“Iceland passed an important benchmark in 2006 when,for the first time, foreign tourists outnumbered the country’s own population. It seems the secret is out now and people are rushing to this natural paradise that is unlike any other on planet earth. They come for the rumbling waterfalls, for the heavenly hot springs and to witness the last great glaciers of Europe. They discover the strange shapes of the bright green mountains, the colours of the daunting sky and the shimmering fjords, and the joy of sunbeams after a hard-hitting, horizontal rain.

And yet, Iceland is more than pretty views and primeval landscapes. It is a land where horses grow long hair on their backs and where the liquorice aisle is the longest one in the shops. It is a place where everyone calls each other by their first name, where all the churches have tiny gold stars painted on their ceilings, and where mailing addresses haven’t changed in 1,000 years. All this in a country that is named after ice. Iceland is not just a sightseeing destination but a place where we come to feel things we’ve never felt before – what it’s like to be the only person on earth or how it feels to be outnumbered a million to one (for that is how many puffins might live on a single cliff). Such a gargantuan nature stirs the soul and we learn to accept the unexpected. The plume of mist on the horizon could be anything – steam from a hot spring, the salty breath of a spouting whale or the early wisps of a week-long fog.”