Reykjavík Grapevine - 18.05.2012, Blaðsíða 34

Words
Ása Baldursdóttir
Photography
Nanna Dís
34
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 6 — 2012
Travel | South
After wrapping up in Reykjavík, the
Shorts&docs festival took to the road, jour-
neying all the way to the hamlet Höfn í Hor-
nafirði in southeast Iceland. In a lovely small
Höfn cinema called Sindrabær, twenty-five
films from the festival were to be screened for
locals over the course of a single Saturday.
Jumping at the chance to tag along, my friend and
I set off in a car full of films, refreshments, cameras
and people. Festival press officer and Höfn native
Brynja Dögg Friðriksdóttir began telling us stories
about her hometown, which is actually partially
built on an old landfill. The town’s name translates
to “harbour,” and it is traditionally a fishing village,
which also thrives on tourism today.
It somehow felt appropriate that our little car
full of films was making its way to an area in Ice-
land that has featured in a number of feature films
like ‘Tomb Raider,’ James Bond classics ‘A View To
A Kill’ and ‘Die Another Day, ‘Batman Begins’ as
well as the TV series ‘Game of Thrones.’
GLACIERS ANd GEOTHERMAL HOT TUBS
Four hours from Reykjavík, we made our fist stop
at Vatnajökull glacier to see Jökulsárlón, the gla-
cier lagoon. We got out of the cramped car to
stretch our legs, and were greeted by a flock of
seals swirling around the lagoon. Brynja Dögg—
who used to work at the lagoon—gave us a per-
sonal guided tour, apparently well in practice after
all of these years. “You might notice that some ice-
bergs in the lagoon are bluer than others,” Brynja
told us. “That’s because they have been under-
water. The water fills the cracks of the icebergs,
which gives them this appearance.”
“The lagoon,” she said, “it’s always changing.”
In the car Brynja Dögg continued to tell us
about glacial areas, and twenty kilometres outside
of Höfn we stopped at another one called Hoffell-
sjökull. Surrounded by great nature, a cute little
outhouse and an outdoor shower, we got a chance
to dip into geothermal hot tubs located at the foot
of the glacier.
dEEP-FRIEd HOT dOGS AT KELABúð
When we finally arrived to Höfn on Friday night,
we were feeling pretty hungry. By the harbour we
found a diner apparently famous for their deep-
fried hot-dogs—called Kelabúð. The owners, who
have run the shop since 1991, were fortunately
both there late and welcomed us to eat.
“I’ve never tasted this hot dog,” said owner
Hrafnkell Ingólfsson, better known as Keli. “But
our customers love it. They say it’s the best hot
dog in the world.”
Excited about tomorrow’s events, we checked
ourselves into Hotel Höfn for a good night’s sleep.
ENOUGH STONES TO FILL A
SWIMMING POOL
Before the festival started on Saturday, we
couldn’t resist checking out the Huldusteinn Rock
Museum. A sign on the front door read, “Call us
if you want to enter the museum,” but luckily the
door suddenly opened up, and a cheerful lady in-
vited us in.
She turned out to be Vigdís Vigfúsdóttir who,
along with her husband, had collected every rock
in the museum. A few years ago they bought an
old swimming pool and transformed it into a mu-
seum. Viewing the colourful collection in this very
strange setting was both brilliant and hilarious,
On The Road With Shorts&docs
To Höfn í Hornafirði and back again
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