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NSI

Ground: Við Løkin

Visits: 1

Date: 18th June 2016

Match: NSÍ - Víkingur  4-2  (Meistaradeildin)

Attendance: 1 000

 

When I initially missed out on Euro 2016 tickets I looked elsewhere and wanting to visit a new country I decided to book a long weekend in the Faroe Islands. As you know I eventually got tickets for two Sweden games but it was possible to combine those games with a trip to the Faroe Islands. There are 18 major islands and since 1814 the Faroe Islands officially belong to Denmark. Since 1948 the Faroe Islands have been a self-governing county and have control of most domestic matters. Atlantic Airways is the only airline operating flights to and from Vagur airport and they have less than 10 destinations. The most important destination is of course Copenhagen, from where there are three flights a day. My flight left Copenhagen airport at 12.55 on Friday afternoon and two hours later we were flying in over the Faroe Islands. The weather was exceptionally nice and the pilot actually made a short detour so we could all enjoy the amazing scenery. Normally (like 350 days a year!) the islands are covered in clouds but today there were hardly any clouds at all. From the airport it takes around 45 minutes by shuttle taxi/bus to get to the capital Tórshavn. With the weather being as nice as it was the driver of the shuttle taxi skipped the coastal road and took us over the mountain so we could take some good pictures. There are not many hotels in the Faroe Islands but I managed to book three nights at a reasonable price at Hotel Streym. After checking in I made a sightseeing tour of central Tórshavn which I finished off with a visit to Gundadalur and Torsvøllur. The two grounds are next to each other but only Gundadalur is used for domestic football. My last match on their trip would be B36 Tórshavn v Klaksvik at Gundadalur on Sunday evening. After the sightseeing I had something to eat and drink before returning to my hotel.

 

As I woke up on Saturday morning the clouds had returned to the Faroe Islands. It was not raining though and the wind was only 4-5 m/s. For Saturday and Sunday I had rented a car and my first stop was Vestmanna in northwestern Streymoy (the main island). The drive took me around 40 minutes and was quite spectacular. At times it felt like I was driving in the Alps. In Vestmanna I then boarded a boat and went on a bird watching trip off the cliffs. The cliffs are 300 meters high and the boat also went into a few caves. After two hours at sea I had something to eat and drink before setting for Saksun and Eiði. Saksun is a small, remote village in northern Streymoy but once there the scenery, with the lagoon, was amazing. Eiði is situated in northern Eysturoy (second biggest island) and the views were quite nice here as well. I wanted to find and take pictures of the two most famous sea stacks in the Faroe Islands, Risin and Kellingin. The name Risin og Kellingin means The Giant and the Witch(or Hag) and relates to an old legend about their origins. The Giant (Risin) is the 71m stack further from the coast, and the witch (Kellingin) is the 68m pointed stack nearer land, standing with her legs apart. To find them turned out to be quite difficult but after some rock climbing I eventually did!

 

Kick-off in Runavík, where I was going to watch NSÌ vs Vikingur Gøta was moved from 3pm to 6.30pm. That meant I could do all my planned sightseeing before going to the game. This Saturday there was some kind of festival in Runavík and outside the football ground there were lots of activitities. I found a big screen where I could watch Iceland v Hungary. When Iceland scored everyone celebrated and it was obvious the Faroes supported Iceland almost as much as they would support their own national team. Við Løkin is a small ground with only one proper stand and the total capacity must be around 1 500. The seated stand was more or less full this evening and the the official attendance was later given as 1 000 including around 250 or so away fans. Vikingur scored after only 47 seconds and despite missing a penalty the visitors were 2-0 up at half-time. NSÍ turned things completely around in the second half though and scored four times to win the game 4-2. The game at Við Løkin was the first of the three games I had planned for the weekend and as I drove back to Tórshavn I could look back on a very interesting day. Tomorrow I will do some more sightseeing before going to two games in the Tórshavn area

 

Pictures from my sightseeing can be found at: Sightseeing pictures

 

nsi runavik

NSÍ Runavik FC

 

nsi

NSÍ 4 LIFF

 

vid lökin, vy

View of Við Løkin

 

vid lökin

View of Við Løkin

 

east stand1

East Stand

 

east stand

East Stand

 

east stand2

A closer look at the East Stand

 

south end

South End

 

west side

West side

 

north end

North End

 

inmarsch

Players and officials entering the field

 

nsifans

NSÍ fans

 

avspark

Kick-off

 

spelbild

View of play

 

injury

Injured player

 

west side2

West side

 

spelbild2

View of play

 

penalty, nsi

Penalty, NSÍ

 

goal

Goal!

 

inkast

Throw-in

 

east stand3

East Stand

 

east stand4

East Stand

 

nsifans2

NSÍ fans

 

4-2

4-2

 

pano, vid lökin2

Pano