• nanna 5 hours ago

    Turf roofs are a phenomena of the past in Iceland. In the Faroe Islands the culture is still very much alive and much more ubiquitous and impressive.

    https://guidetofaroeislands.fo/best-of-faroe-islands/8-place...

  • nottorp 28 minutes ago

    Ooo. "You have been blocked".

    I probably have too many privacy plugins.

    • chrisco255 3 hours ago

      How do the turf houses deal with pests? The walls are made of dirt. Wouldn't worms and insects be burrowing into the home constantly?

      • theoreticalmal an hour ago

        The (American) classics Little House on the Prairie books told a story of a family who lived in a sod house and constantly had bugs, critters, and even snakes fall from their ceiling onto their dining table (and everywhere else)

        • Cthulhu_ 3 hours ago

          I didn't even think of that, but I did think of moisture. In theory a good moisture barrier would help, but I don't think they had that in older times. I suppose a lot of heating on the inside would keep it dry, but heat + moisture = mold.

          • jaapz 2 hours ago

            Wood heating combined with "natural ventilation" should take care of any excess moisture inside

        • rob74 5 hours ago

          Thanks for posting this! We're planning a trip to Iceland this year, so the full trip description on this site is just what I needed...

          • 0xEF 3 hours ago

            For hot springs, go to Hvammsvik instead of Blue Lagoon. Hvammsvik was a much calmer, far less touristy experience with none of the kitchy BS.

            For some fun culture and history in Reykjavik, book a cooking class with Salt Eldhaus. Had a great experience there, the hosts talked about how much Iceland has changed from when they were young, got into the history of some of the dishes we made.

            Hakarl is a tourist gotcha, it's really not bad to eat at all, even outside of Reykjavik. Not my first choice, but you can see why it got them through long winters. If you have time, stop in Selfoss for the Skyr Museum and yes, definitely eat all the Skyr you find, it is delicious.

            Friðheimar, the big tomato greenhouse farm, is worth the drive. The food was good, walking around the grounds was super chill.

            We went during Oct of 2023, so the weather was between 40-50F and slightly rainy, but nothing we were not used to being from the northern parts of the US. Pretty decent time to see some Aurora Borealis though. You often can't see it with the naked eye unless geomagnetic conditions are absolutely perfect, but the camera on your phone can pick up things your eyes cannot, so don't be afraid to just snap pics of a seemingly blank sky.

            • Bric3d an hour ago

              +1 on blue lagoon, was way too busy to be enjoyable when I went, there's plenty of smaller hot springs around which are much nicer.