"jonkb's Page on the Faroe Islands" Faroe Islands by jonkb

"Long way out in the mercurycollored ocean lies a lonely small leadcollored country. This tiny country of mountains acts to the large ocean like a grain of dust to the floor in a ballroom." (William Heinesen: "De fortapte spillemenn", translated from norwegian)

This must be the best way to describe these islands.

The Faroese Islands is in the middle of the north atlantic. Settled by vikings, it has a distinctly northern population. If you read eigther of the Scandinavian languages, you'd also hear that on the language. To understand it you'd have to read it though.

Life cannot have been easy on the islands. There were no trees here, so wood had to be eighter taken from the boats (not very economical: They'd need the boats, or collected as driftwood. Grass was probably the reason why the vikings settled, driving out the older settlers. Grass ment that you could raise sheep, which again said that you could sustain life here. Sheep is still a verry important factor for life here, as well as fishing and raising salmon.

Laurentiuskoret, a choir from back home went here, and I went with them. Nothing more complicated than that.

• Pros:Distinctly northern european
• Cons:Impossible to predict the weather
• In a nutshell:Sheep, Sea, Birds and no trees