Stykkishólmur is probably one of the most beautiful things that I’ve seen in the sunset. The best place to watch this spectacular show of colours is the big rock in the harbor were the lighthouse is.

You have a panorama of the entire harbor and, if you turn your head around, you see only the ocean till far in the horizon. We got to spend two weeks in this picturesque town helping the municipality with several tasks on beautifying the city. In the first days, we trimmed down the lupin, an invasive plant brought from Alaska to stop the soil erosion, we cut grass and restored walking paths in the picnic area.

Apart from work, it was a time to slow it down, walk between the colourful wooden houses, visit the art nouveau church looking like a boat or taking free boat trips provided by our host. We also went several times to the volcano museum and met one of the most famous volcanologists, Haraldur Sigurðsson, and debated with him on controlling the growth of lupin.

Our group of volunteers was very diverse with ten volunteers coming from Austria, Canada, Germany, Romania, Serbia, Spain and the United States. I believe we learnt a lot from each other in terms of community living, history of our countries or traditional dishes. We definitely also improved our swimming abilities since we could go to the swimming pool everyday for free! 

Ana DUMBARA (SEEDS workcamp leader)