Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.09.2011, Blaðsíða 31

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Travel | Vopnafjörður
Upon arrival, our photographer Natsha and I were
greeted by Magnús, an incredibly gregarious and
eager guide who would accompany us every step
of the way. Driving from the airstrip into the village,
the smallness of Vopnafjörður is perhaps exagger-
ated by the sheer size of the fjord upon which it
rests. Even in the dense fog, you can tell you're in
the middle of a vast, wide-open valley that evokes
something closer to the Wild West than the Settle-
ment Era.
NOT SO BAD-ASS AFTER ALL?
The first question I had on my mind was: how
did Vopnafjörður get its name? Meaning literally
“weapons' fjord,” which is indisputably a bad-ass
name for a village, I supposed that it had at one
point been a centre of sword and spear production
back in ye olde Viking days.
“It's named after Eyvindur Vopni,” Magnús said.
Oh, so it was named after some bloodthirsty,
heavily armed Nordic settler who earned this nick-
name through his blast furnace temper and array
of readily available weapons?
“No, I don't think so. I believe Vopni was actu-
ally his family name. I think there are a few still liv-
ing in Iceland.”
Undeterred by reality's uncanny ability to disap-
point, we pressed onwards. The first thing Magnús
wanted to show us was the primary school which,
I discovered, is at the very least on par with, if not
exceeding, the quality of schools I normally see in
the capital area. One feature that stood out to me,
though, were the recycling bins in the halls of the
school. Children as young as six are being taught
to sort between paper, plastic and cans.
Now, this might very well be the case for other
schools in Iceland. Certainly, municipalities around
the country have varying levels of green-ness. But
Vopnafjörður, I discovered, has a history of envi-
ronmentalism that goes from the Middle Ages to
present day.
WASTE NOT, ETC.
An example of this would have to be HB Grandi,
the fish factory that looms over the harbour. In
terms of direct employment and the involvement
of surrounding businesses, this company employs
about half the village. Our tour began with a look
at the process of making fishmeal. Sveinbjörn, the
on-site shift manager, took us down to the control
room to show us how this stuff is made.
I'm normally not very fascinated by modern in-
dustry of any sort, but as this man explained how
waste water is used for the heating of different
tanks, how the air is re-circulated and recycled,
how every scrap of by-product is used in some
way, I have to admit I was impressed. Fish facto-
ries are not known for being tremendous polluters,
but they're not exactly the first thing that springs
to mind when you think of “green” industries. In
this case, though, Sveinbjörn was proud and pas-
sionate about the pains the company had taken to
avoid wasting anything, and to keep the surround-
ing water and air as clean as possible. Was this a
part of the town's cultural heritage?
It seems that might very well be the case. When
we visited the village's cultural museum, Ágústa
(originally from Reykjavík, but a resident of the vil-
lage for the past 40 years), talked to us about the
town's history. When I asked what was the most
significant event in the town's history, her answer
was immediate:
“It was when we got our first trawler,” she ex-
plained. Before then, all work was seasonal. You
never knew where your money was going to come
from, and so everything had to be scrimped and
saved. With the arrival of a trawler, people could
now work year round. They began to put time into
fixing up their homes, making gardens and so
forth. Indeed, Magnús chimed in that the arrival of
HB Grandi had had much the same effect.
THEY STILL REMEMBER
The following day, we drove out to the Bustafell,
a wonderfully preserved turf house farm farther
into the valley. Björg, our guide for the early morn-
ing tour, had grown up on this farm, and her fam-
ily had lived on this land since the mid-1500s. As
she showed us the various rooms, kitchen and
farm implements and their uses over the ages, she
made a salient point about environmentalism and
necessity:
“I think it's great that people are starting to
think again about re-using things,” she said. “In
the old days, everything was used. Even the ashes
from the hearth were used, to clean floors or let the
chickens have a dust bath, for example. When life
is as hard as it was back then, you simply couldn't
throw anything away.”
After saying our goodbyes and being driven to
the airport, I considered that our modern life has
only seemed to have given us the luxury of being
able to waste, to throw things away that could still
be used. In reality, of course, we only hurt ourselves
in the long run by practising this lifestyle, however
easy it may be to forget that. In Vopnafjörður, at
least, it seems they haven't forgotten this at all.
Words
Paul Fontaine
Photography
Natsha Nandabhiwat
31
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2011
Is Vopnafjörður Iceland's Greenest Village?
Air Iceland operates flights to Vopnafjörður.
Book at www.airiceland.is or phone +354-5703000
Accomodation provided by Hótel Tangi. Book by
email at hoteltangi@simnet.is or call +354-4731840
There is no shortage of places in Iceland that
are off the beaten track—some are just more
off the track than others. Take Vopnafjörður,
for example. A village of about 700 people on
the northeast coast of Iceland, travellers on
the Ring Road will likely miss it entirely. Get-
ting there by car involves a rather long trek
off the main highway and over the mountains
through a narrow, winding pass. Or, you can
take a plane from Reykjavík to Akureyri, and
then a 19-seater Twin Otter prop plane that
will have you singing “Peggy Sue” all the way
over.