aug 16 tue
today we experienced… "the cruisers"… on going to town this morning we saw a huge cruise ship in the harbour… soon there were scores of people crowding the streets, and the shops, and the cafes like crawling little ants - quite an experience! they come, hit and go like locusts… honestly I don't see myself travelling like that in a few years time, but much rather like the rambling couple we met yesterday on our way back from Kirkjubøur. anyway, we thought it a good idea to spend the daytime visiting some of the local museums. we booked a boat tour for later tonight, thst wasn't quite what we had in mind but the closest thing, since they're not doing the advertised tour to Gjógv as they don't have enough requests for it.
we went to the natural history museum, which was quite imteresting - with panels explaining the geology of the islands, and how the rock formations developed through the years. a section on the local flora and fauna completed the exhibition. tiny but very well done. after that we had some lunch in the garden and we attemped the aquarium for the third time - first it was yesterday, but, alas, it's closed mondays, then we tried it again this morning, but, oh look, it opens at 2.00pm - finally, we made it! this was also pretty small, but had quite a selection of local fish and shellfish. aquariums always leave me with a sad feeling, especially the not-so-big ones - it seems a shame that fish have to stay in tiny tanks [and these
are rather tiny…]
as we still had a few hours before our boat trip, we also went to the local history museum, which consisted of two sections: one "open air" with a preserved large farm, turf roofs and all, and the other "indoors" with findings of ancient settlements, Viking and Scottish/Irish. archaeology is actually quite new on these islands as the first digs were made only in 1941. again, it was very intetesting: boats, pottery and artifacts from old age to our days, with some black'n'white photos of fishermen and life in days gone by.
*****
we've been waiting for our RIB62 boat to take us to Hestur grottos with no sign of it… at 7.00pm, our scheduled departure time, we called the company and they informed us they had some problems with the GPS so the tour had been cancelled… obviously our trip with RIB62 was just not meant to be!
never mind, we consoled ourselves with a nice meal and a couple of pints of Nordic Cider (recommended) at Café Natur - nice and cheap (for the place). a few more photos on the way back to the hostel and that was it - it's been quite a full day and tomorrow we're off to an early start to catch the bus to Hvalvik for our walk to Vestmanna.
this morning we took the ferry back to Tórshavn. we had booked a helicopter flight but there was just room for one and they never called us to say otherwise, so we just went back the way we came. the day was dull and rainy anyway, so we thought it a waste of time going to the heliport hoping for a no-show and having to take the boat at 6.30pm. so we just got the 11.00am one and we reached Tórshavn in good time for another look in town. we went to the Nordic House Conference Centre and Meeting Hall, quite a distinctive structure made in cooperation with all Scandinavian countries. coming back towards Bládypi hostel we bought a cd of Faroese music and some breakfast for tomorrow, so we're set to go.
we had dinner at the Bistrot and a last pint of Nordic cider and strawberry cake at the Irish pub, and then off to bed as tomorrow we have an early rise: 5.00am to catch the 6.00am bus to the airport.
