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Published: March 18th 2011
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Big Ship, Small Kirby
About to Board the Hurtigruten First of all, I would just like to commemorate the northern lights for being so elusive. I’ll get you you sneaky little guys. After changing all my camera settings to Northern Lights settings (not that easy!) I waited and waited but sadly – no lights. . The ship I am on is called Hurtigruten – or, hunting the light. Apparently paying for a cruise ship won’t evennnnn guarantee northern lights. What a rip off. I did, however, get to visit the lovely town of Tromsø last night around midnight. Most of the other passengers went on a “midnight concert excursion” at a local church, but we decided that was too much to pay so we just walked to the church instead. On the way, because apparently we stick out with my “Canada” toque and giant camera bag, a friendly Norwegian turned around and asked us if we were tourists. He then proceeded to tell us about the church, how it was designed to model an iceberg because Tromsø used to be the “gateway to the North” in Norway. The church also has the largest stained glass window in the world, which told us a religious story that our friend explained to
us. He then showed us the old seal factory, which was shut down last year – the last in northern Europe! Very nice town, very nice man! I then woke up fresh and spry at 5:30am to catch a beautiful sunrise. Unfortunatly it was foggy and cloudy and cold and after an hour I decided to go to bed very grumpily. Today, after visiting a few more ports, going to a bakery…nom…and touring around art galleries and little shops (mom’s words “cute little holes in the wall!!!”) we chugged on past “trollfjord”.. this is the fjord where Nat lives… hahahah just kidding. This is the fjord where the Norwegian trolls live – the most famous of the folklore here, nasty little buggers who like to heckle travelling Canadians I’ve heard. Later on this evening we docked in Svolvaer, where we will stay in the Lofoten Islands for 2 days. The town is all built at the foot of big beautiful mountains and we are staying in one of them. We are at a little bed and breakfast (which apparently means free breakfast – who knew!?) overlooking the entire town/harbour/mountains. It’s awesome. Plus if mom gets out of hand I can
Hammerfest
These are pictures from yesterday - most towns were built like this on mountains, very cute colourful houses! play “roll hill”.. this is quite the hill. We went down to dinner today at a local restaurant in the basement of a building. Very nice and DELICIOUS food – basically stir fried (cooked) beef and gravy. The meal started off wonderfully, until mother tried to be a local, and got out her pocket dictionary and proceeded to berate the server with her “native tongue.” I ordered the House Delicacy for dessert… and I’m serious – it was worded “HOUSE DELICACY.” I was served (after our water HID in the back for about 45 minutes) 2 chips Ahoy cookies with whipped cream and ice cream… 10 bucks… chips ahoy… We then wheezed our way all the way back up the hill, while a neighbour watched us with a cup of coffee… I felt like Fatty McGee. Tomorrow we set our sights to local cod fishing and maybe some cross country skiing.
Ps. For Carly and Alix – I have officially threatened mom with violence if she says the word “adventure” more than 5 times. She’s at 4.
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Alix
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NOM NOM NOM NOM
NNNOOMMM!