Note
Please note that the pics are in reverse order, and not totally in that order either...
If you want a bigger image - just click the pic.
If you want a bigger image - just click the pic.
Saturday, September 11, 2004
Sunday, August 22, 2004
The route we travelled
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Day 0 - Wednesday 28. August 2004
After quite a busy day, the night train leaves Oslo 23.05, and we, Leon and I, are on it! Feels great after months of planning and talking!
Next stop is Trondheim which we will arrive 07.00 tomorrow. We ended the day with tortilla, strawberries and wine, rolling into the night.
Day 1 - Thursday 29. July
Sleeping in a bunkbed on a night-train is only that easy, but after hitting the shower and cleaning up, we were ready for breakfast. We arrived Trondheim while eating. Then we made a quick move and were suddenly sitting on the train which would bring us to Bodø. However, we first had to endure 10 hours with great views, (and other tourist couples...) and we spotted the first of the many fjords and peaks. Also crossed the Arctic Circle, made lost of pics and felt like real tourists!
Marita and Andreas, two close friends of us, met us at the railway station in Bodø. They have this great place, Skånland, outside the town and had invited us to stay there with them for some days. So after a catfish dinner, (we are now officially in the land of fish), and some necessary shopping, (you can never have too much booze...) in town, we found ourselves enjoying the solitude, and that's real solitude, at this old house with a view over the ocean and the red-burning sun. Fantastic!
Day 2 - Friday 30. July
Woke up to sun and blue sky in the middle of commercial for Timotei or Blenda, at least it felt like it. Sun, blue sky, seagulls, tall grass and grasshoppers... all en route to the out door toilet...
Fishing from little Rødhette, sunbathing, enjoying the view and doing nothing. Just plain vacation.
In the eve we ate our fish, and immersed ourselves with Yatzy and beer. I'm pretty sure our numeric skills gradually disappeared... Although the season for the midnight sun was over, there is only a brief period just after midnight with darkness, and not very dark either. Its such weird feeling knowing its like three in the morning, but the sun shines like its mid day!
Day 3 - Saturday 31. July
Heavy head... but a dip in the river (+- 7C) clears such fog.
The only neighbor of the house we lived in is an old mansion packed with historical and cultural artifacts from the 1700 - 1900 Norwegian history. Its such an amazing place and basically all the royals of Europe visited this place some years ago during a tour organized by the Norwegian royals. (No, I'm not a royal-obsessive gay queen...) Anne, a friend of Marita and daughter of the owner gave us a tour of the house. Impressive!
Afterwards, we ventured out on the fjord and again caught insanely much fish, mostly cod about 70 cm long.
The biggest, of course, got away, but it felt like a monster...honestly! A monsterfish!
Leon, who had never caught a fish before, got three huge ones! Marita and I thought we were cool Bond-girls, and Andreas was the slayer with knife in hand.
Day 4 - Sunday 1. August
Time to continue with our tour, we pack and say goodbye to our friends. We ride with the hurtigruta for the first time, MS NordNorge, on the 4 hour trip to Stamsund. Feels like Loveboat, fat Americans, great scenery. We pass by an island known to be a popular nesting place to sea eagles, and can soon see the kingdom of islands. Lofoten is a 180 km long chain of steep mountains straight out in the Norskehavet. The rocks are edgy, lush green, tree-less. Buss-ride to Å, through a long line of tiny and ultra-idyllic fishermen's villages. Found a nice spot to tent outside the village, in a narrow valley next to a lake.
Day 5 - Monday 2. August
Another sunny day! Went sightseeing in Å; a little village squeezed in between steep mountains and the sea. Breakfast at the local old-style bakery with lots of cinnamon buns! Had long swims in the lake, crystal clear water, Leon showed off an hidden stamina in swimming! Has he been a seal in a previous life? Sunbathing. Mountain climbing in the afternoon, wanted to reach a viewpoint at about 1000 meters, but the old scout, read me, lost the path, so we missed that one. Still a great experience, climbing on all four, it was very very steep, seeing the lake hunters of meters below us, and being submerged in a true flower paradise with all kinds of strongly scented knee-tall flowers!
Day 6 - Tuesday 3. August
Returned by bus to Stamsund, that's about 2 hour bus ride and was greeted by MS Trollfjord, the ship on which we would spend the next two days and nights. Leon had become quite substantial sunburned, and we decided to go for a spending spree and bought a cabin, instead of sleeping on the deck as planned. Trollfjord is worth a study as a cruise ship with art, marble, glass, lounges, sauna, bars, library and so on. We went exploring for hours. We also got to see the impressive Trollfjorden while the crew played Grieg and served us the "traditional" Trollfjord-soup. Even though the Dutch cruise officer tried to make us believe we could see trolls there, we saw non!
Day 7 - Wednesday 4. August
This was the day of total relaxation. Breakfast in the Saga lounge. And boy, what a meal! Total luxury. And in the tradition of being poor tourist; we filled our pockets with those cute butter portions... Shopping in the Viking market. (Hurtigruta is quite obsessive about the Vikings...). Hours in the Observation Lounge, next to all the grey-haired Americans, just admiring the coast, before we reached Tromsø early afternoon. We also got baptised by king Neptune today because we had crossed the polar circle, an old sailors tradition. Got loads of ice cold water with ice poured down the neck! Tromsø is the "metropole of the north", and we had four hours to spend there. We strolled around, visited the landmark of the city, Ishavskatedralen, which is actually more impressive from outside than inside. I also saw the Viking game Infrafale, or something like that, for the first time. I had never heard about it before, but it turns out to be the very same game as the Vikings used, I guess when they were sitting in their helmets and drinking mjød. We brought dinner and wine back from town, so we had a picnic dinner in the panorama lounge in the evening. We rounded the day of with Hurtigrutespillet, and I must say, Leon was the indisputable master. Quite impressive actually, when the questions were about the Norwegian coast!
Day 8 - Thursday 5. August
Another Hilton style breakfast. Arrived Honningsvåg while eating, and we had a brief intermezzo with some fog. But when we left our beloved Trollfjord, the sun and heat were again almost Mediterranean. We spent some hours in this tiny village, not super exciting actually, except from the church which was the only building left when the Germans had finished their business. Tried for quite some time to get a lift to Nordkapp, before two free-roaming Dutch brothers decided to help us out. Its quite a ride out there, 30 km, and it totally looks like being on the moon. We sneaked, inspired by the brothers, nervously into the tourist trap, although we the next day discovered that entrance is free if you come by foot. The best thing there, except from the cliff itself of course, was a Imax move made by Ivo Caprino. We saw the sun set at 23.15.50, an absolutely intense and romantic experience, although surrounded by hundreds of tourist.
Day 9 - Friday 6. August
Woke up by two reindeers running next to the tent. And had a swim in the little nearby pond, before we went back to the tourist trap and took the bus back to Honningsvåg. And there was MS Midnatsol waiting for us, and because Leon's mum Lian had given us money for a dinner, we spent those one a new cabin. I guess we had become too fond of the luxury cruise... Took a sauna and spent the evening lounge-slouching.
Day 10 - Saturday 7. August
The extremely warm and sunny weather came to its end this morning. Arrived Kirkenes in rain and heavy clouds. The town was, like all others up here, razed to the ground during the war. I think the reconstruction paid more attention to efficiency than beauty. The town was also awash with solariums, don't know what say about the general weather... Anyway, we had a great time getting to know the city and Leon was re-united with his wallet and raincoat again, which Anne had mailed us from Bodø. We rented a flat to stay for the night and visited the Grenselandmuseum. A really good museum, especially the part that focused on the war history of this region. Ate out, and had a stroll down to the harbor which was packed with Russian fisher vessels waiting for repair. Amazing some of those were still afloat! Lots of Russian in town too, and the street names were written both in Norwegian and Russian. You could definitely feel the Russian vive!
Day 11 - Sunday 8. August
Got up early, thanks to Leon ;), and got on the coach to Karasjok, our next stop. We got five hours with extremely small villages, like 10 houses, and huge wastelands. The road followed the river Tana much of the time, and we could peek over to Finland. Karasjok with its almost 3000 inhabitants has the Sami parliament, a Sami theme park and the studio of NRK Sameradio, and is in general considered to be the capital of the Sameland - to much irritation of its competitor Kautokeino-. However, we didn't really see much of its sights, we wrote our postcards there, and left off for the wilderness. We were in the mood for our last highlight, the hike!
Day 12 - Monday 9. August
Woke up in Maxima. We had walked about 8 km yesterday and had tented next to a lake. Gray weather. We continued walking and reached Ravnestua after some time. That's a part of the, once, considerable network of mountain huts the state funded. Much of the network is now taken over by the DNT, but not to the same extent in Finnmark. I managed to strain my neck this morning, and that got gradually more painful. However, we are Vikings after all and decided to follow the old postal route after Ravnastua. The route was on the other hand not so agreeable and made itself invisible at a crucial juncture, so we opted for another path instead. Not so much of a difference really, and now we got to see the Jiesjavrre, the biggest lake in Finnmark. We ate lots of cloudberries, crossed some rivers, and eventually found a nice spot to stay for the night.
Day 13 - Tuesday 10. August
Very very bad weather today, rain poring down. We stayed in Maxima until 16 o'clock, dreaming about better days, especially those days in wild luxury at hurtigruta (sic).
We wanted to reach Molliesjohka today, so we had to cover 19 km in mostly quite bad weather. We came across a ødestue, kind of hut, we didn't know about, and had a nice rest there. Reached Molliesjohka around midnight, after having to cross a quite big river actually, at lead 30 meters wide, with water up our thighs. After having being hinging in a very desolated area for 24 hours now, we were quite surprised to meet a Dutch girl, among the three other hikers also staying here.
Day 14 - Wednesday 11. August
Checked in with the owner of the place, an old Sami man. One of those characters you don't really meet anymore, shaped by the nature, the complete solitude out here and his own thoughts. Leon and I decided to stay here another night, we needed to get some clothes dry... We had planned to buying most of our food in these cottages, to minimize the weight of our backpacks, and had therefore to eat Joikaboller for breakfast, lunch and dinner while there... I guess the experience of doing it was more fun than actually doing it... Did some fishing in the river next to the farm, but no fish.
Day 15 - Thursday 12. August
Departed at noon. Great nature, but impossible to convey how great. The weather was better today, and the sun returned. Passed through a truly magical valley, with a complete rainbow while the eagle (?) screaming from high above. Walked 22 km today. Tented next to a river, but the fish still outsmarted me!
Day 16 - Friday 13. August
We had almost no food left now, so the 14 km we had to go to reach Joatkajávri, another hut, seemed like many more! The nature was great, but as we got closer we could see the many marks the construction of the huge and very controversial Alta dam had left on its surroundings. The hut was only about 10 km from it, and only a few from the road that was built to reach it. Joatkajávri was ok, but marred with noisy girls, something you don't really enjoy when having been in the Big Quiet for days. We also saw several depressions, 10 000 years old, dug out as floors for the very first humans living up here. Had a sauna and felt clean.
Day 17 - Saturday 14. August
As we were out hiking again, we decided that 100 km of hiking could be enough and instead went hitch-hiking to Alta. The guy who picked us up were, like all other we have met up here, Sami, a quite rough but very friendly guy who drove us all the way to the youth hostel. Suddenly the hike was over. The hostel didn't have room for us - have heard that one before? - and we had to enjoy the comfort of Maxima again. We had time to thing back; we hadn't met a single person while hinking, just a few on the huts, and the nature was completely free of radio masts, roads, and houses. No planes had crossed over our heads. It was our first time being so totally out there, and what a great experience that hade been!
Day 18 - Sunday 15. August
Got a room at the hostel. Ventured out to check the sights of this town. Mostly closed, but at least Subway was open. Alta, 3000 inhabitants, is considered the capital of Finnmark. The centre is quite spread out, and is often thought of as three centres, on three penninulas. Chinese restaurant and cinema in the evening, saw "I, Robot". We graded it to 4/6.
Day 19 - Monday 16. August
This day was mostly spent at Alta museum which with its 5000 year old stone carving is on UNESCOs list of world heritage. One of the drawn figures was a man going crosscountry! A really impressive museum! We planned to go bowling in the evening - Alta bowling is the cheapest in Norway! - but we were too tired and lazy for that.
Day 20 - Tuesday 17. August
Strolled down to a cafe, played dam and chess, won democratically each our game. Some drinks, and some shopping. Quite a lazy day, and the last one of our trip! Very sad. But then it must have been a good vacation at least!
Day 21 - Wednesday 18. August
Woke up and took the bus to the airport. No more fun to expect... But it was truly a great trip, and the best ever!!!
Monday, July 19, 2004
Facts about Finnmark
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Area: 48.649 sq km, about the size of Denmark (43,094 sq km)
Land boundaries: Russia, 196 km and Finland, 616 km
Highest mountain: Svartfjelljøkelen 1204 m
Largest lake: Jiesjavre 68,4 sq km, altitude 390m
Longest river: Tana 360 km
Area altitude: 6% below 60m, 14% 60-150m, 31% 150-300m,
44% 300-600m and 5% above 600m
Coastal line along mainland: 2760 km,
excluding the fjords: 515 km
Number of islands in salt water: 1261
Largest island: Sørøya 811.4 sq km
There are archeological findings from around 10.000 B.C.in Finnmark, belonging to the Komsa culture. First regular Norwegian settlements came around 1300 at Vardøhus fortress, and it then became part of the kingdom. The Samis have been living there for at least two thousand years.
Population nowadays: 73.210, pr 01.01.04
Labor force in total: 31.266
Fishing: 3.070
Reindeering: 2.000
Public employees: 12.573
Hotel and restaurants: 1.158
Largest city: Alta 12.000
Finnmarksvidda covers 37% of the province,
and has 7% of the population
The northern and western parts of Finnmark are indented by bays. The nature varies from bare coast to river areas with gullies and tree vegetation. The point Knivskjellodden at Nordkapp is the northernmost point on the European mainland. Hammerfest is the centre of Finnmark's tourist trade. The county administration is in Vadsø.
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