Ten years of Iceland

Posted on by Juliet Frost

Ten years ago tomorrow, I went to Iceland for the very first time. Ten years ago on Thursday or Friday, I decided that I wanted to live here and because I’m the practical sort and I don’t rush in, I decided that I wanted to be living in Iceland within the next ten years. You know, you need to sort out stuff like learning enough Icelandic to get by, finding some way to support yourself, finding somewhere to live, that sort of thing. Well, ten years has now gone by and I have an announcement to make…

Selfie at Gulfoss in winter

I am still not living in Iceland!

Oh, I don’t say it doesn’t still occur to me sometimes. I now work remotely on a permanent basis so I could come and live here for a month or six months or a year and do the digital nomad thing long enough to satisfy me. But ultimately, I don’t think I want to live in Iceland anymore. If I won the lottery, I’d be very tempted to buy a holiday home in Borgarnes and I might upgrade to a fancier campervan on more regular holidays. I’d definitely spend a week at the really expensive end of the Blue Lagoon! But at the moment, my life is in the UK and I don’t think Iceland is shouting loudly enough at me to abandon all that permanently.

Selfie at Skogafoss
I love the weird warped perspective of this photo

But I do still love Iceland! For example, I’ve started writing my Iceland book again (this is at least the tenth attempt!) and I plan to have it completed by next Christmas. I still write about Iceland on this blog, although I’m getting desperate for new material after not having been there for three and a half years at this point. It’s still not unknown for people to point in my direction on Twitter when someone asks about Iceland. Once I’m able to be a polar bear again, I’m going to absolutely spam this blog and my Instagram with Iceland.

Selfie at Leirhnjúkur

If I’m going to write about ten years of Iceland, I could write about what I’ve done there in the last decade, but this blog kind of covers that by its very existence. So instead I’m going to dig into the history of the last ten years of Iceland – politically, artistically, commercially, tectonically, and ok, a few things I’ve done too.

2011:

  • Eruptions of Fimmvörðuháls, Eyjafjallajökull and Grímsvötn
  • My first trip to Iceland!

2012:

  • Iceland (the supermarket) opens its first outlet in Iceland (the country)
  • Low-cost Icelandic airline WOW Air starts operating

2013:

  • After two terms, the first openly LGBTQIA+ head of state, Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, is replaced by Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson
  • Release of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in which the precise date of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption is forecast several days, or maybe weeks, in advance
  • Introduction of a small entrance fee to visit Kerið explosion crater. This is a major moment in a country that believes nature should be openly accessible to everyone
  • I swim in Viti crater for the first time

2014:

  • Eruption of Bárðarbunga/Holuhraun
  • Hellisheiði Power Station introduces a new system to re-inject non-condensable gases back into the rock to reduce hydrogen sulphide pollution
  • Pollapönk represent Iceland in Eurovision and come 15th
  • I climb Esja for the first time

2015:

  • Release of Hollywood adventure film Everest, directed and produced by Icelandic legend Baltasar Kormákur.
  • Iceland’s GDP returns to the level it was at before the 2008 financial crash

2016: 

  • The Blue Lagoon is drained for the first time ever and expanded
  • Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Iceland’s fifth president, steps down after twenty years in office and is replaced by Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson.
  • Anti-government protests about the Prime Minister’s involvement in the Panama Papers
  • Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson is replaced by Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson.
  • Parking fees introduced at Þingvellir
  • Deep Drilling Project to investigate supercritical hydrothermal fluids as an energy source drills the deepest geothermal borehole in Iceland, reaching 4,659m below ground, to a temperature of 427°C

2017:

  • Prime Minister Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson is replaced by Bjarni Benediktsson who is in turn replaced by Katrín Jakobsdóttir later in the year.
  • Parking fees introduced at Seljalandsfoss
  • Tourist buses banned from Reykjavik city centre
  • Domestic airline Air Iceland (formerly Flugfélag Íslands) rebrands as Air Iceland Connect

2018:

  • The Blue Lagoon opens its Retreat expansion, including a luxury hotel, new restaurants and an exclusive lagoon
  • Iceland makes its first-ever appearance in the FIFA World Cup. Gets knocked out at the group stage
  • Hvalfjörður Tunnel ends tolls as the repayment of the cost of construction is completed
  • I walk (most of) the Laugavegur Trail
  • New municipality Suðurnesjabær is created from the merger of Sandgerði and Garður municipalities
  • Stefán Karl Stefánsson, star of Lazy Town, dies

2019:

  • Iceland (the country) wins a trademark dispute against Iceland (the supermarket) to be allowed to use the word “Iceland” for commercial purposes
  • Low-cost Icelandic airline WOW Air ceases operations
  • Hatari represent Iceland in Eurovision and finish 10th

2020:

2021:

Trekking across the Laugavegur Trail