Iceland review - 2013, Síða 51

ICELAND REVIEW 49
and Farah Anede, two young artists from
Paris, who are in Iceland to make a docu-
mentary about young people after the crash.
They’ve caught the Seyðisfjörður bug too,
it seems, and are already planning to come
back next summer; I overhear them inquire
about the artist-in-residency program.
It’s not just artists who are attracted to this
place, though.
“I’m thinking, how can I run my business
from here?” says Nathan Wedding, the latest
to fall under the spell. The founder of Seven
Skies, an Australian luxury travel company,
he’s here to scout destinations which will
feature on the company’s tours.
STrong FounDaTionS
Ríkey has invited us to her home for
dinner. She and her husband, vesturport
theater company producer Dýri Jónsson,
moved from Copenhagen, where they were
studying (her design, him business), to
Seyðisfjörður in 2003. For his final project,
Dýri, who grew up in Seyðisfjörður, com-
pleted a SWOT analysis on the viability of
running the building known as The Old
Bank as a hotel. At the time, the building,
which dates back to 1898, was empty. With
little accommodation in town, there were
calls to build a generic chain hotel in its
place.
Enter Dýri’s mother and a couple of her
friends. They worked to save the building
and upon graduation, instead of sticking to
their plan to head to Berlin, Dýri and Ríkey
were invited to return to Iceland to run the
hotel and now co-own it with filmmaker
Sigurjón Sighvatsson (producer of David
Lynch’s 1990 Wild at Heart), Dýri’s sister
Diljá Jónsdóttir and her husband Davíð
Kristinsson. Ríkey says moving to small-
town Iceland was an easy decision. “First
of all it’s really beautiful. It’s also the peace-
ful atmosphere. In Copenhagen, I was not
very productive, but here there aren’t many
distractions... It’s also a great place to raise
children,” she explains.
The Old Bank served as a hotel back in
the day too. During the conversion pro-
cess, it was redecorated with photos of the
people who had lived there over the years.
Since 2005, the couple have also managed
Hotel Snæfell, in the old post office dating
back to 1908. Kaupfélagið, the building in
which the oldest store in town was housed,
has been converted into the hotel reception,
restaurant and café. It was in disrepair when
Ríkey and the others started work on the
project but is now one of the main meeting
places in town. Together Kaupfélagið, Hotel
Snæfell and The Old Bank make up Hotel
Aldan.
Business is good. During the summer, the
couple hire around 40 people to work at the
hotel. First after the move to Seyðisfjörður,
they didn’t quite know what to expect.
“We went into it blind,” Ríkey, who grew
up in the even smaller community of
Borgarfjörður eystri, a fjord further north,
says. “We did think there would be a
demand for a higher standard of accom-
modation in town, and it also helped that
Dýri grew up with his mother running the
youth hostel.”
And if running a hotel, restaurant and
raising three boys (14-year-old twins Sindri
and Rökkvi, and two-year-old Álfur) wasn’t
enough, Ríkey also designs decorative neck
pieces called hálsskart (‘neck jewelry’) as well
as baby clothes. “I don’t need much sleep. I
steal time here and there,” she says smiling.
“But in summer, this place is crazy,” she
admits, referring to the increasing number
of tourists. When I speak to her a few weeks
later, she tells me she is already busy prepar-
ing for next summer.
There is plenty to keep her busy during
the winter, though, with a Christmas buf-
fet held at the restaurant and bookings at
the hotel plus cultural events like concerts
and author readings. She speaks fondly of
Seyðisfjörður and the people who make the
community what it is. “I think we are so
lucky to have grown up in a place like this.
It gives you so much in life that you want to
come and deliver something back.”
Minus two degrees and calm, we bid the
sun farewell as it disappears behind the fjord.
It’s time to head into the darkness, ending
our trip with a promise to return next sum-
mer. 
ríkey in Hotel aldan: “i think we are so lucky to have grown up in a place like this. it gives you so much
in life that you want to come and deliver something back.”
Several houses in town are for sale.