Faroe Islands 2024

The Faroe Islands were on the list for 2023, but Jón Þór decided to fall off a rooftop and break his shoulder 3 days before departure, so we didn’t go that time.

A year later, we boarded the ferry Nörrona in Seyðisfjörður with our good friends Andy and Audrey and set sails to the Faroe Islands. We sailed into beautiful Þórshöfn on a cold autumn day in October. We drove then to the Brendan Hotel where we were based for the time we spent in the Faroe Islands this time.

The Faroe Islands are 18 islands located between Scotland and Iceland. They belong to Denmark but have home rule. There are about 55 thousand people living there. It is believed that the first inhabitants there arrived there at a similar time as the first inhabitants of Iceland late 9th century. Faroese is the language and is similar to Icelandic.

The first evening we all went for a walk down to Þórshavn and had a nice meal there. But the next few days we went around. We had a car with us and drove as much as we could around these islands in the short time we had to visit them. Kirkjubær was one place and it is on the west side of Straumey. It has the oldest church in the Faroe Islands and it is said that a cathedral was to be built there in the 12th century.

We went to Gjogv, which is a village located in the northeastern part of Eysturoy. The village is named after a 200-meter-long gorge with a natural harbor, which runs north to the sea from the village. This gorge has been used as a harbor for hundreds of years, but the sea “boils in it” because of strong current, no doubt it has not always good to get around by boat there. The magnificent landscape of the Faroe Islands, both there and elsewhere, fascinated us so much. The people are unique, kind and hospitable, the roads around these sparsely populated islands are an amazingly good. Wherever we came, whether it was to Fuglafjörður, or Þernuvík, Þórshöfn or Kirkjubær, we always felt welcomed.

We visited one island after another, one little place after another for example Gásadalur, which until recently could only be reached by foot over the mountains or by sea. Gásadalur is surrounded by high mountains that rise about 700 meters high all around. Now about 50 people live in Gásadalur, but a tunnel was built for them in the year 2009. There is this high waterfall Múlafoss, which falls from the cliffs about 30 meters and into the sea.

The landscape of the Faroe Islands is unique and we really enjoyed coming there. We will definitely come back to the Faroe Islands in near future