The Waterstraut Waterspout: Explorers Week Iceland

Our next set of countries were part of our Explorer's Theme Week. I picked out a few explorers, and a coordinating county, and made some small activities. First up for Explorer's Week was Iceland.

I'm just going to go through the explorer's briefly, because I'm hoping to tackle all the blog for our explorers today, plus get the Christmas punch board ready, so I've got to keep a move on.

Our Explorer for Iceland was Leif Erikson, the Norse Viking who was the first to travel to North America, or at least the first person we heard about to travel here. Fun story about him: he came from a line of banished murders. His grandpa got banished to Iceland from Norway. And his father, Erik the Red (thus the last name Erik son) got banished from Iceland to Greenland. Lief was born in Iceland, but spent a lot of his years in Greenland as Erik the Red was responsible for the first permanent settlement in Greenland. (Greenland, however, isn't a country by UN standards, because the island actually belongs to Denmark, thus the reason I picked Iceland).

Since we're talking over 1000 years ago here, the stories are sketchy on Lief Erikson- and depending on where you're getting your information they vary a bit. There's two 'sagas' told about Lief Erikson

In both Sagas, Lief Erikson heads to Norway to meet with King Olaf about exploration. On his trip, he's given the mission of taking Christianity back to Greenland (Lief later builds the first church in Greenland). But, then it becomes murky.

In the Saga of Erik the Red, Lief is blown off course on his way back to Greenland from Norway and lands over in present day Canada, and rescues two men who had been shipwrecked.

In the Saga of Greenlanders tells how he came home from Norway wanted to explore more, and heard about a new land from a guy named Bjarni who had been blown off course and seen the new land (though not stepped foot on it).

No matter how he ended up where he did, Leif and his crew had landed in North America, a land of"self-sown wheat fields and grapevines". He called the place “Vinland,” because the land was covered with wild grapes.

Researchers aren’t sure exactly where Leif landed, but they believe it might have been at Labrador or Newfoundland, in Canada. Leif is credited as the first known European to have discovered continental North America (excluding Greenland).

In both sagas, Lief established a small settlement, and stayed there for the winter to explore the area. The following spring, he headed back to Greenland with stocks of grapes and timber. Most stories generally believe that was the only time Lief visited the land, although many stories say his brother then returned, died there, and was buried there- making him the first European buried in North America.

Obviously, there's some conflicts with Lief being the first to discover America, since the saga of Erik the Red says he rescued some guys who had been shipwrecked (making them the ones to discover America), but you know- that's apparently rather here nor there.

Each explorer got their own color, so we can mark important places and events, along with their routes on our map. Lief Erikson is red, for his dad Erik the Red.

At the end of the lesson, the boys made a Facebook page for each explorer, and then we would vote on the best one, earning more money for their country jars.

Most of our activities were short quick one's. In this one, we did a lesson on over fishing (since most of Iceland's food comes from the sea around it). Basically I used goldfish, and each round the amount of fish taken from the 'sea' doubled, while four more fish were 'born' each round. The boys had to guess how many rounds it would take for the sea to be depleted.

Then we were on to our country, Iceland. When I was in San Diego, helping Jane with the receptions in her room, I met a guy who had just been to Iceland. He was telling me how awesome the land of volcanoes was, but also how expensive. He did tell me that we should have lamb for dinner, since that's pretty much what they eat beyond fish, but that was too expensive for me and four boys- so we went in a different direction. But, he did tell me about his meals there and how you'd get lots of meat and potatoes and like one piece of broccoli- because it's so hard to grow anything there.

Icleand, an island nation in the north Atlantic Ocean, is a little larger than the state of South Carolina. It's Europe's Westernmost country and the capital of Reykjavik is the northernmost capital city in the world.

Iceland known as being the land of 'Fire and Ice'. Around 11 percent of Iceland is covered in ice, and there's around 200 volcanoes. A third of all the lava flow on earth can be found in Iceland.

Our landmark was 'Geysir' and 'Strokkur', two geysers in Iceland. In case you're wondering 'Geysir' (also called 'The Great Geyser') is where all Geysers get their name from. It was the first geyser described in a printed source and the first known to modern Europeans. Geysir can hurl boiling water up to 230 feet into the air, but eruptions are infrequent and have stopped all together for years at a time.

Lucky for visitors, Strokkur is right next door, less than a minute walk between the two. Strokkur is one of Iceland's most famous geysers and erupts once every 6 to 10 minutes. Usually it's an eruption about 50-60 feet, but it has gone up to 130 feet high.

Iceland is a gorgeous country full of strange and desolate landscapes. Glacier hiking is one of the most popular tourist things to do, although people also enjoy ice climbing of frozen waterfalls.

The country's most popular 'hot spot' is the Blue Lagoon. Heated from below, the geothermal bath is 100 degrees. It's Iceland's natural hot tub.

To see the land of fire and ice in action, head to Skaftafell National Park where you'll find one of the most impressive ice caves you'll ever see. It looks like the ceiling is on fire with blue flames. It's hidden within a glacier, and you'll often here the cracks and pops of the glacier above.

Iceland is one of the safest places in the world to visit. The greatest danger presented to tourist are found in nature. So as you enjoy the volcanoes, glaciers, geysers and mud pools Iceland has to offer- be sure to heed the warning signs.

Even the flag of Iceland takes note of the land of fire and ice. The red represents the fire, the white the ice, and the blue the ocean.

Some other fun Iceland facts for you:

Icleand is home to between 8 and 10 million Puffins, the birds that look like flying penguins with orange beaks and feet. You can take a boat out to see them, it's called the 'Puffin Express'.

Iceland is big on books. Everyone gets a book on Christmas Eve and spends the evening reading. Iceland has the highest number of book publications per capita in the whole world.

The Arctic Fox is the only mammal indigenous of Iceland.

The language is Icelandic, which is very similar to 13th century Norse, and 72% of Icelanders belong to the Church of Iceland (Lutheran-ish)

And, wrapping back up with a tie in to Lief Erikson, in Iceland it is the law to give kids the last name according to the first name of their parents, and then add on either 'son' (Thus Leif Erik SON) or 'dottir (daughter). Even more interesting, it's called a 'patronym' for all you Harry Potter fans out there.

The boys made their Iceland post cards.

Calib's included the most fire and ice.

Peyton's featured the Geysir, and someone trying to catch a Puffin.

And Hayden included the ice caves.

So like I said, land was suggested for a meal. But, that's pricey. Then there's the traditional Icelandic food hakari, which is basically rotting shark meat that's been buried in a shallow pit before it's cleaned and eaten raw. It's described as tasting 1000 times stronger than blue cheese. So not only could I not get that, but it doesn't sound like something I would try anyway.

To my rescue for an easy Icelandic meal comes Pylsa, or an Icelandic hot dog. I don't have a recipe for it, but you can learn more about it here if you're interested. Hot Dogs are Icelander's first choice of fast food, although their hot dogs are made from lamb. I couldn't get a hold of lamb hot dogs, but I did find some 'product of Canada' ones, so there's that. Icelanders dress their hot dogs with fried or fresh onions, ketchup, mustard and remoulade.

We might not have been able to get lamb hot dogs, but we did get Icelandic Yogurt. They sell it right here in our grocery stores (It's Siggs Skyr yogurt), and it says right on it 'Icelandic Yogurt'. We added in some fries and carrots (since mostly what grows there is root vegetables), and grapes in honor of Leif Erikson.