![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/harta_2.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nA little above Scotland, a\nlittle below Iceland and a little to the left of Norway. There are the Islands.\nTwo hours by plane from Copenhagen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Faroe Islands belong to Denmark<\/strong>, but beware, they are not part of the EU \u2013 just so you know not to have problems as I had with my phone or the cigarettes in my suitcase. You can read about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The islands are 18 in number,\nof which 17 are inhabited. In the case of some, I don’t even know how to say\nthis thing about being inhabited because, for example, on the Island<\/strong> Koltur <\/strong>there are only two people! Two. That’s it. Husband and wife. Trying hard to rebuild the village that once existed (with 80 people,\nsheep breeders).<\/p>\n\n\n\n No point on the Islands is\nmore than 5 kilometers from the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Faroe Islands means\nmountainous islands, with a maximum height of 880 meters, practically some big\nrocks and… bare, without any trees on them. I realized late that there are no\ntrees on my path. Due to the extreme oceanic climate, with strong, sharp winds,\nwhich throw large amounts of sea salt into the air, the islands do not favor\nthe growth of trees. There are very few trees and I understand that most are\nbrought from other countries with a similar climate, such as Alaska or Tierra\ndel Fuego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the way, I saw in T\u00f8rshavn<\/strong>, the capital of the Islands, a\nproject carried out by the Danes to develop a kind of park with trees, like a\nsmall forest. Good for them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the steep cliffs by\nthe ocean are absolutely impressive and they can both fascinate and terrify\nyou!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the coastal roads, where\ndozens of small waterfalls wash the mountains, flowing into the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it rains, these streams of water become waterfalls and the scenery is spectacular!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The population of the Islands is only 53,800 inhabitants. But their number is far exceeded by… sheep (there are about 80,000 sheep!). The word \u201cFaroe\u201d means, in fact, \u201csheep island\u201d, so that is clear to us from the very beginning J.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth is that I saw sheep every step of the way! They roam the country freely and are only gathered by the owners in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To prevent them from entering\nthe villages, people made such a grid at each entrance. Which the sheep can’t jump\nover. They wouldn’t be so stupid as to try to pass through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is only one village that\naccepts sheep inside and it seems that I came across it, because otherwise I cannot\nexplain the audacity of this sheep, despite the proximity of the car to it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n No way this ballerina would shy\naway! Maybe she’s the bodyguard of the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But let’s get back to our\nsheep: the people of the Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What shocked me at first sight\nwas the large number of children per family. The average is 3 children per\nfamily, but S\u00e1mal, my guide, told me that many have 4 children each! He himself\nhas 3 children and each child has, in turn, 4 children! It’s the highest rate\nin Europe!<\/p>\n\n\n\n With so many children, God, I\nsaw so many kindergartens! I wasn’t taking one step and I came across yet\nanother kindergarten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the Faroese have a\nbig, a huge problem! And now I hope that the ladies will open their eyes well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Faroese men are looking for women! <\/strong>Yes, yes, you read that right!\nThese people need girlfriends, wives, because the number of men is higher than\nthe number of women. According to statistics, they are in need of about 5,000\nwomen!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I say let’s go, why wait?? But\nquickly, so that others don’t get there before us: the Faroese have already\ntaken Thai and Filipino wives \u2013 who have become the most important ethnic\nminority!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t know much about the\nmen here, but I do know that the Faroe Islands gave the world some important\nnames: they have a Nobel Prize Laureate \u2013 the physicist Niels R. Finsen, <\/strong>who received the Prize for Medicine in 1903. The footballer\nGunnar Nielsen<\/strong>, the only Faroese\nman who played in the Premier League. Or Livar Nysted <\/strong>(51 years old), holder of 5 world records in ocean\nrowing. The man is super cool! Along with three others, he crossed the Atlantic\nOcean from New York to Great Britain in a rowing boat, breaking a world record\nthat had not been broken for 114 years!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Nysted is also a painter,\nso he is also an artist, not only an athlete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I haven’t heard of other brave\nFaroese, but well, it’s important for me to find a beautiful, smart and…\nwell, a rich one hihi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If there was something that I\nsaw as often as kindergartens, those were the\nchurches<\/strong>! In every city, in every village, there is at least one church. I\nunderstand there are 60 churches. And… 25 priests. That’s it. However, they\nhave all the masses. Where there is no priest, there is someone who replaces\nhim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 80% of the Faroese are\nProtestant Lutherans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like the Icelanders, these people believe in trolls<\/strong>. And in stones<\/strong>. This means that they do not move a boulder from the middle of a road that is under construction, but they rather make the road around it. Because they do not want to disturb the homes of the trolls (these boulders).<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when they make houses, if there is a boulder on that land, they adapt, sometimes even integrating it into the construction:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know legends from Iceland and I have heard that here too there are incidents with the troubles suffered by those who ignored the belief in stones and trolls. Very rarely, in very special cases, a stone is moved a little and with great care from its original place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I expected the language they\nspoke to be close to Danish. No way. It’s close to Icelandic<\/strong>! Somewhere between Icelandic and Norwegian. The Danes\ndon’t understand them when they speak. However, the Faroese speak Danish. They\nlearn it from the beginning at school, as they belong to Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that’s not all. Everyone\nspeaks English! Everywhere I went, everyone I stopped knew English. I didn’t\neven bother to ask \u201cDo you speak English?\u201d I’m not talking about the hotel\nreceptionist or the airport employees, but also the drivers on public transportation,\nthe saleswomen in the shops, the people stopped on the street to ask for\ndirections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a country with a language\nas difficult as theirs, they realized that the only chance to go out into the\nworld was for them to learn foreign languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I understand that most Faroese\nspeak 5 languages! In addition to English and Danish, they also study German\nand Norwegian in schools. It’s a good thing I know French, which doesn’t do me\nany good here J.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One nice detail I found out is\nthat they, the Faroese, speaking their language, can figure out which island the\nperson is from. They have many dialects, although the islands are grouped and\nlocated at short distances from each other. As soon as one opens one’s mouth, they\nknow his\/her origin\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The average salary on the\nFaroe Islands is 57,458 euros per year (app 4,800 euros per month). The usual\nminimum is 29,768 euros per year (app 2,500 euros per month).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The highest paid are those who\nwork in Management & Business \u2013 with an average income of 118,513 euros per\nyear, followed by architects, with 72,559 euros per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a bachelor’s\ndegree, if you have seniority, your salary will skyrocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am moving there!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n During my travels I have\nalways wondered what in God’s name do people in the remote or almost\nunpopulated villages if they have a heart attack, if they get injured or they\nvomit their insides. Are they programed to get sick only when they go to town?…<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are 3 hospitals in the\nFaroe Islands. Each in a city on an island. That’s all, 3 hospitals. For emergencies,\nthey send one of the helicopters from the Islands. If it’s a case they can’t\nhandle, they send it to Denmark. No supplementary costs for the patient. (As a\ncitizen, you pay about 67 euros a month for health and you have everything. You\ndon’t pay any doctor. Only the dentist \u2013 and it’s expensive!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you arrive in Denmark as\na patient, you also have access to a special hotel (named after the capital of\nthe Islands \u2013 T\u00f8rshavn). Here are the patients who need post-surgery consultation,\nbut here the patient’s family can stay as well. And in some cases, even the\ndoctors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n National sport is rowing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I saw many people training in\nthe capital, in boats with 6 oars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the Faroese became\npassionate about football! It all happened after a resounding victory with the\nAustrian national team, when no one gave them a chance: in the UEFA Euro 1992\nqualifiers, the Faroese team produced one of the biggest shocks in the history\nof football, defeating Austria in September 1990 with 1-0. The Faroe were in\nthe first match of such importance, with a team of amateur players, while\nAustria had just played in the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From then on, the hysteria\nbegan: all the villages wanted football fields, everyone started playing\nfootball! Even on the top of the mountain, a field was made for the villagers\nthere, so that they could have a place where to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was on the field, but beyond\nfootball, I was impressed by the view from the lawn!<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day I arrived in the town of Ei\u00f0i<\/strong> and I was amazed when I saw two\nfootball fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first one (the one in the\nphoto above) has already been abandoned. Standing by the ocean, the players used\nto throw the ball into the water. Who knows how many balls float towards\nIceland now J.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The local authorities decided\nto build a field in the middle of the community, in a safer, better area. Said\nand done:<\/p>\n\n\n\n With so much water around, I wonder if these people are good swimmers. This I haven’t found out yet, but I’ve learned that it’s a bit difficult to \u201cwarm up\u201d in the ocean, given that it’s 7 degrees Celsius \u2013 not only in March-April, when I was there, but also in the summer. But there are daring Faroese and especially women who swim in the ocean. Cool!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve never seen anything like\nit anywhere: the weather here changes every second! Basically, you enter the\nhotel’s revolving door and it’s sun outside, you spin the door and when you\ncome out, you see snow outside J.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seriously, we drove into a\ntunnel several hundred meters long, on a sunny weather and when we came out,\nsnowflakes were falling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were temperatures\nbetween 0 and 5 degrees Celsius at the end of March, beginning of April, when I\nwas there. In summer, the average temperature is about 12 degrees Celsius.\n15-16 degrees only on the good days! And when they have 20 degrees, for a few\nhours, the Faroese have a party, I think…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winters are not cold, believe\nit or not. The temperature rarely drops below zero, even at night. The average temperature\nin winter is +3 degrees Celsius. Very rarely they had -5 degrees. My guide, who\nhas lived here all his life, told me that the lowest temperature he caught was -7\ndegrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What killed me on a lot of\noccasions was the extremely cold, sharp wind, because of which I felt the\ntemperature differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, I had moments when I was\ncompletely hidden in my parka…<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, I saw in the\ncourtyards of kindergartens girls wearing dresses and tights, and boys in\nsweatshirts and sneakers. That’s how it is when you are born here, what can I\nsay?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I were to say at a first\nglance what their houses are like, I’d say: black with a grass roof or very\ncolorful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, not all of them are like\nthat, but these two features stayed with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It rains for about 210 days a\nyear in the Faroe Islands. The grass roof protects the house well from the\nconstant action of the water. At the same time, it thermally insulates the\nhouse very well! Such a roof is considered a traditional roof, which you no\nlonger see everywhere. But some of the modern houses have kept the tradition, having\nthe grass roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I read somewhere that they\ndon’t use a mower to mow the grass on the roofs, but… sheep hihi. I admit I\ndidn’t see any sheep on the roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I asked how they are warming\nup. With oil. Not with gas, as I imagined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what impressed me was that\nthe Faroe Islands are among the top nations that produce sustainable energy.\nOver 50% of the country’s electricity comes from renewable energy sources!\nTheir goal is that by 2030, all their electricity will come from renewable sources.\n(For the curious, I asked how much they pay: 0.27 euros per kw.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n An interesting thing: almost\n98% of households in the Faroe Islands have wireless internet! And the plan is\nfor every home to have internet access as soon as possible. In addition, they\nboast about having a very good internet connection. But here comes my national\npride\u2026 I’d say that ours is better J.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a great diversity in terms of houses. Both in model and in color. My guide laughs and tells me about the \u201cwife power\u201d: the wife who asks her husband to make their home different from their neighbor’s \u2013 both in form and in paint. And that’s how many villages became so colorful, happy and with different house models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before, there were no house\nnumbers. The houses had names. Either the owner’s name or whatever the owner\nwanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nowadays, there are owners\nwho, in order to honor the past, put a plaque with the name of the house on the\nfacade of it. I saw it in several places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be honest, there are some\nhouses I would buy on the spot! No, not mansions, but small, chic houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I give up the idea quickly\nwhen I find out what the prices are. (And this in recent years, because it has\nnot always been like this.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can buy a 500 sqm house\nwith 200,000 euros, but in the capital, the same house reaches one million\neuros!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking\nabout houses, this is Livar Nysted<\/strong>‘s house, the one I wrote\nabout above that he crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a rowboat, breaking a world\nrecord held for 114 years!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn’t even imagine that\nthere wasn’t a boat at his house…<\/p>\n\n\n\n The house is on the Vidoy Island<\/strong>, in the northern part of\nthe archipelago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the Kunoy Island <\/strong>I took a lot of pictures of this cute little house!\nIt looks like one that came out of the stories!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing it’s uninhabited, I\nlook inside the window… The owner, who lives in the house across the street,\ncomes out to ask us questions. As my guide is 100% Faroese, he quickly\nbefriends him and, surprise, he lets us go inside the house!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s a small construction site\nnow, because the man wants to open it for tourists this summer. He explains to\nus what he has to do and how he wants to open a small restaurant and then, we\nleave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wait, I can’t finish the\nhouses chapter without showing you a special one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We were driving nicely on the\nmain road of Streymoy Island, the island where the capital is located, when I saw\na white building, perched on a hill\/a mountain, with a grass roof and a\nbeautiful view of the fjord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You’d say a big company made a\nhotel there, a resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, no. There is no hotel.\nIt is simply the\u2026 PRISON! What?!? Yes, the prison! By the way, the only one in\nthe Faroe Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crime rates are so low in\nthe Islands, that this place is enough. I understand that there could be only\n12 detainees here \u2013 each with his own cell, each with his own TV. (I think\nthere would be room for more.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nonviolent criminals who have\nsmall penalties are brought here. The others, who commit more serious acts, are\nsent to prisons in Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The penitentiary also has a\nmini golf course, to which the detainees have access. If I take into account\nthe enviable \u201cview\u201d, I’d rather suspect some of them stealing just to get\nhere…<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands_view_1-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands_cliff-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-waterfall_2-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-waterfall_4-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-waterfalls_1-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nTHE PEOPLE OF THE FAROE ISLANDS<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-sheep_1-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/road-grill-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-sheep_3-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-sheep_4-1-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-sheep_5-1-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nRELIGION IN THE FAROE ISLANDS<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-church_1-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-church_3-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-church_2-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/troll-house_faroe-islands-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/trolls-houses_faroe-islands-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/house-on-a-troll-boulder-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/trolls-boulder-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLANGUAGE SPOKEN IN THE FAROE ISLANDS<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
HOW MUCH IS THE SALARY IN THE FAROE ISLANDS<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
THE HEALTH SYSTEM<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
SPORTS IN THE FAROE ISLANDS<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/rowing-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/view-from-a-football-stadium-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/eidi-eysturoy_old-football-field-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/eidi-eysturoy-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWEATHER IN THE FAROE ISLANDS<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/freezing-me-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nTHE FAROE ISLANDS HOUSES<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-village-1-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-house_3-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-house_2-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-house_1_me-1-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-house_4-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/torshavn_2-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands_name-on-the-house-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Livar-Nysted-house_Hvannasund-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-house_1-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-prison-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/faroe-islands-fjord-view-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n