arrival on Kalsoy

There are four villages on Kalsoy. The ferry lands in Syðradalur or southern village. The boat house is right there on the left but it awaits me after noon. Until then I have to kill time with something and looking at the seal-woman is good enough for that.

The nickname of Kalsoy is „flute“ because its shape is long and thin with a tunnel hiding most of the road. The tunnel is narrow. Two times I get to stick out my nose from inside the mountain and every time there‘s different weather.

Mikladalur is third village from the ferry stop. Kópakonan or seal-woman is a statue that illustrates a legend where an egoistic fisherman stole the skin of a human-turned-to-seal-turned-to-human in order to force her to marry him. Everything went as it usually does. She finally found her skin and escaped into the sea. Later the fishermen massacred a heard of seals that supposedly triggered many accidents with villagers.

Waves splash over the statue and against the rocks. A truly powerful spectacle. Mikladalur is a village with a few streets and it is even possible to walk a bit. On the church door is a sign that calling a number opens the door. I see a man inside so don’t bother with calling. The man is vacuuming window sills. Everything is very clean, he is in socks. So I also leave my boots at the door. Using most of my Faroese we figure out my geographic location and my business there. It is always useful for language learning purposes when people don’t speak English.

Meanwhile it is past noon and I drive back to Syðradalur. The key is on the lamp as promised. Small freshly renovated house, a whole wall is a window. I use here mostly the services of Airbnb because it has more locations and better prices can be found.

A rainbow is made over the water, one end is here on the pier. Taking advantage of the nice light and relatively dry weather I walk along the shore to the lighthouse and over sheep fences up the hill to the village. On the noticeboards of the villages are warnings that people should be careful with fire in the starting heating season. An old man sweeps the street. Here lives one family now, four people. This I find out a little later down in the harbor where I meet the snow plow driver who was on the same ferry as me. The snow plow has been repaired and is ready for the winter. The driver speaks English and is curious about tourist‘s life and wanderings. The Brazilian said that locals don‘t like tourists and are even afraid of them. I haven‘t noticed anyone being afraid of me. Instead they greet me friendly when we meet on village streets.

Later I laze on the sofa and stare out the window, thinking nothing. Many people do the same in front of a TV. But who needs a TV here. The sea that was calm before now has rabbits running on the water.