"Hey! You have to get your head under the water too!" These are Johan's words I first here after plunging myself in the Tromsø sea. For some crazy reason that escaped me as soon as I quickly stripped off my warm winter clothes down to my swimming shorts, we had decided to go for a "late night bath in the arctic sea in the middle of winter in sub zero temperatures" (Note: I must make up a word for this). The worst part was scrambling to put my clothes back on.. in the panic of having the biting wind strip my body of warmth I managed to put on all but my coat on either back to front or inside out - not a good look.
With this being my last night in ABC Hotel I had managed to agree a couch at Johan's apartment for the next night (Thursday night) if I ended up staying in Tromsø. I had made preliminary plans to travel south on the Hurtigruten ship, a legendary cruise liner that travels along the Norwegian coast, to Lofoten where I had a couch agreed with a guy called Roy who I found on couchsurfing. I had taken some of Filipe's advice and kept myself flexible by not booking a ticket on the Hurtigruten as a new opportunity can arise at any moment.. and how right he would turn out to be.
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Kvaløya is an island linked to Tromsøya (Tromsø island) by bridge and tunnel. Reindeer roam the island, they were brought there to be farmed, and can be seen to be holding up traffic and wandering around the suburbs that serve Tromsø there. The island is mountainous, thus providing excellent views of Tromsøya, and on Thursday evening I find myself walking uphill, unsurprisingly, with Andrea and some of her friends I had met just 20 minutes before on a bus from the centre of Tromsø. We were heading to the birthday party of Peter and Frida, a couple who have both just turned 19, and within minutes I am introducing myself to a dozen Norwegians who are surprised to see an English traveller at their friends birthday party. Despite this, I am warmly welcomed by all and most people there are fascinated to hear about my travelling plans so conversation comes easily.
Tapas was served, my first proper meal since I arrived, and within half an hour I find that the group of friends have plans to go ice fishing in a fjord 30 minutes away from Tromsø the next evening. They invite me to join them but reluctantly I decline because I was planning to leave the party by midnight so I can make the Hurtigruten before it leaves at 01 30. After tapas I end up speaking to Frida who asks if I've been to the Polaria, the polar aquarium in Tromsø. I hadn't been but had wanted to and instantly she offered me an out of hours tour to feed the seals there as she works part time at the Polaria training them. It is at this point I drop my plans to make the Hurtigruten that night and commit myself to a few more days in Tromsø with the prospect of an ice fishing trip and an opportunity to feed the seals ahead of me.
After dessert, Peter and two of his friends gather around the piano with some instruments and introduce themselves as the 'chunky monkeys'. Peter Estdahl, it turns out, is recording an EP at a music studio in Tromsø and had played gigs at a number of venues and festivals in Norway as well as performing in Liverpool, Manchester and elsewhere in England. His sound is similar to that of John Legend and I was blown away with his talent.. by this time in the evening it felt like my birthday! That feeling was to get stronger as, after routing through my passport, people found out that it was my birthday the week before and the chunky monkeys, as well as the other guests, sang happy birthday to me.
When the band had finished playing I went up to Peter to find out more about his music and during the conversation I got a text from Johan - "Aurora Now!". I instantly headed outside with Filipe, who had also made his way to the party, Andrea and Erick who guided us up into the hills surrounding the suburb. After a few glimpses similar to those I saw on Monday, we made our way to a dammed reservoir where we saw the Aurora dance and change colour for around 20 minutes - my dream realised. At first, when the aurora was weak, Erick and Andrea found my own and Filipe's excitement funny because they were so used to the lights, but by the time the how had got going they were also mesmerised by the majestic, beautiful, inspiring display (Note: I'm going to run out of superlatives to describe the aurora soon). The party was over by the time we returned to the house and Peter offered a place for Filipe and I to stay.
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By Friday evening I was helping to make dinner at Frida's and Rita's apartment just outside the centre of Tromsø. Erick and Peter were there too and we had fun talking about Norwegian and English comedy as well as playing Amerkana, a card game. After a dinner of salmon, the first of many more fish orientated meals, more people started to turn up at the apartment in preparation for our trip to Ramfjord to go icefishing. 30 minutes later I was standing in the lounge of a traditional Norwegian house on the banks of a frozen fjord. The house was a hive of activity as about 20 people, varying from ages 13 to 23, were spending the eveing there. A number of bored games had been set up and a few people were preparing snacks or waffle and lefse - a Norweguan dessert consisting of wheat pastry sandwiching cinnamon sugar. After an hour or so the resident of the house, Simon, announced he was going ice fishing and the next thing I was doing was driving a giant corkscrew into the frozen fjord outside.
I was taught how to ice fish without bait, the idea being the shape of the hook attracts the torsk (cod) and by constantly moving the hook up and down you literally catch the curious fish with the hooks. After an hour of rhythmically raising and lowering the line, with some encouragement from Linn, Rita and Andrea, I had gotten two "bites" but on both occasions the fish had escaped the hook to my dismay. My time on the ice was to be rewarded with another, even more incredible aurora display. Being even further from the city than Kvaløya the lights were even brighter than the previous night and transversed the sky above me in vertical streaks and a multi-coloured dance. I'll just describe it as leaving me speechless. A guy, Tord, had a tripod and a SLR camera which could capture the aurora perfectly so I managed to get a picture of the lights with me in the foreground which I am still chuffed with.
Even though I wasn't to catch a fish, Simon managed to catch a torsk of which I took inside and was taught how to prepare it for cooking - an uncomfortable and smelly experience. It was definitely worth it as the oven cooked fish was so so delicious.. my suggestion of battering the fish was dismissed by all. Later in the evening I got speaking Elisa. She was showing me the trailer of a film made by the Norwegian state TV about her experience of spending the spring/summer travelling around and living outdoors in a hammock - I think this is a pretty cool way to spend the summer.
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I woke the next afternoon to the smell of home smoked salmon and the anticipation of heading to the Polaria. After listening to Peter's real band, currently known as the glass owls, practice in the basement of the house, I got a lift to the Polaria. Filipe had been with me at the house too, both of us in disbelief about the experiences we had stumbled across, and was particularly excited as he had never seen seals before. Given this, Frida and Andrea tried to trick him into believing the catfish were seals - typical of Norwegian humour - but his naivety wasn't as strong as they had suspected.
We arrived at the closed aquarium at about half 5 in a giddy of excitement. After watching a brief video of arctic scenery and wildlife, we were let loose into the empty aquarium to explore. There were four seals in the aquarium in total, two young seals that would follow your hand as you traced it along the underwater tunnels, and two older seals that were around 250 kilos - we would be meeting these two. Frida started with showing us some tricks that they could do in the water and she them called them both out onto the land. Once there, she calmed them so I could feel their skin and blubber. After they performed anything they were trained two they were rewarded with fish - it was my job to throw the fish which was pretty fun. If I were to throw the fish out of reach, they were awkwardly shimmy along he floor to reach it. Frida showed me how to let the seals kiss me (more of a headbutt) which Andrea took an excellent video of. After 15 minutes more of playing with the seals with some toys, we left them to rest - I'm pretty sure they were tired after our VIP visit.
Filipe had been in contact with a fellow couchsurfer who happened to work for the Hurtigruten company. This meant we got the tickets at a fraction of the price, making 2 beers more expensive than the 15 hour trip from Tromsø to Svolvær. We said our goodbyes and gave our thanks to Erick and Andrea who had come with us to the ferry terminal to see us off.. they, and all the others I met, will be sorely missed. The discounted tickets meant we had no cabin to sleep in.. but after a couple of hours exploring the ship Filipe found an open cabin that the cleaners had left their card in so we both had a comfortable few hours sleep. Filipe left the ship at 08 30 in Harstad.. he taught me so much in such a short space of time and I hope to meet him again one day (hopefully he can offer me a couch for the 2014 world cup in Brazil as he lives 100m from one of the world cup stadiums). The Hurtigruten is known for the beautiful route it takes along the Norwegian coastline but, coupled with rainy weather, the dark winter days meant I couldn't see the scenery well. At 18 00 Sunday I arrived in Svolvær and met Roy at the ferry terminal. Roy took me to his house in Kabelvåg - about 6 km outside of Svolvær.
I'll have to leave this update there for now, there is a lot of people I haven't mentioned and experiences I haven't added which I'd love to but I haven't the time to. I'm staying with Roy for a few days before heading south towards Oslo, although I'm not sure where I'm heading next. The last few days have been truly incredible.. I couldn't have imagined a more amazing time!! If I'm honest I haven't proof read this so if anything doesn't make sense let me know and I'll edit.
Ha det!
With this being my last night in ABC Hotel I had managed to agree a couch at Johan's apartment for the next night (Thursday night) if I ended up staying in Tromsø. I had made preliminary plans to travel south on the Hurtigruten ship, a legendary cruise liner that travels along the Norwegian coast, to Lofoten where I had a couch agreed with a guy called Roy who I found on couchsurfing. I had taken some of Filipe's advice and kept myself flexible by not booking a ticket on the Hurtigruten as a new opportunity can arise at any moment.. and how right he would turn out to be.
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Kvaløya is an island linked to Tromsøya (Tromsø island) by bridge and tunnel. Reindeer roam the island, they were brought there to be farmed, and can be seen to be holding up traffic and wandering around the suburbs that serve Tromsø there. The island is mountainous, thus providing excellent views of Tromsøya, and on Thursday evening I find myself walking uphill, unsurprisingly, with Andrea and some of her friends I had met just 20 minutes before on a bus from the centre of Tromsø. We were heading to the birthday party of Peter and Frida, a couple who have both just turned 19, and within minutes I am introducing myself to a dozen Norwegians who are surprised to see an English traveller at their friends birthday party. Despite this, I am warmly welcomed by all and most people there are fascinated to hear about my travelling plans so conversation comes easily.
Tapas was served, my first proper meal since I arrived, and within half an hour I find that the group of friends have plans to go ice fishing in a fjord 30 minutes away from Tromsø the next evening. They invite me to join them but reluctantly I decline because I was planning to leave the party by midnight so I can make the Hurtigruten before it leaves at 01 30. After tapas I end up speaking to Frida who asks if I've been to the Polaria, the polar aquarium in Tromsø. I hadn't been but had wanted to and instantly she offered me an out of hours tour to feed the seals there as she works part time at the Polaria training them. It is at this point I drop my plans to make the Hurtigruten that night and commit myself to a few more days in Tromsø with the prospect of an ice fishing trip and an opportunity to feed the seals ahead of me.
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| The Chunky Monkeys! |
When the band had finished playing I went up to Peter to find out more about his music and during the conversation I got a text from Johan - "Aurora Now!". I instantly headed outside with Filipe, who had also made his way to the party, Andrea and Erick who guided us up into the hills surrounding the suburb. After a few glimpses similar to those I saw on Monday, we made our way to a dammed reservoir where we saw the Aurora dance and change colour for around 20 minutes - my dream realised. At first, when the aurora was weak, Erick and Andrea found my own and Filipe's excitement funny because they were so used to the lights, but by the time the how had got going they were also mesmerised by the majestic, beautiful, inspiring display (Note: I'm going to run out of superlatives to describe the aurora soon). The party was over by the time we returned to the house and Peter offered a place for Filipe and I to stay.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Friday evening I was helping to make dinner at Frida's and Rita's apartment just outside the centre of Tromsø. Erick and Peter were there too and we had fun talking about Norwegian and English comedy as well as playing Amerkana, a card game. After a dinner of salmon, the first of many more fish orientated meals, more people started to turn up at the apartment in preparation for our trip to Ramfjord to go icefishing. 30 minutes later I was standing in the lounge of a traditional Norwegian house on the banks of a frozen fjord. The house was a hive of activity as about 20 people, varying from ages 13 to 23, were spending the eveing there. A number of bored games had been set up and a few people were preparing snacks or waffle and lefse - a Norweguan dessert consisting of wheat pastry sandwiching cinnamon sugar. After an hour or so the resident of the house, Simon, announced he was going ice fishing and the next thing I was doing was driving a giant corkscrew into the frozen fjord outside.
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| Torsk! |
Even though I wasn't to catch a fish, Simon managed to catch a torsk of which I took inside and was taught how to prepare it for cooking - an uncomfortable and smelly experience. It was definitely worth it as the oven cooked fish was so so delicious.. my suggestion of battering the fish was dismissed by all. Later in the evening I got speaking Elisa. She was showing me the trailer of a film made by the Norwegian state TV about her experience of spending the spring/summer travelling around and living outdoors in a hammock - I think this is a pretty cool way to spend the summer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I woke the next afternoon to the smell of home smoked salmon and the anticipation of heading to the Polaria. After listening to Peter's real band, currently known as the glass owls, practice in the basement of the house, I got a lift to the Polaria. Filipe had been with me at the house too, both of us in disbelief about the experiences we had stumbled across, and was particularly excited as he had never seen seals before. Given this, Frida and Andrea tried to trick him into believing the catfish were seals - typical of Norwegian humour - but his naivety wasn't as strong as they had suspected.
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| Andrea, Filipe and Frida on her spark. |
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| The Hurtigruten! |
I'll have to leave this update there for now, there is a lot of people I haven't mentioned and experiences I haven't added which I'd love to but I haven't the time to. I'm staying with Roy for a few days before heading south towards Oslo, although I'm not sure where I'm heading next. The last few days have been truly incredible.. I couldn't have imagined a more amazing time!! If I'm honest I haven't proof read this so if anything doesn't make sense let me know and I'll edit.
Ha det!
I just love reading your blog Jack,I cant wait to hear the next chapter. All my love. Mum xx
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