I like Reykjavík. I’ve been telling everyone that it just feels good here, and I don’t know why. It’s tidy, it’s pretty, the air feels very clean, I’m enjoying the weather (around 50F this week but not too windy or rainy), the fish is fresh and there’s cake… but does that really tell you what the city feels like? Probably not.
{as always, click on photos to enlarge, or mouse over for description}
I have a hard time writing about Reykjavík, even though we’ve been here for 18 days now, because it is so multi-faceted. For the past few nights there has been a marching band around our street at midnight; I’ll be up late online-chatting with friends, and suddenly we’ll hear a tuba blare (on Friday night, the tuba had a conversation with someone’s car horn). There are tourists everywhere, speaking Spanish and French and German and English in all accents — yet this afternoon the streets were so empty I wondered if the peak tourist season could possibly be over already.
Over the weekend there was a bacon festival with samples of American and Icelandic bacon (we looked at the long line and decided to just go to a restaurant instead), and a pay-what-you-can acoustic festival where we sat outside, next to a skate park, and heard singers from Iceland and Sweden (more on that in a later post).
I’ve read people’s impressions of Reykjavík as an especially creative city, which is obviously true — but then I’ve never met a major city without a tangible creative spirit. What sets Reykjavík apart, in my mind, is the distinctive Icelandic aesthetic, which must come from the uniqueness of Iceland itself — a volcanic island, a sparsely peopled place in the far north, a nation of order and peace and equality, a vibrant city surrounded by countryside, a mostly homogeneous population of Nordic and Gaelic ancestry — and a sense of freedom of expression made manifest.
If I had to describe the feel of the city, I might call it a mashup of urban graffiti, Scandinavian style, and Anthropologie — but that’s not really it, either. It is quite itself and it’s not shy about it. Everywhere I go there seems to be some kind of street art or intriguing décor: Icelanders making a mark on their city, or a statement.
I think mostly it just feels free here, and that’s what I like so much about it. (Sure, mostly everything is expensive, but that’s not what I mean by free.) People wear funny clothes. They draw on their buildings. Every neighborhood has a public pool and hot tubs. The city library offers an artwork-rental program. The tap water tastes like purity itself, and it bubbles freely from the public drinking fountains — no on/off button. Because there are mostly patronymics instead of surnames, everyone goes by first names, even the Prime Minister. I also read that there’s no stigma attached to unmarried mothers, which blows my mind.
It’s not a perfect society; I don’t want to idealize (which is sometimes easy to do while traveling). There’s still factory farming and a gender wage gap, and the contents of recycling bins are sent to Sweden, somewhat mitigating the eco-friendliness of the program. But still. To me, Reykjavík feels good.
And, as I said, there is cake.
I just love these photos and your descriptions of Reykjavík. Sounds like it’s one big funky commune for artists
I think I really need to visit some time!
Thanks, Jason! I bet you’d like it here! There’s definitely a fresh creative feel. This week there’s a new music (as in, edgy — you might say weird — contemporary classical) festival and all the concerts are free. I’ll probably end up blogging about that too, since it’s a different side of the city than we’d previously seen: lots of music grad students and such.
This all sounds very cool! Definitely seems to have the kind of vibe I dig. Love reading about your continuing adventures–I really don’t get the opportunity to travel much, so it’s always nice to live vicariously through someone else in that regard
So glad to be of service.
I never traveled very much abroad until the past few years, so this is pretty fancy for me too — it feels like a life I never thought would be “me”!
Not a single cat anywhere…?!
Reykjavik sounds like a lovely place to be, your descriptions and photos have brought it to vivid life!
All of a sudden, I long to be under a different sky.
I’m so glad I’m giving you a picture of the city.
I really think I’d be tempted to live here if it weren’t so far north and so expensive!
The sky here is huge.
I keep telling myself one of these nights I need to go out and see what the stars look like. Maybe tonight… got to bundle up!
Great street art………….and, of course, there’s cake………….
Cake is essential to happy travels.
And life in general. 
I’ve been so delighted that all the cafes in the UK and Iceland seem to do fresh whipped cream with their cake. I feel like that’s not something you get everywhere in the US, though places do often offer ice cream with their cake.
Oh, I love these photos so much! What interesting and vibrant street art, and you have captured such interesting images.
Thank you, Alejna! It’s really an interesting city. We’re moving to a new part of it this week (our first apartment booking ends on Thursday) so we’ll get to see it from a different angle. I’m looking forward to that too!
Thanks for sharing these images of street art in Reykjavik (not easy to spell correctly!) What was the ‘dripping’ piece on the wall made of? My first guess is cigarette butts, but I think that I’m mistaken. Haha. The city looks really clean from your pictures, and I think this is reflected in the street art/graffiti too.
Remembering how to spell place names in Iceland was definitely a challenge.
The “dripping” piece (one of my favorites in the city!), if I remember right, was made of little pieces of metal that twinkled as they moved in the breeze. I might be remembering that all wrong. But I know that my first thought was it had to be electronic because it was so bright, and that turned out to be wrong.
The city was quite clean and the Nordic aesthetic in general is very clean. I like it.
Sounds really pretty! I’m imagining a huge ‘curtain’ of shiny metal bits that was draped over the side of the wall : )