For most people, the first place you're going to go
is Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland.
And like Iceland itself,
it's a pretty small, comfortable, compact place.
There's only about 120,000 in Reykjavik.
The metro area is about double that.
So about 2/3 of all Icelanders live
in the metro area of Reykjavik.
For comparison, that's about the population
of Topeka, Kansas or Charleston, South Carolina.
So Reykjavik is an international capital,
a national capital with a seat at the UN
and a president who goes to cocktail parties
with the presidents of other nations.
But it's a really small community, so let's not forget that.
One thing that surprises a lot of people about Reykjavik
is how small and compact it is
and how kind of American it feels, okay?
Technically, I think we consider Iceland part of Europe
but it really feels more like an American city.
That's because it's so young.
Remember that there weren't really any cities or towns
in Iceland until the late 19th century.
Reykjavik is younger than a lot of American cities,
which means a very predictable grid plan.
You're not going to find a cutesy, cobbled,
half-timbered old town where it's impossible to drive, okay?
It's designed for suburbanites
driving into town and finding parking.
I love to just kind of wander around Reykjavik.
It doesn't have a lot of big league sights,
but it's extremely charming just to explore.
You can wander over to the Parliament Square.
Yes, this sweet little two-story stone building
is the Parliament of Iceland, just to give you a sense
of sort of the humility of the Icelandic culture.
And I said it wasn't really charming or cutesy
or old world but that doesn't mean it's not appealing.
It has sort of its own identity and its own charm.
And they really love color in Reykjavik
and in Iceland in general.
I think when you have long gloomy winters
where it barely gets sunny out,
you just want to paint everything in bright colors.
As you walk around Reykjavik,
tune into some of the details that tell you a little bit
about Icelandic culture more broadly.
For example, a lot of the buildings all over Iceland,
especially Reykjavik, are brightly painted
and they're actually kind of a steel siding,
a corrugated steel siding which is very practical
given the harsh climate that these people live in.
And again, they love to paint them beautiful colors.
The other thing you might notice wandering around Reykjavik,
everyone has a little window that's
designed to prop open a few inches.
The reason for this is really interesting.
I'll talk a little bit more later
about how Iceland is a very volcanic island.
And the Icelanders have figured out ingenious ways
to dig bore holes deep into the earth's crust,
harness naturally heated water, and deliver it in pipelines
all the way into Reykjavik to heat homes.
It also comes out of your tap.
So when you first get to your Iceland hotel
and you turn on the hot water,
you'll notice it's pretty scalding water, so be careful.
You will also notice a slight sulphur smell
and that's because the hot water literally comes
from deep below the earth's crust in the countryside.
Because everyone has a radiator
and heating costs are very low, rather than worry about
tinkering with their radiator all the time,
even in the winter when it gets a little stuffy,
they just prop open a window.
So it's kind of fun to notice these little details
that tell you about how Iceland
is different from what you're used to.
If Reykjavik is a great strolling city, and it really is,
probably the best street to stroll is this one, Laugavegur.
This is sort of the main walking, shopping, dining,
and nightlife strip running through the middle of Reykjavik.
It's just a delightful place to window shop,
drop into a cafe, maybe buy a parka
if you forgot to pack warm enough, go to a restaurant,
look at menus for dinner later tonight.
When I'm in Iceland, I like to kind of develop a local
routine where I really feel like I'm part of the community.
One of the things I do is I find my favorite places
to go for breakfast every morning.
My favorite coffee shop, which is just off of
Laugavegur Street, is called Reykjavik Roasters.
Really top quality third wave gourmet coffee
that rivals anything that you can get in Seattle.
And then right across the street in this wildly graffitied
building is my favorite bakery in Reykjavik.
It's called Braud & Co., Bread and Company.
And it has fantastic sort of Scandinavian style sweet rolls,
cinnamein buns, that sort of thing.
So every morning I love to go get my coffee
at Reykjavik Roasters and get my cinnamon bun
and sit out and enjoy being part of Reykjavik life.
So I really try to become part of the culture.
Another thing that's interesting that you'll really notice
in Reykjavik is fantastic street art.
And this is something you'll see
in other parts of Europe as well,
which is that civic authorities and homeowners have found
if you give somebody a big blank wall it's only a matter
of time before someone comes and tags it with ugly graffiti.
And so they actually commission street artists
to come and create beautiful murals instead.
Because if they don't create the art on these buildings,
somebody else is going to come
and mark it up however they see fit.
And what they find is the graffiti taggers respect that.
If it's been decorated by an artist,
they're not going to deface the art.
So it's really enjoyable, especially to get off
on the backstreets of Reykjavik
and explore some of the great street art that you find here.
In general, Reykjavik is a really colorful city to explore.
And it's a great place to go shopping,
I'm not much of a shopper,
but there are a few interesting things to consider.
One thing you might have heard about
are the famous Icelandic sweaters.
These are heavy woolen sweaters with kind of
a circular pattern that radiates from the neck.
If you're interested in an Icelandic sweater though,
I will warn you they are very expensive.
A quality Icelandic sweater could be $250, $300.
Here's a budget tip, Salvation Army and the Red Cross
have thrift stores in downtown Reykjavik
where you can buy some Icelander's used
Icelandic sweater for about half that price.
This sounds kind of silly, but if you want a solid,
well-loved but in good quality Icelandic sweater
for $100, $150, that's a good budget alternative.
As you're walking around downtown Reykjavik,
sometimes you'll feel pulled up
to this steeple that kind of is on a hilltop.
It marks the center of the town
and exerts kind of a special magnetism.
This is the main Lutheran church of Reykjavik.
It's called the Hallgrimskirkja
and it's actually designed to echo the basalt lava
rock formations that you see all over Iceland.
I'll show you some slides later of the countryside
where you'll get a sense of how these
are supposed to sort of echo the Icelandic landscape.
Built in the early 20th century by Iceland's state architect
who actually built a lot of the buildings around Iceland
and especially around Reykjavik.
It's got a beautiful serene Lutheran interior
and you can actually take an elevator up to the top of the
steeple and get a beautiful view over the Reykjavik skyline.
But remember, this is a city the size of Topeka, Kansas.
This gives you a sense.
This is not a thriving metropolis.
It's a great charming town but it's not bustling
by any stretch of the imagination.
Standing in front of the Hallgrimskirkja
you have a statue of Leif Erikson.
This was most likely the first European
to set foot on the New World about
500 years before Christopher Columbus.
And I find Icelandic history
sort of insistently interesting.
When you start to hear about it, it's very epic and dynamic.
This is a case where his father, Erik the Red,
the famous Erik the Red, he's Leif Erikson.
Typical Icelandic name, Leif Erikson.
Erik the Red actually was an Icelander
who was evicted and sent to Greenland
and he created some settlements in Greenland.
And then his son, Leif Erikson, decided to follow reports
that there was some other landform to the west.
And they believed that around the year 1000
or maybe the late 900s, he touched down
in what is today Newfoundland, Canada.
So very likely he preceded Christopher Columbus
by about 500 years, so that tells you a little bit
about the Icelandic seafaring spirit
and their kind of navigational prowess.
I would say Reykjavik is not a place
that you want to do a lot of sightseeing.
It's not a place to spend a lot of time in museums.
That's why I mentioned spending some evenings in Reykjavik
is fantastic for the restaurants
and for the nightlife and for going for walks.
But if you're in town for two or three days,
you don't necessarily need to devote
a whole day to sightsee Reykjavik.
If you do have some time to sightsee Reykjavik
and especially if you're interested in Icelandic
culture and history, there are some things to do.
This is the settlement exhibition
where they have discovered and excavated
a Viking Age longhouse from around the year 1000.
And they've got great exhibits.
They kind of tell you how those original
Icelandic settlers would have lived way back then.
There's also an Icelandic National Museum
which has an interesting collection
of fairly modest artifacts from Icelandic history.
But they're lovingly presented and very well described
and they help you kind of understand
the story of Iceland a little bit better.
Another place that's fun to explore
in Reykjavik is the harbor front area.
There you're going to find the
landmark concert hall called Harpa.
This I pretty new, it was built in about 2011.
And this was part of Iceland's kind of
trying to put itself forward on the global stage.
They wanted to kind of assert themselves
as a serious capital like Oslo with its famous opera house
or Sydney with its famous opera house.
They really wanted to feel like they were
a world class city and they built this.
And sure enough, the Harpa concert hall
is getting a lot of attention internationally.
It's kind of the main modern landmark of Reykjavik.
And the inside is really fun to wander around.
It's free to go inside and just
kind of explore the concert hall.
They also have a lot of great musical events.
So if you're going to be in Reykjavik for a few nights
and want to check out some life theater, some live music,
there's a great lineup of options at the Harpa concert hall.
They have several venues from large to small
and usually a few selections every night.
Another landmark of Reykjavik that's pretty new
that's just down the coastline from the Harpa concert hall
is this sculpture called The Sun Voyager.
It's relatively new but it's already been really embraced.
It's sort of the place to take a selfie
when you're in Reykjavik these days.
It's shaped sort of like a Viking Age ship
kind of in an homage to the original settlers
who came across from Norway to settle Iceland
and it's pointed towards the setting sun.
So there's sort of this poetic inspiration behind it.
If you really want to get out on the water yourself,
another popular pastime in Reykjavik
are whale watching cruises.
I would say not necessarily don't do whale watching cruises,
but keep in mind for a lot of people they find
it's a big investment of time, a big investment of money.
It can be rough, it can be windy.
If you're really into this, it can be a fun experience.
If you want to save a little money and be more efficient
and be guaranteed of seeing whales,
there's a really interesting exhibit
called The Whales of Iceland.
(audience laughing)
Which is a five minute, 10 minute walk away
from the whale watching cruises.
And it's actually a really cool thing,
they filled a big warehouse in a big box store zone
with life-size models of all the many whales
that live off the coast of Iceland.
And people can kind of walk around and really feel like
oh, this is what I would have seen
except I would have seen this much of it
if I had gone on that whale watching cruise.
It's pretty expensive, but I'd say this is worth doing
if you're interested in the whales of Iceland.
So you can see where just in general Reykjavik
is a great city, a great place to spend time.
And it's a great place to especially home base
and spend a few nights and if you have a few days to spare,
there's some great sightseeing there as well.