Day 3: Narrated by Mike

What a difference a day makes! Woke up on Sunday feeling refreshed (still bitter about the Rangers, but whatever…), had a toasty hot shower, a hearty bowl of frosted flakes & was ready to hit the ground running.

First stop on Day 3 was Kairjubour, known for being one of the first Viking settlements in the Faroes, with the 17th generation of one of the original families still living there. One of the cooler things to explore there was the ruins of the original village church which they are in the process of preserving.

But the church paled in comparison to the best part of our visit – A PUPPY!!!!! Right across the road from the church we found a puppy who couldn’t have been more than a few months old just chilling in his owner’s yard. Everyone owns sheep in the Faroes so there are lots of dogs who have the job of herding them for their owners when needed. Obviously we made ourselves at home and played with him for about 15 minutes before carrying on with our exploration of the village.

We made our way up the road & spent the next 20 minutes or so staring at 4 massive, furry-as-anything bulls.

They didn’t do a damn thing but stand still & stare back at us but they were still super cool to see. We waited & waited for them to do something but eventually gave up when the puppy’s dad ran up to us out of nowhere!

So we played with him for a bit, watched him play with his son for a bit, then jumped back in the car to head to our next stop – Gjogv (it’s been SO fun trying to talk to people about where we’ve been/are going and seeing their puzzled looks as we butcher the pronunciations…).

Gjogv is…you guessed it – a small village on the ocean – but it means “gorge” in Faroese. This one is an attraction for having a gorgeous canyon leading out to the ocean that you can hike alongside or trek to the bottom where the water comes in.

We started by climbing the stairs down to the bottom & struck up a quick convo with some other visitors, including 2 Americans and their dog (it was actually a Faroese couple with two americans who were her actual abroad family in the 80’s… this was the first time they were visiting but had always stayed in touch). At least we assumed it was their dog since he followed them down. But after I loved him up for a bit (the dog, not the American) we found out he belonged to the village, and he proceeded to follow US around for the rest of our stay! Best day ever! He found a rock he liked, grabbed it and would run ahead of us, put it down, then lay next to it until I threw it for him to chase.

When we climbed back up to walk alongside the canyon he ran off for a few minutes to herd some sheep that were up there (trying to impress us I think) – he was amazing.

 

The village was unbelievably quaint and there may have been a bit of Beauty and the Beast “bonjour” sung as we walked through the streets.

We spent a little more time in the village -photographed the church, grabbed some coffee in the cafe, and were back in the car just in time to beat a rain storm.

We decided to take the “Buttercup Route” to Gjogv – Faroe’s name for their scenic drives. I was thinking maybe that meant it was a lovely drive through valleys of flowers or something. NOPE. Clearly I’d forgotten the lesson from New Zealand that scenic drive = terrifyingly windy roads up the sides of mountains  with giant cliffs meaning certain death with the slightest mistake. Fun! Only in this case we had another obstacle – driving through fog so thick that you could only see maybe 10 – 20 feet in any direction. At least that meant I couldn’t see how high up I was.

And now Alaina will take over as my thumbs are tired of typing 🙂

I personally LOVED Gjogv… it was like being in a fairy tale. Fortunately we had done the majority of exploring when a tour bus pulled in. It was the first one we had seen our entire trip! I was glad we were able to get pictures without people… Also, for any of you that some day want to do this trip, I cannot speak highly enough of the water and windproof pants Mike and I have purchased. The phrase in the Faroes is “if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes”. We have seen everything but with all the right gear, it hasn’t phased us at all.

We left the town and began to make our way to our final destination, Tjørnuvík. What makes the Faroes so cool is that we were driving from Gjogv but could see the road to Tjørnuvík on the other side of the water. It was while we were across the water that I spotted a massive waterfall that had two levels. Knowing that was the road we were taking made me very excited.

We arrived and there was a group of guys exploring and getting their drone ready (I got one of the guys Instagram names so I can see what he posts). I immediately hopped over the guardrail and started climbing. Mike decided to stay back but I loved getting closer and closer to the falls. Even though we will see much bigger falls in Iceland, the solitude of this one was very much enjoyed.

(Notice tiny Alaina on the right of this pic for perspective)

I went back down and joined Mike, telling him it was a really easy climb but I wanted to grab a different lens for my camera. When i arrived back from the car… Mike was halfway up the falls! My heart almost burst through my four layers of clothes, I was so proud. I grabbed a few shots and decided to join him. Would you know he went a lot closer to the falls than I did?!

It was a lot of fun to just stand there and be completely alone but together. It wasn’t until later that we learned this was the Fossà waterfall which is also famous in the country. Go figure, another famous waterfall, no one around and we were able to climb up. I love this country.

We then began our trek into Tjørnuvík. This was most likely the biggest test of all for Mike and his driving as we drove along a massive cliff and it was a one lane road that had little pull-off lanes every 200 feet. We got through the highest part and just as the words “yay downhill” came out of Mike’s mouth a car came right up towards us and rudely forced us to drive back up quite a ways IN REVERSE. On a cliff. After i gave this guy a nasty look when he passed, we drove down and learned he could have backed up 10 feet and been able to let us pass. Jerk.

My rationale for staying in this town is that it has a gorgeous beach which is known for surfing and I had found the most perfect grass roofed cottage on AirBNB. The moment we pulled in, I squealed with delight as it was absolutely perfect:

There was no wi-fi and TV, it would be a desperately needed, unplugged couple of days. We pulled in and immediately were greeted by Hans, the neighbor and relative of the host family. We hadn’t even unpacked the car and were graciously escorted to his home to meet his “woman” and have some fresh waffles. They were unbelievably nice and we spent about an hour getting to know them and playing hide-n-go-seek with their two year-old grandson.

After a long day we were happy to change into our PJ’s, relax and have some cocktails. I colored, Mike read and perhaps I did some photo editing and selecting, but that was as connected as it got 🙂