02-12-2004, 04:40 PM
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    Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Shella, Kenya
Posts: 639
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Anubis said:
Quote:
My history knowledge SUCKS. I don't know much. But I'll share a bit of what I remember. Simple version (from a msn conversation between me and Tom Henrik): Quote:
More complicated version: Iceland was found around the year 900 AD, by Norwegian vikings. On their way to Iceland, (then known as Gar?arshólmi and Sn?land), they stopped by in the UK and took slaves. So basically, most Icelanders today come from vikings and slaves. Back then the country was covered with trees. Then the men came, and ruined it all. Now we have few really small forests. There was this Icelandic/Norwegian guy, Leifur "the lucky" Eiríksson, who is said to have found America. Although most people say Columbus did. Leifur was the son of Eiríkur "the Red", who found Greenland. Eiríkur was an outcast, because he killed some guy, I think. I saw the cartoon few years ago :bleh: In the year 1000, Icelanders took Christianity. They believed in the Nordic mythology. It was quite a big step for them to take the Christian belief, because of so many strong traditions in the heathen laws, you HAD to revenge. Example: A kills your brother. You have to kill A. A's brother, B, has to kill you. Your friend, C, has to kill B. etc etc. And with Christianity, this was illegal. Ok, now ends the era that I know most about. The next few hundreds of years are kinda blurry :whistle: In the past few hundreds of years, Iceland has belonged to Norway and Denmark. We got independant from Denmark in the year 1944, December 1st. But we celebrate the independance day on the birthday of the guy who made it all possible. Jón Sigur?sson, born on June the 17th. We have a president, called Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. He's really cool, and a funny guy. I've met him couple of times, my band plays for him a lot (when foreign presidents and some guys come visit him), and he invites us to cocktail parties and stuff instead (plus loooots of money :evil: ) Iceland has about 300.000 inhabitants. Half of them live in the capital city, Reykjavík. 800 inhabitants in my hometown :whistle: . I live in Reykjavík now, though. Goverment The Icelandic goverment is Right oriented, although there are a lot of traces from the communism. My school, for example, used to be a commie school (is still, in a way). Our school logo is a red fist, our schoolsong used to be the Internationalin (now it's a song about Jesus :blink: ). My band is also a communist band. Our logo is the red star with the initials of the band name. We always play on 1st of May, in a parade, play the Internationalin (that's one helluva song!!!). I think that most young people (at least young people I know) are left oriented. And most people I know hate the goverment. Religion Most Icelandic people are Lutherian. Although I don't know many people who actually do something about it. Maybe..... 2 families!! School system Icelandic kids have to go to school from the age 6 untill they're 16. Then they can choose if they go to college or not (usually 4 years), and then they can take university. Children aged 6-16 get education for free, except they go to private schools. There are three private schools, if I'm not mistaken. Two of them are free, the third (for 13-16 year olds) costs 350 € a month. Only 20 students in the whole school LOL Colleges are pretty cheap, I pay 80€ per semester. Stupid stuff We have to be 21 to drink beer :ranting: But heck, who gives?  Pictures  Part of the city centre. To the left you can see the only catholic church in Iceland. Below it is the city hall.  The pond in the city centre. It's really really disgusting.  Map of Iceland  Well... If anybody has read this through, I admire you. If nobody has, I can't blame you. If I remember some more stuff, I'll post it  |
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