With our excursion to Nordkapp successfully completed, we were due south. Especially given that there are very few other directions we could travel from up there. So, in order to obey the laws of physics, we did just that. We took off in the morning to Rovaniemi, perched on the Arctic Circle in Finland. You may have heard of it... Santa has his village here. It´s a lot more convenient than the north pole and the reindeer are plentiful, after all.
The trip was long and sleep was taken by many on the bus. As usual, I had to stay away, frozen in terror (see photo). Today was my day as cookie (cook), and we did up a nice chicken curry that was both tantalizing and tempting. As always, the credit goes to Sean for his wonderful cookery skills. Aside for non-Aussies: Cookery n - Food obtained after a night on the town. The 'r' should be rolled as though you're a pirate. Anyway, we ate some food and then Darren and I got to work on the pool table. Now here's the part nobody will believe, but it's true. After a little warming up had taken place, I proceeded to do the following two feats in one evening:
1) Clear the table on my first shot. 2) Sink the 8 ball off the break.
Needless to say, the crew was fooled into thinking me some sort of Pool God, and who could blame them? Perhaps someday, I shall reign again. I should mention that when we first showed up, I took a walk along the water with the twins, the Spaniard, the Rob, and the nemesis (aka Lee). I also took another walk a little later with Catherine, though the mosquitos proved to be a little vicious.
We stopped the next morning at Santa's Village, where I treated myself to a new wallet given that my old one was unfit to hold even Canadian money ever again. It's nice and made of Reindeer leather, which also qualifies it as my first souvenier. We actually ran into the man himself at the village, Mr. Klaus, who was gracious enough to stop for a photo with Catherine, Emma, Belinda, Dave, and I, and then we headed off to Keuru. En route, we all wrote down and Chad read our trip highlights, which was at times hilarious and also very nice. Melissa had a certain indiscretion of mine as her highlight, which definitely makes a person feel good (thanks, Mel!). Mine was about the horrific movie in Nordkapp, which, really, was the hardest I'd laughed in some time.
That night, we celebrated Christmas a little early, and had a Secret Santa gift exchange which was a lot of fun. Would you believe that Jess & I bought the exact same thing!? I thought I would be the only one with a Scandinavia Disc, and certainly the only one with a Scandinavia 5 disc. Crazy! Plus we had a nice Christmas dinner courtesy of Sean. The night also marked the creation of Los Tres Amigos, and some horrifically amusing Mexican accents and ancestry. It's funny because something similar happened on our last trip, and neither time was it my idea. We all sported cheesy mustaches for the occasion. Finally, as with any Christmas celebration, there was drinking, and lots of it. Everyone had a good time, I think, whether it was plummeting through a veritable canyon between two boulders, shotgunning beer (and then reverse shotgunning them back again), or something else entirely, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
It wasn't on the itinerary, but on the way up to Hammerfest, we stopped at a place with some ancient rock carvings, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a good call on Chad's part, because even if it turned out to be nothing too spectacular (and it wasn't) it wasn't really dull either... certainly better than a Shell station. We had a large Russian looking woman to tell us what it could be and also that it could be anything else. Meaning we walked around and she would say, "This may be a boat where they hunted the reindeer. But it may not be. Maybe it's just a reindeer with no legs." It was actually rather amusing and she endeared herself to us.
We arrived mid-afternoon into Hammerfest, and I explored the surrounding hillside for an hour or two with Rob and then also with Juaquin and Gord later, before dinner. After dinner, it was on with the dress clothes and we packed on to the coach for the night trek to Nordkapp, leaving at 7:30 PM. The drive up was the first and only time we were allowed to drink on the bus, and it was quite a party as far as I remember. The coach trip has never gone so fast. There was something called the Booth of Truth, where basically anyone who used the washroom (impossible not to, incidentally) had to come to the front and answer three questions on the microphone. Questions of which nature I won't repeat on this family-oriented blog, but I'm sure you can guess. Needless to say I ducked out of my questions rather shamelessly.
Today was the first day where it appeared the weather was not going to cooperate, which was too bad because I think it's one of the most important days to have decent weather, but given our luck so far, I wasn't too upset about it. We arrived in a thick fog and made our way inside the visitors' centre. We discovered a line in which we waited up to 20 mins for a movie which I consider to be one of the greatest travesties of our time. It was supposed to be on Nordkapp but instead was helicopter footage set to music over other parts of Norway, coupled with dramatic plunges into the sea to view... nothing... and then random closeups of flowers where the music would get all tense for some reason and then one of the screens would slowly zoom in. Being that everyone else was in agony and it was sooo poorly done, I actually found it to be hilarious and even took some video of the movie. We had some French people behind us badmouthing us 'English' and being a battleaxe, so when she'd finished the worst of it, I turned around and said, "Pardon". You should've seen the look of horror on her face. Priceless. Anyway, the movie was actually quite amusing, albeit unintentionally so.
We got out and went to the window. The fog had lifted slightly! So we went outside and got a few shots and noticed the fog continuing to clear. The clock neared midnight and with about 10 minutes to go, as though God himself had parted the cloud for us, we had the midnight sun shining through the clouds. We really were blessed with exceptionally terrific weather this whole trip. Seeing the sun at midnight was rather an undefinable but definitely amazing experience, even though we'd perhaps become accustomed to late night light already since we'd been winding our way north for over a week by now. We hung around for a little while longer and headed back on the bus at about 12:30 for the trek home, getting in just before 4 AM.
After a nice sleep-in, I headed into town with Naomi and we hung around for awhile. She had some sad news on the internet front but I was happy to be able to help her a little. Then we split ways and I went to find my fishing crew. I was a little nervous about deep sea fishing and even the small waves on the way out did make me a little queasy. Thankfully, Carissa had some anti-nausea stuff that I took before which may have saved me. Once we got out, we hand reeled everything. It was really too easy. Drop in a line. Untangle it from someone else's. Pull it up. A fish. Maybe two (I caught two). Possibly three. I'll be honest, I wasn't actually a big fan of it, even catching the fish. It was neat to have caught it, but, I don't know. I wouldn't do it again, I guess.
We rode back in, ate our catch, and then it was time for the Polar Plunge. As in, swimming in the Arctic Ocean. Wellsir, let me just say that it is COLD. Like, much colder than I've ever swam at the lake or anywhere else. I tried three times to get in and get my head wet, which I had done no problem in Mo I Rana, and only succeeded because Juaquin and Chris decided I must and helped me along, if you will. Still, I did it and it did live up to its name for sure. Then we climbed back up all the rocks we'd had to climb down to get there, took a sauna, and headed into town. The pub was alright, not too shabby, and it was nice because a lot of people came out. I wound up sitting with a bunch of girls and Chris and getting the latest on the gossip scene for a spell, though I did sit with everyone sooner or later. There were some strange locals, some of which were hitting on Chris, other wouldn't leave us alone, and so on. We ditched the place eventually and headed back for the night around 1:30, under full light of day. Ah, the great light north.
Today was a momentous occasion, for it marked my final day as a dishy (i.e. doing dishes). To celebrate, we did absolutely nothing, and what a great time we had! We left for Trondheim stopping first at a place called, seriously, Dumbass. Which was really just a souvenier stand/place to get some food and, in fact, the same one we'd stopped at on the way up though I didn't mention it then. We also stopped in Hell. Apparently, Norway has a bit of a confidence problem. It was a short drive to Trondheim, and we arrived with plenty of time to walk around.
I quite enjoyed the city and would rather have spent more time here than Oslo, it's quite beautiful and used to be the capital of Norway once upon a time. I walked with Darren along the grassy riverbank (called a beach by locals) and admired the cute Norwegians. After exploring sufficiently, I found a camera shop that I was able to recover some of my hires photos that I accidentally deleted, though I ran out of time at the end. The guy who ran the store didn't charge me for using his computer or using the internet while the recovery software was running, which was very nice of him.
One of the best parts of Trondheim is that we were in a hostel near the centre, which means going out without having to worry about metro shutdown times or cab rides home. We went back to the hostel and changed for a night on the town, and for some reason I didn't bring my camera with me, but most of us headed out for all you can eat pizza (a big competition between Gord & Juaquin ensued with Gord finishing 12 pieces in 20 minutes and Juaquin edging him out at 13) and then some 10 pin bowling. Both were a lot of fun, even if I was near the bottom with my awe-inspiring score of 76. We hit the town and partied together, then thanks largely to Juaquin's maneuverings, he, Gord, Rob and I wound up chatting with seven very cute local girls. I somehow ended up with the cutest, at least in my opine, whom we all agreed looked a little like Kate Hudson. I walked back to the hostel with Nick and we watched the sunrise at around 2 AM and then I hung out with Emma and Catherine in the lobby and chuckled impolitely at a couple girls' misfortune at discovering bedbugs.
The next day, July 7, was a long trek to Mo I Rama, broken up by a beautiful picnic spot. We were sitting right on the river with our feet in it admiring the tranquility when someone received word on their cellphone of terrorist bombings in London, it was a very surreal moment to be in this place of nature and thinking about the jungle of society and the degenerate scum that inevitably appear within. In any case, the lunch was nevertheless beautiful and we all did our best to thoroughly enjoy our stop there despite the news. As I sat there I suddenly saw something whiz by my face. A grape! I returned fire and then decided I would try to catch the grapes in my mouth from the riverbank. Soon there were several people doing it, though I succeeded only once.
We had a beautiful cabin in Mo I Rama, right on the river. There was a big room and a small room, or rather, a closet attached to the washroom where someone had somehow fit in two beds. Darren saved me from this by claiming the top bunk in the big room as mine. The river was from a glacial melt in the nearby mountains, and no more than 7 dergees C, so some of us went swimming in it. It was bloody cold, but good fun. I had a competition with Melissa which I managed to win, somehow, and stayed in for about 20s before the stabbing sensation was too much. That night there was an 80s party hosted by Emma & Catherine that was a lot of fun! We sat on their porch and chatted and drank while listening/singing to 80s music and admiring the view. Towards the end of the night, the party was winding down, and I felt it my responsibility to revive it. So when Joy To The World came on, I 'sang' the first line at the top of my lungs...
Jeremiah was a bullfrog!
Apparently, it was funny, and I suppose I can see how given that it was pretty quiet at that point and, to everyone else, came out of nowhere. It became something I was famous for, put it that way, and the number of times I would hear this moment referenced throughout the remainder of the trip has become more uncountable than pi.
The next day was rather relaxed. We left for a beautiful walk to see a glacier. We had to get on a ferry, cruise down a fjord, and then hike through some really cool metamorphose (thanks, Lee) rocks to get there for about 30 mins, but it was completely worth it. We were warned by the Chadster to not approach it nor stand on it (or do so at our own peril), but when you see this thing in person, you realize that you must.
So I did. I walked up there, ran into Lee, and we both touched the glacier. Then I decided to get in one of the caves quickly for a photo. I got a couple photos all of which were great. The glacier creaked overhead (Lee has a picture of this as well, she probably thought it would be an action shot of my demise) and I got out of there. Then I decided to stand on it and Lee again took a photo, but neglected to get in my feet so it looked like I was just standing in front of it. We became mortal enemies at this point (I sometimes think she took me seriously) and then hiked back together and joined the rest of the group.
Since it was a free day, Chad thought we might seek out some gocarts, and we looked for them but to no avail. It was a fun adventure through nowhere, though. We also crossed over the arctic circle and stopped at the Arctic Circle centre today since tomorrow was a long drive. So now I've done it. I've joined people like the Sea Captain in The Simpsons in crossing the Circle. We had a so-called beach party to which noone turned up looking remotely in the theme, but it was fun anyway. I had a good chat with Catherine, and Darren stumbled into the room drunk and singing as was his way, so I made sure he drank a lot of water and went back to the campfire for a bit before hitting bed. I also got to teach some people how to roast marshmallows properly and went through the entire bag I'd bought for the occasion rather quickly.
It was a good day to get no sleep, because the next day was called Marathon day, the longest single day trip of any in all the Contiki tours. I managed to sleep 3 hours of it on the bus for the first time, perhaps aided by Gord who is no stranger to a little sleep on the bus, as he was sitting beside me. We made it to Ramfjord and Darren, Emma, Catherine, and I played cards in the cabin before calling it an early night around 12. I wandered out of the cabin around 12:30 in my pjs because the sky was so cool and got a nice shot of what 1 AM looks like this far north. Tomorrow would be another long trip to Hammerfest leaving at 6:30 AM, so I toddled to bed shortly after.
Oslo was quite a disappointment with the exception of a magnificent statue park which one sculptor dedicated his entire life to filling. The city itself is unimpressive at best, very little in the way of unique architecture, happenings, or anything else. To be fair, we were there on a Sunday, but even so, I've enjoyed myself fine in other European cities just fine. Luckily, we weren't there too long. We checked out the Vassa Museum, a museum built around an old but massive boat that sunk in the 1600s and was saved 40 years ago, which was pretty worth seeing - we especially had fun with the kid's game downstairs where you attempt to build and load a boat that stays upright in heavy squalls. We also checked out the Viking Museum and Kontiki museum which were way too expensive, but in retrospect interesting in that the one hosted the world's oldest surviving boat (from 1000 years ago) and the other a raft that sailed across from Norway to South America 50 years ago. But we felt quite slighted and wound up getting the ultimate discount on the third museum (whose most interesting feature was a map of the world so the three of us could point out our homes and see how north we were).
Darren & I split from Rob at some point (I believe he wanted to eat and we didn't want to spend that kind of money) and developed the term box seat, mainly as a result of the events of the prior night and the subsequent drama. And we sat near the water and watched the people and listened to a live jazz band. So it wasn't really all that bad, just unimpressive compared to Copenhagen and Stockholm. Oh, and have I mentioned yet how expensive things are yet? At a regular only slightly touristy cafe, for example, I found a great deal on a bowl of soup... only $21 Canadian!
We left Oslo, thankfully, a day later, beginning our trek north. We stopped in Lillehammer and checked out a ski jump and more excitingly, the olympic bobsled track, which I had a chance to ride with Melissa, Lee, and Darren. We did the entire track in 65.57 seconds (1.7 km), which was one of the slowest times (because none of us are particularly heavy, I guess) but still averaged about 100 km/h (I think we peaked near 200 in there!). We had a nice lunch in the town where I found a much better deal. Emma also payed me a nice compliment today, though I won't repeat it for the sake of all those already cringing at my self-important bloggery.
Chad, the tour manager for those just joining the program, told us we should pick up a gift for Secret Santa, and while everyone was hunting through the souvenier store, I ran to the gas station, the go to place for cheesiness, and picked up the all-too-rare Scandinavia 5 CD!
The highlight of the day was the travel up to Andalsnes, however. The views were surreal, surrounded by amazing mountains and waterfall after waterfall. One minute we're driving along, kind of casually admiring the scenery while others snoozed, the next minute we were glued to our windows oohing and awwing. It really was the most beautiful and unexpected thing I have ever seen and, as nice as the next day's trip to the pass and through the fjord was, something about the unexpectedness of this and the fact that it was "just a drive" to the next camp, it was incredible.
The camp itself was no less impressive, tucked in between the mountains, several waterfalls roaring in the distance. We took a walk to where the river supposedly was, and encountered a bog instead as well as some hungry cattle who decided we were going to feed them. Then, unintenionally, which was the word of the day, the laundry room became my room and party place. One dryer didn't work, the two washers were dodgy, and because of the group that continued to mill in and out, well, there was always someone to chat to. I think that I spent over 6 hours there hanging out with a bunch of people from the tour, which, though not exactly exciting sounding, was a lot of fun.
It would be a tough day to beat, but the next day did not dissapoint. Chad had warned us about the Scandinavian weather, and having had sunny and hot weather up until now, and having especially seen photos of other tours consistently getting their group photo in a fog, we weren't expecting much. We got instead a perfect day, sunshine, lollipops, and even rainbows everywhere. We got our group photo from Doc Hollywood, who was pretty amusing in getting his angles. Again, massive waterfalls and a narrow winding road to the top of Trolstigen pass, in many places the road was wet from the waterfalls. We cleared the top and entered a bit of a winter haven, the Aussies were quite enthralled to see real snow though unfortunately for them it was obviously not powder at this time of year.
We made our way into the fjord and took a cruise, in the sun, looking over steep cliffs and yet more waterfalls. It's hard to believe you could become accustomed to waterfalls, but there were soooo many! Rob & I happened to peg the primo spots through a little good fortune and sat overlooking everything and eating our picnic lunch. Afterwards, we sat on the river the drained into the fjord, layed on the grass, and just enjoyed the half hour allotted for strolling around. On the bus ride, I sat with Catherine for part and Melissa for part as well, both really cool gals and it was great to get to know them better. Some very cool people on this tour, I reckon.
We left early in the morning for a loooooong trek to Oslo. Or it felt long at the time. It turns out that once you've done the Contiki marathon through the north, the trip to Oslo is like a run to the convenience store for a really, really, REALLY quick snack. But more on that (and the whole Jose thing) in a later post...
That said, the trip was a little longer than it needed to be as I was having a particularly stupid day. The food spilling madness started with my salad dropping from the shelf and splattering all over the floor of the bus. The saving grace was that I had bought plenty of other snacks for the next few days. Then, at lunch, I left the bag of ham on my fleece during our picnic, which, of course, leaked ham juicy goodness all over it. Finally, we got back on the bus and all this spillery had developed quite a thirst, so I cracked open my giant bottle of water. Only to find it foam all over me and the bus floor again. For those who haven't done much European travel, for some reason, soda water is as popular here as water water. And if you forget yourself, you can end up with a nice, big, expensive bottle of it. Which you couldn't drink even if you wanted to because it was shaken and ended up making you look like you'd suffered from a severe bout of coachophobia (i.e. all over the pants).
Anyway, since it was a bit of a trip, we didn't really stop anywhere of note. Which isn't really true, because we did try to picnic at one choice spot on a beautiful (sacred, even) lake but were chased off the spot whilst in the coach by a certifiably insane (honestly) psychopath (I know, redundant) of, and I quote, "Epical proportions". She almost frothed at the mouth and certainly was angry that we had driven near her little stand. Aside from that and swapping iPods with Catherine, who has delightful musical taste, nothing of note, but that doesn't mean the day was a waste... au contraire, mes amis. The evening would prove to be one of the 7 Social Highlights of the Modern World, with the commencement of The Viking Games (tm)! The Viking Games basically consist of us dividing into four teams, developing a history, a chant, and donning full viking gear. Sounds crazy, no? But in our little village outside of Oslo, you might say that everyone of us is a Viking on the Roof, trying to cleave a peasant's simple head without breaking his neck. Our chant:
We are, we are, we are The Children of The Sacred Lake We can, we can, we can demolish vikings real and fake. We'll rape and steal your treasures at will, we'll burn your houses down So get off our lake 'fore it's too late, you'll never be seen again. Rah!
The games consisted of relays, pudding eating, bizarre beer up/down pants games, and running around a pole until you get dizzy and then attempting to sprint, punctuated by some fine punch and an egg throw. We had a campfire that night and the group really began to click a little more this evening, some more than others...
Some also drank more than others, and I ended up helping Naomi with a little bit of relieving action and then helping Melissa track down Danielle which actually culminated in a nice walk through the surrounding woods at 1 AM in the rather light dusk. Darren, who also thought I wasn't doing so great (though I was fine) also tracked me down and gave me two water bottles. A "topis blokis" if I may quote him. And even if I may not.
