We Did it Norway

The next day was a travel day from Kiruna to the coast of Norway in Harstad, a small fishing town. Trains, busses, and all the while with the contingent of about 12 finicky, inappropriately-dressed Brits that had arranged the same tour. At one point I stepped two feet away from them to take a photo as we waited for a bus and one of them approached me and said, “Excuse me, do you speak English? Is the right bus stop?” I had to remind her- politely I think- that I was in their group and had been traveling with them for about 6 hours by this point. It was later on the bus into Harstad that I thought I might have to push a few of them over a cliff, when the North-London lady behind us started to literally read out every sign we passed at the top of her voice!

Anyway, we eventually pulled into the port-town and were given rooms in the ‘prettiest hotel in Harstad,’ a hotel for ‘people on the go.’ It was hilariously ugly. Like two grannies had tried to decorate an old Communist hotel from Siberia. Anyway, we were so exhausted we just ordered a pizza and fell asleep (Norwegians apparently love pizza. It’s been the first restaurant we’ve seen in every remote nowhere place we’ve pulled into.)

The next morning we waited in a loading dock on the port during a snowstorm for the ship to arrive, the Hurtigruten ship Nordkapp, which was an hour delayed due to foul weather. And man, the weather IS foul in this country during winter! Never again shall I complain about the weather in Dublin. Because of it we had to skip past what is said to be the most beautiful part of the journey southwards along the fjords, the Trollfjorden and passage through the Lofoten Islands, to arrive directly at port on the south end of the Lofotens in Svolvaer. All the same, the coast is glorious! More so than we had ever expected. It is as if the Alps had sunk. Everything thrusts upwards, and along the narrow band of habitable land at sea-level we have been amazed to see lonely little houses all along the way. We got off at Svolvaer and had a walk around the lovely little town centre, surrounded by towering peaks on all sides. Norway is one of the very few countries in the world to still engage in commercial whaling, and Svolvaer is apparently one of the main departure points for it October-January. The cafe we went into even had a whale-burger on the menu. Despite this, the town and surrounding islands are beautiful, and we would love to return to experience it in summer.

Yesterday we spent the entire day onboard the ship, and once we had passed Trondheim the sea became increasingly rough. I had been doing well up until then, but as the ship pushes up the crest of a particularly large wave and then freefalls back down, and then does it all over again for hours and hours…the only sane thing is to be prostate in your bunk. Vince, of course, hasn’t been bothered in the least by it ;) He convinced me to go to dinner last night (where most tables remained empty) but I had to leave midway through L

Today we will arrive in the city of Bergen, where we will spend two nights (on land, thankfully!)

XOXO