Tuesday 13 July 1999
Børge gives us a rude awakening. We are a bit in lack of time, as we are going to sail out with Pauli Lamhauge on the birth cliff tour. Yesterday we had a nice chat with Pauli, but this morning we must settle for cup of coffee and Pauli´s sympathetic “oh yeah, oh yeah”. He is quite cozy, this old Faeroese. Our first trip has been cancelled because of bad weather. The important thing is that the wind direction is right, so we might have a chance later today. It’s wet and raining and we guess that the Faeroese have at least 50 names for several types of rain as the Eskimos have 50 names for snow.
We decide to visit the café nearby and wait for the weather to change. Martin calls his cousin Bente´s boyfriend Johan, without luck. Johan is going to pickup Bente at the airport today. After some calls to relatives we learn that Johan drives a red Mazda, but also that the plane has been delayed until tomorrow because of the weather. Later we go with Pauli on the birth cliff tour, Børge passes on:
We were gathered some 20 tourist to go on the birth cliff tour; hence Pauli picked the large boat instead of the charming old wooden one in traditional Faeroese design. The weather wasn’t very well so we sat close to each other on the rooftop, with a perfect view.
Claus is a bit frustrated about the fact that his the only one who wasn’t informed about the good idea to bring rainwear. We sail out with the wind from behind close to the steep cliffs. Small whirlpools in the water cause the boat to swing funny but as we are close to land only small swells are felt. With the wind and rain from behind we expect to get very wet on our way back home.
As we look up the steep cliffs we examine fences on the extreme rural roof. They actually hoist their sheep up onto the cliff. The sheep have to stay at the small grassy fields and just eat. Pauli son tells us that this is mostly a sport for Faeroese nowadays and “yes, of course – sometimes a sheep falls down to the water and drowns”.
Suddenly we turn right in between the cliffs and watches 600-meter high basalt cliff rises around us. This is amazing and a bit terrifying to see how close the boat sails to the rocks. Up on the cliffs we see very little grass and lots of birth cages all over. The boat swings and the rocks seems very close, but Pauli is an experienced sailor and very calm in this wet mess. Claus is capable to shoot several photos in the rain without getting the camera too wet – quite an effort.
We learn about the history of the bird cliff, it’s importance to the locals. Pauli told us how the locals collected eggs and caught birds using a kind of landing net. Some thirty years ago there were a lot more birds and the Faeroese were able to chase satisfied birds unable to take off from the surface of the water into land. They caught some 6,000 birds a day!
After 1½ hours of fascination the boat turns around and we are heading back home. Pauli speeds up and we go dead ahead the wind and rain, just as expected. We muffle us up in the rainwear and gladly accept the hot cup of coffee served by Pauli’s son. What a service in this weather – great tour organizer!
At last we succeed to get hold of Johan and Bente. They will arrive by the ferry, just as we have left the harbor and gone downtown to find a letterbox. It took some time to find that – up here letterboxes are blue. We have to run all the way back to the harbor to be there when the ferry arrives which we barely makes. Fortunately we find Johan and Bente at the ferry and that’s how two wonderful days at the Faeroe Islands begins.
It turned out that Bente’s plane from Denmark had to return back to Bergen in Norway, as the fog made it impossible to land at Vestmanna airport. The trip back to Bergen was one hour, so you don’t plan afternoon tea without checking the weather up here. Johan gives us the best possible hospitality and we hope that most of the Faeroese has his charm and pride over his country. He invites us to dinner at his mothers house and ask us to stay the night over as well – and he wouldn’t discuss it. Lucky us!
This is cozy. Johan’s mother, Hansa, makes dinner and tells us about her days in Denmark as a nurse and about her sister in Kolding (the city where I live). Later on her daughter Signhild arrives with a girlfriend as says hello. Hansa has six children, but that doesn’t impress Børge as he is from a family of seven kids. The girls can’t stop laughing at Børge. His parody of a well-known Danish comedian’s goofy: “Okay” is actually the way Faeroese impersonating the Danes.
As usual Børge brings himself into focus from the very start. He is the only one of us that has visited the islands before and therefore feels confident sharing his experiences for the benefit of almost all the audience. As for one lesson learned: It usually rains on the Faeroe Islands. Hansa teases him by asking if he had any experiences enjoying the Faeroe Islands cuisine, which wakes up his memories about the time he tried cooking sheep brains with no success. This was a story full of suspense, horror and splatter movie effects that was a big laugh for all.
Who is that strange, entertaining chap anyway? I guess this family was not the first to wonder about that. While Børge is talking, Hansa, Signhild, Anna and Jóhan suddenly run to the TV to watch the local news. It is the rows contest that draws the attention to all the family. Suddenly Hansa looks up at us and expresses her impatience with us “Come over and look, it’s the rows contest!”
Now we realize that this moment – to them – is equal to our excitement when Denmark won the European Soccer Championship in 1992. Both the girls have been rowing at professional level, as most of the Faeroese we think, and they slave away. It’s probably not the guys to challenge for arm wrestling if one will make an impression on the girls.
It doesn’t seem as TV draws a lot of attention up here and is despite the fact that the Faeroe Islands broadcasts their own channel which is a combination of local and Danish programs. A lot go in for Radio as especially listening to stories and tales. Jóhan prefer the cinema and even a small village as Strendur has it’s own movie theater in the community center. This evening they’re running a Faeroese movie called “Bye, bye bluebird” featuring a well-known Danish actor. We saw the facilities when we had a walk after the afternoon cookie, the chocolate and the dinner composed of potatoes suitable for boiling in their jackets and homemade fish cakes (yummy!).
“Eat, eat, eat” – Hansi reminds us a bit of Jon’s mother in Garfield. During our evening walk passing the harbor, the old fish fillet factory and the British pillboxes from World War 2 where the steel gates still are intact, Jóhan realizes that mother’s love sometimes can be overwhelming. All that food makes him queasy and he has to throw up in alley nearby. He shows himself as a real man, as he a bit pale pull himself together and continues guiding us around Strendur. “There lives my cousin” – “and there my sister’s brother-in-law”. One gets the impression that all Faeroese are in family or at least all know each other.
We are accommodated well in the children’s rooms and sleeps very well in the good beds. It’s around 9am the next morning as I walk in on the heated bathroom floor. I recognizes my wet boots from yesterdays walk in the moisten grass, but that’s how it is on these islands. On my way to the kitchen I examine some of the proverbs made as embroidery hanging on the wall. Some of the proverbs indicate a close connection with the church. This I like for its simplicity: “Tiny things are tiny things, but belief in tiny things is a great thing”.
After a solid breakfast and a solid lunch, Hansa shows us the old wooden church. She participates in the parochial church council and does quite a bit unpaid work for the church.
It’s an impressive small church with a roof of moss. It is well kept, light and informal and still exudes of good and bad times and humility of living in the rough rural nature. We send our farewells to Hansa, Signhild and the friend Anna, just to continue by car with Jóhan and Bente as our guides.
We go by car to the east part of Eystoroy to the city “Gjogv” where the rocking stones are the attraction. Two stones are situated in the water nearby the shore. When the water rush in these stones rocks a bit. It can be seen and felt as a rope, stretched from the cliff to the stones, tightens and slackens as the stones rock. The water level was quite low today but when grabbing the rope, one can easily feel the steady pull from the stones, which is quite fascinating. Old legend says two boats ran aground with Faeroese fishermen and that they by time have turned into stones, rolling in the waves as the rocking stones.
We continue to “Eidi” to see “Risin and Kelligin” which means “The Giant and the witch”. The two rocks looks like the have been cut apart the great cliff “Kollur” (343 meters tall) and the legend says that a Icelandic giant wanted to drag the Faeroe Islands a bit closer to Iceland. He tied a strong rope to the most solid part of the islands he could find, the “Kollur”. Then he and his wife (that of course was a witch) jumped into the sea and began to drag the islands against Iceland.
The struggled all night as giants and witch only works at night and to their terror they realized that time went on with no results. At sunrise they attempted to escape underground where supernatural species are supposed to be at day, but it was too late. The giant and the witch turned into rocks forever.
The weather clears and we continue at the old road to “Tórshavn”. We skip the new built tunnel and realize what a difference it makes in everyday life here. The drive over the 700-meter sheer cliffs is hard and very time consuming, but also very beautiful. We please ourselves that we visit the place in July and not during wintertime. Sometimes we take a break to get some photos. We haven’t got time to visit the well-known old cathedral ruin, but in return we visits the simple and stylish new church in “Tórshavn” instead.
Today “Tórshavn” is dressed in sunshine, which makes a difference. It’s not a big city and reminds me much of the picturesque villages on small Greek islands as the houses are located here and there as the rocks gives way. Faeroe Islands have three traffic lights in total so it is to cope with the traffic here.
At the end of the harbor we find a small fortification with old British cannons guarding the entrance to the harbor. A fine old wooden building stands scarlet and white on the opposite side of the harbor. It looks very much like past Danish army buildings as we know them so well from Copenhagen. The building houses local government offices.
We say goodbye to the Faeroe Islands with a big hug to Jóhan and Bente for their superior hospitality, which have turned the visit into a unique experience. Knowing people who live here gives you the insight and warmth that makes the difference between a nice and really interesting stay.