The Smyril Line Ferry
I sit in the crowded ferry terminal waiting area, exhausted. The stress that led up to this point just about did me in, but the end is in sight as boarding the ship will commence soon…
I get my boarding pass. I miss the elevators, and end up carrying all my heavy luggage up row after row of stairs until I get to my boat deck on level 7. The ship is a confusing maze, but I eventually find my cabin. I just about fall asleep, but instead I wander up to the top deck of the ship, have a beer, and enjoy the cold morning as the last bits of Iceland slowly start to fade away as the ship leaves the harbor.
If memory serves me correctly, it will only be about fourteen hours until I arrive in the Faroe Islands. The departure time is at 3 a.m., and so I am nervous that I won’t wake up, so sleep is sporadic.
I wander the ship decks for a spell, taking in the old photographs that are on display, thinking about the history of travelers and seafarers that have made this same journey over the ages.
2 a.m. and a rather loud knock is at my door, then a young man just enters my cabin to inform me that it will soon be time to depart. I skip a shower, and try to find coffee, but nothing on the ship is open. I eventually find a small huddled group of other travelers departing, and we wait for the signal to leave.
I wonder how passport control will be. I follow a small group exiting the ship, see only one guard, but he lets us all depart the ship without even looking at our passports.
I arranged for the rental car to be dropped off in a parking lot near the ferry terminal. Pitch dark and quiet it is as I wander around, trying to find the car from the directions I received via email.
I find the car without too much stress. I get finally connect my phone so I have directions to where I am staying, wondering how it will go with another passport control station checking cars that had boarded the ship and were now departing, but my phone directions take me in the opposite direction. I leave the ferry terminal under cover of night without seeing any passport control people.
I hit the streets of the Faroe Islands, with no one seemingly the wiser. Let the next adventure begin….
