Reindeer, Ferries and Northern Lights

Ok, so I have to catch up on the last few days.
2/14/09 - Valentines Day, a liesurely morning spent walking around Tromso. We stopped and had a very nice lunch at a local cafe. It was very busy with University Students. I thought I was being very brave and ordered Lasagna. It was actually quite good, so I have to say again, the Norwegians are superior cooks. Then we headed over to the ferry to take a 2.5 ride around the local waterways. On the way to the ferry we stopped and watched a group of young people promoting safe sex. I think you will find the pictures most amusing. Even though we don't speak the language the meaning was very clear. The ride around the local fjords was fabulous and you will see lots of great scenery pictures. Norway is the most magnificent place I have ever seen. The landscape in winter is not only stunning but fairytale like.

2/15/09 - Sunday, we wandered over to the "Polaria Museet" its an underwaters polor musuem that did not open until noon. It only took about 1 hour to go through the museum, including watching the feeding and training of the bearded seals they have there. They train them only to keep their minds active since they are captive. One of the interesting things we learned about them is that they are about 2 levels above dogs on the smart scale, so very easy to train, but also easily bored. When we finished our wander we went to Burger King for a late lunch and then back to our room for a nap. At 5:00pm we would meet a group for an evening of Sami Culture and Reindeer Sleigh Ride. A bit about the Sami. They are the only indigenous peoples in Europe. They speak a seperate language which is not of "indo-european" origin. They have a completely seperate culture and range across Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia. They are the traditional reindeer hearders and one wonders if in some form the Sami weren't the basis for Santa's elves. The clothing and shoes certainly fit and of course they heard the reindeer and train some of them. They look the same as the rest of the scandanavian peoples.
So, we were expecting a traditional sleigh pulled by some reindeer. However, traditional Sami Sledges are just some slates of wood and the runners, you either sit up on them with your legs out straight or lay down on your back. We chose to lay down on our backs and watch the stars go buy. It was a very clear night and the temperature out in the wilderness was -15 celcius. Very, very cold. However, other people had chosen to do the dog sleds for this evening, when we heard the chaos involved in that we were quite glad we had chosen the reindeer ride. They had to drive their dog sleds themselves, a few over turned with some minor injuries. And they went very fast and did not get to stop for photos as we did. So I would say we had the better time. After the sleighing and riding we went to the "Lavuu" a traditional Sami tent for a traditional dinner. Dinner was fish soup and the bread the Sami make. I of course am not a huge fan of fish so was thinking darn. Guess what it was actually quite good. Very thick rather like a really good New England Clam Chowder with wild salmon instead of clams. We got back to the hotel at about 2 am without ever having seen the Northern Lights, which was why we chose the evening sleigh ride.
2/16/09 - Monday, our last day in Tromso, and boy am I tired. Adrian decided we should take a ferry to the town of Harstad and wander around there. It would be a 2.5 hour ferry ride to get there and then we could have lunch a short wander and then back on the boat for the ride back to Tromso. Harstad was quaint and there was the very unique built entirely into the mountain waterpark. Of course, as our luck would have it the waterpark was closed. We had great burgers at a local cafe, took a walk around the town and the waterfront and back onto the ferry. Adrian took some great sunset scenery shots and we got a pizza and packed to head back to Oslo.
2/17/09- 6am flight back to Oslo, checked into the hotel early and headed out for the Akershus Fortress and Castle, spent about 3 hours there checking out both the military history museum and the resistance museum. Then over to the Nobel Peace Center spent another couple of hours in there and had lunch in the cafe attached to the center. Walked over to City Hall a stunning building unfortunately no pictures allowed. Toured that and walked back to the hotel. Tomorrow we fly home.

We are working on our top 10 destinations list as we travel Europe, and Norway is currently in first place with nobody even coming close to how much I have fallen in love with this country!

http://flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02/

Tromso

We arrived in Tromso today it is absolutely beautiful here. Before I go further though, I need to mention that the food in Norway is unbelievably good. So far we have had a tomato/paprika soup that was amazing, venison that was not as gamey as the venison at home and tonight we both had wonderful baked halibut. I would say that the Norwegian cooks are second only to the Italians, maybe even equal as the style of cooking is different. Very impressed with the food. Ok, so Tromso, we will be here for 3 days, today our arrival day was an easy going day. Taking naps, walking around the town looking at the beautiful views. Our room looks right out onto the Fjord. Tomorrow we will take a boat cruise and visit some of the local museums. We are hoping that we get to see the Northern lights while we are here, but have been hearing that its been a terrible year for it. We should come back in two years because the sun will be in a stronger position and then we will have a better opportunity to see fantastic displays. Good to know. We are about 2,000 km from the Arctic Circle and Roald Amundssen took off for his final expedition from here. We are actually farther north than we would be were we in Alaska.

Land of the Midnight Sun

Yesterday was a long travel day for us. We left Shannon at approximately 4:20 p.m. for a quick flight to London Stanstead Airport, where we would have just about 1 and 1/2 hours to transfer for a flight to Oslo. So, Ryanair out of Stanstead is a mess, you get your boarding pass at an auto/self serve terminal, which in and of itself is no issue. Then you que in a very unrully long que to drop your bags if you have checked them - we did. Finally, Adrian left the line and found some one to check our bags because we now had 10 minutes until our flight boarded and oh its a 15 minute walk to our gate. We get their in the nick of time and board. Haven't eaten since early in the day. We arrived at Oslo Thorpe (or something along those lines) airport at 10:20pm. We grabbed a hotdog - which was tasty and caught the bus to Oslo and hour and 45 minutes ride. We got lost once in the city trying to find the hotel and finally caught a cab. We checked in at around 1:00am and oh they are "so sorry but there was a mix up with our room." When you see the pictures you will realize it wasn't such a bad mix up because they ended up upgrading us to a suite. A very fun nautically themed suite called the Sundt Suite. We got up this morning around 9:30am and had a relaxing breakfast, before heading off for the waterfront. We were meant to catch a ferry over to the island where the folk museum and viking museum were. But the boat could not get over there to much ice. Alas, no boat tour of the Fjord on our way to the museums. We walked over to the center and caught a bus that would take us out there. We spent the day checking out what medeival homes and villages looked like in different regions of Norway and then went to the Viking Ship Museum. Both locations were great fun. Its incredibly cold but beautiful here and after we were done we caught the bus back so that I could have a nice nap and thaw. We are off to dinner now and a walk to the original fortress and castle for a view of it at night. Tomorrow will be an early flight up to Tromso where we will spend the rest of our time here. Loretta and Peter we think you would have loved this trip.

Enjoy the pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12938045@N02/?saved=1

The Weather Continued

Ok, so I have gone back and forth two day - am I subscriber of the glass half empty or half full theory.

I was meant to go to an auction today and pick up a wardrobe and a small table that we had previewed. So, being that we have only one car I got up early (6:30am) and drove Adrian to work. As I am coming down the hill to come home on one of our main roads. Hit a patch of ice and slid completely out of controll. Took out a wooden rail on the side of the road. Ripped the front bumper, the back bumper, punched a hole in the oil pan and messed up one of the rear axles. Thats before the mechanic has really looked at the car. Called the Garda, called Adrian, Garda came, took my information, called a tow for me, said sit in your car they should be here in about 15 minutes. This was at half seven (as they say here) 7:30am. At 9:30am the farmer across the street said this is crazy, you'll come up to the house, have a cup of tea and get warm. I'll call my son to take you home. When the tow truck finally showed up at about noon, I had left the doors unlocked and my tom tom was stolen out of the glove box.

The glass half full portion of this scenario is: I was not hurt in the slightest, the farmer Pat and his wife Kathleen were amazingly nice people and we had a lovely visit. The reason the tow never showed up. Around the next round about on the next road there was an 8 car pile up, including a fire brigade truck that all had also spun out on ice. The tow truck had to go handle that call first - yes there are very few tow trucks in the area. They had to cut a man out of his overturned van.

So, now I am without a vehicle, but I am off to Norway for a week, so it will keep, I was not injured, I met some new people who were very nice and I did not spend any money at the auction. At first I was very frustrated and disappointed with everything that happened. But then I thought about the fact that I did not suffer really and I do have insurance. Initially all I could think about was freaking Genghis was back (some of you know what I am talking about!) but then I decided I would work with the glass half full theory.

I am working on trying to down load the pictures from my cell phone - but have not been successful as of yet. Adrian pointed out that I have now wiped out two cars and I really should stop doing that. Whatever......

Remember life could always be a lot worse and difficult situations are an opportunity.