Faroe Islands (A 2.5 day adventure)

Riding the Smyril line from Egilsstadir, Iceland to Hirtshals, Denmark, they have afforded travelers the nifty stopover in the Faroe Islands. Ever since watching a Banff Film Festival short film where a couple young guys set up their slack lines across precarious bluff lines in the Faroes, Jaime has wanted to go. Since we were going to be in the area, we thought this was an opportune moment to see them…. In 2.5 days.

First of all, the chain of main islands only requires a maximum of 1.5 hours to cross from one side to the other. Since we had just finished renting a van to tour Iceland, I thought it might be a nice change to use public transportation. Wrong. If you have lots of time to see the islands then perhaps the bus system would suffice, but the first day in half felt like we were just waiting on buses. Finally, we scored a cheap rental from the hostel owner, Kristian, for $37. No paperwork, just a quick verbal run through of do’s and don’ts like how to contact a farmer if you hit their sheep and what to do if two opposing cars in a single lane 3 km long tunnel meet – ya know, the basic stuff. Then we saw our crusty little foreign Toyota Corolla with squeaky bird chirps from the rear and a passenger window that could be rolled down by said person, but only rolled up by the driver (I had fun with Jaime and the rain mist numerous times). We loved Crusty.

Crusty the Corolla

Early worm gets the worm, right? Well Smyril line drops you off at 3 am, so there we sat with an older Canadian couple in the ferry port, trying to figure out the bus routes and whether or not we needed to get local Danish krone. Then walks in a guy from Detroit asking if any of us had local currency that he would trade for US dollars so he could catch the bus to the airport. He had already learned that the bus only accepts cash and not having that will set you back 8 times the same amount for a cab – duly noted We walked to nearest ATM and helped him out with a quick currency trade while getting enough for ourselves. Here’s a free plug for Charles Schwab, we get reimbursed for domestic and international ATM withdraw fees – sweet!

At 7:45 am the first bus to take us across the archipelago arrived and we rode through the rain and fog to get from Torshavn to Klaksvik. Now we had to wait an hour for the first ferry so we went to the only cafe, Fríða Kaffihús, that was open and had our first real meal in a few days (RX Bars were really getting old). We arrived before they even opened, but they let us hangout anyways while they got things ready for the day!

The Morganmatur Plate

We caught the 25 minute ferry to Kalsoy island where there is one road that takes you 30 minutes to drive the length. There is one small shuttle bus that essentially takes people to the only tourist spot which is at the far end of this island. Once we make it to the last town, Trøllanes, we start the hike to a lighthouse lookout in the mist and rain. We were fortunate enough to get a decent view once we arrived at the top before the rest of the rain started back up.

The unfortunate part of going to the area without a car is that the shuttle bus wasn’t leaving for another two hours. We hunkered down in the small public bathroom hallway, soaking wet, with a Russian couple that didnt speak english. Needless to say, it was sort of awkward when someone needed to use the bathroom, and we were all just on the other side of the door. Oh well, worth it!

Soaking wet, we take the hour and a half bus back to Torshavn where we have to jump on another 40 minute bus to get to our hostel, Á Giljanes Hostel & Campsite. Jaime wasn’t at all thrilled when we got there and learned that we got to stay “In the bus”. There was a 6 person hostel dorm in the bus. Turned out that we were sharing it with two guys from the UK. Trump and Brexit commiseration ensued. Twas fun.

Felix the Hostel Cat

We were pretty excited to wake up for our tour of the Mykines island. The puffin island. Had we not heard and seen so many posters and plush stuffed puffins by this point, we probably would not be so disappointed when we learned the ferry had been canceled do to rough seas. This news was learned after we managed to score a successful hitchhike from two Czech women to the port town.

What to do now… we have no car and we just missed the bus back to the hostel where we hid our backpacks… on the hostel bus. Might as well hitchhike back! A 79 year old Faroese man picked us up. This is about all I know of him as he spoke limited english, but what a guy, am I right?

Feeling down about the lack of transportation options and incessant mist, we had a sprig of luck as it typically happens. Walking in to the hostel lobby to consult the bus schedule when we saw a hand written sign, “Call this number for $37/day car rental”. I thought, no way is anything available but why not. Turns out the hostel owner, Kristian, had a couple extra beater cars to rent out. Hence how we found our beloved Crusty.

Freedom of the open road for 24 hours,popular waterfalls and lakes.

We worked our way to Vestmana, a town on one of the central islands, where we found out Kristian owned as well. He owns 3 properties on the Faroes and we happened to book our two nights at them. This was a guesthouse that we shared a kitchen and bathrooms with other guests. Our housemates were a couple from Poland and a group of young women from Brigham Young University.

Sunday was our third day, but we had to be back on Torshavn by 10:30 PM to catch our ferry to Denmark. We drove quickly to a scenic church in Dúvugarðar where we had to play one lane hop scotch with on coming traffic for 30 minutes each way. Delivered Crusty one hour late managed to score a 15 minute hitchhike to the airport where we could catch a direct bus ride to Torshavn. Our wonderful ride to the airport was with Holger and his daughter Merle who we ended up seeing again on our ferry to Denmark. We were invited to stay in their home near Cologne, Germany if our travels took us that way. Thanks ya’ll!

We made it back to Torshavn with plenty of time to spare so we took a stroll through their old town and surrounding harbor. We used up a few hours in a cafe, and then we were ready to take off!

Key take away to the Faroe Islands. Rent a car and give yourself more than 3 days so you can plan accordingly when there are exactly three days of mist when you visit. We still really enjoyed our time and it is a nice destination that has not been ruined by rampant tourists…. yet.