Iceland

An explosion and fire at reactor number four released massive amounts of radioactive material, and created what became the worst nuclear power accident in history.

President Ronald Reagan and Soviet U- leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavik, Iceland for an extraordinary So- Cold War summit.

They failed to reach a final arms agreement, but the meeting helped lay the groundwork for later nuclear arms reductions.

The Iran-Contra scandal exploded into public view late in the year.

Okay, so now you've survived the economic crisis, the information war, and years of political uncertainty.

So congratulations.

But after all of that, do citizens still want to join? Just days ago, Icelanders faced a version of that question.

They were not voting on EU membership itself, but on whether to reopen negotiations and narrowly said no, 53 to 47 percent.

So let's take this idea much further and imagine it is now the year 2030.

More and more of these furious northern warriors would appear, bringing violence and bloodshed with them and taking treasure and captives as they left.

In Britain and France, in Spain and Italy, north to Iceland, east across the Baltic Sea and into the heart of Eastern Europe, to Constantinople itself, to the capital of the mighty Byzantine Empire and even across the Atlantic into the Americas.

A new age was dawning, the Viking Age, as seafarers from Scandinavia sailed across the waves, raiding, yes, but also exploring, trading, and even, in the fullness of time, migrating and settling.

But before we begin their history properly, let's answer a question.

Who were the Vikings? Today when we talk of Scandinavia we refer principally to Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Finland and Iceland and a couple of other places are often thrown in there as well.

But the regions that we now call Denmark, Norway and Sweden were in the early Middle Ages.

They were inhabited by people known as the Norse.

Premier League because you get found out.

Let's talk about that a little bit more, Nicol, with MJ, as we're now calling him, or the Iceland or Matty J's, Daryl also referred him to.

Is this the time for him to kind of not prove his worth, but prove that he can adapt because he can talk a talk, he can walk a walk, and now he's got to show his onions on the pitch.

I'm not sure his onions on the pitch, but you know what I mean? He's got to prove his worth.

Taylor's story goes far beyond beautiful destinations and life on the road.

We talk about walking away from an abusive relationship, the trips to Alaska and Iceland that helped change her direction, and how travel community and taking a chance on herself eventually led to a completely different life.

It's a conversation about rebuilding, choosing yourself, and discovering what can happen when you finally give yourself permission to go.

I'll see you next week.

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Elf Hill in Iceland.

Ooh.

And would you look at that? It is basically rocks covered in moss with mist rolling in down the mountains.

A little bit of snow up on the mountains, long grasses down at the bottom.

It is absolutely stunning.

And what's interesting about this is that in Iceland, over half of the people there actually believe in elves.

And this rock, this land right here, they actually built a road to go around it instead of through it because they thought that they were kind of like fairy forts.

Right.

The other place that I was so struck by is I went to Iceland a few years, quite a few, well, a few years ago.

Kids there, they know three, four languages and that's just how they grow up.

You go into the airport and you pick up a pocketbook and it's translated.

I'm sure if the pre-crime gets authorized that the search for more individuals would continue.

Well, I guess so, because the last scene in the movie is that the three precogs all have their hair and playing board games and living in a hut in Iceland or something, and credits

roll.

They're all reading.

Yeah.

So they spent 20 years investing in facilities in Iceland as well.

Yeah.

But yeah, so New Zealand also invests a lot in their A-team to kind of...