Publisher's Synopsis
The traveller's handbook that allows you to have a safe, considerate, budget experience of Iceland.Iceland is a peculiar place, with certain physical dangers and financial costs to the unprepared traveler which CAN be avoided. To identify these often subtle threats, you need the advice of a local resident, which is what this is.This is a handbook aimed at tourists visiting Iceland and is intended to save ill-informed visitors from various pitfalls and calamities peculiar to Iceland, as well as educate them on how to cause the least damage to fragile nature while visiting. Contains advice and information on: Local people and culture, film, TV, music, history, language, the sagas, local specialty foods, dos and don'ts, danger to life, limb and property, travel cost savings, local festival-type events, useful websites. There are also a few pointers as to how a tourist can enjoy certain natural attractions easily and cheaply, such as Northern Lights and hiking/outdoors activity in the vicinity of Reykjavík. The style and theme is tongue-in-cheek, yet deals with serious subjects relating to potentially fatal accidents and expensive liabilities. The dangerous Icelandic road system (and lack thereof) is given particular attention, as is survival in the wilderness and how to avoid commercial exploitation. If you want a safe, cheap, well rounded experience in Iceland, this is for you.From back cover: * tells you what to do and what not to do while visiting Iceland, and what is a distinct no-no. * warns you about how cunning merchants try to exploit you and other dangers to your pocketbook. * tells you what you can do in Reykjavík, for free, to avoid being bored to death. * saves you its purchase price in avoided ripoffs many times over, possibly. * educates you on a multitude of lethal dangers, how to avoid them and how to survive in a critical situation. * helps you avoid embarrassment and pissing off the locals. * describes the locals, their history and culture, their predilections, eccentricities and outrages. * introduces the most infuriating language in this hemisphere.* tells you which local delicacies to try, which ones to shun, and which ones to run away from, quite fast. * provides a list of local festivals and useful websites. * tests you with a bewildering Pub Quiz. * teaches you how to pronounce the name of THAT volcano. * Look out for Road Unsafety, The Bad Outdoors, The Ice Lagoon of Death and Fatal Attractions! * Learn why there are so few trees and whose fault it is! * Find out what is the French Connection to Scandinavian culture! * Learn new insults in a language nobody understands! * Find out how many guns the locals have, and if they are dangerous! * Learn to drive on gravel, ice and snow without crashing! * Discover the most popular festival in Iceland. You won't like it! * Learn why the locals are so rude (or are they?)* Get introduced to medieval poetry like you never wanted to! * Find out where else you can put rocks! * If you hate it here, find out what you can watch on TV instead!
