you've got a smile that could light up this whole town.

Reykjavik, capital of Iceland, the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state, with population around 120 000

After spending two days on the road, i spent the other two days of my trip in the wonderful capital of Iceland, Reykjavik. The city being so small, two days is plenty of time to get to know the narrow, cute streets of the downtown area, yet at the same time, it's not nearly enough time when the city has so much to offer.

Don't let Icelands financial situation fool you, Reykjavik is not the cheapest place to visit. you can eat out under 20€/27$/17£ which for me seems cheap enough, but i come from an other quite expensive country. but i definitely recommend you to chek some of the many restaurants Reykjavik has to offer. the friend i was visiting happens to be quite an amazing cook so we stayed in for dinner most of the time. that's why i can personally only really recommend you a one restaurant, Vegamot, don't let the name fool you, it's not a vegan restaurant. it has a really nice atmosphere and the food was rather delicious.

Besides restaurants, Reykjavik has a lot of nice cafés. my favorite place, Babalú (Skólavörðustígur 22a) is, according to The Lonely Planet 4th best café in Europe. it has a great, warm, cozy atmosphere, delicious crepes and really nice owners. while we were there, enjoying our tea and crepes, one of the owners found a lost dog wandering the streets and brought it to the café until he called someone to rescue the dog. it was the most adorable, kindest dog i've ever seen. it was sort of surreal how she just sat on the couch and didn't care about all the strangers around her!

Other wonderful cafés i really recommend is KEX, which is actually a hostel build in an old factory, but there's also a café/restaurant and it's very nice, a sort of place every hipster-ish person will love (yes i admit, a small hipster lives inside of me too). Nýlenduvöruverzlun Hemma&Valda is a café/bar that was build in an old house where someone used to live in. it's quite adorable too, and has awesome guest books which you can scribble in. i too left a mark in one.

Last but not least, Café Loki, is located next to the largest church in Iceland,  Hallgrímskirkja. the café offers you an amazing view and delicious carrot cakes, among other things. and speaking of  Hallgrímskirkja (the picture above), to get to see the amazing view that my photos really don't do justice, you can go to the top of the tower (tho it costs few euros) and see the views yourself. it's windy, but really nice. definitely worth it.

 Reykjavik is a friendly city full of really nice people. while i was there, the city was rather quiet, so if you wanna go there when there's more life, i recommend to schedule your trip either on christmas or during the summer, but i really enjoyed the quietness of the city. cafés were just livley enough, not too crowded and streets were full of people doing their every day stuff. Reykjavik is a place where you will easily meet new people, at a bar (oh the bars, they are all worth chekcing out too) or even in the streets (that's how nice the people were!). Reykjavik is also a shoppers paradise, as long as you can afford it. there are none, seriously, none, chain stores in the downtown area. but yet it's full of really cool boutiques and smallers shops, interesting local designer and really cool clothes, shoes and bags.

and my last tip for your possible future trip to the one of the most adorable cities i've ever visited, is to just wander around and explore. it's such a small place, that you won't get lost, but what you might find is places like the first photo above, abandoned buildings full of colourful and beautiful graffitis. Reykjavik is a city of surprises and cozy cafés, which are needed since it's almost always cold and windy. i guess that's why people are so friendly too, to make their days just a little bit warmer.

So this was my small guide to Reykjavik, i know it's not much but i hope you enjoyed it. hopefully i get to do a lot more travel guides for you in the future. and as always, your comments feed my blog.