Just a girl with a dream and her 3-legged cat! I’m Holly, and I own Skool Beans Cafe in a tiny town along the south coast of Iceland! It’s Iceland's first micro roaster, tea lab, and chocolate mixologist, all packed into a food truck, complete with a little orange three-legged cat named Jeffrey!

I was born in the U.K., but before moving to Iceland in 2017, I lived in Melbourne, Australia, for six and a half years. Australia has a massive cafe culture, and when I moved to Iceland, I was shocked at the lack of little coffee stops outside of the capital city, Reykjavik. 

So, I stopped moaning about it and started finding a solution. I had financial limits, so I decided a food truck was the safest option and tried to find ANY vehicle suitable for a specialty drinks space. The bus just happened to be available at the right time, exactly when I needed it.

Skool Beans is like home from home for me. I’m in there almost every day, learning to love the leaks as they pop up year by year! The sole purpose of my bus is to serve the masses delicious coffee, tea, or chocolate drinks and to provide a little snack stop for my cat, Jeffrey, after a morning of walking the mountains surrounding the bus.

Call me Lucky!

An American school bus, in Iceland??? This is the most common comment or question from most customers, and I get it; I would ask, too!

When traditional American school buses first arrived in Iceland, they were part of a fleet used at the American Air Base. When that closed in the early 2000s, the buses were scattered around Iceland and used for various businesses. Three are summer “savior buses' (I call them that). They go into the highlands in Landmannalaugar to service the brave hikers and campers who walk the challenging trails in the summer months. Some were used by TV crews as make-up studios and dressing rooms, and guiding companies bought others. Mine was last used by a river rafting company to transport the passengers and tow the boats to and from the water. 

They were about to send it to the scrap yard, and I just happened to be at the right place, at the right time, and with the right connections to the people who owned it.

I named her “Evelyn” after my late grandmother, who told me to start my own business one day soon, just before she passed away!

Does she drive? (is another common question!)

Well, she has been stationary for four years now, but as far as I know, all I need to do is charge the batteries, have a little will and hope, and away we can go!  

We are located on the golf course in Vik, Iceland. It's south of Iceland and slightly tucked away under a massive volcano called Katla! (She is hitting the snooze button on eruptions at the moment, but if she starts to wake up, which she will, I will be turning that ignition faster than an espresso can pour!!!

A formal introduction to Evelyn!
She is a 40 foot-long 1996 Thomas Vista 3000, and I chose this make and model because I had no other options! Haha! I love her, though, despite the leaks and the low roof.

I got Evelyn in March 2018, and I opened the door to Skool Beans on August 1st, 2020, 24 hours after the highest level of COVID-19 pandemic rules in Iceland were announced! That was not a part of the grand plan! Hahaha! But I’m still here and still kicking goals! 

It took a village!

Converting the bus was no easy task. Organization was essential to living a six-hour round trip away from the nearest hardware store in Iceland, with conditions that don’t always make things easy. 

I would travel three hours with a list, get everything I needed, and travel three hours back. If I had forgotten something, I would have to wait a while before making the trip again. Not to mention, we were in pandemic times, so almost everything was out of stock!

It was a combination of me, my dad, who would fly to Iceland to help me with the things I could not do alone, and a few great friends in the village where I live who could step in when Dad couldn’t. I feel fortunate to be surrounded by really great people. Even electrician friends were willing to come and give their time to help me turn my dreams into reality.

It took a little over two years. This sounds like a long time, which it is given that I didn’t raise the roof or make any significant changes. But I was working full-time as a glacier guide and then as a presenter at the Icelandic Lava Show, and on my days off, I would chip away at the renovations.

Space is tight in the bus. The height is, well, not very high, so every millimeter counts.

It’s all about compromise…. and a REALLY big log-burning stove!

Instead of taking space away from the width and height with insulation, I decided to install a big ol’ log-burning stove! The stove is essential in Iceland, and the customer (and me and the staff) love it!

We get timber donated to us by builders and people from areas nearby doing some tree trimming.
The village knows when we are open because the smell of the log fire fills the air. So far, we have only received compliments and smiles from locals when it's burning.

I painted the ceiling a white tone and the walls a slightly warmer, cream-colored tone. The floor is the glow-up in the bus! I LOVE IT!!! It's totally impractical as it’s Lino in a sandy volcanic area, that gets tracked into the bus all day long, which means I’ve had to change it once already in four years… BUT I LOVE IT! Hahah! 

It’s a retro / Turkish-patterned floor. I added brass trim on either side of the original aisle and around the edges of the floor. I wanted something that would really give an impression when people step inside.

The tables and counters are made of solid dark wood with signature brass trims, and the main service counter is decorated with old wooden measuring sticks to bring back the ‘school’ in the school bus.

I loved designing the interior and I’m proud of the outcome. It’s very simple but impactful.

Although it’s yellow, it’s a green machine!!!
Because I’m connected to the main power in Iceland, I’m 100% green energy. It was essential to me to be powered by green energy, and the last thing I wanted was a generator. Within reason I can use most standard-powered appliances.

I have two under-counter household fridges, a single-phase coffee machine, three coffee grinders, internet, and many other small power-consuming things, like credit card payment machines.

For the hot water, I use the coffee machine to boil water, and the two sinks have separate taps with an inbuilt heating element. They are a great solution for hot and cold water without requiring a big boiler tank. They look great, and if you don’t need really powerful water pressure. These work great.

The lighting in the bus is simple. I have downlights under the retail shelves and little rechargeable lights with magnets that we stick to the ceiling behind the counter wherever we need them.  

It’s a love-hate relationship, though!

There is something magical about an old Skoolie. If you’re not American, it feels like a movie set. If you’re American, it’s nostalgic for many people.

I love the magic that people feel when they walk inside. They don’t expect the bus to be as it is when they step in.  How can you not love stepping into a pretty cafe under a volcano in Iceland? 😊 

The biggest issue I have here, though, is the extreme weather conditions—such as wind—like you could never imagine. It's icy cold, and the winds are hurricane-strength, and that's just a regular day. The wind can topple cars, so I have them weighted down with concrete weights and chains at each wheel. With the extreme weather conditions come a handful of troubles!

THE ROOF HATCHES!!! OMMMMMCAT! I call them my “humidifiers” because they are constantly leaking no matter what I do! They are screwed, glued, covered, sealed, painted, and STILL, when it’s raining outside, we have a little in-bus drip that seems to time itself perfectly for when people walk under it! “Learn to love your leaks” is my best advice for anyone converting an old bus!

If I were in an accessible country or location to renovate again, I would swap out the hatches for clear domes. This would allow much-needed light into the bus and allow the taller people a little moment to stretch their necks.

So, if anyone is coming to Iceland and knows how to do this, PLEEEEEEEASE reach out to me and I will supply you with endless coffee and hugs!

A world of its own!

Skool Beans has developed its own persona somehow. People connect with the bus on so many levels through social media and my cat, Jeffrey. We humanize the bus experience so much, and I think wonderful things come our way because of that. 

We have had wedding proposals, musicians, and songs written about us. Rappers come in. We receive gifts, cards, and fan art, and we even had brand-new outside benches and tables delivered by people dressed in masks in the summer!!! Hahaha! We had no idea who they were until they had finished!

It’s a mad world, and I love it.

My staff is like family, and I love them so much because of the love they put into the bus, both at work and outside of work.

It takes a special person to work at Skool Beans. It gets busy, and you need to be able to work fast and be happy almost all day. 

My Skool Beans journey started with missing a little cozy cafe, and now it’s evolved into feeling like I'm missing out when I'm not there. The gratitude I feel for what it’s given me is far beyond what I could have ever imagined.

Would I do it again? 100% YES!

My advice for anyone converting a bus.

• Learn to love your leaks!
• Use fake grass in the entrance steps to keep the dirt from the main area. It’s a perfect dirt catcher.
• Add more electrical outlets than you think you’ll need.
• Enjoy the process. Set a deadline and add a couple of months for good measure. You’ll probably need it, and there is no need to be upset if you don’t reach the exact date.