The What’s On October Issue

By Gréta Sigríður Einarsdóttir

Being born and raised in Iceland is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you get to grow up in this beautiful country, surrounded by stunning landscapes and natural wonders wherever you look. On the other hand, you inevitably become desensitised to Iceland’s natural beauty and probably spend more energy complaining about the weather than appreciating the landscapes that surround you.

This brings us to the Northern Lights, the natural phenomenon beloved by foreign visitors and mostly ignored by Icelanders, at least until recently. It’s not that we don’t think that they’re pretty, it’s just that they’re a normal part of the night sky for us, just like the moon and stars. If we were going to stop and crane our necks to stare at the Aurora Borealis every time they appeared, we’d be spending a whole lot of time out in the streets staring at the sky (and there’d probably be a whole lot more traffic accidents).

The increased flow of tourism to Iceland has its downsides (for the love of god people, use toilets!) but there are upsides as well (aside from the obvious economic ones, that is). One of them is that we get to see our country through the fresh eyes of tourists seeing it for the first time. The Northern Lights are pretty spectacular, and thanks to the tourists, Icelanders have started enjoying them as well.

There are loads of things to do for entertainment in Reykjavik this month! Here are a few “must-do’s” you can try out. While you’re checking things off the list, we encourage you to take photos, and tag them with #whatsonrvk, of course!