Iceland kicked out McDonald's and kept one burger

My name is Hjörtur Smárason and I bought the last hamburger ever sold in a McDonald's in Iceland. It was 31 October 2009.

McDonald's had been in Reykjavík for twelve years. The Icelandic króna had collapsed in the 2008 crash: importing the meat, the lettuce and the packaging cost more than the menu price, so the chain announced it was closing. It occurred to me to buy the final order as a keepsake, more than anything else. Big Mac meal with fries: 640 krónur.

Three years later it was still the same on the garage shelf: the bun dry but whole, the cheese the same yellow, the fries stiff. In Iceland the bacteria don't find much to eat.

In 2012 I donated it to Bæjarins Beztu, a hot-dog stand in Reykjavík, and from there it moved to Snotra House, a hostel in the south. A webcam trained on it twenty-four hours a day has clocked nine million visits.

It's still there with its bun and its fries, in the case. Only the hostel has changed.