"Faroe" means sheeps in Færøerne

Leaving the port of Seyðisfjörður, located on 64 degrees north, the ferry travels south east for eighteen hours to reach Streymoy Island, where the capital of Faroe Islands, Tórshavn, is. Located in north to British islands and half way in between Iceland and Norway, 18 small islands, each like mountains rising out of the sea surface, form a shape of arrow head. In the valley of these mountains are where people settles, with colorful houses like Lego blocks piled on top of each other.  

 

Maybe it is because we came from Iceland, but my first impression of the islands was, warm without wind even though it was about 8C (barely over 40F). The second was that the color of town is much different from our first stop. It was nearly impossible to find straight roads in Torshavn, and since town was built along the hill side, houses appear to be on top of one another, as oppose to streets of Reykjavik where the center of the city must have been drawn with rulers. Green-grass roofs, much like ones we saw in the country side of Iceland, certainly enrich the pallet of the town, along with trees and grass patches everywhere. Although the day we arrived was unfortunately cloudy, we decided to walk around aimlessly and get lost in this cozy town.    

Islands overlapping one another

  

Although being the constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark, Faroe Islands have been autonomous since 1948, the government of this country has been granted with somewhat of control. One significant examples is declining to join European Community (now EU) when Denmark decided to join in 1973. This was likely due to their concern of having to downsize the fishing industry, which still is the largest industry of this region, if became a part of the community. 

We decided to take buses to Runavik on Esturoy island, the second largest island, and walk around. We actually came to this town as we were told there would be a fastival, but when we arrived they were still setting up the tents, and it seemed more like a town fair than a festival, so we decided to pass up. This was our second time being disappointed by so called, "festival", as the Fisherman's Festival while in Isafjord was nothing but a tour of the fish processing factory. We will continue to wait for our chance of singing and dancing.