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By Iceland, I mean Reykjavik, the Golden Circle route and the like.

Iceland got problem. USA printing money. HK controlling property bubbles. But S'pore still showing good signs, e.g. many pple rushing to condo showroom, buying big cars, etc. May be the next financial crisis coming. what you guys think?

As part of a cruise ship stop in June 2014, we were in Reykjavik, Iceland for a day. We decided to rent a car and self-drive the Golden Circle route. Although we didn't have too much time, we managed to see Thingvellir (briefly), Gullfoss Waterfalls (the highlight!) and Geysir/Strokkur. From a car point of view, a nice surprise was that the car company gave us a Volvo XC90 to drive! Cool stuff. Prior to this, I had never driven a Volvo before, let alone their flagship SUV. Back home, I drive a Corolla, so obviously this was going to be fun! As expected, the car performed very well. It was quite new, about 35,000km on the odometer. It was a diesel! How would I describe the car? It was an automatic transmission. The engine was definitely very responsive and I could overtake very easily. The car felt very stable. In terms of drive, it was smooth and comfortable, unlike say the Honda (or subsequently the BMW which I would get to drive later this trip). I am not the 'must-feel-the-road' type of person so I like the Volvo feel over the BMW feel. Here are my blog links with many pictures - http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/06/adventure-of-seas-day-4-reykjavik.html http://guitar123foodandtravel.blogspot.sg/2014/06/adventure-of-seas-day-4-reykjavik_21.html Video of Gullfoss Waterfalls Video of Thingvellir Toilets - 200 Icelandic Kroners per person (pay by credit card!)

Beautifully shot and time lapsed. Amazing work. It screwed world economy, gave flight delays but if there are planes flying, would have paid money to be there. http://vimeo.com/11673745 Fv<king awesomegeddon!

[extract] It is actually surprising that a volcano that most of us haven't heard of or know how its pronounced have affected millions of people indirectly. The Eyjafjallajokull volcano located in Iceland which had erupted on or around the 17th of April 2010 spewing volcanic ash and the winds taking it all over Europe. As a result of the unpronounceable volcano deciding to erupt, many flights were canceled as well as causing many airports in Europe to close as volcanic ash is destructive and corrosive to aluminium and other metal used in aircraft, making airlines lose up to

disrupt flights. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Icelands-vol...set=&ccode=

Iceland raises interest rate to 15 percent Bloomberg News Tuesday, March 25, 2008 COPENHAGEN: The Icelandic central bank raised its key interest rate by a record 1.25 percentage points at an emergency meeting Tuesday to halt a slump in the krona and a surge in inflation. The currency made its biggest ever jump against the euro. Sedlabanki said it raised the benchmark rate to 15 percent. It had not planned to hold a rate meeting until April 10. It was "crucial" to reverse the krona's decline "as quickly as possible," the bank said in a statement on its Web site. The krona has tumbled 17 percent against the euro in the past three weeks on concern that the global financial turmoil would make it harder for Iceland to finance one of the world's largest current account deficits. The country risks "spiraling" wages and inflation if that decline is not pared, the central bank said. Inflation reached an annual rate of 6.8 percent last month. "They were losing the battle with inflation," said Ludvik Eliasson, an economist at the country's second-largest lender, Landsbanki Islands. "Inflation expectations were rising significantly over the past few weeks on the decline of the krona. They had to do something convincing." The krona gained as much as 5.3 percent against the euro after the surprise announcement and jumped as much as 6.3 percent against the dollar. Inflation has exceeded the central bank's 2.5 percent target every month since April 2004, while the current account shortfall stood at 15.6 percent of the economy last year, according to data from the national statistics office and the central bank. Inflation probably quickened to 8.4 percent this month, according to the median estimate of five economists surveyed by Bloomberg. This year's slump in the krona represents the second time investors have shunned the currency since 2006. The krona lost 20 percent against the euro that year, sparked by concern the current account gap was unsustainable. The currency recovered in 2007 as inflation slowed and the current account deficit narrowed. This year's global financial turmoil has once again undermined confidence in the currency.