In the south east of Iceland in the county of Austur-Skaftafellsýsla is a small town called Höfn. Höfn is one of the youngest towns in Iceland. It's located near Europe largest glacier, Vatnajökull, and about 450 km away from the capital city, Reykjavík. The population of Höfn is approx. 1600 people but in the whole county there are 2100 people. Höfn is the second largest town in the east of Iceland, however people have been moving away from the county during the last years.
In the year 1880 merchant vessels started arriving in Höfn. But the history of residence does not start until the summer 1897 when Otto Tulinius a merchant and his wife moved to the village of Höfn. The village became a trading centre and the only town in the county of Austur-Skaftafellssýsla. At first the population was small and growing slowly but with more employment opportunities people started moving to Höfn.
Höfn is a fishing town and the main buisness is related to the fishing industry. It means that most of the towns people work at sea or in the fish factories. There are about 10 large boats operating out of Höfn and numbers of smaller ones. The largest fish factory in the east corner of Iceland is also located here, Skinney Þinganes.
Every year a lot of tourist visit Höfn and many people have based their income on the tourist industry, especially during the summer. People that visit Iceland are fascinated about the natural surroundings here in the county of Austur-Skaftafellssýsla like the glacier lagoon Jökulsárlón and the glacier Vatnajökull itself. We also have a beautiful mountain range that was formed in the last ice age and if you are lucky, the northern lights can be seen in the autumn sky.
Here in Höfn we have one big supermarket and three smaller kind of shops, two clothing shops, one computer shop, four hairdressers, one gym, one flower shop, a golf course, two banks, four schools (including a branch of the University of Iceland and a musical school).
There is a lot of things for young people to do here. We have a music school here for kids that like playing music. There are theater groups and a "fun club" (Hornfirska skemmtifélagið) where people play and sing music. They choose different themes every year and make a musical.
We just got a new swimming pool this summer (2009) and we also have this fantatic athletic tracks, four football fields and a big riding hall and a football hall is in process.
Here in the county Austur-Skaftafellssýsla we have Europes largest national park. It was opened in Skaftafell 1967 and was 4805 square kilometres in size. In Skaftafell there is the largest desert in Europe, called Skeiðarásandur wich used to be pure black sand but due to climate change vegetation is covering a large part of the sand today. In the year 2008 the national park was enlarged and got the name Vatnajökull National Park. It covers about 11% of the country and is the largest national park in Europe. The glacier lagoon Jökulsárlón is the deepest point of Iceland´s waters, 284 meters deep. Huge blocks of ice constantly calve off the glacier and large icebergs are floating in the lagoon. The glacier lagoon Jökulsárón is a famous tourist attraction, and has been seen by more people than other Icelandic sites, but that is due to a part of a James Bond films, a View to a Kill and Die another day, being filmed there and some other famous films.
In the west part of the Vatnajökull national park near Skaftafell is the higest point of Iceland called Hvannadalshnjúkur. It is 2110 meters high. A lot of people walk all the way to the top of Hvannadalshnjúkur and there are planned trips to the top during the summer for people who like hiking in the mountains.
Written by Guðlaug, Rakel and Sveinbjörg
