And Iceland is actually a very interesting country.

Throughout the history of the world, most of the cities and countries that have been declared "bankrupt" because of financial problems have fallen into a miserable situation of poverty and misery, and the living standards of their citizens have also fallen sharply, such as Greece, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, etc., and the lives of the people in these countries are no longer what they used to be. However, there are exceptions to everything, there is a developed country in Northern Europe, the government has declared bankruptcy for more than ten years, and the people are still rich and worry-free, this country is Iceland, which is known as the "land of volcanoes".

Iceland, the full name of the Republic of Iceland, is an island country located in the Atlantic Ocean in northwest Europe, close to the Arctic Circle, located at high latitudes, with a land area of only 103,000 square kilometers and a population of only 340,000. What is less well known is that Iceland was one of the richest countries in Europe before the 2008 financial crisis, with a GDP per capita of $68,428, ranking sixth in Europe. Affected by the financial tsunami, Iceland's economy was in crisis, and the then Prime Minister Gael Hilmar Halder could only declare bankruptcy in order to stabilize the country's order, becoming the first developed country in the world to declare bankruptcy.

However, ten years after the insolvent country declared bankruptcy, the country has not only fallen into poverty and war, but still has a per capita GDP of more than $70,000, still one of the richest countries in the world. In fact, there are three main reasons why Iceland has been able to remain wealthy and prosperous after its bankruptcy.

First, there are many local tyrants to help. Iceland, which is located in Europe, has not formally joined the European Union, but has become a member of the European Economic Area through the EEA, so after the Icelandic government declared bankruptcy, the European Union organized an aid fund to help Iceland recover its national economy. In addition, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also led the provision of $6 billion in emergency aid to Iceland, and once these two funds are in place, Iceland's national economy has the material basis for rapid recovery. As for Zimbabwe, Venezuela and other countries, the reason why they cannot get out of the bankruptcy predicament is that no major country is willing to contribute money to help them rebuild their national economies, so they can only fall into a vicious circle and eventually decline.

Second, the boat is small and good to make a U-turn. Iceland's land area is not as large as that of some districts and counties in China, and its population of 340,000 is not as large as that of those large countries with a population of more than 100 million at every turn. For example, Iceland's total GDP in 2007 was only $21.447 billion, while the GDP of the United States in the same year was $14.48 trillion, almost 140 times that of Iceland. In a country as populous as Venezuela is faced with a bankruptcy crisis, the damage caused is irreparable. Iceland is bankrupt, with tens of billions of foreign aid, and if the country saves money for a few more years, the national economy will be able to recover, and the deficit will be basically filled, and there will be no systemic problems, which is where the advantage of Iceland's small country lies, and it is also the key to its ability to quickly get out of the bankruptcy crisis.

Third, a good industrial base. Although the reason for Iceland's bankruptcy is related to the lack of a solid real economy to support it, it does not mean that Iceland does not have a well-developed industrial system. As a veteran European country, Iceland has a good industrial system and technology, a strong industrial base, and a very high quality of its citizens. Countries like Venezuela and Zimbabwe are basically agricultural countries that have made their fortune by selling natural resources, and their industrial bases are very poor, and if they go bankrupt, they will be severely damaged and it will be difficult to recover.

Iceland's economy is good and the number of citizens is small, so it is not difficult for them to maintain high welfare.

There are also a lot of interesting little things about the country, such as Iceland being the most desirable country for man, but it's not an exaggeration. Iceland has a population of about 320,000, but more than 1 million people visit Iceland every year. That is, if you travel to Iceland and you get lost, and you ask five people for directions, maybe four of them will answer you: I'm sorry, I'm not a local.

There are only about 30 roads in Iceland, so there are no trains, no subways. Iceland has fewer people and fewer trees, and the forest cover may be less than 1%.

Iceland's agriculture is very backward because Iceland is a volcanic country with a lot of geological activity. Although it has a plain landform, the soil is sparse and not suitable for growing crops. To say that it is agriculturally backward is a bit of a compliment, because there are no farmers in Iceland at all. Everyone depends on the water for draught and makes a living from fishing. Seeing this, if you think that life in Iceland is not easy, then you are very wrong.

Icelanders are not only wealthy, but at one point the average life expectancy here was the sixth highest in the world – 81.8 years. You see, this is life expectancy. In today's case, there is a saying that "people are rare in their seventies", but in Iceland, a 70-year-old man may be a young man among the elderly. Despite its proximity to the Arctic Circle, Iceland is not too cold, with average temperatures ranging from -2°C to -3°C. In other words, leaving aside the central heating in our country, Iceland may be a little warmer than Harbin.

Also, there are no mosquitoes in Iceland. Brothers with type O blood, is it unexpected or not, is it a surprise or not, is it a yearning or not?

Education in Iceland is more developed than you might think. One-third of the country's population is enrolled in school. This is not to say that they are young, but that their residents are very fond of learning and attending classes, and many of them are still in their thirties. 100 years ago, there were no illiteracy in Iceland because their compulsory education was not nine years, but ten years. The most popular gift in Iceland is books. On Christmas Eve, Icelanders give books to each other, which leads to an abundance of writers in Iceland. Iceland has the highest proportion of writers in the world and the largest producer of writers in the world.

Couriers in Iceland are easy because they don't have to memorize addresses. The person who wrote the letter will draw a suggested road map on the back of the envelope. Think about it, it's such a big place, what address and house number do you want? The gentlemen of Iceland are happy. Because they have their own festival, similar to our "Women's Day". The young lady in Iceland is also very beautiful. Icelanders have won the Miss World title four times, and Iceland is a place of beautiful women in this proportion of the population.

In Iceland, there is a software that is unique in the world, only for Icelanders, and this software is used to check blood relations. Because in the past, there was often a problem in Iceland, that is, two young people, who fell in love to the point of talking about marriage, called the seven aunts and eight aunts to discuss the wedding, and suddenly found that the groom and the bride were related by blood and were distant cousins. In this app, as long as you enter the names of two people, you can check the blood relationship. Avoid this embarrassment.

In Iceland, you don't have to be married to have a child. Icelanders do not associate unmarried childbearing with morality. Even unwed mothers can enjoy all the benefits in Iceland.

Iceland has no army, so there are almost no wars. The only time he fought with his neighbor Britain was for cod in the sea.

If there's one place in the world called a "song of ice and fire", it's Iceland. It is covered in snow, but at the same time there are plenty of volcanoes and hot springs. There are about 300 volcanoes in Iceland, 50 of which are active. Iceland has the largest number of hot springs in the world, with about 250 alkaline hot springs on the island. Iceland has its own language called Icelandic. In Iceland, people are hospitable, but they hate being released. If you're asking Icelanders out for dinner, you'd better get there on time or risk being cut off.

Zhou Fangyuan remembered that in his previous life, when Iceland shone in the World Cup, there was a joke on the Internet.

Here's what it looks like: according to the latest demographic results, there are only 334319 people in Iceland. Among them, 170503 were women and 163816 were men. Among these men, 40,121 were under the age of 18 and 85,670 were over 35. As a result, there are only 38,025 men of playing age, but 24,775 of them are too fat to play. Of the remaining 13,250 Icelandic men, 788 go whaling, 320 observe volcanoes, 2,856 work as sheep shearers, and some do other jobs. Of the remaining men, 23 are in prison, 189 are disabled and 189 are blind, leaving only 8,809. Of these, 8,781 watched the game from the stands, three served as team doctors, cooks, masseurs and two coaches for the Icelandic national team. As a result, there are only 23 men left in the country, and where are they all?

This is, of course, just a joke.

In fact, every player in Iceland's football team is professionally trained, otherwise it would not have been possible to perform like this in the World Cup. Iceland's investment in football is not small, after all, given Iceland's natural environment, there are not so many places to build football stadiums. Since 2000, Iceland has invested heavily in the construction of football stadiums and the training of soccer players in order to make a difference in the World Cup. This foreshadowing, once buried, is nearly eighteen years. In contrast, the national football team is really impossible to say, and I can't watch it.

There are many well-known tourist attractions in Iceland, and it can even be said that you can count as a tourist attraction in this country as long as you leave the city.

The most famous, of course, is the Golden Circle of the Blue Lagoon Glacier.

The Blue Lagoon, to put it bluntly, is Iceland's famous outdoor bath, a world-famous geothermal hot spring located southeast of the city of Reykjavík. People call the Blue Lagoon a "natural beauty salon".

The Blue Lagoon is famous for its natural open-air hot springs in the first place. Thanks to the geothermal heat, visitors can soak in the warm water and fully enjoy the bounty of nature even when the snow is falling. The second is its hot spring mud, since Iceland is a volcanic country, and the Blue Lagoon is located on an extinct volcano, and the beneficial minerals in the strata are deposited at the bottom of the lake, people with good water or good luck will cheer when they dig into the white mud, because this mud is beautiful and healthy, and it is said to be very effective.

The formation of the Blue Lagoon is very special, the sea water passes through the hot volcanic lava layer underground to absorb heat to generate electricity, and the water contains many chemical and mineral crystals that have been proven by Icelandic medicine to relieve stress and have some kind of healing effect, so the various products extracted from the Blue Lagoon are also popular.

The Blue Lagoon seems to have become the quintessential photograph of Iceland, and many people soak in the light blue hot springs. After leaving the airport, the landscape begins to change significantly, with the occasional small fishing village along the coastal road, and the inland road, which is even more desolate on both sides, with endless volcanic lava overgrown with bryophytes that resemble a soft carpet of the earth. When you see the indicators of the Blue Lagoon, you can't believe it's located right between a barren black mountain lava rock, and the three huge chimneys of the Schwartsengerni geothermal power plant are famous landmarks.

Glaciers are the last thing Iceland needs to have, and you could even think of the country as being perched on top of a large glacier.

Glaciers are a form of water that is transformed by snow through a series of changes. To form a glacier, there must first be a certain amount of solid precipitation, including snow, fog, hail, etc. Without enough solid precipitation as a "raw material", it is equivalent to "cooking without rice", and it cannot form a glacier at all.

In the high mountains, glaciers can develop, and in addition to a certain altitude, the mountains are not too steep. If the mountain peaks are too steep, the snow will fall down the slope and will not form snow and form glaciers. As soon as the snowflakes fall to the ground, they change, and as the external conditions and time change, the snowflakes will turn into spherical snow that completely loses its crystal characteristics, which is called granular snow, and this snow is the "raw material" of glaciers.

After the snow becomes granular snow, over time, the hardness of the granular snow and the tightness between them increases, large and small particles of snow are pressed against each other, tightly inlaid together, and the pores between them continue to shrink so that they disappear, the brightness and transparency of the snow layer gradually weaken, and some air is also enclosed in it, so that glacial ice is formed. The process of snowing and compacting is carried out quickly at temperatures close to the melting point, and slowly at negative low temperatures. Glacier ice is milky white when it first formed, and over time, the glacier ice becomes denser and harder, and the bubbles inside gradually decrease, slowly turning into crystal-like old glacier ice with a blue color.

Iceland is home to four major glaciers, the most famous of which is Vatnajökull Glacier, the largest glacier in Europe, and Snæfellsjökull Glacier, which historians call the "gateway to the center of the earth". Driving snow jeeps and motorbikes here will give you the unique enjoyment of running on the ice fields. The unique topography of the Central Highlands attracts many visitors to enjoy nature to the fullest. Whether it's hiking up a mountain or driving a 4x4 around this seemingly unexplored wilderness, it's all about something extraordinary.

In addition, there is the so-called golden tourism circle, of course Zhou Fangyuan and they also went, but he didn't feel the pulse of the earth, maybe he had seen too much beautiful scenery recently, and he was a little numb to see it.

On the last night in Iceland, that is, the last night of their group trip, God was very face-saving, and in the dark sky, a series of colorful and magnificent aurora lights began to slowly emerge. When there were exclamations begging others outside, Zhou Fangyuan took Lin Yueya and rushed out of the house impatiently.