Iceland review - 2013, Side 44

42 ICELAND REVIEW
SuMMErS OF rETurN
Living in such a remote and small communi-
ty has certainly raised eyebrows among some
people, reveals Ólína. “I was in Hafnarfjörður
[a town just outside of the capital] once and
a woman asked me: ‘Are you really from
Flatey?’ I replied: ‘Yes, and I have ten fingers
and ten toes!’ People think it’s so strange that
we actually live here,” she laughs.
Hafsteinn and Ólína’s son, Hafþór, grew
up on Flatey but now lives in Reykjavík,
returning in the summer with his wife
Lísa Kristjánsdóttir and their children. While
Hafþór goes out fishing, Lísa runs the sou-
venir shop/café Bryggjubúðin down by the
harbor. Back in Reykjavík she works in
politics and the film industry while Hafþór
works as a fisherman year-round.
Perhaps one of the island’s most notable
residents in recent times was Guðmundur
Páll Ólafsson (1941-2012) who lived on
Flatey from 1972 to 1985, teaching at the
school and researching the coastal and marine
life. Later he returned during the sum-
mers with his wife Ingunn K. Jakobsdóttir
and is remembered for having brought the
beauty of the isolated islands of Breiðafjörður
to Icelanders through his photographs and
research published in a volume of books
about Icelandic nature.
While Flatey is rich in many resources,
freshwater is not one of them. There are
several wells which serve the needs of locals
during wintertime but during summer water
is shipped in from Stykkishólmur. Ingibjörg
says that visitors are sometimes surprised that
there aren’t more bathrooms in the hotel but
she explains that there simply isn’t enough
water.
Flatey isn’t to everyone’s liking, though,
Ása explains. “Some people, like one in 1,500
or something, think it’s too closed here, too
claustrophobic. They come to me and say
‘this just isn’t for me’ and I’m always like
‘wow,’ because I really don’t understand that.”
Some of the challenges of island life
are referenced in Baltasar’s 2008 comedy
White Night Wedding, set on Flatey. Sjonni
the groomsman (played by Ólafur Darri
Ólafsson) puts it perfectly when during an
awkward moment at the altar he says: “We
aren’t in a hurry. Nobody’s going anywhere.
There isn’t another boat until tomorrow.”
And how right he is indeed. 
TRAVEL
Last of the islanders: ólína and Hafsteinn are among less than a handful of people who still live on flatey year-round.