Day 7 & 8

Tuesday was fairly quiet. after lunch we had a lecture in the Natural Characteristics of the Faroe Islands. The second have of the lecture was held in the geological museum across the street. (building on the right.)

The Faroes were formed some 60 million years ago on the mid-Atlantic ridge like Iceland. There is a part of Greenland that is a "mirror image" in distance and age to the Faroes and suggests they were once connected but were torn apart by sea-floor spreading. Volcanic eruptions produced layers of basaltic rock. The flows were bigger and more spread out than today and in some places flows were up to 70m (300ft) thick. During the Ice age, glaciers formed and carved out long rounded valleys with steep sides and flat tops. Due to subduction, the Faroes are now tipping towards the east, which has a much lower coast and exposes the high cliffs on the western coast.

That evening, Jerry invited Ben, Claire, and I for dinner at his house. He had bought four fish from a fisherman down in the harbour and wanted to cook them right away. I've had almost nothing but fish the entire time being here and it was all very good. We ended up talking until 11:30, way past the last bus to Hoyvik and it's a long walk back from the center of Torshavn. Jerry felt bad for keeping me so late and offered for me to stay there the night. I had all of my stuff with me so it wasn't a problem. I slept on the coach and since I was closer to school, I got to sleep an extra hour. I didn't get home until after the museum the next day.

Wednesday focused on Faroese literature and similarly ended with a trip to National Art Museum. Its interesting talking about Faroese literature since the language had no written form until the early 1900's. The ballads had been passed on orally for hundreds of years but weren't written down until more recently.

After we had lunch, we walked to the Art Museum. It worked out well for me since its about halfway between my house and the school. The museum is in the park of Torshavn and the only really leafy area on the Faroe Islands. There's actually a small forest. They can grow there because its more protected from the wind. Although, during the construction of the museum, a huge storm hit and knocked all of the trees down. The floor of the museum is now made of small wooden tiles from these trees. They were all later replanted.

The museum only showcases Faroese art and like the literature, really only starts in the early 1900's. There was a real mix of styles ranging from traditional landscapes to abstract paintings. One of my favorite paintings was by Samuel Joensen-Mikines who was born on Mykines in 1906. He has a very dark blocky style which emphasizes the sadness in many of his early paintings. In the 1930's, a boat was lost at sea taking nearly all the men in the village with it. The best painting I thought was by Edward Fuglø. It doesn't show up on that page but it was similar to "North Atlantic Cosmopolitans I." It was a huge painting and had those birds in suites in rows. The head of the bird in the front was very realistic. It looked like it came out of the picture. I hung around a bit after trying to decide what postcards I wanted and I was able to meet the artist!