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Published: August 23rd 2009
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Rain rain, go away, come again another day?
I'm sure that is what most Norwegians are singing this weekend in Norway. It has been raining quite a bit which is kind of nice, but very wet! Of course, the rain is not the only thing that brought us back from the Lofoten Islands early. We set off Thursday morning around 8 a.m., caught the bus downtown, then walked to the ferry terminal to catch our boat out to the Lofoten Islands. Of course, given the early morning rising and my inability to get to bed before 2 a.m. yet, I was kind of grumpy and a little homesick still and stayed pretty quiet during our walk. The ferry ride was really nice, but one of the most bumpy spots ever. So while our boat was rocking back and forth, I was curled up in my seat, pretending my stomach wasn't doing flip-flops. Of course in my early morning dash to pack, I forgot to grab my sea bands and my Bonine so I was feeling a little under the weather.
When we got off the ferry, a little excitement hit me for this new adventure even though it was
rainy, cloudy, and you couldn't see the mountains that compose the Lofoten Islands. We came into Moskenesvagon, a port on the island of Moskenes and caught a small bus (more like a van) to the small village of A (pronounced "Oh"), about 5km away. Once there, we checked into our hostel, the office being right next to the bus stop. It was about 500kr for the three of us (Destinee, Libby, and myself) to spend a night but we got our own room above the Lofoten Torrfisk Museum (stockfish museum). It was actually quite a good deal as our room had a little table, a couch, and four bunks.
Since it was raining, we decided to stick close to town and save our hiking for the next day. It was around 12 or 1pm when we went downstairs and learned all about how they make Norwegian stockfish. It is quite a lengthy process but pretty much involves catching local fish species (primarily cod), cutting off their heads and gutting them, then tying them together in pairs (by their tails), hanging them over wooden stakes, and letting them dry for months. After a few months of being exposed to the
elements, they are sent to various countries all over the world (the heads get preserved and sent to Africa, the roe gets preserved and salted and sent to factories to be sold as caviar in a tube). And then apparently the fish can be softened with soaking and served with potatoes. After getting this tour, we of course had this urge to eat fish so we asked the museum owner where to go find some. As a surprise he gave us a small container of it with quite a lot of fish and told us how to cook it - 4 large teaspoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, and a dash of pepper...roll the fish in it and fry using Norwegian margarine (not butter). Given that Libby is quite a cook, she took on the task of cooking these fish in the little kitchen in the hostel.
We went over to the small convenience store and got some potatoes to go with the fish and met Cam and Steve, these two fellow travelers. They too had gotten fish and so we all went back to the hostel to soak them and let them thaw. Since it took a
few hours, we sat around in the hall and talked to Cam and Steve. Cam, a tall, dark, and handsome Australian, had worked in business for a bit but got bored and had been traveling the world for quite awhile. And Steve, a more youthful looking and somewhat cuter blond, had been studying in England for a bit and had met Cam during his travels. The two had decided to travel around for a bit to end the summer and were heading up from Oslo and perhaps heading North, just seeing where life takes them. They were both very down-to-earth, easygoing guys and even joked with us about American politics, American movies (both had a thing for Brad Pitt and Will Smith movies which of course turned into endless teasing about being overly dedicated fans), made endless Missouri jokes just to give Destinee a hard time, shared some stories with me about Alaska (since Cam had been to Juneau and loved it), told us about their families and past girlfriends that used to travel with them, and told us a little more about the world since they had also traveled all over Europe. It was just nice conversation. Libby somehow
convinced them to even give us some eggs for the next morning's breakfast in exchange for her cooking their dinner. They of course didn't refuse as we had some of the best fish I've ever tasted! After a bountiful meal though, we unwound a bit and I wrote in my journal then read some of my Darwin book and just laid in my bunk, thinking of home.
The next morning, Libby made some amazing crepes but it was still raining. Not letting that deter us, we headed out to go on our hike but then got told that we couldn't stay at the hostel another night because it was all booked. So instead of hiking, we packed our stuff and headed back to Moskenesvagon on foot (5km) in the rain. It wasn't the nicest of walks and about part way through it, we were soaked, couldn't find a cheaper place to stay, and were laughing because rock bottom was not a fun place to be in. Eventually, since we had no plan and no destination and didn't want to pay a lot to just hang out in a small cabin on the island, Destinee and I caught the ferry
back to Bodo and Libby took the bus 400km northward to go catch a train to Sweden. It was a nice trip...short, but nice. And while it was enjoyable, I think I'm more of a planner and need a little more of a destination in mind when I travel. But for the most part, it was very nice, but even nicer to be back home. Especially since it has been pouring for the past couple of days even more than it has all week. Perhaps I'll return to the islands again in the next couple of months, but for now, my next adventure starts tomorrow as my first Norwegian class is at 8:15a.m. We'll see how it goes...
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Erica Guhlke-Whitmore
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I am so far behind on you!!
Please catch me up on what you are doing these days, college, and life. I feel bad that I have not kept up better, it seems we only get to talk once a year. Hope to hear from you soon. Erica