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Flirting With The Wilderness At Hótel Kríunes
The grating shriek of a kría snaps me into reality. I look down at my bare feet on the lakeshore, where lupin shoots are bursting optimistically through the dirt. Tapping one with a toe sends a cloud of flies pirouetting outwards through…
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Eurovision: A Weird Form Of Therapy For A National Inferiority Complex
Armchair psychoanalysis of Iceland’s pop obsession Eurovision has always been an oddity. A kind of quasi-Olympics for questionable pop music, this annual event provides kebab shops around the world with their soundtrack for the coming year. It’s that certain brand of machinistic…
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Touching Moss: Easy Day-Tripping From Reykjavík
Shake off your Airwaves hangover with a day trip that avoids the crowds Whenever Iceland Airwaves blows into town, it’s a certainty that people from all over the world will be riding that same breeze. It’s always an interesting time of year…
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New In Town: KLEI Atelier & Skálda Bókabúð
If you missed our recent print issues, here are some new spots in town you might not know about. Whether you’re looking for handmade ceramics or your next great read, we’ve got you covered. KLEI Atelier Baldursgata 36 Opening hours: Fridays from…
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Three Cheers For Skál! Reykjavík’s Upstart Eatery Is All Grown Up
Skál! was an early trailblazer in Reykjavík’s food hall boom. An outlier and prodigy from the start, it brought fine dining flair and seasonal flavours to the confines of the country’s first ever food hall in the converted Hlemmur bus station. Under…
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The Haul: More Than Enough Film Buff Stuff
September is cinema season in Reykjavík as the annual RIFF film festival rolls into town. From a stamp card for multiple trips to Iceland’s top art house cinema to a photo book about a decomposing horse, here are some objects of desire…
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Do Shit: Pass As An Icelander
If you’ve been following the Do Shit series for a while, you should be able to do a lot of shit by now. We assume you’ve gotten your legal status squared away, successfully filed your taxes, gotten housing benefits, joined a union,…
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Editorial: Everything Everywhere All Of The Time
Making this issue of your Reykjavík Grapevine was a whirlwind. As we were calling across the time zones to chase down the INNI guys for our cover feature, news broke of another suspected murder in Iceland, and we could hear the chants…
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The Haul: A Bag Full Of Smelly Things
From the fine aromas of Fischer, to earthy scents of up-and-coming perfumier Ilmur og Sjor, to the pungent reek of a freshly opened bag of hardfiskur, this week’s shopping bag is particularly whiffy. Here are a few very Icelandic products that are…
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Seriously Ill Palestinian 11-Year-Old’s Deportation Halted At Keflavík Airport
A seriously ill Palestinian 11-year-old had his deportation halted today after public protests. Yazan Tamimi, who needs a wheelchair and constant medical attention due to Duchenne muscular dystrophy, was due to be deported with his family. He was awoken and removed from…
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Grafarvogur Is Not Iceland’s Black Widow Capital — It’s Garðabær
Since the discovery of a Northern Black Widow spider in a bunch of grapes last week, Grafarvogur has become known in some quarters as the “Black Widow Capital of Iceland.” But now, a surprising twist to the story has drawn this characterisation…
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The Survivors: Never-Changing Institutions In The Ever-Changing Downtown
They say that you’re a New Yorker once you lived there long enough to remember what was in that spot before the new business opened there. The same thing won’t make you a Reykjavík local — it will only act as proof…
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Don’t Block The Street With An E-Scooter, Please
Electric scooters are a fairly recent addition to downtown. And they’re pretty useful, especially for people who really set on removing every possible opportunity for exercise from their everyday life. Why walk, when you could press ‘go’, right? And so, you’ll see…
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Do Shit: Move House, And Live To Tell The Tale
Welcome to the latest episode of our ongoing útlendingar’s guide to getting shit done. Moving fucking sucks, and there’s no two ways about it. It’s tiring, it’s a huge amount of hassle, and upending your only truly safe space is psychologically gruelling.…
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Premiere: Oyama Return With New Song ‘Cigarettes’
Shoegaze is a genre that never goes out of style. Oyama are an Icelandic quintet who started making dreamy guitar music long after the genre’s initial wave had broken, but they found an audience for their early releases: an EP called I…
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The Old Ways: A Road Trip Along The Historied Southwest Coast
When people talk about road tripping along the south coast, they’re most often referring to a certain dramatic stretch of Route One. You probably know which one. It starts at the slender torrent of Seljalandsfoss, and from there it’s a solid 300km of…
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Editorial: The Limits Of Trust
Trust is an important part of how any society runs. Every time we stand at a pedestrian crossing waiting for the lights to change, we’re trusting the person next to us not to push us in front of a bus. When we…
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A Day Trip To Hveragerði, Southwest Iceland’s Garden Oasis
The road to Hveragerði is like a miniature tour of Iceland’s topography. Passing the broken red rocks of the Rauðhólar craters that mark the edge of Greater Reykjavík, the route streaks through some low pine woods dotted with cabins, emerging onto a…
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A Sonic Adventure: Mary Lattimore Leads The Line At Extreme Chill 2024
Extreme Chill is an annual festival whose roots extend to coil around a certain set of underground sounds and vibes. Its broad remit includes expansive ambient soundscapes, cosmic drones, avant-garde composition and the wild edges of experimental electronica. The event has evolved…
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Culture Night Craziness: How To Spend Your Menningarnótt
Have you been yearning for a day of free waffles, street parties, mylar balloons, candy floss and frightened dogs in crowds all over town? You’re in luck pal, because Saturday August 24th is once again time for Menningarnótt (“Culture Night”), Reykjavík’s de…
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Lesser Known Falls: A Short Hike To Helgufoss
The valley of Mosfellsdalur is a 20 kilometre stretch of rolling farmland that sits just beyond the edge of Reykjavík. Many visitors pass through it each day without stopping, bound for more crowded, well-known sites like Þingvellir or the Golden Circle. But…
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The Haul: A Let’s-Get-Real Summer Shopping Guide
If you’re a regular GV reader, then 1) you’re clearly very smart and tasteful, and 2) you may have noticed this shopping column often acts as a proxy for our somewhat delicate, constantly evolving feelings about how the Icelandic summer is going.…
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Do Shit: Have A Life Laundry
I dunno about you guys, but I’m a bit of a hoarder. Not the living-in-a-junk-cave, stepping on plates, sleeping under newspapers kind of hoarder. More of the benign garden variety type, with a few too many totes full of old electronics, some…
