We pack up our stuff and are out of our Torshavn apartment by 9:00 am. We hit one of the local cafes for some coffee and breakfast. We also do some final shopping around Torshavn as shops start to open up. One of our stops is a printer who collaborated with artist Tóroddur Poulsen to decorate the ROKS, the restaurant we were at last night. They have several Pulsen prints. I briefly considered buying one but decided that the price was a bit too steep. We also stopped by some knitwear places and eventually made our way to the car to set our sights north.
One of the highlights of today's driving is we get to use the undersea roundabout! It's another undersea tunnel that connects Streymoy to Eysturoy. Since the tunnel connect to two different peninsulas on Eysturoy there is an actual undersea roundabout! I had read in a tour guide while preparing for the trip that there is even a radio station that broadcasts in the tunnel to provide mood music for the tunnel crossing. So we tune the radio to the station. Apparently you just have to know this fact, because at no point in using the tunnel is there a sign giving you the secret FM station. All the signs show the standard tunnel information station instead. The secret station plays environmental music by a Faroese composer and sound engineer. I'm glad we got to layer this little bit extra layer of culture to our tunnel experience.
After the undersea roundabout we spend time checking out Runavik. There are the obligatory knitting and knitwear shops. We also stopped by the Visit Eysturoy tourist office and asked for recommendation. She points out some short hikes we can take and then tells us that their is also a bird photography exposition happening at the local library that we can checkout. We wonder over the library and sure enough there are a bunch of cool prints of Faroese birds hanging up around the library. We say we're here to see the exhibition and are promptly introduced to the photographer, Silas Olofson. I love how charming showing up to random parts of the Earth can be. Just taking an interest in what's going on somehow always gets us rewarded.
After the exhibition we walk around their local lake and then return to the tourist info office to ask about pricing for taking the Eysturoy to Eysturoy legs of the undersea roundabout. Dawn has spotted that the Snaeldan factory store is not far away. It's a Faroese yarn and knitwear producer that I'm sure she'll talk about.
After that we decided to drive up and down the inlet to make our way to Klaksvik the scenic way. The roads are mercifully two lane for most of the journey. After making our way eastward we take yet another undersea tunnel to the island of Bordoy which is where Klaksvik is located. It takes us a couple of passes but we find parking and locate our Airbnb at just about the time we're supposed to check in.
Our new accommodations are less swanky than our Torshavn apartment, but we got the essentials and a harbor view to boot. Looks like we'll be watching the water for our entire Faroese stay! After getting settled in we head out for the Visit the Northern Islands tourist information office to get our map and the lowdown on the local attractions. The exciting discovery at this tourist kiosk is the postcards. For the last week, whenever we've seen postcards they've all been from the same company and focus on airbrushed scenes of folklore. And, sure, I'm happy for those postcards to exist, but given how drop-dead gorgeous the scenery is around the islands I've been baffled, absolutely baffled, by the lack of any kind of photographic image on a Faroe Island postcard. Today we finally found some postcards with beautiful pictures on them. We've only have to search for a week on five different islands to find them.
After the tourist info, we walk to Bonus which is a grocery store chain to stock up on some breakfast and snack foods.
Lastly, we decide on where to eat dinner. Compared to Torshavn, the rest of the Faroe Islands do not have as much to offer when it comes to dining out. Each village might have a cafe or a takeaway, but fine dining really doesn't exist outside of the capitol. Being the second largest city Kalksvik offers more than most, but it seems likely that we're going to end up with some takeaway pizza or burgers before I our time here is done.
We hit the Angus Steakhouse which is, as far as I can tell, the swankiest restaurant in Klaskvik. We actually recognize the name because there is also one in Torshavn. This is a restaurant that knows what it's about. It wants to sear you a piece of meat, put a sauce on it, and give you a side of potatoes. That's their deal. I go against my rule of not leaning into what a restaurant wants to do, because I didn't travel to sheep island to eat cows, even if that is a novelty for this corner of the world. Instead I order the lamb and Dawn orders the salmon - both of which are plentiful in the Faroe Islands. We each get a different sauce and a side of French fries. And besides wishing there was an attractive vegetable offering, I got no complaints. This place knows how to execute their vision.
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