Hello from the Faroes!

I have arrived in my featured destination - the Faroe Islands!

The ferry ride was quite a trip. I was mistaken though, the trip was only 20hrs, not 30, so we arrived here at 3:30pm local time, which is five ahead of DC time. The boat was huge - 8 decks in total. There was a cinema, two restaurants, one cafeteria, two bars and a store. It was crazy. Our quarters were quite cramped - a tiny room with three towers of three bunks and no room for bags. But we made it work, and thanks to some Bonine and a little Tylenol Sleepy Time I had a great night's sleep. The views from the outside deck on the top were amazing, especially when we were out so far on the ocean that there was no land in sight and as we pulled within view of the Faroes.

Our ferry!

In my bunk!

Here's what James wrote about our journey here:

The crossing from Bergen, Norway to Torshavn, the minuscule capital of the Faroe Islands, took about twenty hours -- and thankfully mostly on calm, by north Atlantic standards, sea. (Though the roiling sea during the night did threaten to jettison me from my narrow bunk in the bowels of the Norrøna ferry, a bunk I had to share with my large roller duffle.) I marveled at the journey the first Viking settlers must have made. We had the relative comfort of a large enclosed ship, complete with many of the amenities of a cruise ship (lounge singer anyone?). The Norsemen would have been in much smaller, open vessels. There are no real landmarks between Norway and the Faroes, just the grey sea and the grey sky. It must have been a frightening venture.

But when we saw the rising stretches of green land that indicated the Faroese chain, we were excited. Coming from the east, you are able to see almost all eighteen islands. By 3:30 on July 18, we were docking in Torshavn, ready to begin our Faroese adventure.

Tonight we're staying in the capital, Tórshavn (pop 14,000). We rented a car and tomorrow we drive up to Göta to hopefully check out the G! Festival. We'll be up there for about four days.

I'm quite excited to check out Tórshavn this evening, their pubs are supposed to have excellent live music and a great local beer. Hopefully we'll keep ourselves awake long enough to check it out.

Love from the Faroes,
Meg