Faroe Islands: Day 1

I kicked off my summer trip by spending the night in Denmark and flying out to the Faroe Islands early in the morning. I arrived around seven-thirty or eight o’clock in the morning. Where Iceland, with its dark, rocky terrain, looked like a martian land from the plane, the tall, grassy mountains of the Faroe Islands reminded me in many ways of The Lord of the Rings. (Pictures of Iceland also remind me of those films, to be fair to the country that I’m itching to return to.) The airport is right in the mountains—pretty much everywhere I visited in the Faroes was—so flying as close to them as we did was probably as near as I’ll ever come to being the camera that captures those beautiful aerial shots that I enjoy so much.

Not an aerial shot, but the mountains are still impressive.

The Faroe Islands airport was small and had only three gates, so it was simple to navigate both when arriving and when departing. After landing, I checked with the information desk about getting a SIM card, a map, and bus information. I ended up purchasing a four-day bus card for 500 DKK (as of summer 2019) because it was cheaper than paying daily. Apparently the cost of traveling by sea tunnel adds up. The only time that I had to pay out of pocket was on the last day to get the short distance to the airport again. I also bought a SIM card for convenience and with the hope of not running up my U.S. phone charges much.

The capital of the Faroe Islands is Tórshavn (“Tor-shaun”, where the “au” is pronounced individually). Naturally, this makes Tórshavn the favorite spot to lodge, but it also makes it more expensive and less readily available of an option. It may be more cost-effective in the end to pay the extra and stay there, but I opted to stay on the same island that the airport was on, Vágar, in the town of Sandavágur. Or, rather, in a hostel on the outskirts of Sandavágur. Aside from the prettier price, the hostel was in the town over from Miðvágur (“Mee-vaygur”), which is home to the famed lake and cliff optical illusion. More on that on Day Three.

Because I couldn’t check into my hostel until two o’clock, I decided to bypass Sandavágur and go straight to Tórshavn to scope it out. It wasn’t on my list except as a way to kill time and maybe buy souvenirs, but, as you’ll read later, I ended up in the city quite a bit, and most of my other plans fell away.

So, I rode the bus and passed through my first-ever sub-sea tunnel. I didn’t realize that the tunnel was sub-sea at first, though, so when my ears began hurting from the pressure, I didn’t know what was going on. It happened going through every tunnel I passed through on my trip and again on the normal tunnels I took via train in England, so … that’s something to keep in mind.

I arrived in Tórshavn around ten o’clock. The main bus station is right on the docks, where the ferries depart. A short walk to the left brought me to the main areas of town. So, with grey and slightly rainy weather and my carry-on suitcase, I strolled around Tórshavn. The weather was misty, and the temperature was 10°C (50°F)—a far cry from the hot weather I had come from in Hungary.

The bus and ferry station

Because it was a Saturday, the shops and restaurants opened later. I ended up finding Kaffihúsið, which sits right on the harbor. There I enjoyed a coffee and a cheesecake, set up my SIM card, and planned some of my day.

After an hour or so, I did more wandering around town. I saw a number of statues and walked to a church, Vesturkirkjan. Sadly, it was closed for some recent event.

I ended up walking back to the church right by the harbor, Havnarkirkja, and I happened upon a musical performance. It was a nice break from the cold weather and all of my walking around. The church was beautiful, too.

Once the performance ended, I walked to Tiganes to see the famous old houses where the government used to be, and where some offices still remain. The area was smaller than I had expected but nice to stroll through nonetheless.

Hungry and wanting to eat sushi, I walked back into town and ate at Etika, which was recommended on numerous websites. I don’t eat fancy sushi, so I can’t speak to that, but the simple tuna rolls and such that I had were good. I went back there another day also.

Look at this cool, unrelated bench.

Because I had plenty of time to kill and didn’t want to risk sitting down and not wanting to get up again, I went ahead and walked to Skansin, a little fort up on a hill across from the bus station. The ruins were small but nice, and the old cannons that were there were interesting.

Around mid-afternoon, I took the bus back to my hostel in Sandavágur. The staff were busy, so the check-in process was a bit jumbled. Once I was settled in, though, I met my roommates, and they were all great. A couple of them were really helpful and gave me good advice for traveling around the islands and figuring out the hostel. I didn’t do much the rest of the day, which was fine by me because my feet don’t like my hiking boots very much, and I still had a couple of weeks that I would be walking around in them. So I took it easy and double-checked the time that I had to meet my tour guide in the morning.