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Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of Þorrablót, an Icelandic mid-winter feast. In the past there was no fresh food available at this time of year so people ate dried fish, smoked lamb, putrefied shark and soured blood and liver pudding along with other soured meat products—ram testicles included.
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Fjallabyggd (“Mountain Settlement”) is a skier’s dream. Its slopes are perfect for slaloming and there are also tracks for telemark skiing. Winter sporting enthusiasts can also go ice skating or rent snowmobiles. In summer, Fjallabyggd turns into a paradise for hikers. Read this special promotion about one of Iceland’s best hidden gems.
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The Czech tour bus which sank into the highland lagoon Blautulón on Saturday was driven recklessly, according to Vatnajökull National Park ranger Snorri Baldursson. He dismisses the Czech travel agency Adventura’s claims that the vehicle’s weight caused the accident.
From the bus’s recovery. Photos by Sóldís Helga Sigurgeirsdóttir of the search and rescue team Flugbjörgunarsveitin at Hella. Courtesy of ICE-SAR.
The bus was towed to shore by a crawler crane and a tractor yesterday afternoon after two divers had prepared its recovery. They fastened buoys to the vehicle to make it easier to drag it to shore, ruv.is reports.
Baldursson said this had not been a welcome visit; videos have shown other buses like these drive recklessly on Icelandic highland routes.
The owner of the vehicle, which is known as a Tatra truck, denied that his drivers are reckless, stating they are all trained and reliable. He didn’t know why videos would show them driving recklessly.
The Icelandic media found the videos in question on the travel agency’s website, most of which have since been removed. One showed a truck driving outside a ford in the river Krossá in Thórsmörk and getting stuck in a pit, ruv.is reports.
In September last year a Tatra truck almost hit an SUV in a blind turn by Landmannalaugar in the southern highlands.
The driver of the SUV, who was deemed to be 100 percent in the right, said he managed to save his life by driving up a hillside and jumping into the passenger seat when the truck hit the driver’s side.
The operations of foreign travel agencies are not monitored in Iceland; travel agencies within the EEA countries can operate tours in the country with a foreign license.
However, the Icelandic Tourist Guide Association would like to make it mandatory for all foreign travel agencies that operate tours in Iceland to bring Icelandic guides along on all larger tours, especially in the highlands and national parks.
Such regulations are widely in effect in other countries.
Click here to read more about the bus accident in Blautulón.
ESA
A Playboy model, Progressive Party in trouble and a bad hair day.
Seven companies have asked to be listed on the NASDAQ OMX in Reykjavík, in one of the biggest privatization plans in the country’s history. All seven companies are owned, at least in part, by Landsbanki Íslands, which the Government of Iceland owns 81 percent.
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Landsvirkjun accounts for 75 percent of total electricity production in Iceland; in the year 2010 production reached 12,625 GWh. Climate change and the resulting increase in temperatures are expected to lead to a significant increase in the flow of glacial rivers in the years to come.
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The Special Prosecutors’ Office has filed charges in the so-called Al-Thani case, which pertains to the purchase of a five percent share in Kaupthing Bank in late September 2008, merely two weeks before the banking system’s collapse.
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The current issue of the quarterly magazine Iceland Review includes for example an interview with world-renowned fashion designer Steinunn Sigurðardóttir as well as features on the successful biotech company ORF Genetics and the hot debate regarding the EU. If you subscribe now, you will receive a photo book by IR editor, photographer Páll Stefánsson of the eruptions in Eyjafjallajökull as a gift. Click here to subscribe to the magazine and here to buy a gift subscription.
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REVIEWS
The second series of The Press continues to follow the life of journalist, mother and wife Lára and her investigation of Iceland’s underground world.
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Harvesting human-like protein from genetically modified barley, Icelandic company ORF Genetics is revolutionizing the world of green biotechnology. With Iceland’s First Lady Dorrit Moussaieff and Hollywood stars among its loyal fans, the company’s phenomenal skincare range has, quite literally, changed the face of the cosmetics industry.
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The international recognition that the architecture firm Snøhetta has received is quite unique in a Norwegian context.
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