the rest of the world elected to do at that point in time, the U.S. decided we'd stick with this singularity, because we weren't Communists, damnit.

Our first encounter with A4 came in the mail with the wedding dress, fresh out of the post from New Zealand. Amy's nicely printed out cleaning instructions poked out of the top of all of our binders and folders by about half an inch, the slender A4 elegantly refusing to cooperate. In Iceland, all our papers were the same way. This one is a fun quirk to mention, because we never would have encountered it had we simply traveled to Iceland. Since we were dealing with legal documents though, we drove around for all 12 days with various marriage documents poking stoically out of our squat American binder. It wasn't inconvenient, just fun.

15. Recycling and Waste Disposal in the city

Not surprisingly, Iceland is a huge proponent of recycling. How could they not, in a country this beautiful? Especially when every summer they receive an influx in tourists, the numbers of which tend to exceed the population of Iceland itself.

One of the coolest things we saw were small trash and recycle bins all throughout the city. They were abundant enough to always be convenient to find, and the bins themselves much smaller than a typical trash can we see here. How could these possibly fit enough trash to be useful? We delighted in watching a trash truck come by, mechanized arms scoop the bin up, to reveal that it's bottom was attached to an enormous tank under the trash bin! Basically think of a large rectangular barrel welded onto the bottom of a trash bin. Once placed back down, we noticed the top of the barrel was a plate flush with the street, so we in fact had been walking atop them the whole time and never noticed.

This “bottomless pit” scheme meant that no trash bins were overflowing, and furthermore there was never even a hint of trash smell anywhere.