Don't think it's Warsaw, so Krakow?

I posted some of the following on the old R3 board but since this thread has been started I thought I'd repeat it and add a bit more.

One of the most unusual capitals in Europe must be Iceland's. Reykjavik resembles a rather small, quiet provincial town (although Friday and Saturday nights can be noisy) and it's only when you see the parliament building and embassies that you remember it is a capital city. (Guess which was the only embassy I saw that was not flying its flag.) As I went in April (two years ago), which is not the height of the season, I got stared at a few times by the locals.

Most of the people are very friendly, if a little guarded. In about half of them, though, there seemed to be a national weariness. I was told it came from working long hours and wives being tired of their husbands forever being out at night. There are many more book shops you would expect for a town of that size and many shops are open until 11pm or midnight. Walking around at night, one doesn't feel at all intimidated.

It's expensive. I saw a long queue at a McDonald's for Big Macs at about £5 each but I went next door and had a delicious fish meal for less than that and there was more than I could eat. In fact, there are cafes just about everywhere.

I heard the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra play at the university hall, which doubles as a cinema. They've recorded a decent Sibelius symphony cycle for Naxos and that night they played Brahms 1, R Strauss's Oboe Concerto and Epitaph by Palsson. There is also an opera hall, which I would like to visit one day.

It's not as cold as you might think as it benefits from the Gulf Stream but April felt like January in England. Because of the climate, things grow more slowly and people don't spend the same amount of trouble over their gardens as they do here.

The Icelanders do drop their natural reserve sometimes, though. One afternoon I was walking along the street when a large group of young people came along in fancy dress. They were celebrating the end of school (they take their exams in the winter) and some of them were drinking beer from cans. One of them asked me for a "high five" and another asked me whether I prefered the three little pigs to Elvis Presley.

One of the pictures shows the coloured roof tops and something of the clear air. The other shows yours truly by the harbour. There was an icy cold wind blowing in from the sea on that day.

tp,

There is one square in the town where there are a couple of tall pipes sticking out of the ground and steam comes out of them all the time. As I said, it was bitterly cold and how they used to go out in sailing boats to fish there I'll never know. A tough breed indeed. There's a large American army base about 20 miles away and it's considered a dull posting (better than Iraq I would have thought). There's no complete agreement as to whether they should join the EU. One the one hand it might mean more prosperity but they are worried about their fishing industry, on which much of the economy relies, and they had to wait centuries before they got independence in 1944. That's something they don't want to give up easily.

Thank you, Sydney Grew, for your post. There are two main ideas there.
One is about European citizenship in XXI century. What does it mean to live in Europe now? What does nationalism mean now? People migrate now freely in Europe. Cultures infiltrate each other. On the other hand there is a fears competition for jobs and attracting companies to do business in each country.
I feel like citizen of the world anyway, but I can imagine it is difficult for people who never intended to immigrate.

The other point honorable Sydney Grew raises (I hope this is the correct title for you) is the attraction of Vienna for many composers starting with may be Mozart. I don't know who was able to move to Vienna before Mozart. I know Beethoven and Schubert made their residence in the city. It will take a lot of googling on my part to find out who else was attracted to Vienna. I know now that Ligeti lived there. I did not know he had an opera written. Gruber is another name I am not familiar with.
I understand that Vienna was attractive city in time of Mozart being imperial center of the empire with a lots of wealth concentrated there. I know that they have a festival of contemporary music there, which is strange because people there were always conservative in their tasts.
Who else lived and worked there and why?