-Jan 6th. I heard that over 13,000 Icelanders were abroad over Christmas-New Year`s. That might not sound much but is a fairly substantial number in a nation of some 300,000.

-One of the best kept secrets in the world is that Icelandic banks offer interest rates as high as 14%, averaging around 10%. The economy has been on a roll for some years now, has cooled off, yet doing well enough in a sustainable way.

-Later today I leave for Westman Island, this time by plane, a 25 minute flight from Reykjavik Airport. It should be exciting, especially coming into Westman which resembles a South Pacific island: grassy with high peaks and two volcanoes. When I made the reservation three days ago I checked out the weather: more important than not being able to go is not being able to return! Sometimes that can happen here in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, especially in January. Around Christmas the ferry, known for its reliability, was unable to make the trip for an unheard of two days in a row due to foul weather. I had taken the ferry twice before; one of those experiences that thrills you the first time but ho-hum the second. You have to set aside half a day of travel, so why not 25 minutes with a good Internet deal?

-As for Reykjavik airport, it is downtown, and by that I mean almost literally. There`s a flat area just south of Reykjavik proper where the university is located as well as houses on the north and east (ocean is on the west). It is an accepted fact of life to see low flying planes over downtown and more so, over the major highway leading into Reykjavik. It can be unnerving by any standards! Iceland`s interior airline (specializes in communtes to Greenland and Faroe Island as well!) uses the airport, propeller jobs, along with an occasional private jet. Ever since I had been here the airport building, modest as it is, hasn`t changed a bit: still run-down and make-shift as it originally had been as a WW II military base. Over the years there had been (and still is) talk about moving the airport to the international one at Keflavik, 50 minutes away, or to Hafnarfjordur, about 8 miles away. And so the building and airport proper never developed. The university has cast an envious eye on that property for years and is ready to snatch it up.