This trip occurred LAST SUMMER, but in the absence of travel for us this summer, I thought I’d share this unique experience.
I’ve traveled to Iceland before, and did the tourist stuff, but this time we returned to spend 3 weeks in a small Icelandic town, while I took an Icelandic language course.
We flew via Air Iceland, the country’s domestic airline, from Reykjavik Airport (not the international airport, but the small regional one in the city) up to Ísafjörður , a town of about 2000 in the sparsely inhabited Westfjords. It is located just a hair beneath the Arctic Circle. The next fjord over is Hornstrandir, which is now uninhabited and contains a glacier. The only way to get there is by boat.
The Ísafjörður AirPort ís súper tiny. Check out the Hertz “Rental Counter”: (“1000 or 2000 bonus points with every flight!”) Renting is small-town fun: You call Hertz to arrange a car, then pick it up at a small trailer on the harbor, then when you’re finished, you leave it at the harbor with the keys in it. Very low key with a lot of trust involved.
The town itself sits on a spit of sand in the fjord, which is basically what the town’s name means. It’s origins are fishing, as are all coastal Icelandic towns, and that is its main industry today, alongside tourism. The large cliffs which surround the town are prone to avalanches. One large one killed dozens of people in the 1990’s, and several others struck this past winter. The town, as well as others in the Westfjords, are now protected by many avalanche walls. One person killed via avalanche is one too many for Icelanders.
The houses in town are quite picturesque. One street, named Solgata (Sun St.) is named that because it is the first place the sun hits in town after its long hibernation in the winter. When the sun hits Solgata, everyone in town gathers together and eats pancakes. Gotta love Icelanders.
There is a ski resort just outside of town that offers downhill and cross country skiing. There is no snowmaking. There’s also some awesome views on hikes just outside of town that I enjoyed with my classmates.The cirque in the cliff across the fjord is known as the Troll Seat.
My class included students of all ages from Japan, Russia, Germany, Canada, Denmark, the UK, Italy, and Switzerland. There were three of us from the US, and we were all from PA. Go figure. One of the most memorable lessons was learning to swear in Icelandic.
The fresh fish, brought in off the boats every morning was amazing, as were the freshly baked goods at several bakeries. Icelanders also love their coffee, and they have the best coffee shops, IMO. We also drove the gravel roads that are common in the Westfjords to several other towns. In order to get anywhere else, we had to drive through a 7km tunnel, most of which is one lane. There are pull offs every 100m for oncoming cars (going west) to pull into. The tunnel actually has a T intersection, with another 4 km. section heading north. Without the tunnel, it’s a VERY long drive up over the pass.
Next town over....Flateyri. Very old fishing community that had 2 terrible avalanches, one about 25 years ago, and the other, just this past winter. The sod house in this picture was built by the director of the school I attended, University Centre of the Westfjords.
Driving around the Westfjords was time consuming, as all roads were gravel. You need to allow a full day to often get form one place to another. Way too many pictures to show here.
On the flight home, I got some awesome views of Greenland.Here’s part of the ice sheet, and you can see icebergs that have broken off floating in the lake.
I’m still in touch with some of my friends I made there. It was an awesome trip, but a tiring one, as we were often in class from 9-4, and sometimes in the evening, too. Luckily the late sunsets (around 11PM) allowed for hikes and goings on about town after class. Still, it was hard to journey back to the US, where life is so much faster paced (even in the Covid-19 era).
I’ve traveled to Iceland before, and did the tourist stuff, but this time we returned to spend 3 weeks in a small Icelandic town, while I took an Icelandic language course.
We flew via Air Iceland, the country’s domestic airline, from Reykjavik Airport (not the international airport, but the small regional one in the city) up to Ísafjörður , a town of about 2000 in the sparsely inhabited Westfjords. It is located just a hair beneath the Arctic Circle. The next fjord over is Hornstrandir, which is now uninhabited and contains a glacier. The only way to get there is by boat.
The Ísafjörður AirPort ís súper tiny. Check out the Hertz “Rental Counter”: (“1000 or 2000 bonus points with every flight!”) Renting is small-town fun: You call Hertz to arrange a car, then pick it up at a small trailer on the harbor, then when you’re finished, you leave it at the harbor with the keys in it. Very low key with a lot of trust involved.
The town itself sits on a spit of sand in the fjord, which is basically what the town’s name means. It’s origins are fishing, as are all coastal Icelandic towns, and that is its main industry today, alongside tourism. The large cliffs which surround the town are prone to avalanches. One large one killed dozens of people in the 1990’s, and several others struck this past winter. The town, as well as others in the Westfjords, are now protected by many avalanche walls. One person killed via avalanche is one too many for Icelanders.
The houses in town are quite picturesque. One street, named Solgata (Sun St.) is named that because it is the first place the sun hits in town after its long hibernation in the winter. When the sun hits Solgata, everyone in town gathers together and eats pancakes. Gotta love Icelanders.
There is a ski resort just outside of town that offers downhill and cross country skiing. There is no snowmaking. There’s also some awesome views on hikes just outside of town that I enjoyed with my classmates.The cirque in the cliff across the fjord is known as the Troll Seat.
My class included students of all ages from Japan, Russia, Germany, Canada, Denmark, the UK, Italy, and Switzerland. There were three of us from the US, and we were all from PA. Go figure. One of the most memorable lessons was learning to swear in Icelandic.
The fresh fish, brought in off the boats every morning was amazing, as were the freshly baked goods at several bakeries. Icelanders also love their coffee, and they have the best coffee shops, IMO. We also drove the gravel roads that are common in the Westfjords to several other towns. In order to get anywhere else, we had to drive through a 7km tunnel, most of which is one lane. There are pull offs every 100m for oncoming cars (going west) to pull into. The tunnel actually has a T intersection, with another 4 km. section heading north. Without the tunnel, it’s a VERY long drive up over the pass.
Next town over....Flateyri. Very old fishing community that had 2 terrible avalanches, one about 25 years ago, and the other, just this past winter. The sod house in this picture was built by the director of the school I attended, University Centre of the Westfjords.
Driving around the Westfjords was time consuming, as all roads were gravel. You need to allow a full day to often get form one place to another. Way too many pictures to show here.
On the flight home, I got some awesome views of Greenland.Here’s part of the ice sheet, and you can see icebergs that have broken off floating in the lake.
I’m still in touch with some of my friends I made there. It was an awesome trip, but a tiring one, as we were often in class from 9-4, and sometimes in the evening, too. Luckily the late sunsets (around 11PM) allowed for hikes and goings on about town after class. Still, it was hard to journey back to the US, where life is so much faster paced (even in the Covid-19 era).
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