1. There are not many recessed wires and electrical sockets...mostly everything is surface mount. The wiring is all SO cord...no solid...and it's all stapled to the wall. They don't really use sheetrock here, it's all thick plaster...very old construction methods, even in the newer looking places.
2. The Nissan Patrol might be the most perfect vehicle ever. They are very popular here so I've had time to look in the windows of quite a few of them. I want one. 4wd, V8 Diesel, 7 speed automatic transmission, cruise control that will slow you down and speed you up in traffic based on the location of the cars around you, 4 cameras around the vehicle so you can see what you're backing over, a 10gb music server hard drive built in, and plenty of room for all of your stuff. Here's a pic:
3. The toilets here are a different situation. Obviously the country was not designed for any male under 6'2"...as the urinals are typically 12-15 inches higher than the average urinal in the states. Most of the toilets have a unique flushing system that is much simpler and better designed than the lever/chain system we are used to.
4. There are NO radio/cellular towers or antennas visible anywhere in the downtown Reykjavik area...yet the cellular never has less than 4 bars of signal. I have seen a few small devices in shops that might be local cellular repeaters...and have managed to spot a few well hidden panel antennas incorporated into building architecture. Also, all of their utilities are underground...you never see any power/phone/cable lines. The television is still analog and it's all off-the-air...no cable. Every house/business/office/grocery store/whatever has a 20 foot mast on top...usually with 3 to 5 antennas (they call them aerials). The typical setup to me looks to be 1 vhf yagi, 1 mid band uhf yagi, 1 hi band uhf yagi, a mini wifi cone or panel (Vodaphone provides all the internet here), and an FM antenna. Our hotel room has a wall panel with 2 euro-style push on F connectors, one for TV, one for FM. While walking around I found the combiner that takes the 3 TV antennas from the roof and turns them into one feed, then hits an amp to be redistributed throughout the hotel. They mostly still have tube TV's...I've seen a number of 16x9 tube tv's...which you don't see often in the states.
I've got some more thoughts, but I need to pass the computer around now...so, hopefully they'll come later.
