Iceland is a clear and simple country, but that doesn't make it any less interesting or impressive, and maybe even more so.
Both the nature and the people of this island generate and have always generated enormous interest, and for good reason. Hot springs, boiling lakes of mud and lava, multicolored mountains and volcanoes covered in sparse vegetation, omnipresent sheep on their slopes, and small shaggy horses in the fields. The rampant socialism and egalitarianism of a small population of 300,000 people, universal equality and prosperity, the absence of crime, criminals, and prisons, the clear, bright eyes and mind of any random person. The constant cold of 14-16 degrees in the summer, drizzling or pouring rains, storms, and hurricanes. An Old Norse language with an archaic alphabet that hasn't changed in 1000 years, thriving and carefully cherished, yet anyone under 60 speaks perfect English. Practically every second resident of Iceland writes prose, poetry, or is in a band.
A ton of geothermal and hydroelectric power plants providing cheap electricity, but building new ones is hindered by the public, which is overly concerned with preserving untouched Icelandic nature. At the same time, this very same public is perfectly fine supporting such a barbaric activity as commercial whaling — besides Icelanders, only another equally peculiar country, Japan, does this. Importing whale meat into the US and EU, by the way, is a criminal offense, even though it's sold at Keflavik airport.
Iceland has the oldest functioning parliament in Europe — the Althing. How long it will continue to exist is hard to say: almost 90% of people vote in elections; with such turnout and a small number of voters, a transition to direct democracy is entirely possible, where people directly analyze and vote on laws.
