The colors of a good winter day #1

Sun light on the Faroese #2

A hidden coastal town on the Faroese islands #3

Clouds lining up in unison with the poles #4

The Faroese day ends early when the sun sets about 3:30 pm in mid-January #5

Winter in the Faroese islands #6

If any of you readers recognize some of the spots, please let me know by leaving a comment referring to the photo number.

Day 4

This was going to be our last complete day on the Faroes. Our first outing was to attend church next door. The service was held in Faroese. Well… this was the first time I fell asleep in church.

Taken in Rituvík with the island Nólsoy in view

Another spot to linger

Mountains and fjords – no matter where you look

Lake Toftavatn (vatn=water)

Margo asleep in the back seat – guess she forgot to put on her travelling shoes…

A few wind turbines

This tiny built-in slot is a Faroese mailbox

Some Faroese boys – I’d assume they are brothers the way they played with each other – enjoying a Sunday afternoon

Somebody’s house

There were times the Faroe Islands looked a bit Irish – which all depended on the light

Lots of light and shadow play

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you – this is a very black baby carriage. I had seen one parked outside the church earlier in the morning, but did not dare to inquire about the reason. I thought it might have been some ancient Celtic way of saying good-bye to a lost child. No – my friend Mariann told me this is the latest fashion to have a black baby carriage and most Faroese moms yearn to have one.

Interested? Click here:

Black baby carriages

Two moms (I was told they were sisters) on a stroll with their kids in black baby carriages

Sunday evening – the only time we had more clouds move in

Yeah, there we have it! Just before we had to leave the islands I got to see this beauty

This is Mariann’s house where we stayed for four nights

Margo getting beautified once more – last chance!

Margo getting a Pharaoh haircut on the Faroe islands

Some English speaking kids in Germany actually thought the Faroe Islands were in Egypt… they heard “Pharoah Islands”

Margo took this picture of Mariann. I could not have done this even if I had tried.

A Faroese beer bottle gathering

Again, on this last night, we did not get to bed till 1:30 a.m. And we had to get up at 4:45 to leave the house at 6 a.m. for a one-hour drive to the airport.

After our arrival on Thursday Mariann asked me if I had taken advantage of all the free drinks served on Atlantic Airways

I told her that I’d rather not drink on flights as some flights include enough swaying anyway. I’d rather have a drink on solid ground. Anyway, I had observed the flight attendants being very busy serving alcoholic drinks and I was informed this is to calm down nerves. Why? The Faroe Islands have the second shortest landing strip/run way in the world! Landing is therefore especially difficult in bad weather such as fog, etc. The local passengers – not ignorant tourists like me – drown their worries in booze.

Needless to say, when it came time to depart I was a bit more nervous than usual. I counted 19 seconds from the time the plane started on the run way to the actual take-off and then I looked out the window. We had 19 seconds to get enough power to lift off, because after that you are on water already.

Departures are easier than landings, I have been told.

I will fly again with Atlantic Airways.

See for yourself right here:

]]> http://www.maria-shipley.de/travel-log/hej-f%c3%b8royar-dagur-4/feed/ 4 http://www.maria-shipley.de/travel-log/hej-f%c3%b8royar-dagur-3-experimental/ http://www.maria-shipley.de/travel-log/hej-f%c3%b8royar-dagur-3-experimental/#comments Wed, 28 May 2008 17:18:40 +0000 Maria http://www.maria-shipley.de/?p=227 As I was holding up the camera with the constant sun in my back and seeing my own shadow, the idea for capturing this grotesque moment came up.

Look closely – what looks like boot shafts are just my own boots!

Blame my craziness on the sunshine. I expected to see some rain or some of this notorious sudden fog. Neither one showed its face. We had constant sunshine throughout our stay and got a sun tan as a bonus.

No need for a rain jacket – should have brought a sun hat instead!!

A few years ago I had bought a plastic bottle at the Baltic Sea meant for sending a message per postal service or by water. Nevertheless, as it happens with souvenirs sometimes, it just lay around.
In April of this year I took it with me to Japan with the best intentions and I got as far as writing the message while in Japan. Not that Japan does not have enough shore… I just never got the chance to throw it in the ocean.
This time, going to the Faroes, would be different. I flew there, undid the plastic seal, wrote another message on the back of the original letter and had my daughter throw it into the ocean waves at Tjørnuvík. I imagined the bottle traveling for quite some time in the ocean before anybody would ever find it.
But the very next day I got an e-mail from the first finder and I quote her message:

“We found your letter in a bottle on the may 24. 2008, in Tjørnuvík on the Faroe Islands… at 18.30.. sorry it did not get so far. My son at 8 was the happy finder. We live in Thorshavn and was just walking on the beach in Tjørnuvík. If you don´t mind we will pass the bottle on??
from a family in Thorshavn”

I asked them to pass it on once more and I would love to hear from the next “message in a bottle” finder.

Margo holding up the bottle before she threw it into the ocean at Tjørnuvík.

Day 3

Saturday morning we woke up early as well. With the constant daylight there seems to be a different inner clock.

View from Mariann’s dining room window onto the fjord

Another window looking up the same fjord

Scary drive up on the partially unfenced mountain roads towards Gjógv

The road we had to take

The beautiful gorge of Gjógv

Somebody fishing

The very picturesque town of Gjógv

My friend, Mariann, a true Faroese woman

More of this tiny town Gjógv’s ocean view

Sheep running around everywhere…

Gjógv’s local school house

Sheep everywhere…sometimes one of us had to get out to chase them off.

Here we are at Tjørnuvík beach

Opposite the beach we are facing the luscious mountain side of Tjørnuvík

Facing the “village” side of Tjørnuvík

Getting beautified on the Faroes

A celtic princess in the making…

So much sight-seeing left us tired. But not too tired to go to bed way past midnight again. This has something to do with the day light which keeps lingering.

Day 2

It is difficult to know when one is done sleeping for the night as it never got dark. We had gone to bed at 1:00 a.m. the night before and the sky looked the same in the morning when I opened my eyes…

Today would be a busy day as this was our first full day sight-seeing.

Untouched nature everywhere

Lots of sunshine creating shadows

Marsh marigold, appointed Faroese national flower, is found in ditches and wet places

View onto Tórshavn, the capital city of the Faroe Islands

War remnant – our ten-year old could not resist from climbing up to lie there like a cat in the sun

Another grass roof which needs to be cut on a regular basis

Crowded liquor store just before closing time on Friday-

As much as the Faroese like to drink, the liquor shops’ opening hours are no match:

Stores are closed from Friday 4:30 p.m. – Mon 1:00 p.m.!!!

Dry riverbeds – some Faroese mouths really go dry on the weekends

Near heaven

Nature at its core

No other tourists, no shops, no neon signs

White clouds, blue skies, green mountains and gray rocks

The end of our day:

That night the sky had a beautiful blue color and stepping out of my friend’s house, I could see the church to my left.

Taking a look to the right down the street

As with the previous night I did not get to bed before 1:00 a.m. My friend and I had too much to talk about in the 17 years we had not seen each other.

We left Frankfurt for Copenhagen at 2:30 p.m. and after a three-hour lay over we arrived on the Faroe Islands at 8:15 p.m.

By the time we got our luggage – which had to be sniffed by a dog for illegal drugs – it was about 9 p.m. and we finally got to see my friend Mariann!!

The dogs does its “sniffing dance” around each bag

Stepping out of the airport we were welcomed by this special light reflected on the mountains. They were bathed in a warm golden light giving the impression of having landed somewhere in the desert! Another passenger from Norway compared the Faroese mountains to what she had seen while living in Lesotho, Africa. This would be just the first of many different faces of the islands..

It was an hour drive to my friend’s town Skála and daylight hardly showed any signs of letting up. It was a beautiful drive along coastal roads while also passing through tunnels and crossing a bridge.

The Faroes have a population of close to 49,000 people and 70,000 sheep, the latter of which we saw a lot of. McDonald’s has not invaded the islands yet as it will only open a branch if the population reaches 50,000.

Driving from Vagar Airport, the international airport in the Faroes on the island of Vágoy, to my friend’s home in Skála on the island of Eysturoy.

First impressions…

Passing small towns

Note the time on the church clock. This is as dark as it would get while we were there.

This is a good book for all science fans – at home or in the classroom.

Do you have many stormy nights up there on the islands?

Scenic photos and thoughts written in German.

Enjoy it!