My April 2019: BA thesis on the Faroe Islands

April was all about my BA thesis and hanging out on a small island in the North Atlantic while writing it!

Arriving in Nólsoy

I had decided to move temporarily to Nólsoy in the Faroe Islands – an island that I absolutely love and thought would be perfect to write my BA in peace. It’s a small island with just under 300 inhabitants, but it has a supermarket, cafés and beautiful nature, and it’s also conveniently located just 20 minutes from the nation’s capital, Tórshavn.

I arrived in Nólsoy on April 1st and saw the house for the first time and I really like it! It’s small, has everything I need and is located in the middle of the tiny village!

On my first day, I climbed the highest mountain on the island for the first time, just to celebrate that I was finally there!

My 24th birthday

Four days into my trip, it was my 24th birthday! I took the ferry to the mainland and hitchhiked all the way to Vestmanna to see a family that I’ve stayed with many times before. They cooked me amazing food and made a lovely vegan birthday cake! I also had fun trimming and bathing their dog Alex. A perfect way to celebrate my birthday!

Oh – and on my last night as a 23-year-old, I saw the northern lights!! They aren’t usually very vibrant on the Faroe Islands, so it was a beautiful surprise!

Life on Nólsoy

Life on Nólsoy has been wonderful. I was afraid that I would be lonely living in a house on a small island by myself, but I haven’t been lonely once. I’ve had a lot to do regarding my thesis, but I’ve enjoyed feeling stress-free as I didn’t have to go to bed or get up at a certain time, I could go hiking whenever I felt like it and so on. I’ve been quite good at structuring my time, although it has been difficult on good weather days where I needed to write. Mostly, I’ve gone on small hikes during those days, but I’ve also taken a few days out to go on full-day hikes or trips to the mainland to visit friends and do grocery shopping. It has been a good mix of writing, exploring and seeing friends, although it is a challenge to live on the Faroe Islands and not be able to constantly explore!

Nólsoy itself has a lot to offer, and I’ve enjoyed exploring the nature and the tiny village, where I’ve made friends with two local bird enthusiasts, local youngsters, local cats and a llama – which I think is the only one of its kind in the country! I’ve spent an evening with friends on Maggie’s, walked almost every street of the village, enjoyed the sunset from the beach, hiked out to the northern end of the island, hiked through the rocky east coast and visited the famous bird enthusiast and lice collector, Jens Kjeld. And my favourite adventure of all was an epic bird watching hike with another local bird enthusiast, where we spotted puffins and other species. I actually set out on the hike alone just before sunset to see if I could spot the storm petrel colony, which is the largest of its kind in the world, but then I met the bird enthusiast who told me that they wouldn’t arrive until late May. It was a bit of a bummer, but he asked me to join him to set up a birds nest in a place that is quite difficult to access. I was up for the adventure, so we hiked together during the last moments of daylight to a place I never would’ve dared to go by myself, set up the nest and then returned home in darkness. Thankfully, he was well equipped, so I wasn’t scared, and I learned a great deal about the local birds and the geology of the east coast on the trip. I was very thankful to be able to join in on such an amazing adventure!

Easter roadtrip with friends

For Easter, I had a wonderful visit from my two friends, Solveig and Mikkel. We stayed in Vestmanna with the family mentioned above, and decided to rent a car. Solveig spent a month in the Faroes in November 2017, but Mikkel had never been here before, so it was fun showing him around. We roadtripped through the islands of Vágar, Streymoy and Eysturoy, climbed the highest mountain in the country, explored the west coast of Suðuroy, spent a few hours on my island and had a wonderful Easter celebration with the family in Vestmanna.

Destinations visited in April 2019

• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Vágar, Streymoy, Nólsoy, Eysturoy and Suðuroy, Faroe Islands

Highlights

• Climbing Mt. Eggjarklettur on my first day in the Faroe Islands
• Celebrating becoming 24 with the family in Vestmanna
• Exploring the rocky east coast of Nólsoy
• Roadtripping with Solveig and Mikkel through five islands
• Climbing Mt. Slætteratindur for the first time!
• Visiting Jens Kjeld, the famous bird enthusiast and lice collector on Nólsoy
• Going bird watching with another bird enthusiast in the middle of the night!

Challenges

• Not being able to explore as much as I would’ve liked – BA woes!
• Being slightly stressed out about my thesis – I’m a perfectionist!

Most popular post

• On top of the Faroe Islands: Climbing Slætteratindur at 880 m – I finally climbed the highest mountain on the Faroes, and it was amazing!

The other posts

• My March 2019: A trip to Ukraine – Everything that I got up to in March!
• Climbing Eggjarklettur, the highest mountain on Nólsoy – Climbed the highest mountain on Nólsoy for the first time!
• 13 places to discover on the Swedish island of Öland – This beautiful island in the Baltic Sea has so much to offer.
• An abandoned world: A visit to Chernobyl and its ghost towns – A long post on the most interesting place I’ve ever visited!
• The wild side of Nólsoy: Hiking along the rocky east coast – Exploring a new side of Nólsoy.
• Starlings dancing in the sky: Experiencing the “Sort Sol” phenomenon – My family and I witnessed a rare nature phenomenon in Denmark!
• Back to the Ukrainian past at Pirogovo Open Air Museum – Exploring an amazing open air museum near Kyiv.

Most popular Instagram picture

This picture got SO MUCH LOVE – I am so grateful! I took this picture of the village on Nólsoy while on a hike to the east coast!

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Et opslag delt af Mel (@north.trotter)

Coming up in May 2019

May is going to be such an exciting month!

I’m currently still living on Nólsoy, where I’ll stay until May 13th. Apart from writing my thesis, I’ll be visiting some friends on the mainland and going on a few hikes, including a camping trip to the southernmost end of Nólsoy!

When I get back to Denmark, I’m spending one day in Copenhagen to meet with my supervisor and get my Russian visa sorted, and then I’ll be home with my family in Eastern Jutland for the next twelve days, where I’ll (hopefully) finish up my BA.

Afterwards, I’ll return to Copenhagen for a day and then fly off to Russia, where the next adventure begins – excavating a Late Bronze Age site in a rural town in the Ural Mountains!