It's Denmark, but not quite – welcome to the Faroe Islands, a beautiful archipelago north of the British Isles!
If you're looking for Greenland or Denmark proper, click the previous links to check out those guides!
Subdivisions
The Faroe Islands are divided into six sýslur, which roughly translates to shires
- Eysturoy
- Norðoyggjar
- Sandoy
- Streymoy
- Suðuroy
- Vágar
License Plates
Despite Denmark being a part of the EU, the Faroe Islands are not. Faroese license plates have a blue band on the left, like EU countries, but it contains the Faroese flag and the country code FO. The license plates are white with blue text: FOAB 123.
Phone Codes
Faroese telephone numbers are not geographically linked; as such, there is no area code system.
Roads, Markings, and Signage
Highways & Road Numbering Schemes
Architecture
Language
Faroese is the main language of the Faroe Islands, although Danish is an official second language. Due to the islands' relative isolation, the Faroese language is fairly distinctive from other North Germanic languages, with its closest relative being Icelandic, which does resemble it in written form.
Script
The Faroese alphabet uses 22 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus 7 additional letters:
Aa Áá Bb Dd Ðð Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii
Íí Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Óó Pp Rr
Ss Tt Uu Úú Vv Yy Ýý Ææ Øø
It is one of only two major languages that uses the eth (Ðð), with the other being Icelandic. Icelandic also uses the thorn (Þþ), which is not present in Faroese.
Sample
Øll menniskju eru fødd fræls og jøvn til virðingar og mannarættindi. Tey hava skil og samvitsku og eiga at fara hvørt um annað í bróðuranda.