Why winter? – because winter and summer are two different Reykjaviks and two different Icelands.

Completely. That means ABSOLUTELY.

I’m madly in love with this city and this country. And you shouldn’t be horrified and faint, for instance, from prices, or from absolutely Martian emptiness lasting for some 100 kilometers; you just need to make proper use of it (c).

Already while landing at Keflavik if the weather is good, you see streams of steam springing out of black soil here and there – Island’s welcoming you.

Reykjavik subtly resembles Jurmala, though it has spread out greatly over the past 10 years and even acquired some groves upon once perfect emptiness. Anyhow, its center, which you can and should walk all over across in 20 minutes, is built with 2-3-storey wooden “dachas” with balconies and carved railings of crayon colors.

You see bulbs, fir-trees, and candles burning in ice bowls everywhere.

In winter it’s almost always night. Day lasts for about 5-6 hours, half of which it’s shadowless lilac twilights that fill everything with matte studio light and crawl into each microdetail of the world, which makes already unreal landscapes look even stranger.

The city with its plush comfort is sort of a challenge to the deadly landscapes around it.

As if it was purposely wrapped in a mohair scarf, there’s even no of that insane wind, and the streets are covered with clean white snow for décor only, and tough Icelandic teens with bare legs in shorts are riding their boards along the main street’s slope on the block 101, in the morning of January 1 like it’s absolutely normal.

Here, like in few other places, I’m under the “reverse alienation”: the first day everything and everyone seems wrong; yet, day after day you’re getting into it, each day more deeply, you get more and more pleasure from simple stuff: caffeine, lamb shawarma, emptiness and morning-to-midday darkness, cars of incredible sizes, those ridiculous houses, shops full of jewelry that looks more like exhibit items of a looted Celtic museum.

Reykjavik is probably the last city on earth where the New Year is still dwelling: the light day is short, and in these eternal twilights the city is with its, again, eternal illumination and crowds of cheerful people walking around, which creates the mood like no other.

The state’s combating against drunkenness and selling alcohol only beginning  with the 2d of January and only in official shops has led to the fact that many people are hanging around a little buzzed, with flasks in their hands, but you’ll see neither fights, nor aggression.

Here they know how to celebrate: at midnight the entire city and the same amount of tourists gather at the Town Hall Square with bottles of champagne and strategic supplies of fireworks, which is enough for several hours of merrymaking; such a 9^th of May we could be jealous of!

And that wild childlike jubilation – when you can yell yourself up hoarse in the middle of this fiery storm and drink brotherhood with strangers, and laugh ‘till your throat sores.

Here it’s incredibly delicious. Before there were only superproducts, for example, an incredible lamb that is fed on moss only and lives for 4 months max, it tastes more like liver, and cod, langoustines, horse meat, beef, various other fish and game meat also: whales and puffins; but now the entire “fashionable fashion” ™ of the world’s gastronomy can be found here – all these yuzu/ponzu and even local wasabi grown on thermal waters.

But we’ll consider the restaurants separately.

And yes, you can always spend a day to head the country (it’s better to leave when it’s still dark), which looks like Mars, to reach icebergs, too, and geysers with waterfalls, even alien Vik beaches – everything is close to the city. Just watch the weather – here it is no Europe! – even in summer the same panorama – and you can see up to 50 kilometers away! – might include the sun, and rain, and rainbow, and fog, all at the same time, and if talking about winter, a clear day can easily swap into a snow storm, like in a movie, not a big deal.

About prices: yes, it’s expensive, at first sight, very expensive, yet, there’s a secret. They’ve just raised the lower threshold: you won’t be able to eat for 3-5eur, even a shawarma will cost you 20, but what a shawarma it will be! – made of medium rare lamb, stuffed into a huge and thinnest lavash.

Yes, a main dish in a restaurant can easily cost 70EUR, but again, portions are huge, and a set of 5-6 courses in the same restaurant will cost you 100-110EUR. If you are used to traveling across Europe spending 50EUR per person a day – here it will be complicated for you, but if your norm is 250-300, then it’ll be even cheaper.

PS: Don’t forget to get some of these awesome local products to bring home, especially since they cost nothing – this peculiar lamb is for 25EUR.