"I'm actually building a tower, it's on a farm about fifteen minutes from here by car, would you like to see it?"
Our ferry brought us into a fjord (and town) by the name of Seyðisfjörður
around 09:00hrs on Tuesday, April 13th. The two of us had been on board the M.S. Norrona for the past three days. Chris enjoyed some time socializing with some Ferrish people while I spend most of my time hibernating in our cabin. Still feeling the wavy effects of the ocean on soil we trekked along a gravely road to what we thought would be our hostel for the evening. When we arrived at the door we found a posting that it was still closed for the winter. I felt that maybe this may be the first true "hiccup" in our travel so far but we soon found out there was a second hostel in town we could stay at. That is where we first came accross the hostel keeper, Richard.
I'm always intrigued to learn how exactly people come into living/working in a place as remote as Seyðisfjörður. The short version of Richard's path here involves being born in California, moving to Spain with his missionary Jehovah Witness parents, running away to London at young age, squating with Mexicans, being addicted to heroine, & smuggling himself into the UK countless times. His most recent attempt to get back into the United Kingdom is what brought him to Seyðisfjörður. After spending the past winter there buried to his neck with snow with very little amounts of sunlight, Richard seemed quite happy to have new guests pouring into the hostel.
After chatting for a while with Richard and another hostel guest from Belgium, Leis. Richard intrigued us by mentioning that the previous summer he spent most of his free time preparing the grounds of a nearby farm for a tower he wanted to build. This was just the chance we were looking for to venture up into the fjord that protected Seyðisfjörður like tall fortress walls.
We piled into his very modest auto and sped along the wire thin road. Slowing down from moment to moment to allow the farmers sheep to cross the way. After a short ten minute drive we parked the car amongst your typical rusted out auto bodies that seem to always gather on farm land. A short up hill climb brought us to the orchard of Richards labor. The three of us were all very surprised by how much land Richard has dug to create the foundation of his tower. All around us were the quite large rocks he was planning to use to erect his monument.
After a Q&A, some "oohs" and "ahhs", and drinking water straight from the fall neighboring his site. We piled back in to the auto and drove on down the fjord to the soothing sounds of Theme Time Radio with Bob Dylan . Richard continued on telling us his future plans of exploring the country of China, he felt that he was Chinese at heart. Good luck in you travels Richard, don't forget to finish your tower.
