Austrian traveller joins partner at Reykjavik bookshop

Austrian traveller Romana Obermair has become a familiar face at Bókin, a second-hand bookshop on Klapparstígur in Reykjavík, where she works with her partner, owner Ari Gísli Bragason, mbl.is reports.

Obermair said she travelled around the world for several years after university, viewing travel as a form of education and a way to understand different cultures through their people, history, literature, art and music.

She co-founded an online company that has operated successfully for more than 20 years and has lived in several parts of the world. She spent a year and a half in Australia, including at Coolum Beach on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory.

Obermair said she and her family were stranded in the Northern Territory throughout the coronavirus period. No cases of the virus were detected there, she said, allowing them complete freedom. They were also alone when they visited Uluru, the sacred mountain, which she described as a unique experience.

After Australia, the family briefly returned to Austria before their children were accepted at Green School in Bali, an English-language school built from bamboo and other materials. The family then moved to Indonesia, where they lived for a year and a half.

After spending three years in hot and humid climates, Obermair began considering a cooler destination. She applied for school places for the children in Iceland, Finland and Canada, and they were accepted at all three. Iceland was chosen.

The family originally planned to stay in Iceland for a year and a half, but the children loved living there. Obermair said the change from Bali’s 40-degree heat to Iceland’s freezing temperatures was considerable.

They arrived at the beginning of 2024, when a volcanic eruption occurred on the Reykjanes Peninsula. Obermair said they appeared to be the only people who were astonished by it, recalling a neighbour walking a dog with a glowing volcano in the background as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

Obermair co-founded her computer company at the age of 24. She said the company was among the first to work systematically online from different locations, becoming what would later be called digital nomads, in 2004.

At the time, people found it difficult to believe that such remote work was possible. As long as the founders had access to an internet café and the internet, however, they could manage, she said.

Obermair is now gradually transferring her ownership in the company so that she can dedicate all her time and energy to Bókin.

She also writes when she has time. Her two-volume work, titled Journey Through Music for Children in English, was published by one of Austria’s oldest music publishers. Austria’s Ministry of Education formally recommended the books for use in Austrian schools.