We stopped to interview some lucky tourists on the street to see why they chose to visit Iceland. The following people graciously complied to dish out the details of their trip.

Names: Marieke van Buren and Johan de Rooý

Country: Netherlands

Johan: We always wanted to go here.

Marieke: We’ve wanted to see Iceland, for years. And now we finally get a chance to go here. We just came back from whale watching. We saw a lot of whales! We were lucky.

Name: Ellen Strömme and Mari Lillejord

Hometown: Oslo

“It was my granddaughter’s idea to go to Iceland; it was the only place wanted to visit. She has heard very much about the Blue Lagoon. We were there yesterday, after our flight. It was wonderful. Today we have seen the city. [Mari speaks to her grandmother in Norwegian.] And the church, she tells me. She has taken many, many pictures of the church.

It’s very beautiful, isn’t it?

E: Very beautiful. And also some very different architecture from what we have in Norway. The Perlan building was very fantastic. And the view from there. [Asking Mari]: Did you like the view? Yes, she likes the view. Tomorrow we are going on an eight hour trip, the Golden Circle and the continental rift. So she’s going to America tomorrow!”

Name: Claudia & Juan Hernandez

Country: Mexico

“We have walked around downtown. I really like the weather, the people. When we took the decision to come to Iceland it was because Iceland is a country without delinquency problems. There is a ranking around the world about what are they countries with the least problems. My surprise was that Iceland is the 3rd place.

What will you be doing on your trip?

J: We plan to go to Gullfoss, Selfoss, Landmannalaugar. That’s the original places we thought about. I’d like to visit the volcano, Eyjafjallajökull. I really like the people. When we made the decision to come here, we were thinking about some other countries to visit as well, but we have the opinion that Nordic people are very interesting. They are very inexpressive people but their heart is with us.”
Name: Mark and Laura Pauls

Hometown: Winnipeg

“We really had no idea what to expect at all. We’ve done a lot of the galleries. The one that we like best so far was the National Museum. It was tremendous. That was incredible. The building itself was really impressive. And I guess the Icelanders are really into sculpture, because there are so many museums dedicated to sculpture.

Public sculpture too!

M: Yeah, that too. And the cafés here are amazing. We’ve hardly seen any North American chains, except for Subway.”
Name: Spencer & Jennifer Arne

Hometown: Chicago

“We’re renting a car tomorrow and driving to Akureyri. We’re just going to be up there for the weekend and driving back here on Monday afternoon and our flight is Tuesday afternoon back to the US.

Jennifer: We’re on our honeymoon.”

What a great place to spend it! What made you chose Iceland?

S: Kind of a random shot pretty much.

J: We booked it before the volcano [laughs].

S: We’re actually wishing the volcano is still going, so we can get a good tour of it.

What do you think of Reykjavík?

J: It is SO clean. You come from a lot of the cities in the US where it’s really dirty and you just kind of get used to that, but Reykjavík is gorgeous and immaculate.

S: You don’t have to worry about crime here either. You feel very safe.
What are you excited to see between here and Akureyri?

J: I want to see the puffins. They are so cute, and you see them in all the stores. I want to see if they are as cute in the wild.