You make Iceland sound like such a fun place. xD
Well the thing I can say for Iceland is that it's not boring. The storms are harsh enough to peel asphalt off the roads, and when you get a glacier flood it washes away absolutely everything. It's a good idea to listen to what the locals say and if they tell you to not go do thing X because Z will happen, trust them. Two months or so ago several tourists got their cars pelted by huge rocks flying in a storm because they didn't listen to people telling them the snow storm was too bad to drive in, and got their car windows smashed in. One unlucky tourist panicked early on and turned around to return to the previous village, only to have the windows on the other side of the car smashed as well.
And don't let me start on the Finnish morons on Vatnajökull. One of them got ill so the voluntary rescue units went to get him back and told the two remaining ones there was a glacier storm on the way and that they'd give them all a ride back... but no, said the Finns, they planned to dig themselves into the snow if a storm would happen. Which by the way is a good choice in a snow storm in Finland but in a glacier storm you aren't digging anything. The rescue unit guys tried for a while but the Finns were adamant - this was on the radio on the same day so the whole country pretty much knew there'd soon be two Finnish tourists in trouble, hopefully not dead.
True enough they called for help when the storm struck and they found out a snow storm in Iceland is not the same as one in Finland, and the rescuers (let me stress again they're voluntary units, they don't get paid a penny for this) had to go after them on a Friday evening and head into a snow storm. Probably not the way they wanted to spend their Friday evenings but on the other hand they were likely prepared for it already.
The Finns were found, saved, and all was well, except it really fired up the discussion again on whether it's fair that the rescuers are sent after people who deliberately put themselves into danger and ignore warnings and a) the rescuers don't get paid for it although b) they buy/use their own equipment, gas etc. and c) the people being rescued don't have to pay anything. I'm only hoping they'll come up with some kind of a fining system for situations where someone has clearly been warned but decided to go do something stupid anyway.
