A road trip to Flateyri where a folk school is rejuvenating the village

The Westfjords have a special place in my heart, it is a beautiful and rugged area, and I relish going there. My wife and I recently drove to Flateyri from Reykjavik to pick my daughter up. She had completed a very successful winter studying at the up-and-coming Flateyri Folk School. We looked forward to the graduation and, of course, visiting our beloved Westfjords.

There is tough, and then there is Flateyri tough

Flateyri is a village in the Westfjords of Iceland that clings to the edge of the North Atlantic. Flateyri has seen tough times. The horrific 1995 avalanche that killed twenty people in the dead of night is still in vivid memory. There is a memorial dedicated to the people who died right by the church. How Flateyri and other towns in the Westfjords lost their traditional fishing ground in the eighties and nineties was documented in the Icelandic drama series Verbúðin. But there are better times in store for this beautiful and remote place.

Education is the future

The new hope coming to Flateyri is not in the form of heavy industry or potentially ecologically harmful sea-based salmon farms. A new school, Flateyri Folk School, has completed its fourth term. It is now building a new dormitory for its students; this is the first new building in Flateyri since 1997. I was delighted to see students and townspeople gather at the building site for a ceremonial groundbreaking. In five to ten years, I predict that this school will have grown into an institution that welcomes a few hundred students every autumn.

I am now proud to call myself a friend of Flateyri Folk school as my daughter graduated from there on the 8th of May. The level of education is high; Ragnar Bragason teaches film-making, and Saga Sig teaches photography. Veiga Grétarsdóttir teaches kayaking and so on.

Stops on the way to Flateyri from Reykjavik

The drive from Reykjavik takes about 6 hours. We stopped at two places on our way to Flateyri. First, we stopped at Café Riis in the town of Hólmavík. The two of us shared a large, delicious pizza topped with L’angoustine. Café Riis is, by the way, the best choice for a meal at Hólmavík.

Another stop was the lovely café called Litlibær in the fjord of Skötufjörður. It is a renovated farm where an amiable lady who is a descendant of the people who used to live there originally offers travelers refreshments in the form of strong coffee and traditional Icelandic pastry. Close to Litibær is Hvítanes, where the local seals hang out. So it is very well worth stopping and watching them relax on the rocks there.

Fishing trips with benefits

Then we arrived at Flateyri.  We met with the students at the Folk School at the local watering hole called Vagninn in the evening. A local told me that Germans liked to visit Flatery with their mistresses and stay for a week. They would rent a small cabin in the town’s center and a fishing boat. After all, she said, a fishing trip to one of the most remote places in Europe was an excellent cover for any “extracurricular activity.” I suppose she is right about that. I loved hanging out at Vagninn; before I knew it was drinking beer with local guys who talked with pride about their village and made fun of themselves and each other. Now and then, they would drop a racy limerick which always drew roaring laughter.

Catch all the birds

Flateyri is a beautiful place. Impressive mountains surround it, and the town itself has many pretty houses. And Flateyri is a little art gallery. In 2021 the American artist  Jean Larson who has spent a lot of time in Flateyri painted twelve birds on house walls in the village. She also painted a secret nest that is a little hard to find. I will certainly look for it next time I go to Flateyri. In any case, walking around the village and catching all the bird images is fun. It is worth noting that Jean only pained birds that live in the Önundafjörður fjord where Flateyri is.

Running in Flateyri

I amused myself by waking up early, laced up my running shoes, and running up the avalanche barrier that was raised after the deadly avalanche in1995. It was a tough climb, the bath on top of the barrier was uneven, narrow, and steeper than I had thought. Then I ran on a gravel road that runs alongside the beach. After a few kilometers, the gravel road became more like a hiking path, then it optimistically is called a sheep trail, and then it disappeared into the landscape. I refreshed myself by drinking from a stream, turned around, and enjoyed the magnificent landscape around Flatery. The sharp and imposing mountain Þorfinnur dominated the skyline.

A lovely night out in Ísafjörður

After the graduation, it was clear that the students were not about to hang around their parents, so we decided to spend our second night in the nearby town of Ísafjörður. The main attraction there for us was the incredible fish restaurant Tjöruhúsið. I was delighted to have a beer at the excellent Dokkan Brewery, making one of Iceland’s best beers. Just try their excellent IPA Dynjandi. After a light lunch at the wonderful Ísafjörður Café Heimabyggð, we drove out to Flateyri to pick up our daughter. The drive back home was uneventful. On the way back, we had dinner at the family-run pizza place, La Colina, in Borgarnes. A better choice than the truck stops in the center of town.