Chapter 1504: A Strong Country First Enlightens the People

Although only 18 of the Faroe Islands are inhabited, they are actually made up of 779 islands, large and small. These 18 islands are connected by an underwater tunnel, a project so spectacular in Europe that Queen Margrethe II of Denmark once said, "If you don't know how insignificant humans are, then visit the Faroe Islands."

Why is a project considered spectacular in Europe? You can't compare it to infrastructure-obsessed Daxia! Compared to those few highways in western Daxia, any infrastructure project in the world is a mere rubbish.

Xiao Peng and Bruch drove to the South Island. He had inquired about it yesterday: It would be a complete waste of resources if you don't take a hot spring bath in the Faroe Islands!

The Faroe Islands are full of volcanoes, which is why there are so many hot springs here. If you want to take a bath here, of course you have to take a hot spring bath!

The hot spring they went to was also very interesting. It was called 'Gulatis Hot Spring Sauna'. 'Gulatis' means 'free and self-service' in the local language, so this is a free bathing place with both hot springs and saunas.

That's right, everything here is completely free.

Of course, free things come at a price, and that price is: you have to do everything yourself. Even the bath towels were bought by Xiao Peng while he was shopping for clothes.

Everything here has to be done by oneself. The first thing Xiao Peng did when he first arrived was to chop wood!

There is a rain shelter here with firewood piled inside. What Xiao Peng and his team have to do is to use a saw or an axe to cut those long wooden strips into appropriate sizes and then put them in the firewood pile for use in the sauna room.

Xiao Peng could have skipped this step: there was a mountain of firewood piled high, already chopped by others, and it felt like it would take more than a month to burn through. But Xiao Peng and Bruch chopped a large pile anyway—when in Rome, do as the Romans do. They didn't want anyone to think they were taking advantage, did they?

After they finished chopping wood, it was time to change clothes: changing clothes here was even more interesting: there was no changing room at all! There was only a row of small pavilions like bus stops, which were covered with rain and wind, and a wooden wall with wooden grids. You could put your clothes in the grids and then go to the hot springs.

Despite the heavy rain, business is booming here – the Faroese have long been accustomed to rainy days. It rains two-thirds of the year, so for them, the only difference is whether it rains heavily or lightly. The most common shoes people wear here are wellies.

Of course, there is mixed bathing here.

Mixed bathing is more normal in Northern Europe, and it seems strange here if it's not mixed. After all, the world is so vast, and people have seen so few local customs and practices. But everyone in the world likes to judge other people's customs and practices based on their own habits.

Xiao Peng also felt uncomfortable with the mixed bathing at first, but later he figured it out - she wouldn't get pregnant if she just took a look, and swear to God, a normal person wouldn't have any interest or reaction when seeing a large group of naked men and women of all ages and body shapes.

Generally speaking, staring at others during mixed bathing is considered rude. But Xiao Peng had been stared at the moment he arrived: while there were Chinese people here, they weren't many. Many people were seeing an Asian person in real life for the first time. And what about a naked Asian person?

What they were most concerned about was Xiao Peng's lower body, which made Xiao Peng almost curse: Why don't you look at my muscles instead of my brothers?

Well, people all over the world are equally boring.

But the feeling of soaking in a hot spring in the rain is really weird:

The raindrops fall on the water surface and bounce back onto people, hitting the skin, which feels a little itchy and a little pleasant.

After a soak in the hot springs, which has opened up your pores, you can relax in the sauna. The sauna is quite charming: one wall is covered in floor-to-ceiling glass, offering a breathtaking view of the ocean. Once you're comfortable, there's a row of wooden chairs outside where you can sunbathe for a while, then return to steam or soak in the hot springs.

Of course, now you can't bask in the sun and can only enjoy the rain - even so, there are still many people sitting here drinking beer and chatting. This is also a social place - even in winter, some people will do this.

Xiao Peng felt a little envious when he saw them sitting there. If he had known this would happen, he should have brought some beer.

He spent a particularly long time in the sauna this time - he met a couple of students at the University of the Faroe Islands there.

His black hair and yellow skin aroused the interest of the people here, but due to the language barrier, they could not communicate and could only look at him with curiosity. The student couple spoke very good English and acted as translators to engage Xiao Peng in all kinds of awkward conversations. The questions were nothing more than "Are you a tourist?", "Where are you from?", "Do you really eat dog meat?", "Does your country have cars?", etc. Many of the questions could be described as "ridiculous", but they really did not have any malicious intentions. Many people here still knew about Daxia during the Qing Dynasty!

Please, it’s too early in the morning!

In fact, the Faroese people are quite pitiful. Many of them can only be described as "ignorant" - even including the two students from the University of the Faroe Islands.

The University of the Faroe Islands is the only school in the world that teaches in Faroese, so you can imagine the level of this school.

Denmark is to blame for all this.

Denmark's control over this area is incredibly tight: the Faroe Islands are strategically located between Norway and the North Atlantic. Setting up a radar station there could effectively strangle European access to the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic. Virtually every European nation covets this location.

That is why Denmark is determined not to allow the Faroe Islands to join the EU and NATO, fearing that they will be coveted by other countries and then "taken away" - the Faroese are now clamoring for independence all day long!

The Faroe Islands boast some of the most stunning natural scenery on the planet, yet they receive few tourists, fewer than 120,000 annually. Over 70% of these are Danish, while the remaining 25% are Icelandic—with only two flights to the Faroe Islands, making entry impossible for anyone from elsewhere. Not only are they unfamiliar with Daxia on the other side of the world, but even their closer neighbors like Britain, Germany, and France are largely unknown. Most Faroese never leave the Faroe Islands. Even those who do leave tend to visit Finland or Iceland.

Daxia used its own experience to teach the world: if a country wants to be strong, it must first enlighten its people. However, Xiao Peng discovered after traveling to so many places that few countries actually follow this simple principle, and some even go against it – after all, ignorant people are easier to rule.

But they were indeed very enthusiastic. Seeing Xiao Peng now was similar to how the people of Daxia in the 1960s and 1970s felt when they saw a blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigner on the street...

Xiao Peng was having a blast playing with them, but Billy in the hotel was desperately calling Xiao Peng: "Fuck! Hurry up and answer the phone! Don't come back!"