Faroe flooded wave of tourists in anticipation of a total solar eclipse

A tourist looks at posters depicting a solar eclipse in the tourist center of Torshavn, the administrative center of the Faroe Islands.

The tiny Faroes are experiencing a great historical event. For several years, rooms in all hotels were pre-booked. And now there have come so many tourists with cameras and telescopes, which locals have never seen in their lives.

This group of 18 rocky islands between Scotland and Iceland has become one of the few places on the globe where the total solar eclipse of March 20, 2015 can be observed.

A total solar eclipse will pass through a narrow strip in the northern hemisphere, where only the Faroe Islands and Svalbard are among habitable places. And the longest eclipse will be exactly on the Faroe Islands (2 minutes 45 seconds).
')


For the last couple of days, the population of the Faroe Islands has increased by 10,000 people from the usual 48,000. Everyone is waiting for a three-minute miracle when the disk of the Sun will be completely covered by the Moon and complete darkness will come. People hope that the clouds still disperse, so that will be able to observe an eclipse with my own eyes.

“This is our tenth total eclipse. We like to look at them, and to observe the solar corona in the midst of an eclipse is a really amazing moment, ”American tourist Les Anderson says in an AP commentary .

The tourist infrastructure is more developed on the Faroes, so here all the tourists were more or less normally accommodated, but on Svalbard many had to look for a night on the street. They make fires and hope that polar bears, which are free to travel around the district, will not be interested in them.

In Svalbard, an average of three bears are shot annually in self-defense, and their total number is estimated at about 3,000, writes AP.

There are no problems with the Faroe Islands. By the way, some old-timers still remember the past total eclipse of 1954, which was a surprise for many. Now both the tourists and the Faroe authorities were preparing for the event for several years.





Souvenir merchants also prepared well.

via AP