Torshavn

Ivana
23/07/2023

I saw the Faroe islands for the first time when I flew over them on my way to Iceland (there is a story about this trip written in Croatian). Notorious faroese fog was merciful enough to disappear and give me the opportunity to ogle the archipelago from 10 000 m away. Being someone who LOVES such destinations and who previously already did the research regarding this area, I said to myself, this has to be done.

After visiting Svalbard, in order to have a few days only for myself and expose myself to the environment and activities designed for me to drain myself physically and refill mentally, I decided that the next station will be the Faroe islands.

I have never met anyone who went there, especially only to walk and basically do nothing but be outside. My goal was to hike, climb, explore and take a tremendous amount of photos and videos in order to preserve the memory of this astonishing place. If I ever end up there again, and something tells me that I surely will, I would behave in the exact same principle – I would just walk, walk and walk. Upwards, downwards, by the coasts, on the mountains.

Covid made booking and planning a bit tricky, as the borders were opening/closing like doors on the trains which especially had an effect on smaller communities, and spending significant quantities of money on something which can be suddenly canceled seemed to be ridiculous. So I waited until 2022., and in june I landed in Torshavn, the capital of the Faroe islands, so called “the land of maybe” (referring to the notorious vagaries of local weather) on which you are never more than 5 km away from the sea. The “to do” list is huge, it was time to clean it up.

Even though I came to the airbnb from the airport quite late, I woke up very easily around 4 the next morning. I was super excited about waking up in Torshavn and the plan was to go out ASAP and absorb the beauty. I had a full day of Torshavn in front of me – exploring the city, culture, people, habits, history… everything I have read before came to life, as walking through such a place added the third dimension to the story of the Faroe islands.

The city itself is quite small and it is located in a bay. Behind the city begins a gorgeous treeless area decorated with stones and boulders, and it is a perfect spot to observe surroundings towards the sea.

My first impression with Torshavn was how pretty and maintained it is. Huge kudos to the government and tourist bureau who are doing a tremendous job by stunning us with the shape that the city and the islands are in; even the tiniest godforsaken village that I have visited looks exactly the same in terms of being taken cared of.

Tinganes

I went down to the marina, with hundreds of boats docked. The whole city was asleep as some Lutheran holiday was in full swing, no one even drove to work, so I had the whole city for my selfish self.

To leave the room that early was a very bright idea especially because I have had Tinganes, an old part of the town built on grounds which were used for one of the oldest parliaments in the world, only for myself. The photos show clean and stern buildings rich in color and decorated with always amazing turf roofs, which are being used nowadays for governmental purposes.

Viðarlundin park

The walk continued to Viðarlundin park, an oasis in the capital city, which serves as a reminder how rare and odd the trees are in the Faroe islands. The flora is exceptionally rich and luscious, the colors were intense and gave me a clear idea that these islands can sustain botanic life, despite the idea we’ve all been fed with – “the Faroe islands are barren wasteland, a playground for whale killing barbarians”. Besides Viðarlundin park, the rest of the city is heavily blooming as well – every backyard has a fantastic garden, there are flowers and plants of all sorts spilling over the fences and asking for attention. My room owner is a prime example of a Torshavnian – he is on his way to pension, loves to do the work around the house and his garden looked like fireworks of colorful plant tissue.

Here, I’ve had my breakfast. Found an open store, pumped my brakes on the counter with tiny wholesome breads filled with seeds, took some cheddar, butter and pastrami and had the best sandwiches ever in the middle of Viðarlundin park.