Can’t get to Boston or Iceland anytime soon? Toronto will be the next best thing later this month. After one thousand years and counting, Icelandic culture is still very much alive, and now it’s coming to Canada. Torontonians can once again experience the Icelandic lifestyle during A Taste of Iceland, the country’s captivating cultural festival, from March 17 to 20.
Hosted by Iceland Naturally and in collaboration with Toronto’s Drake Hotel, this four-day event provides a chance to learn more about this beautiful country and its people with a variety of events including free live performances, film screenings, Icelandic food offerings and art.
For instance: Chef Thorarinn Eggertsson, also known as Chef Thor, owner and head chef of Orange in downtown Reykjavík, will design the menu at the Drake and cook on-site to inspire Toronto-area foodies with his unique Icelandic dishes and exquisite cuisine.
Icelandic musician Mugison and his band will play at Drake Underground on March 19 and 20 at 10 p.m. (Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen Street West). Admission is free. Country Wedding will have a public screening on March 18, at 6:30 p.m. at Cumberland Four Theatre (159 Cumberland Avenue). Reykjavik Rotterdam will be shown at 8:10. Admission for both screenings is free.
Icelandic artist Hrafnhildur Arnardottir’s latest installation, Haunted, will be on display at the Drake from March 17 to 20. (http://www.shoplifter.us/haunted.php) Her work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, where she currently resides, along with other major cities across the United States and worldwide. Icelanders enjoy a sophisticated European lifestyle based on age-old traditions. They make their own food from fresh ingredients, design their own clothes, write their own books, make their own music and perform their own plays. View the complete schedule and see what it’s all about. (For more information: http://www.icelandnaturally.com/news/archive/nr/126).
Our Boston friends surely are tired of baked beans and clam chowder by now. To liven things up this month, and to celebrate Icelandair’s nonstop service between Boston and Reykjavík, comes a Taste of Iceland. The event features the best of Icelandic music, cuisine and films through a series of ongoing special promotions in and around Boston from March 11-17, 2010.
Getaway Package And Free Norden Card
“A new ranking of the world’s nations by environmental performance puts some of the globe’s largest economies far down the list, with the United States sinking to 61st and China to 121st. The top performer this year is Iceland, which gets virtually all of its power from renewable sources — hydropower and geothermal energy. It was joined in the top tier by a cluster of European countries known for their green efforts, including Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Finland.”
Steve LeVahn, an entrepreneur from Minnesota, and Dennys Bisogno, co-founder of Calypso Systems, Inc., in Wisconsin, both returned from an 11-day photography trip to Iceland. We asked them for tips on capturing the country’s scenic beauty.
Hellnar is a small town located at the far end of a Snaefellsnes peninsula, facing a large glacier called Snaefellsjokull and surrounded by a big ocean about 120 miles from Reykjavik. It is a town truly in the middle of nowhere and seems untouched by time, probably because of its remoteness. The town hasn’t changed much at all since the time that Iceland was settled, except for the Jeepzillas that prowl the nearby Snaefellsnes National Park offering visitors the chance to go snowmobiling, glacier walking, ice climbing, and ice caving. These are Jeeps on steroids with giant knobby tires and tricked-out navigation gear.
The Hotel Borg, possibly Iceland’s most eminent hotel, celebrates its 80th birthday this year. The Borg has been recently renovated to retain and polish the beautiful 1930’s architecture for which it is so famous, and from which it derives its motto: Character With Style.
Caring about our planet, the environment and climate change caused by pollution comes naturally to us Icelanders. Apparel company 66ºNorth has joined forces with the Iceland Mountain Guides to run the successful “Reach the Top with 66º North” program. Over the years, several hundred people have climbed the highest peak (6,920-feet) in Iceland, located on Vatnajokull, Europe’s largest glacier. In addition to the sheer adventure, the trip serves as a forum to educate climbers on the issue of global warming and its effect on Iceland’s glaciers. Training begins in February and climbs are in late May and early June. (
DesignMarch is a four-day feast featuring a wealth of events, interesting lectures and fascinating exhibitions reflecting the diversity in Icelandic design. Many of Iceland’s most prominent fashion designers have established the Reykjavík Fashion Festival, which will take place for the first time in Iceland’s capital March 19-20, in cooperation with individuals from the music scene. For details log onto: 
The annual Iceland Food and Fun Festival will be held in Reykjavik, February 24-28, 2010. Chefs from the USA, Canada and Europe will be teamed up with the most prestigious Icelandic chefs and given the finest Icelandic ingredients to create their masterpieces. Each team will prepare 1 lamb dish, 1 fish dish and 1 dessert. These meals will be served at the finest participating restaurants across the city of Reykjavik until the grand judging. To close the weekend’s festivities, a gala awards event will be held on February 28 featuring a recap of Food and Fun 2010 and the top chefs of the year. Learn more at