Every now and again, I serve you boys up with a real head-scratcher. I recently did a round-up of eclipse-watching sites around the globe, and one of the places I mentioned resulted in more than a few blank looks — the Faroe Islands. Time for an intro.
The basics: A splatter of volcanic rocks braving the gale-force winds of the North Atlantic, the Faroes were one of the last places in Europe to be settled, maybe around 400 AD or so, but it was only with the Vikings that anything in the way of permanent towns rose from the harsh landscape. The islands are part of uber-gay friendly Denmark (since 1388), but the Faroes are actually closer to Iceland and Scotland than to mainland Europe, and their isolation gave rise to a culture more “Viking” than “Danish.” The language is closer to Old Norse than anything in modern Denmark, in fact. Despite their latitude, the Faroes aren’t as frigid as you’d think; the Gulf Stream keeps things fairly mild — if you can call an average summer high of 51º F “mild.” Yes, packing a swimsuit to go to the Faroes means one of three things: You are a native, a masochist, or a moron.
Isolation is the name of the Faroe game. When a Burger King opened in the capital of Tórshavn (“Torz-hahvn”), the natives thought the sky was falling. Even getting there is a bit of an adventure, involving a ferry or at least one connecting flight in some other airport. All of which, by the way, is a serious point of pride; the whole point of going to the Faroes is to go to a place where no one else will follow, least of all commercialization. If seeing one more “Applebee’s” will drive you bonkers, the Faroes are for you (but with Burger King you are out of luck). They are unspoiled, undiscovered, and unbound.
But just to say I said it, Tórshavn is not Copenhagen, and only barely on the same planet as London. It is not to say you headed off to some far corner of the Earth; the Faroese take pride in their iPhone 5s just as much as you do. But we are talking a place where the sheep outnumber the people by two to one, so let’s just say we are talking “the country.”
That being said, it’s also probably the butchest vacation spot I’ve profiled yet. Mountains, clefts, scarps, cliff sides, and streams so clean you can drink direct suggest a land that still remembers the days of its birth. If that’s not a selling point, I don’t know what is.
For more info, go to faroeislands.com and visitfaroeislands.com. Steele Luxury Travel is eager to help you plan your trip to Denmark. Visit us at www.SteeleTravel.com!