The Islands
Take
a deep breath! Fill your lungs! Let them open all their folds and
leaves and cavities, and from all directions the clean air of the sea
comes flowing towards you, into you and through you. Suddenly the dusty
continents of the earth are far away; right now it’s only the winds and
the seas and you.
The loneliness of the ocean, the silence everywhere, interrupted
only by the voices of birds in motion, weaving changing patterns that
recreate the forms of the landscape its heights, its depths. The sound
of water running over rocks, and the distant murmur of the sea deep
down at the foot of the cliffs. All those millions of tons of water of
an ocean which now lazily and comfortably rubs against these rocks in
the middle of nowhere as if it wanted to scratch its back or shoulders
after the long journey between the poles of the globe. Peaceful and
pleasant on a good summer´s day, but you know that the ocean has an
unpredictable power and that it may at any moment change its mind and
rise in a frantic rage. What are these rocks anyway? Aren´t they just a
speck of dust in its eye which ought not to be there at all?
Sooner
or later the ocean may well have its way and wash it all away. But till
then the Faroe Islands will definitely be here and be a unique reality
in this world, whether you experience them by boat along the coasts,
one moment blinded by the reflections of the sun in the water and the
next moment surrounded by the deep darkness of the sea caves. Or on
foot in the mountains with the drifting shadows that leap into the
fertile valleys and climb the green slopes, and with the light that can
hardly move from one mountain top to the next without trying out a new
variation and a quite different mood.
Just as the atmosphere
changes from one village to the next and from one house to the next. A
whole society with its own history, its own language and its own
culture. Far away from the wide world, yet at the centre of a world
where even the smallest things may seem very big because they contain
genuine feelings, genuine curiosity and genuine friendliness.Take a
deep breath! Open up your senses and fill your mind! You will be
surprised that such a place still exists. Of reasonable size and
proportions, easy to explore and get to know, and yet so infinitely
varied and changing.
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