Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.06.2018, Síða 42

The Reykjavík Grapevine
Best of Reykjavík 2018
42
“Pitch up at a bar, get the best seats, and
watch people less drunk than you struggle
up and down Laugavegur.”
CITY GUIDE
Window
Weather
How not to let snowstorms
ruin your day and/or life
Words: John Rogers, Hannah Jane Cohen, Alice Demurtas
Photo: Art Bicnick
So you’ve trucked all the way to
Iceland for a dreamy winter get-
away spent flâneuring through
the snowy streets, crunching
over otherworldly glaciers, and
partying like it’s the year 2000
in the movie Reykjavík 101. But
now that you’re here, the entire
country is beset by vicious wind-
storms, all the roads out of town
are closed, and it’s shitting down
with evil soaking sleet that chills
your bones whenever you ven-
ture outdoors. How to make the
best of it? Here are some tips for
how to have fun during a bout of
gluggaveður (“window weath-
er”).
Arting Hard
Reykjavík has several large mu-
seums, the most central being
Hafnarhúsið. This labyrinthine
art museum is spread across
many spaces with a variety of
contemporary shows at any giv-
en time, and some classic Icelan-
dic art on display, too. There’s a
cloakroom for your wet coat, a
café for lunch, a library, and a
shop to pick up souvenirs. Kjar-
valstaðir is also worth a look, as
is The Marshall House—which
also has a cocktail bar and
restaurant—and you could easi-
ly spend an afternoon in the Na-
tional Museum of Iceland. Take
that, snowstorm.
Coffee & Cigarettes
Remember that screenplay you
started in college? That crime
novel gathering dust in your
Dropbox? That issue of The
Reykjavík Grapevine you picked
up at your hotel, but haven’t
completely devoured? Well take
advantage of the cold and spend
your day holed up in a coffee
house for a cultural catch-up.
Reykjavík has a prolific caffeine
scene, from artisanal options
like Reykjavík Roasters to the
cosy confines of Stofan and
Babalú. Grab a latté and let your
mind soar.
Reykjavík Rúntur
If the roads out of town are
closed, you could engage in the
classic Icelandic pastime of a
rúntur. This basically entails
cruising slowly around the city
with the heating on full, check-
ing out what’s going on from the
safety of the car, and stopping
for ice cream somewhere like
the Valdís ice cream parlour or
Aktu Taktu drive-thru. Why ice
cream, specifically? We’re not
sure. Maybe it’s just a contrarian
way to thumb your nose at the
winter.
Day Drinkers Of The
World Unite
Some may call it surrender,
but we call it victory. Screw
the weather: pitch up at a cosy
downtown bar, get the best seats
in the house, and watch the
world go by whilst fading into an
amiable stupor. Bravó and Prikið
have long happy hours and big
windows so you can watch peo-
ple who are less smart and/or
drunk than you struggle up and
down Laugavegur. Kaffibarinn
opens at 3 p.m. and has a happy
hour until 8, and DJs from 10 (if
you last that long).
Unnatural Wonders
People travel half the world to see
the aurora, but often seem ill-in-
formed about just how shitty the
weather can be during winter. A
clear sky for aurora-spotting is a
godsend in March, let alone Jan-
uary. At Aurora Reykjavík, you
can shake your fist at the weath-
er gods and view indoor displays
about everything associated
with the northern lights. And if
the sea is too choppy for whale
watching, you can head over to
Whales of Iceland to see some
life-sized replicas.
Weird Book Stores
On a stormy day, it doesn’t get
cosier than getting lost in a maze
of dusty books at Bókin. Their
Icelandic section is particularly
appealing, with piles of leath-
er-bound tomes that lie at every
corner, between old records, ret-
ro magazines and the avalanche
of books that is the English sec-
tion. Wander around, smell the
books and enjoy the silence: you
never know what you'll find.