Akureyri's traffic lights show hearts instead of circles — the red light is a glowing red heart, the green a green one. The decision was made during the 2008 financial crisis, when Iceland was in economic freefall and the city decided it needed to do something to cheer people up. The hearts became one of those small, stubbornly charming civic gestures that everyone in the country knows about.
They are scattered throughout the town centre. Standing at a red heart and waiting for the green one to illuminate is a minor pleasure, and one that gets photographed more than almost anything else in Akureyri.