Crossing the Arctic Circle

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FRIDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2009

Late start this morning as we weren’t leaving until 10am, so breakfast was 9:15am. Latest start all tour so far. After packing up the bus and the cook tent we left Steinkjer. While our itinerary said it was a ‘miles under the belt’ day it turned out to be slightly incorrect - with us actually being told we wsere only driving for about five hours today!! Last time I ever believe an itinerary - Top Deck’s itinerary has been a little all over the place. After about an hours drive we stopped and got out and walked to see some rock carvings. Unfortunately we got very little direction from our crew so we all headed off on the closest path - only to discover not only was it wet and muddy, but that there was a significantly shorter path that they all took. Not happy - especially since I wore jeans and thongs because I thought it was a bus day. Slight lack of communication there in my opinion.!!

Stopped again for lunch (burgers and salad plus cheese and fruit) then it was onto Korgen for the evening. Scenery on the way was pretty spectacular again. The camping ground we were staying at had a rather large common room which was a nice change - we didn’t have to sit outside eating and trying to stay warm. After dinner (chicken and veg stir fry with overcooked rice) we played a few rounds of a pub quiz in our Viking Olympic teams. My team did terribly, think we got 11 out of 30. Mind you - the highest score was 14 out of 30 and the lowest was 10, so we didn’t do toooooo badly. After dinner a few people called it an early night.

SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER

Time to cross the Arctic Circle today. Unfortunately the road for the Glacier Walk was closed so we couldn’t do that, so it was straight onto the Arctic Circle where we spent about an hour. Most of the group decided to go into the exhibition and watched a ‘movie’ about Norway and its’ wildlife. I decided not to and to go for a walk around the area instead. And I am very glad I did - it cost them about six euro to watch a slide show of photos of Norway. No information at all. I bought a quick souvenir too and posted a father’s day card to Dad - which hopefully will be post-marked with the Arctic Circle on it.

After everyone was done with the souvenirs and exhibition it was time for an early lunch of hot dogs and salad and the usual biscuits and cheese and fruit. After that it was time for Wedding Crashers in the bus and some more scenery watching until our arrival at about 4pm at Tysfjord. After checking into our loft-style cabins and discovering we had a DVD left in the room in English (a Tarantino film I had never seen) I went for a walk with some of the others along with ‘beach.’ Tysfjord is Norway’s narrowest point and the area that we were in was so still. There was hardly any wind at all, barely any birds and apart from traffic, not even really any noise. So wandered along the ‘beach’ then back along the road. Then it was time to check internet and re-organise the bag before our ‘smorgasbord’ dinner at 8pm. This turned out to be pasta with two sauces, some plain bread and salad no dressing. No parmasan cheese either. No really a smorgasbord if I am honest.

Another early night as we weren’t allowed to drink our own drinks in the section of the centre where we ate dinner. I haven’t really said much about the prices in general in Norway so I think now is probably a good opportunity. It is VERY expensive; much more than I thought it would be. The conversion rate to the euro is about 1:8.4 or so, then of course most of us are Aussie and Kiwi so we are converting back to that as well.

The cheapest beer that we have been able to find in an supermarket (hard liquor doesn’t seem to be readily sold in supermarkets anywhere in Norway) is about 1.50 euro (11 NOK). For a small beer at an offy. A normal 500ml beer will set you back about 2.50 euro (22 NOK) The other day I considered buying a six pack of cider (to drink over a few days) but when I worked out that the six pack was going to cost me about A$50 (35 NOK per can of cider) I decided I could do without; and bought some of the cheapest beer I could with the idea of rationing it. To get an idea of other prices - a 500ml bottle of soft drink typically seems to cost beween 21NOK and 35NOK - about 2.50-4 euro. Yep. And while in Tysfjord I walked into a supermarket to buy a new toothbrush which set me back about 3 euro - nothing is cheap so I am quite relieved that we have hardly had to buy any food for ourselves while here.

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Comments

[Ben Jensen]

The smorgasbord
Gee that was a disgrace! I think it might technically be a buffet but certainly not a smorgasbord. Cassie and I had spent a bit of time speculating as to what food they'd have - Norwegie food such as herring, applecake, Tørrfisk, Smørbrød. Should've known..