Iceland, or Why the hell haven't you gone there yet?

Adam and I both absolutely loved Iceland.  Reykjavik was clean, beautiful, and friendly, and within 24 hours Adam--without me saying a word, though I was already thinking it too--said "we could live here."  I repeat, he said that without prompting, and I completely agreed with him.  I'll write more about our trip in a day or two (and post our few meager pictures--the camera died, so most of them are on our phones), as it's already well past my bedtime, but first, a brief bit of info on Iceland.

The population is slightly under 350,000, and just over 60% of people live in Reykjavik.  A quick bit of comparison thinking will tell you that rush hour in Reykjavik isn't exactly like rush hour in New York, or even Seattle.  It's not cheap, but it's not as expensive as it's been made out to be, although food isn't cheap.  The food is, however, stunningly delicious (unless you don't like fish or lamb), whether it's simple (fish and chips or sandwiches) or high-fare (lamb carpaccio or langoustine in saffron sauce).  There is also a wide range of international cuisine.  The Mexican restaurant we ate at the first night (one of two we found), for example, was as authentic as you can expect when you're about 6000 miles away (the mother of the owner was flown in from Mexico City to teach the kitchen how make the food properly, which sure beats the "Mexican" I've had in London).  From what I can tell, salaries seem to be comparable to the US, and prices slightly higher (no idea on housing; the only place I found was listed in US dollars, and was 500 acres with a river and it's own geothermal power plant--$10,500,000).  The country is almost completely powered by geothermal energy, which makes sense, as it's on the mid-Atlantic rift, and so is slowly growing due to being pulled apart by two tectonic plates.  It can get 24 hours of daylight for a few months in the summer, and while we were there (aka the beginning of February), sunrise was around 10:15am, and sunset around 5:15pm.  It snowed nearly the whole time, but people drove fine in the snow (except for what I believe were a few tourists).  It was cold, but not unbearable.

Yes, we were on holiday, which can gloss over the negatives.  But comparatively, there are very few negatives to Iceland.  We WILL be going back.  We've even got plans for a pub/brewery that we could open there.