Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.07.2016, Qupperneq 64

Within minutes of entering Self-
oss, Hrefna and I are lost. “I think
we were supposed to take the oth-
er exit,” I say, but there are trucks
riding our ass and before we know
it we’re on the outskirts of town.
To people who have only driven
through Selfoss to get to more ex-
citing destinations, the prospect
of getting lost here might seem
absurd, but with a population of
over 6,000 people, this dot on the
map between Hveragerði and Hel-
la is the largest population centre
in the south of Iceland.
Searching For
Bobby Fischer
Once we’re back on track, our first
stop is Bókakaffið, the local book-
store and café. But it’s closed until
noon, so we find ourselves drawn
to Sjafnarblóm, a quaint shop
across the street whose entrance
is loaded with colourful baskets
of flowers. The flower shop shares
the building with an independent
food store and the Bobby Fischer
museum—strange bedfellows for
a town that’s perhaps most well-
known as the location stamped
on most Icelandic dairy products
(thanks, Mjólkursamsalan mo-
nopoly).
Bobby Fischer’s relationship to
Iceland is one of the stranger
episodes in the country’s history.
The American chess grandmaster
played an infamous Cold War-era
match against Soviet chess cham-
pion Boris Spassky in Reykjavík
in 1972, but Bobby’s anti-Semitic
comments in the following years
shrouded him in controversy.
When his American passport
was revoked in 2004, Bobby was
granted citizenship by Iceland
and lived in Reykjavík until his
death in 2008, when he was buried
at his request in Selfoss. But the
museum doesn’t open until 1 p.m.
(I’m sensing a trend), so actually
seeing any Bobby memorabilia up
close will have to wait for another
road trip.
A Communist Book
Collector’s Dream
Back across the street, Bókakaf-
fið is open and there are already
people milling through the stacks.
Elín Gunnlaugsdóttir, one of the
owners, proudly tells us it’s the
only book store in Iceland’s south,
and she’s carefully cultivated an
atmosphere where customers can
sip coffee surrounded by floor-to-
ceiling shelves of books in Icelan-
dic, English and other languages.
The store’s clientele is diverse,
Elín tells us, and includes a Chi-
nese book collector who orders
Icelandic-language books about
communism from their online
store.
Before sending us on our way,
Elín recommends that we check
out the church, so Hrefna and I
follow signs to the nearest kirk-
jan. Again, we find ourselves lost
on a lonely road outside of town.
We end up at the diminutive Lau-
gardalur Church, which is sur-
rounded by fields and farmhouses
that seem empty except for a few
horses. “This can’t be the right
one,” one of us eventually says.
We’re about to leave when we look
down and see that we’re nearly
standing on the gravestone of one
Robert James Fischer.
Cut From The
Same Cloth
Back in town, the Ölfusá River
glows aquamarine even under the
grey sky. Set against a dramatic
mountain complete with some
houses built into a hill, it’s the
quintessential Icelandic scene.
Hrefna comments that many
small towns on the island look the
same, and if that’s the case, Self-
oss might have been the original
template.
Our pitstop in Selfoss ends
with a stop at Tryggvaskáli, a res-
taurant in the oldest building in
town. The decor inside is an eclec-
tic mix of memorabilia from the
town’s history, which seems fit-
ting given the quirky characters
that makes stopping in Selfoss
worthwhile. After all, it’s the only
place in Iceland where you’ll ac-
cidentally stumble across Bobby
Fischer’s grave.
SHARE & LINKS: gpv.is/bes
Searching For
Bobby Fischer
In Selfoss
Words ISAAC WÜRMANN Photos HREFNA BJÖRG GYLFADÓTTIR
64 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 9 — 2016TRAVEL
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