What's happening in Reykjavik this week?

From Monday to Thursday, Reykjavik is a residential city and its social life happens in hot water. Locals swim after work at Vesturbæjarlaug in the west end or Laugardalslaug in Laugardalur. The hot pots run from about 38 to 42°C, and between 17:00 and 19:00 they fill with office workers while steam rolls off the water into the cold air. Adult entry is roughly 1,300 ISK, about US$11 at 121 ISK to the dollar. You shower naked before you swim, and the attendants do check. Friday and Saturday run on a different clock: bars along Laugavegur and Bankastræti pour happy-hour beers from about 16:00 to 19:00, then empty out while locals pre-drink at home, then refill after midnight, with doors staying open until around 04:30. At 02:00 the queue at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur on Tryggvagata smells of fried onion and remoulade, and it moves fast.

Kolaportið trades on Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 to 17:00, on the ground floor of the old customs house at the harbour, where the food stalls sell harðfiskur (dried haddock you tear like jerky), dense sweet rúgbrauð rye, and cubes of fermented shark. Ask for a free sliver of the shark first, because the ammonia hit is strong and most first-timers stop at one bite. On Sunday the centre stays near silent until about 11:00, and Hallgrímskirkja holds its main service at 11:00 that day with the tower lift pausing around it, so ride up on a weekday. Monday is the closure trap: the museum on Suðurgata shuts on Mondays through the winter season, so spend the day at Perlan in Öskjuhlíð or with a long soak at one of the city pools instead.

Daylight is the main constraint right now. The sun currently rises around 08:45 and sets near 17:40, and each day is roughly seven minutes shorter than the last. This morning read 7.5°C under overcast skies, but the wind off Faxaflói bay pushed the feels-like figure to 1.3°C, and that gap is normal here. Pack a windproof shell and a wool layer, not an umbrella, because sideways rain on Sæbraut wrecks umbrellas in minutes. Clear nights after 21:00 are aurora windows. Grótta lighthouse on the Seltjarnarnes tip, about 4 km west of the centre, is darker than anywhere along the harbour. The Peace Tower's light column switches on each year on John Lennon's birthday and stays lit until the anniversary of his death, and you can see it from the Sæbraut shore near Höfði without a ferry ticket, which matters because the winter Viðey boats from Skarfabakki run mostly on weekends.