What do you know about Iceland? I walked into an Icelandic lunch at The Drake thinking Bjork might be on the menu. All other things Icelandic were a foreign null and void in my mind. Well, did I ever walk into an educational luncheon! Dining with Icelandic tourism representatives, a top chef and one of the country’s best selling recording artists Magni is the kind of hour long event that is tantalizing enough to make you want to fly over and check out the green Iceland at a moment’s notice.

This week, I’m afraid that impulse would be a conundrum considering there is no direct flight between Toronto and Iceland. On May 2nd, however, you could be over soaking in one of the country’s 800 natural hot springs forgetting about your worries and your strife in no time. How, you ask? Icelandair is going to commence its direct five hour flights between Toronto and Reykjavik on May 2nd and The Drake has decided to celebrate. So this week is Iceland Week @ The Drake.

From films to art to music

You won’t have to eat sheep balls, but it is encouraged.

and food, Iceland is as plentiful in culture as the luscious land it rests upon. All kinds of bits and pieces of Icelandic culture are going on in and around the infamous hotel this week and I’d like to tell you all about them. Did you know that during Thorrablot, Iceland’s winter holiday, everyone participates in consuming an entire sheep, testicles and all? Yum.

Testes aside, if the preview lunch at The Drake, cooked up by world-renowned Icelandic chef Hákon Örvarsson, is anything to measure by, Icelanders eat like kings. Who knew vodka martinis with cucumber and blue cheese stuffed olives would be such a delight? The “Morning Rise” as it was called was far more popular than the “Volcanic Sunset;” the alternate, more mainstream Icelandic vodka cocktail.