Any Travels

Take a deep breath! Fill your lungs! Let them open all their folds and leaves and cavities, and from all directions the clean air of the sea comes flowing towards you, into you and through you. Suddenly the dusty continents of the earth are far away; right now it’s only the winds and the seas and you.

The loneliness of the ocean, the silence everywhere, interrupted only by the voices of birds in motion, weaving changing patterns that recreate the forms of the landscape - its heights, its depths. The sound of water running over rocks, and the distant murmur of the sea deep down at the foot of the cliffs. All those millions of tons of water of an ocean which now lazily and comfortably rubs against these rocks in the middle of nowhere as if it wanted to scratch its back or shoulders after the long journey between the poles of the globe. Peaceful and pleasant on a good summer?s day, but you know that the ocean has an unpredictable power and that it may at any moment change its mind and rise in a frantic rage. What are these rocks anyway? Aren?t they just a speck of dust in its eye which ought not to be there at all?

Sooner or later the ocean may well have its way and wash it all away. But till then the Faroe Islands will definitely be here and be a unique reality in this world, whether you experience them by boat along the coasts, one moment blinded by the reflections of the sun in the water and the next moment surrounded by the deep darkness of the sea caves. Or on foot in the mountains with the drifting shadows that leap into the fertile valleys and climb the green slopes, and with the light that can hardly move from one mountain top to the next without trying out a new variation and a quite different mood.

Just as the atmosphere changes from one village to the next and from one house to the next. A whole society with its own history, its own language and its own culture. Far away from the wide world, yet at the centre of a world where even the smallest things may seem very big because they contain genuine feelings, genuine curiosity and genuine friendliness.

Imagine a world where the sun hardly sets for 3 months in summer, a world where millions of birds visit the untouched nature and where the inhabitants are known for their hospitality.

Excellent international air and ferry services link the adventurous Faroe Islands to the rest of the world. Breathtaking excitement and unspoilt nature make the 18 green islands in the Atlantic Ocean stand out as a distinguished tourist destination. It is convenient, it is fresh and clean, it is the Faroe Islands.

The Faroe Islands are also a obvious place for off-season travel. Ample opportunities for meetings, conferences, sports events, education or studies of various kinds, combined or blended with photo opportunities, cultural events, pure relaxation in an unspoiled nature, or any of the other numerous opportunities.

Domestic travel is of the highest standards with car- and passenger ferries, helicopters and regular bus services. In the Faroe Islands you will find some of the best and well maintained road systems through some very picturesque landscapes.

The Faroes have a proud cultural heritage, although Faroese was long regarded as a peasant language and the written form was not standardised until the 1890s. Life was hard, and after the chores were done there was not a lot of time left to write novels or paint portraits. The earliest Faroese music would be considered bland by modern standards, but it was designed to accompany the Faroese chain dance and the kv??i, a body of late medieval ballads. There are thousands of verses to these ballads and the chain dance requires knowledge of these verses to be properly performed. There were no instruments on the islands, and simple and repetitive melodies were commonly sung in a minor key. Today, traditional dancing is on the school curriculum and also takes place during the winter dancing season and on festive occasions to celebrate the islanders' unique identity. The chain dance was once popular all over Scandinavia, but has survived intact only in the Faroes.

During the long and cold winter nights, people occupied themselves by reciting stories and poetry that had been passed down orally for generations. They were finally collected and written down in the 19th century. The first modern Faroese poet, Nolsoyar-Poul Poulson, wrote politically inspired ballads dealing with corruption and the troubled economics of the early 1800s. The best known writer in the short history of Faroese literature is He?in Bru, whose books are very popular in the islands and have gained acceptance abroad as well. Jorgen-Frantz Jacobsen and William Heinesen are other well-known Faroese authors who wrote in Danish rather than their native language.

Faroese is a Germanic language derived from Old Norse, significantly influenced by Gaelic, and related closely to Icelandic and some Norwegian dialects. Thor was traditionally the main god in the Faroes. He was rowdy and slow moving as gods go, a champ of the common people, and he held the controls for thunder, wind, storms and natural disasters. He could also fend off malevolent outsiders. Two other important gods were the twins Freyr and Freyja, who served as god and goddess of fertility and sexuality. The islands today have officially shrugged off the Norse pantheon and belong to the Protestant Lutheran Church.

If you're interested in traditional Faroese food, you can forget about fresh greens for a while and get used to meat and potatoes. Mutton is the basis of every meal, and one of the most popular treats is skerpikjot, well aged, wind-dried mutton that requires a sharp knife and strong jaws to be appreciated. The drying shed, known as a hjallur, is a standard feature in many Faroese homes. Other 'local delicacies' are rast kjot (semi-dried mutton) and rastan fisk, matured fish. After the bloody grindadrap, a speciality is grind og spik, whale and blubber, which you should probably avoid if the slaughter of pilot whales turns your stomach. Fresh fish also features strongly in the local diet, as do seabirds, such as puffins, and their eggs.