Waterbirds

I just wish I had a better camera to get some proper pictures of all the hoards of birds on this island, but this pocket one is no good.

No good at all.

Sula

A real delicious dish is this rare bird they catch twice a year here on the faroes, the gannet.

Stinks unbelievably bad when they cook it though!

Pretty birds!

Heli

Both me and Susanna were very thrilled to be able to experience a helicopter ride from Mykines to Torshavn today!

It is cheap, convenient, comfortable... pretty much I'd love to travel more by helicopter. Did not expect the whole thing to be so smooth and the ride so enjoyable. A lovely experience and fast way to get from one point to another!

Some music

As some people commented that music will help me out of my down, here's some Faroese music for you!



Teitur made a surprise appearance in Sirkus on a quiet evening when we were just out for a few drinks in Torshavn. As he is one of the most famous Faroese singers, this was really a lucky lucky coincidence. Anyways, sat only about half a meter from him enjoying his lovely music.



Eivør is the most famous singer from the Faroes and Orka is a pretty unique band which make their own instruments. By the way, the above video is from a concert at Nordens hus, where I sleep for free when I'm visiting Torshavn. Hotel rooms backstage for the artists... and Nordjobbers like me!

Most Faroese music is mellow and they listen to a lot of folk music. Don't think I've come across anything resembling pop or hiphop or electric, all mainly very talented singers and musicians that do acoustic music.

Today Sussi

Storm

The whole of Faroes is in a bit of turmoil because of the weather. For about 3-4 days all flights were cancelled, so on Sunday around 2000 people were stranded around the airport sleeping in schools and various other arrangements.

Surprisingly you don't notice the storm that much here on the island right now, as the village is pretty protected from the wind and the sun is shining again.

Going down to the harbor though is a different story as the waves are gigantic and scary. The whole harbor gets covered in water with every new wave! I definitely don't want to try getting on a boat right now.

Alone

So yesterday the helicopter did some "emergency" extra runs to get people off the island. I thus had to see the only other company I've really had here leave to go back to Finland. It really surprised me how badly it affected me, like a punch in the stomach and a sensation of wanting to throw up. The realization that I have to stay here at least 3 more weeks without anyone to talk to really hit me. Well, to be honest I'm not really alone, I do live with a Faroese family, but we do not talk much other than casual pleasantries and our relationship really isn't the best. Not to mention there's no one the same age as me on the island. Even though I enjoy being on my own from time to time this is a whole new level of alone. To be honest I feel rather scared of this new situation, I'm booking my flights as soon as possible so that I at least have an end in sight.

Before the bad weather

Well before the weather got this bad at least we had some more pretty days. On one occasion I even got wild and swam in the local "swimming pool".

 Ice cold water and we simultaneously ran out of hot water in the shower... not the best mix!

The local kids swim there almost every day though and love the "warm" summer weather.

Fog and storms

Now I get to see the worse side of the weather here. It's been so foggy that the helicopter and flights are cancelled.

 Really not much hiking to do now.

Today morning even the boat got cancelled because of the wind. Hello total isolation.

Bridge

 Connecting the island Mykines (with the lighthouse) to the main island.

The way out

The only way to get off this island are with the ferry, which goes twice a day at 11am and 5pm. Or by helicopter every second day.

Wish the boat would go a little more often, but can't do anything about that...

Sheep

Sheep sheep... sheep everywhere. The whole island is pretty much used for sheep grazing and the people living here make a living out of taking care of them for other people.

The lighthouse

The hike to the lighthouse is the most popular tourist route, and it is, even I have to admit, quite spectacular.

 The hike is about 1-2h depending on how much you stop to take pictures, but it's quite a straining one which goes up and down steep cliffs. Nothing too heavy though.

The pictures do it no justice though, since you can't seem to judge the true height you're at from them.

Sheep sheep sheep in sheep colon

I ate sheep rectum stuffed with sheep... Don't say I'm not trying to embrace the culture!


They eat a lot of sheep meat here...

Drinking

Dear me, the faroese drink... A LOT. At last night's party we were literally swimming in alcohol (seriously the floor was covered). I thought Finnish people drink a lot, but we don't even come close.

Also, in a drunk weak moment I ate whale meat wrapped in whale blubber. Urgh!

Jogging route

This is one of the standard paths to walk. I tried to jog, had blood taste in my mouth by the time I got up the hill. Thought I would puke a few minutes later. Decided to walk so that I wouldn't fall over the edge...

Sirkus

Fun fact, when I was a Nordjobber in Reykjavik the place to be was Sirkus, a really cool bar/club. One of the employees in the Icelandic Sirkus was Faroese and when the bar closed down in Reykjavik she moved back to the Faroes and opened Sirkus in Torshavn! So now I can reminiscence about my last Nordjobb experience in almost the same bar, but in a different country. Coincidences.

Torshavn festival fun

Crashed a music festival in Torshavn last night, listened to some Faroese metal and Danish pop over plenty of Faroese beer. It is very bright outside all night, even more so than in Finland. The picture above was taken around 9-10 PM but it still looks like broad daylight. I like it though, even though you turn into an insomniac.

Mykinesbygd - the village

A whopping 10 permanent inhabitants, that's how big this village is!

But it is quite cute...

Kristianshus

 As a short introduction, this is what the guesthouse looks like which I work in and spend most of my hours hanging out in.

It is tiny, but quite charming in its own little way.

My job and my home

The most common question I get is: Why the Faroe islands? Well to clear this up I got a quite sudden job offer from NordJobb, and having no other set arrangements for the summer I thought it could be an interesting experience. So why not? 


The second question I get a lot is: What do you work with? I work at a small guesthouse and café on the island of Mykines. Work in itself is not particularly difficult, nor is it related to my studies, but it is a job, that's all. Pretty much I spend 8h a day tending to the café, with every second weekend off. There is one other NordJobber here, a Finnish girl called Elina who will stay until 24th of July.

The third question is: How is it like? This is more difficult to answer, but I can just start off saying it is a tiny tiny place where there is not even a food store, but very impressive nature indeed. Not too much to do, but so far I have not really minded. The village has 10 permanent inhabitants and looks like:

New adventure, new blog (kind of)

Previous experience has taught me that blogging is a nice and effective way of keeping friends and family up to date about your adventures, thus as promised I am revitalizing a blog. I would use my more recent blog  http://tessan.ratata.fi/ but the format does not seem to work with anything but firefox, which is quite unfortunate since I don't even have firefox installed on my computer anymore. Ohwell...

Ignore the old posts and enjoy some new ones. This time not from my adventures in South Korea, but now on the Faroe islands.