Due to the rocky terrain and relatively small size of the Faroe Islands, its transportation system was not as extensive as in other places of the world. This situation has now changed, and the infrastructure has been developed extensively. Some 80% of the population of the islands is connected by tunnels through the mountains and between the islands, bridges and causeways that link the three largest islands and three other large islands to the northeast together, while the other two large islands to the south of the main area are connected to the main area with new fast ferries. There are good roads to every village in the islands, except for seven of the smaller islands, six of which only have one village.
Cautionary Advice to Visitors (especially those with smal children)
Hundreds of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melaena) are killed annually, mainly during the summer in a somewhat rather gruesome and bloody orgy of carnage that most visitors will find sickening and that may cause physchological harm to children.
The hunts, called "grindadráp" in Faroese, are non-commercial and are organized on a community level and anyone can participate. The hunters first surround the pilot whales with a wide semicircle of boats. Then they drive the whales slowly into a bay or to the shallows of a fjord. When a whale is in shallow water a hook is placed in its blowhole so that it may be dragged ashore. Once on land or immobilized in knee-deep water, a cut is made across its top near the blowhole to partially sever its head. The dead animals are then dragged further to shore after the remaining whales have been likewise killed.
Some Faroese consider the hunt an important part of their culture and history. Animal-rights groups criticize it as being cruel and unnecessary, while the hunters claim in return that most journalists do not exhibit sufficient knowledge of the catch methods or its economic significance.
Faroe Island Ferries
There is a direct ferry link to Hirtshas in north of Jutland in Denmark twice a week during the summer and once a week to Esbjerg in Jutland in during the winther with the ferry "Norröna". In addition Norröna sails from Iceland to the Faroe Islands once a week during the summer connecting the Faroe Islands to Iceland and mainland Europe via the North Atlantic link.
Faroe Islands Entry / Visa Requirements
As explicitly asserted by both Rome treaties, the Faroe Islands are not part of the European Union. Moreover, a protocol to the treaty of accession of Denmark to the European Communities stipulates that Danish nationals residing in the Faroe Islands are not to be considered as Danish nationals within the meaning of the treaties. Hence, Danish people living in the Faroes are not citizens of the European Union (although other EU nationals living there remain EU citizens). The Faroes are not covered by the Schengen free movement agreement, but there are no border checks when travelling between the Faroes and any Schengen country.
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