Iceland - General thoughts

I positively love Iceland.  I heard one member of our group, a Danish person, say, "It sounds cheesy to say this, but it feels like coming home."  To me, it does.  It feels like there is something inside me saying, "Ahh, this is what home should feel like."

That's a very weird feeling to have when you enter into a country you've never been to and don't know the language, so I'm going to try to break it down a little.

(1) Landscape:  All of (inhabited) Iceland is basically wonderfully fertile farmland (from the volcanic ash) and relatively flat (because it's a volcanic island).  Additionally, there are almost no trees (either too young geologically or poor stewardship of previous inhabitants, go figure).  It really, truly, looks like God's country if you're a farmer.

(2) City layout:  You rarely get "major" cities within an easy commute distance to prime farmland.  You get this in Reykjavik.  In fact, the city is so close to amazing farmland that they post signs forbidding tractors on the highways during the rush hour.  That's a concept of a city I could get behind.  Sure, drive your tractor into downtown, we don't mind, just please avoid doing so during rush hour traffic.

(3) Career:  I could build a career almost anywhere, but it will honestly be easier if I have facile access to good astrobiologically interesting sites.  While we can make cases that sites in California are somehow relevant to space exploration, I believe the argument becomes a tad easier if you are looking at glaciers and hot springs rather than tar pits and hot springs.

(4) Luxury:  I am still very freaked out by geothermal hot springs, but I have to say that they have a certain appeal on a cold evening.  I understand nearly every evening around here is a cold one, so yes.  There's a certain amount of luxury associated with sitting in a hot tub at night and having ice form on your towel by the time you've finished your sprint back to your heated house / room.

(5) Spectacular sightseeing:  Iceland has some of the most amazing waterfalls I've ever seen in my life.  They have them everywhere, and sometimes they are more beautiful than anything I've witnessed in California but so commonplace here that they don't even get a mention on the maps.