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August 13th 2004
When you’ve been just about everywhere it is always exciting to go
to a place for the first time. Before we started talking about this
event, the last time I remember hearing the name of the Faroe
Islands was on a radio weather broadcast when I was a kid in
England!
The islands (and there are 18 of them, although not all of them are
inhabited) are clustered almost directly north of Scorland, above
the Orkneys and the Shetlands but their position in the gulfstream
means the weather is nowhere near as harsh as it can be in northern
Scotland. They are Danish territory although they have their own
language which is roughly similar to Icelandic. I don’t speak either
of them so it was a relief to find that almost everyone spoke good
English.
We flew from Alicante to Copenhagen and from there to the main
island and our first look at it was as we came in to land. The
weather was fine and clear and it looked spectacular. Our first
shock (well, mine anyway as I was dressed for the 40 degree weather
in Alicante) was that it was a bit chilly!! Sunny but quite nippy….
The second one was that my acoustic guitar was still in Copenhagen
and wouldn’t be arriving until tomorrow, the day of the show which
meant that our first challenge was to find one that I could use for
the workshop tonight. In all my years of flying around the world I
can’t remember the last time anything was lost or even delayed so
this was another first for me.
After an hour’s drive we arrived at the ferry terminal where we
would board the ship for a 30 minute trip through the fjords to
Klaksvik. By the time we arrived we had been travelling for almost
11 hours, about the same time as it takes to get from London to Los
Angeles (which is apropos of absolutely nothing of course).
The views from the van and the ship were really wonderful, crystal
clear waters (it wasn’t hard to imagine the Viking ships sailing
here) surrounded by mountains covered now in green but…..no trees!!
This was a first for me so I had to ask…… there are 50,000 people on
these islands and 80,000 sheep. The sheep eat the trees before they
can grow so they don’t bother planting any (file under “useless
information”).
Our hosts were warm and friendly and we were to find this to be
pretty much the case throughout our stay. Everyone treated us so
well. They appeared to be a happy and healthy race of people, proud
and defensive of their “independence” and they simply couldn’t do
enough for us. Their economy and employment are seriously dependent
on their fish exports (Cod, Salmon, Mackerel and Herring) and we got
to see some Salmon rings as we drove around.
After we disembarked we drove about another 20 minutes over the
mountains to our hotel. Actually, at two points, we drove THROUGH
the mountains in these little tunnels that were only big enough for
one vehicle. What happens if there’s something coming the other way
I thought? Well, they have these little lay-bys and, with the
right-of-way defined and understood, people going in one direction
simply pull over untill the other vehicle had passed. Wouldn’t
happen in Spain! People would die in those tunnels before they would
move over!
The islands are very isolated and it’s hard for me to imagine living
there but I do know that we will go back and try to spend some time
hiking and enjoying the difference.
Klaksvik is a
fishing village, pure and simple, population more or less 5,000 and
it’s full of picture postcard views…quite lovely.
But it was time for a little work and I prepared
for the “workshop” which was to be a small gathering of (lucky?)
souls who wanted to pick my brain about song-writing, songs etc. and
I was happy to do that.
It was held at a small theatre called “Atlantis”
and I had my borrowed acoustic guitar, an acoustic piano and they
had also set up the Hammond though I had no plans to use it!!
Apparently they had other ideas!
With about 90 or so people in front of me I
chatted, played, shared and laughed for about an hour and a half
until it was time to go…. after signing autographs that is. I like
doing this kind of thing and it did give me a chance to “connect” in
a different way which I will have to do next week in St. Petersburg,
my first real solo concert. I hope it works because I would like to
do more of them next year if possible.
Anyway, back to the hotel (one channel of TV and
no phone…… cool!) for some dinner. The band had already eaten and
gone to bed but the chef kindly stayed late so that Monica and I,
along with some of our hosts could have a delicious supper of Puffin
(kind of a small penguin), vegetables and all kinds of other
excellent stuff. We won’t eat Puffin again. It was good but once we
saw a real one we felt bad about eating its brother (or sister
perhaps). Hard to explain really. We’re certainly not vegetarians
but we both love animals so much and there are some that are simply
too cute to eat, at least for us. Poor Monica is still feeling bad
about it!
There is NO crime in
these islands!! ZERO!! When was the last time you left the keys in
the car? Deliberately I mean! Makes you think doesn’t it?
Next day...
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