The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia

by Michael Booth

I drove onward until the terrifying majesty of Vatnajökull hove into view. This is Iceland’s largest glacier, 8,300 square kilometers and one kilometer deep. Lonely Planet tells me that it is three times the size of Luxembourg, which is only really useful if one has a decent grasp of the size of Luxembourg, which I don’t. Even from many miles away your eyes widen at the scale of it as it sprawls over the mountains like a great, frosted muffin-top, its white icing oozing down the valleys. Vatnajökull reaches the sea and crumbles into hundreds of icebergs at Jökulsárlón bay. As they proceed at a dignified pace into the Atlantic, these bus-size clumps of ice glow blue, as if lit from within. It is like watching dozens of really cool vodka bars pass by.