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Published: July 14th 2008
The ferry from Iceland to the Faroe Islands didn´t get attacked by pirates. That´s ok, I´ve got another chance starting today when I sail from here to Norway!
It was a somewhat boring trip. Unless you like spending upwards of $55 on dinner, there´s not even much to eat. Oh well, at least it was comfortable enough: the ferry Norrona is a car ferry / cruise ship / cargo carrier, so it has a bunch of luxury options on board, if you´ve got the money for them.
I arrived in Torshavn, capital of the Faroes, Friday morning at 8:00am. It´s a nice city. Big enough to have most of the amenities you could want (otherwise you´d have to go to Norway / Iceland / Scotland / Denmark for everything!), small enough, with only 20,000-odd residents, to be easily explored on foot. The total population of the country is just shy of 50,000 people; on the other hand, there are over 70,000 sheep. 'Faroe', in fact, means 'sheep'.
I was hoping to rent a car for my 3 days here, but that turned out not to be an option without reserving one in advance. Instead, I got a bus pass and went with that. Busses aren´t very frequent in the country (especially on weekends!), but connections are usually quite good for getting around. The drivers are also happy to be 5 minutes early or late to make sure you can connect to another bus or ferry!
Friday I headed to the town of Vestmanna, where I went on the 'Must see! Bird Cliffs and Grottoes!'tour. It was worth it: 10 of us in this little old wooden motor boat, the occasional wave crashing over and spraying us, and 300-500 metre cliffs towering above. Sure enough, we saw thousands of birds, and sailed through tight rocks and into caves. We even pulled a pair of puffin hunters off one spectacular rock pillar. They had come out in the morning and had netted 153 puffins! Also amazing were the stories of how shepherds take their sheep out in the spring to these cliffs, climb carefully up to grassy ledges, and let the sheep loose for the summer. Our knowledgeable guide could tell us exactly how many sheep were on each ledge!
That evening, I took a bus to Klaksvik, the 'big city´ in the north of the islands, where I found the hostel no longer existed, the campground facilities were locked, and it was raining. Bit of a let down! I pitched my tent in the rain and went to sleep.
Saturday I packed up and went to Gjogv (don´t ask how to pronounce it). Rising above town are the two highest mountains in the Faroes, so of course I had to climb them. I got mildly lost and turned around once or twice in some fog, and had to go a very roundabout route to get around a huge cliff. Eventually I made it to the top, and had a great view of pretty much nothing thanks to the fog. Oh well, it was a fun adventure!
That night I was back in Torshavn, at a campground that actually existed. Sunday it chucked rain all day, so I didn´t do much other than get wet and try to dry off again. Today, Monday, I packed up and hit a cafe for tea and cookies while waiting for the ferry. The cookies were all right, but despite the sign saying 'Fresh warm cookies!' they were actually cold and a bit stale - probably yesterday´s batch. 4/10. The tea was good, at least. Maybe I should´ve had the coffee instead: according to the sign on the wall, Bill Clinton said 'This coffee is very tasteful'when he was here in 2007.
And now I´m just waiting for the ferry to Bergen, Norway, where I hope to be able to replace my bent and broken tent poles, patch the tent, and... yeah, upload photos. I might get a few done here if the computer finishes downloading them from my camera fast enough. It´s horribly slow.
Until next time!
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Kristen
non-member comment
Hmmm
I am incredibly jealous of your adventures! But, that is not why I am commenting. I really just wanted to point out how amazingly positive and upbeat you are. No matter what happens, you still say "It was a good adventure!" or something along those lines. That is all. Toodles!