Friday 21 September 2012

Welcome to the "Sheep Islands"!

The morning we spent aboard listening to the different kind of lectures which have been so nicely prepared by our lecturer team. We could choose between lecturers with different topics in English, German and Norwegian; so everybody could find the right talk for himself.
Around lunchtime we reached the Faroe Islands our destination for the afternoon. The busses were waiting for us at the pier already so that we could start our different excursions on the islands directly after the authorities have given the ship free.  
The Faroe Islands are a group of islands under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark; app. half way between Norway and Iceland in the North Atlantic Ocean. 50 000 (in 2010) people are living on these Islands, nearly in the middle of nowhere. The volcanic islands are rugged and rocky, the coasts are mostly cliffs. In these cliffs you can find an enormous amount of seabirds during spring and summer time.
That´s the reason why so many tourists - many of them are birders - are coming to the Faroe Island. The economy is still based on the fishing industry and we could see the first fishing boats when we were going alongside with FRAM in the harbor.
After dinner many passengers went up to the bar for a last cocktail and to listen to some crew members that were singing for us.