P-J

Today has been a lot of fun. I took the 08:50 bus to Tórshavn, where I visited all the familiar sights as I made my way up to the Oy micro-brewery - in an industrial estate on the edge of the town, passing a tiny collection of young lambs on the way. There I ordered fish and chips, to accompany a pint of their refreshing New England IPA, followed by a small glass of rich liquorice stout. From there I made my way back to the bus station, where I was the only passenger on the 14:05 coach to Sandur. 

Sandur is the main settlement on the island of Sandoy. This island is flatter, and sandier, and is important since it's much the best place to grow vegetables in all of the Faroe Islands. When I visited the island two years ago I had to take a ferry for the 8km crossing, and change buses, but a few months ago a 11km subsea tunnel opened, making the journey much swifter. Constructing such infrastructure for an island of 1250 people sounds extravagant, but it's part of a bigger plan. Sandoy is a stepping stone from which a 25km tunnel to Suderoy (pop 5000) will eliminate a 2-hour ferry trip that, like others in the Faroes, sometimes cannot run due to bad weather. Another consequence of eliminating the ferry crossing is that the boat is being used as the Nolsoy ferry, improving links with that island, and the old Nolsoy ferry is now improving the service to Kaltur.

From Sandur, I walked 4km to Inni í Dal (In the Valley) the ground of B71 Sandoy, the island's football team. Since there were cup matches midweek, there are no premier league matches this weekend, so I had to look at division 1. Half of this division is composed of major club second teams - that cannot be promoted - but I found a convenient fixture between two first teams. Sandoy are the top first team in division 1, and Hoyvik are bottom, and it showed. Sandoy, appropriately, play in yellow and, not only do they complete the Brazil strip with blue shorts, there was at least one Brazilian playing for them! Their first goal was at the opposite end of the ground, but the second will live with me for a long time. A free kick from the best part of 40 yards out caught in the strong wind and swirled back, right over the 'keeper! I chatted with a few locals during the game, one of whom had just visited UoE's department of Sports Science.

I'd walked most of the way back into Sandur to get the bus, when a car stopped and I was hailed in Faroese. Then, in English I was asked, "Where are you going; do you want to see something?" It was an older man than me, so I thought I'd take the risk! It turned out to be P-J, whom I'd met on Sandoy two years ago. Although he picks people up like this all the time, he clearly remembered me from before. Founder of the Faroes symphony orchestra, he once gave the Queen of Denmark a tour of the fossil outcrop he'd discovered, and was on his way back from Tórshavn, where he was preparing his yacht for a trip to the Shetlands. Not your everyday encounter, and an engaging and friendly guy with it! In 30 minutes, he showed me his fossil outcrop and where a ship had been wrecked in an insurance fraud, before dropping me off at the bus stop.

Now I'm back in the Oy micro-brewery, drinking their Klikkhazy IPA, with time for something else before getting the bus back to Klaksvík. I settled on a dark lager: not the best of their beers, but lager I can drink!

Oh, the picture? That looked to be the Faroe Islands Tourist Board taking publicity photos as I waited for the bus at lunchtime.

I've added a few extras of a fine and varied day