Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.08.2015, Page 35

35The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 13 — 2015 TRAVEL
Distance from Reykjavík
285 km
Whale Watching tour provided by North
Sailing, Book tour at www.northsailing.is
or call +354-4647272
Bus trip Akureyri-Kjölur-Reykjavík provided
by SBA-Norðurleið.Book at www.sba.is
or call +354-5500700
BOOK YOUR FLIGHT OR
DAY TOUR AT AIRICELAND.IS
ÍSAFJÖRÐUR
ICELAND’S WESTFJORDS
ARE ONLY 40 MINUTES AWAY
Let’s fly
is
le
ns
ka
/s
ia
.is
F
LU
7
32
63
0
3/
15

cestral homeland. To most European
medieval enthusiasts, the name Snorri
conjures images of the great Saga writ-
er Snorri Sturluson, but the program is
named after this Snorri, the one who was
born in America but grew up in Iceland.
It would take almost 800 years until Ice-
landers rediscovered North America.
The King in the North
On the other side of the fjord, the tiny vil-
lage of Hofsós commemorates the ones
who did. Almost 20,000 Icelanders left for
North America in the late 1800s, settling
in Manitoba, North Dakota and other
places. Their history is recounted in the
Icelandic Emigration Centre, in exhibits
that span three buildings.
One more point of interest in
Skagafjörður is Hólar,
where the bishops of
the North dwelled until
1798 (yes, the Northerners had to have
their own bishop, separate from the rest
of Iceland). The most notable resident
was Jón Arason, Iceland’s last Catholic
bishop, who was executed in 1550. This
was partly for religious reasons but most-
ly to teach the Northerners that their lot
in life is to be ruled from the South, a les-
son they still stubbornly refuse to learn.
Jón the bishop was brought down South
for his beheading, his body being sent
back up North after. You can visit him in
the church there, if you must.
Before heading over to what they
like to call “The Capital of the North,”
Akureyri, it is worth continuing up Tröl-
laskagi (“the Giant’s Peninsula”) to visit
scenic Siglufjörður, a town almost laid to
waste in 1968, not by bands of marauding
hippies (as one might expect by the date)
but rather by the disappearance of her-
ring stocks from the surrounding waters.
In Siglufjörður, they have everything you
always wanted to know about herring,
but were afraid to ask.
After the Gold Rush
In between the profiteering of World
War II and the banking bubble of the
early 2000s, the biggest gold rush in
Iceland’s history was driven by her-
ring. In Siglufjörður, it actually started in
1903, and—as with so many of the small
towns dotted along the coastline—it was
the Norwegians who first
set up fisheries that would
drive it.
Modernity arrived
late in Iceland, but when it
did, it came with a splash
(and then a crash). People
flocked to Siglufjörður from
all over to salt herring into
barrels, which was a rela-
tively well-paid job that at
times accounted for up
to 20% of Iceland’s GNP.
Then, in 1968, the so-called
“Silver of the Ocean” sud-
denly vanished. The people
left, too: Siglufjörður’s cur-
rent population stands at
around 1200, less than half
of what it used to be. To-
day, the town is participating in the lat-
est boom, tourism, sporting a brand new
hotel and attractive harbourside restau-
rants.
The herring era is commemorated in
Siglufjörður every year with a huge piss-
up over Merchant’s Weekend during the
first weekend of August, and at The Her-
ring Era Museum, which proudly displays
a full-size fishing boat. It is surely one of
Iceland’s better museums, even for the
non-herring enthusiast.
A Herring Museum ticket will also
admit you to Siglufjörður’s Folk Music
Centre, which is certainly worth a visit.
For the longest time, the only instruments
found on the island were the Icelandic
fiddle and the langspil, both of which
slightly resemble a poor man’s steel gui-
tar. Actual guitars were introduced in the
late 1800s, and as in the Old West, play-
ing it was a woman’s job (Johnny Cash,
for one, learnt how to play guitar from his
mother). Indeed, even today, the basic
chords are referred to as “vinnukonu-
grip,” Icelandic for “Working Woman’s
Chords.”
If you’re particularly lucky, you’ll find
one Hildur Heimis manning the centre’s
reception desk, a young girl from Reyk-
javík who currently resides in Texas,
but works here over the summer. She is
a member of the band Duo Svanni and
will happily play any and all of the cen-
tre’s numerous instruments for your en-
joyment. You can even practice singing
along to if you like.
Whales, sails and
a touch of seasickness
Skipping Akureyri for now (we’ll get
there, eventually), we instead head over
to Húsavík. As everyone knows, Húsavík
is known primarily for whales. While the
town’s Whale Museum makes for an
impressive visit, the jewels in Húsavík’s
crown are the whale watching tours, of-
ten referred to as the best you’ll find in
the country. North Sailing is one of the
companies that offers trips, and—unlike
the floating bars that take you out from
Reykjavík—they conduct their whale
watching trips on old-timey sailboats. The
trip takes about three hours, and while
there is no guarantee of whale sightings,
they do claim a 90 percent success rate.
In fact, much excitement comes from
the hunt itself, as you scout the horizon
in search of a fin, as if playing a particu-
larly tricky game of “I spy.” Our excellent
tour guide shouts out which direction to
look in, sadly refraining from shouting
“Thar she blows!” The blue whale season
is in early summer, and the humpbacks
come out in force in early autumn, so us
early August visitors must make do with
spotting a couple of minke whales. Only
the fins and backsiders stick out, making
them look more like dolphins than giants
of the deep, but when one comes close
enough it sure is an impressive sight.
Romantic Vopnafjörður
There is nothing like a burger at Bau-
kurinn after a hard days’s whale watch-
ing, before heading on eastwards. The
coastal route is probably more scenic,
but we take the ring road directly to
Vopnafjörður. Even inland, the scenery
changes rapidly, from green hills to black
desert to grey fog.
As we emerge out the other end, we
are warmly welcomed by one Jósep Jó-
sepsson. He is just the kind of local you
want to show you around, the sort that
knows the history of every building and
which epic battle from which Saga took
place where. As it is raining (it often is
up here), we decide to tour the local mu-
seums. Burstarfell flaunts an upscale turf
house, in use until the late 1960s. Some of
the family members are to be found in the
nearby cemetery, which also has a monu-
ment to ‘Vopnfirðinga Saga’, which—as
the name implies—was set here.
There is also a museum dedicated to
songwriter brothers Jón Múli and Jónas
Árnason, who are directly responsible for
many a ditty that every Icelander knows
by heart and will hum to him- or herself
every now and again. Vopnafjörður also
hosts a small centre dedicated to the
people who left from here to the Ameri-
cas in the 1800s, since Vopnafjörður
housed one of the biggest harbours back
then.
Today, one of Vopnafjörður’s main
employers is the HB Grandi fish process-
ing plant, and we are offered a tour of the
facilities. One’s view of freezehouses is
usually informed by places like the Her-
ring Museum, along with the numer-
ous songs that have been written about
working the fishing industry grind, so it
is interesting to see the almost fully auto-
mated modern-day version operate, and
observe the free food and lounge that are
meant for the employees.
Truth be told, it doesn’t look bad for a
workplace. Then again, it probably won’t
inspire many romantic songs, either.
"Writer Hallgrímur
Helgason went left
his comfort zone
in 101 Reykjavík
to write 'Rokland',
a book which in
many ways cap-
tures the Iceland
of the boom years."