Jaume Clotet: "The trip I'd always wanted to take was everything I expected and more."
Just a year ago, the journalist and writer lived the summer of his life on islands he had seen countless times on maps.
Barcelona"I have good memories of my childhood summers, but I don't remember anything in particular," admits journalist, historian, and writer Jaume Clotet. He says that they were all a kind of Blue Summer Permanent. Like in the early 1980s series, he spent his days cycling with his friends and hanging out at the pool. He's clear that the summer of his life is much more recent, in 2024, when his partner gave him a trip to the Faroe Islands for his fiftieth birthday, a destination he'd had in his head for decades. He was convinced he'd never go; it's unusual, has a poor tourist infrastructure, and is difficult to get to: "When you've been dreaming about a place for years, once you go, you might find it's not that great, but the trip was everything I expected and more."
He discovered the Faroe Islands thanks to his hobby of looking at maps: "I spend hours on Google Maps, and when there was no internet, I would look them up in the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Catalan." Along the same lines, before visiting a place, he takes the opportunity to virtually tour the streets using Google Street View. This is probably why, when they arrived in Tórshavn, the capital, everything seemed familiar. As a historian, he is also drawn to the island's connection to important events, such as the history of the Vikings, the first Christian missionaries, and their occupation during World War II.
Furthermore, for someone who isn't keen on the heat, the rain, fog, and cold landscapes of the Faroe Islands are perfect. He was especially interested in seeing the tunnels that connect the archipelago's islands. "They're famous because you go under the sea, there's no light, they have a single lane and no right of way. For 3 or 4 kilometers, there are holes in the wall that you have to go through when you see a lamp approaching. They even have a tunnel with a roundabout, it's spectacular," he explains, fascinated.
When he travels, he tries not to be what he calls a tourist graft: "I like to mingle and talk to people." Since he's interested in politics, he always visits parliaments and embassy districts. He wants to get to know the human and urban landscape, which is why he visits churches and cemeteries, and prefers sitting on a terrace watching people rather than going to a museum, unless it's a history museum.
With his dream of the Faroe Islands complete, he's narrowed down his list of places he'd like to go, for example, Mongolia, Alaska, or the Greek islands. For now, he's focused on promoting The skull of the apostle, the second part of the novel that won him the 2024 Josep Pla Prize.